After the Rain

interregnum said:
Heh, I'm not crazy. I just notice what I notice.
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Do you know how hard it is to find Hanekawa gifs that aren't either of her naked/getting naked or with her short hair? I mean, this is from the Kizu movies! Where is classic double-braids-meganeko Hanekawa, internet?
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The internet is full of dirty perverts.
 
12[finale]:

It wasn't a bad way to end it, but I wasn't super hot on it. I feel really conflicted honestly and still do, because it just seems like there was so much more story to be told, but I really don't know, what the chances of a season 2 are, and think this anime was pretty much made, to advertise the live action movie. This show doesn't seem too popular either. Akira just comes back to track? That easy? I don't know here man. I'm not really satisfied or convinced, and I was very vocally, pro team track. It seems like their relationship did get swept to the side. I mean....did she just suddenly stop pursuing Kono, what happened exactly? Not that I wanted for them to get into a concrete romantic relationship, but the ending feels kind of rushed. Yes, I think it does provide decent closure, but I wanted more.

At the end of the day, as ZK said, this pretty much felt like a matter of running out of time for this adaptation, and that's a goddamn shame to me, as I think it could've reached March Comes in like a lion classic status, was this another cour long. It needed another cour to satisfyingly tell it's story and fully realize it's maximum potential. As it stands though, I have to go with 4/5. I wanted to give it a higher score so bad, but the flaws hold it back a little as it's not really a perfect show.

It was still a great experience though, every step of the way, even if I was a bit disappointed by the last episode. I appreciated this show's nuanced and subtle approach an ungodly amount, it's beautiful direction and I loved the characters to death. This thread has also been a fun wild ride with the discussion and speculation every week, in which way the show would go. I'm immediately picking up the manga after this, even if it's not fully translated, I just can't let a story this ambitious go, and HAVE to know, every single detail here.
 
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interregnum said:
Heh, I'm not crazy. I just notice what I notice.
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Liked for dat.

12

Kay. Series ends as bad as it started, lame resolutions and like yall are saying, pretty rushed. Not sure I'll be able to review this, it completely lost all my attention 2 eps ago.
:hamster:
 
Episode 12:

The final episode is messy and gets really ham fisted in spots like when Kondo's kid gives a expository speech to help Akira figure out her feelings. However, it's an episode that draws more closure than I was expecting. It gave an ending to the two major pulling forces of the series ambition vs romance. At the end it stops raining and the sun comes out, because now isn't the time for love it's the time to pursue their ambitions so they don't regret it later. They put romance on hold because they both realize they need to focus on themselves. That's what the show was really about the entire the time. Whether they succeed in achieving their ambitions or whether they do eventually find their way back to each other is a different chapter to this story and not one this show ever intended on telling.

The door is open for more, but let's all face it this is the kind show that has zero chance of ever getting a sequel. I'm pretty sure the studio knew that and knew this was going to be their only shot at it and that's why we ended up getting what closure we did. With that in mind the entire show is messy in the way it spreads out its focus and applies its themes. The actual conflict that's driving the series isn't really introduced until the second half of the series when he find out the parallels between Kondo's situation as a failed writer and Akira's issues with her injury. Until then the question of her going back to track didn't seem like an important one, but just a bit of backstory and characterization. The first half plays more like a typical rom-com and while that part is important to building a credible basis for the attraction these characters have for each other it would have been much better to introduce the real central conflict early on, then it doesn't feel as much like the show is pulling the rug out from under the audience when it shifts gears midway through the series.

What can I say? This show is a beautiful mess. It's superbly directed with the best art direction of the season. The characters are complex and layered with credible arcs of development. On the other hand the plot is a rushed mess that goes in too many different direction without enough time to follow up on any of them. However, I adore the series for its ambition. If a series is going to fail at things I'd rather it do so because it's ambitious and trying to do things that aren't commonly seen in the medium.

This is the second best show of the season warts and all. 8 out of 10
 
Yeah, it's just a really weird feeling for me, I can't really accept this ending and still feel a bit frustrated, but at the same time, it's ambition, earns major respect for me. I don't know, but I feel like you can tell, that this adaptation probably compressed many of it's ideas in this series, maybe the manga actually evens this issue out.
 
