After the Rain

FUN FACT:
Kondo likes "real literature."

Akira wants to read some "real literature" to try and connect with Kondo.

Akira chooses to read Botchan by Natsume Soseki as her "real literature" book.

Natsume Soseki has another book called Kokoro.

Kokoro was first translated into English by a professor named Kondo.
 
OneCraftyLady said:
I need to rewatch this again soon :D
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Oo--let me know if you do. That way, we can also be After the Rain bros!

And I know how you like to schedule your anime viewing by which shows you and I can be bros to!

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interregnum said:
Ha! All things in their own time, I suppose.

I hope you have as much fun marathoning it as we did picking it apart every week.
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I'm enjoying their reactions the most. >w<

I just got to the part where they're talking about her homework, it's a book he likes. He saw her little umbrella love doodle and freaked out which caused her to freak out a bit as well! >w< so cute!

I