I suppose I'm also a little more forgiving of open endings, because that's just par for the course with anime. We rarely ever get a complete adaptation of anything and endings are one of the things the industry is the worst at. It's an issue caused by the business side of the industry. Anime aren't made for artistic merit. They're made because the source material is hot or as an advertisement for a game/movie/some other connected media which always means that the source material isn't complete and often doesn't have enough material to sustain a full season. It's a sucky model, but I suppose that's what makes money.

As much as I bitched about Parasyte and Devilman Crybaby. I do wish the industry would find a way to do adaptations of completed stories and get some more variety into the types of things that get adapted. Although, Crybaby only got made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the manga so even that took a special event to get made.
 
Episode 12

I for one will be satisfied with the ending. It wasn't perfect and it wasn't perfect because the show deserved about 2-3 more episodes to wrap this up convincingly and SLOWER! I mean..why the episode with the douchebag? I have a bad feeling there was some time lost in between the episodes before and for such a great and sweet story these last episodes killed it. What this episode had to do? It was left in a horrible spot where in 20 or so minutes had to turn Akira's mind to track where 11 episodes couldn't. So they had to add another pushing factor, Yuto (yes, the kid who barely appeared after the first episodes. Seems desperate to bring him back like that, huh?) = making me yet more angry for all the pressure on Akira's head. I would be super ok if Akira would return through Kondo returning to writing; as an inspiration to come back to a place which you once loved. But not like this, not through Yuto. Traning track on the parking lot? Please.

On the other hand..damn! This episode had some great scenes. See, I like Akira when she is active and happy. And those two little feet of Akira and Haruka when they were young? That is the story that should have happened earlier! They look so good together! Why now? So late!

Those last moments made me tear how amazing they were. The music, the visuals, Akira running to Kondo in the rain and both finally, honestly, hugging each other. That is not an embrace you would expect them giving a goodbye, even though it probably is a lullaby to their romantic relationship. Rushed? Very. Beautiful? Also. I am such a sap.

We couldn't get a better closing to this little sketchy ending of an otherwise wonderful show. It was a great, deep and very thoughtful ride with topics to discuss. The relationship/love, the past, friendship, how to reach happiness. Character wise it was great, mainly Kondo from a bummer went in my eyes to a moraly distinguished man who has tons to offer in kindness and wisdom.

This is tough to rate. Adiouvisually it was fantastic. I enjoyed every second of it! The art was so fresh! God! But it looks to me like maybe this was tough to handle in 12 episodes. And I feel bad that I've seen yet another show which rushed ending it took it lower than it would deserve. I would really love this to beat Antarctica for the best spot, but it won't, barely. Still solid 8 rainy clouds out of 10 and happy I saw this and discussed it with you, guys!
 
I give the show a 4 out of 5, would FROWNY AKIRA!!! again.

For all its flaws--and there are so, so many (thanks for that, second half of the show)--this was a complex story with terrific direction and characterization. Visual storytelling was amazing, and Akira is undoubtedly one of the ABSOLUTE BEST characters I've seen in anything. She alone is worth 3 of those points.

But let's get into it.
GenSan said:
I mean....what happened exactly?
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They're in love with each other, but they've each figured out that they aren't where they need to be with themselves to be with each other. But they will be once they get their shizzy in order--which they absolutely will do, because true love is on the line if they don't.

That is--without a doubt in my heart--exactly what the ending was: Kondo realizes he's actually in love with her (the imagined running to him and embracing her), and Akira realizes that she's in love with him and using her being in love with him as an excuse not to deal with her trauma (she tells him he's the first one she'll go to when she's done with getting back in form). Which, all in all, is very good way for this story to end: on optimism for reaching a goal, rather than a reached goal.

BUT...
GenSan said:
Akira just comes back to track? That easy? I don't know here man. I'm not really satisfied or convinced
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...because the show didn't earn it.

As has been fretted over and pointed out many a time, there wasn't enough room to tell what is obviously a very large and very complex story about love and self-identity and pessimism and failure and despair and connection and passion and--so many, many things. If I had to guess, we ran into an adaptation conundrum. They wanted to wrap things up, but they also didn't start the story with the wrap-up in mind. We got 7 episodes of an excellent examination of an evolving age-gap romance, and then 5 episodes focused almost entirely on the deep-seated emotional obstacles standing in the way of that age-gap romance but divorced from the age-gap romance they were supposed to be standing in the way of.

I like the ending itself, though, in that I like how this was a love story and also not a love story. But the sloppy transition away from the romance meant a transition away from Akira and Kondo being the things that moved them both to change. A decision to love each other once they've gotten themselves straightened out is much more powerful if they are each other's reason for getting themselves straightened out. And, as it stands, that isn't the case. At all. It was things outside their connection, specifically Haruka/Chihiro, and...frankly, I don't even know what either of them did that spurred our protagonists to action.

In short: something went awry at the planning stage. Which is disappointing.

That said, I love that Kondo's novel is named after the point in time he and Akira are looking to get together. (Which was a really sweet way to end it. Even if it kind of doesn't make sense that that would be the--never mind.)

And that Yoshizawa's haircut was AWFUL. He's a super-nice guy...or he must really like Yui, even if he doesn't realize it.
Anyway.

This has been a blast, my friends, and, though I am not at all rushing away from the back-and-forth of discussing this last episode, I very much hope we will be able to reconvene over the next season's unexpectedly meaty show.

(...assuming there is one.)

(...and, if anyone finds it, please let the rest of us know, if we're not around.)


I started Girls Go to Antarctica. And I am immediately not a fan of the main two girls. And not just because of their stupid bangs.

I am, however, immediately a HUGE fan of both the bespectacled best friend who, I imagine, I'll never see again, and the non-speaking convenience store clerk girl who, per the OP, will be one of the Core Four of the show (yay!--and double-yay because she's voiced by my favorite of the Monogatari Fire Sisters!). I also am quite, quite fond of the clever cinematography--which, frankly, bought the first episode A LOT of leeway.

It gets the ol' "3-episode rule" to grip me, because people I like keep telling me I'd really like it, but failing that I jump over to Lesbian Bear Squad. (And, yes, eventually to Shogi Lions.)

@GenSan - do I get to carry over being in love with you once we're done, here, or does it feel more appropriate for this to be our "we'll always have Paris"?

I only ask because I need to know whether to come up with a new diary entry for today or if I can go with my original plan of just absently doodling some hearts.
 
interregnum said:
They're in love with each other, but they've each figured out that they aren't where they need to be with themselves to be with each other. But they will be once they get their shizzy in order--which they absolutely will do, because true love is on the line if they don't.

That is--without a doubt in my heart--exactly what the ending was: Kondo realizes he's actually in love with her (the imagined running to him and embracing her), and Akira realizes that she's in love with him and using her being in love with him as an excuse not to deal with her trauma (she tells him he's the first one she'll go to when she's done with getting back in form). Which, all in all, is very good way for this story to end: on optimism for reaching a goal, rather than a reached goal.
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Yep, that's it exactly.

I like the ending itself, though, in that I like how this was a love story and also not a love story. But the sloppy transition away from the romance meant a transition away from Akira and Kondo being the things that moved them both to change. A decision to love each other once they've gotten themselves straightened out is much more powerful if they are each other's reason for getting themselves straightened out. And, as it stands, that isn't the case. At all. It was things outside their connection, specifically Haruka/Chihiro, and...frankly, I don't even know what either of them did that spurred our protagonists to action.
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In the case of Kondo I do think Akira put him in a place where he believed he could change. His time with her already had him thinking about his youth and pondering what he lost. That he already had all of this mind made him more receptive to Chihiro when he came around with his gentle prodding that Kondo should do some writing.

In Akira's case I agree that Kondo nor Haruka had much sway over her decision. Mostly because I think it was something she was always going to decide to do. She just needed some time to make the determination for herself. Her time with Kondo was maybe more about her exploring other options in case she didn't want to go back. I think she needed some time away from the pressure and Kondo not knowing much about her situation became an oasis. One she went from having ac crush on to one she genuinely fell for. Now she gets to pursue her ambition, but she's still got the something else to look forward too when the rain comes again.


I started Girls Go to Antarctica. And I am immediately not a fan of the main two girls. And not just because of their stupid bangs.

I am, however, immediately a HUGE fan of both the bespectacled best friend who, I imagine, I'll never see again, and the non-speaking convenience store clerk girl who, per the OP, will be one of the Core Four of the show (yay!--and double-yay because she's voiced by my favorite of the Monogatari Fire Sisters!). I also am quite, quite fond of the clever cinematography--which, frankly, bought the first episode A LOT of leeway.

It gets the ol' "3-episode rule" to grip me, because people I like keep telling me I'd really like it, but failing that I jump over to Lesbian Bear Squad. (And, yes, eventually to Shogi Lions.)
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The first episode was really mediocre. The make or break for it will be if you don't like the next episode, which is where the show grabbed me by showing some unexpected depth and pathos.

@GenSan - do I get to carry over being in love with you once we're done, here, or does it feel more appropriate for this to be our "we'll always have Paris"?

I only ask because I need to know whether to come up with a new diary entry for today or if I can go with my original plan of just absently doodling some hearts.
[/SPOILER]
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The rain is over, man. Time to put that umbrella up and move on.
 
And not one of us said anything about the changes to the OP. Swallows all over the hizzy, yo.

SYMBOLISM.

Scalpelexis said:
I would be super ok if Akira would return through Kondo returning to writing; as an inspiration to come back to a place which you once loved. But not like this, not through Yuto. Traning track on the parking lot?

Akira running to Kondo in the rain and both finally, honestly, hugging each other. That is not an embrace you would expect them giving a goodbye, even though it probably is a lullaby to their romantic relationship.
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So, a response to both of the above points:
Yeah, it's a shame that they didn't get to lead each other to re-pursue their passions. Or, perhaps, that they didn't more overtly do it. Kondo got back to writing because of his friend, but Akira believing in him--which he comments on at the end of Episode 10--is probably what made him promise himself he was going to really go for it, this time. Which would have been the perfect way for him to gently bring her back to running.
As @ZetsubouKaiji posted as I was writing this: "In the case of Kondo I do think Akira put him in a place where he believed he could change."

Yeah, I hadn't been thinking about the end of the swallow conversation, in my initial post. She's given him hope to add to the desire that Chihiro gave him. We just didn't get enough time to see the influence. Kondo just tells us about it, in the finale.

I'm less fond of the idea that Akira was always going to decide to go back to track on her own, though, because it diminishes Kondo's role, diminishes the role of their connection in fixing each other. From how I see it, anyway.

Okay, good. At least, in that this wasn't a massive success right off the bat for everyone. I really liked the style, so I'm hoping the second episode does it for me, too.
It's hard to be a show about two people influencing each other when they don't really get a chance to do that, much.

Now, with Yuta being the heavy-handed "HEY YOU SHOULD DO TRACK AKIRA" insert, this week, I was kind of hoping this was going to be less of a "guess I'll do the rehab" and more of a "there's more than one way I be a part of the track team!" moment. Which was probably really silly of me, considering the show finally established that she was choosing not to do track rather than being unable to do track.

As for the final hug...

Wasn't that all in Kondo's mind? Kind of like how Akira pictured herself kissing him on the cheek after their date?

Which...wait, now that's making my--hang on. If that's all in his head (which, given what follows immediately after, it has to be), then how on earth does Akira know that now is moment he's accepted falling in love with her?

Oh, man...

And then, of course--be still my heart:
GenSan said:
See you at Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai. *wink*
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See how well you know me? Akira's and Kondo's may not have been, but ours is clearly a story bound by destiny.
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interregnum said:
So, a response to both of the above points:
I'm less fond of the idea that Akira was always going to decide to go back to track on her own, though, because it diminishes Kondo's role, diminishes the role of their connection in fixing each other. From how I see it, anyway.
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I do think this is a failing on the part of the series. I think that's why I ended up enjoying Kondo's arc more than Akira's. Watching him slowly get a place where he could accept his passion was dead along with his youth through his relationship with Akira was a damn good arc and mostly well fleshed out even if it required a lot of internal monologuing which became more blatantly exposition at the end. At least back in the early stages the monologues were filled with a bit more pathos and were super depressing in a good way since it was a man forced to reflect on his life and be honest about his failings.



As for the final hug...

Wasn't that all in Kondo's mind? Kind of like how Akira pictured herself kissing him on the cheek after their date?

Which...wait, now that's making my--hang on. If that's all in his head (which, given what follows immediately after, it has to be), then how on earth does Akira know that now is moment he's accepted falling in love with her?

Oh, man...
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Yeah, the hug was definitely in his head. I'll put that down to artistic license, because that moment was very beautiful.
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Ohh i figured out why i like the ED, it's Aimer! Aimer's one of the only good/unique female singers i've heard on OPs. Awesome ED theme to this. Also did the UBW second OP and the 5th natsume ED, i realized because i'm watching the latter rn.
 
Final.....................

Sigh.................12 episodes in and they begin the episode with a close up on Akira's foot..............like okay show, we get it, The girl had an injury....................>_>

As ZK said, that moment with Yuta was straight cheeseball shit.............like where da fk did he even come from.............oh you run track, oh you have inspiring words for who is supposed to be encouraging YOU?.................

Anyways...........yeah, just another example of not enough time. Seen this alot. A show is great until near the end, then all of a sudden they seem to switch writers to the same few people that wrap up a lot of series nice and shoddy like...............................

4/5
 
5/5

I almost didn't watch this one because based on the synopsis I'd read it seemed like it was going to be just another pervy romance anime. I'm so glad I watched it anyway because this quickly became my favorite show this season and maybe even my favorite anime period. I frequently refer to Tachibana and Kondo as "my little cinnamon rolls" because the last thing I expected from this anime about a 17 year old girl loving a 45 year old man was how pure and broken they would both end up being, this show went much deeper than I expected it to.

There was also so much symbolism throughout it. I ended up watching it twice, once alone and once with a friend, and I didn't notice ALL the symbolism the first time through. This is a fantastic show and if you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it!

THE PART AT THE END WHERE HE CALLS HER BACK! ugh, I love it! I began to suspect that they weren't going to just give us a Tachibana and Kondo love story only, happy ending and I'm fine with that. I'm happy with the ending we got even though I agree with someone above it should have been longer, though I don't feel like anything was rushed. Now that I've finished the anime I want to read the Manga. My only complaint is that it's over and i can't rate it higher than 5 lol.
 
tootalls said:
until near the end, then all of a sudden they seem to switch writers to the same few people that wrap up a lot of series
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...what if that's really what happens? Like, all the visionary writers and directors get put onto the stuff for the next season after 6 episodes, and the second half of most every show is shipped to the same group of five overworked college kids who, for expediency, just have to push the existing material through a madlibs-style template to get the scripts out on time. That would explain a lot.



And as for @OneCraftyLady...dammit, that's a great avatar. Good call.
 
I wanted to say one thing, but
Kase really seemed superfluous in the grand scheme of things here. Which to be honest, I'm pretty relieved about, but also thinking, we could have chopped that subplot out, and nothing of value would've been lost. I thought he wanted Tachibana, but it just up, and disappeared randomly.
 
interregnum said:
...what if that's really what happens? Like, all the visionary writers and directors get put onto the stuff for the next season after 6 episodes, and the second half of most every show is shipped to the same group of five overworked college kids who, for expediency, just have to push the existing material through a madlibs-style template to get the scripts out on time. That would explain a lot.



And as for @OneCraftyLady...dammit, that's a great avatar. Good call.
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well.............................the quality went from complimentary to hamfisted the last two episodes...........I'd buy it.

As it does happen often.
 
GenSan said:
I wanted to say one thing, but
Kase really seemed superfluous in the grand scheme of things here. Which to be honest, I'm pretty relieved about, but also thinking, we could have chopped that subplot out, and nothing of value would've been lost. I thought he wanted Tachibana, but it just up, and disappeared randomly.
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And good riddance. What he did ain't cute, despite him being kinda cute. Still not cute.
 
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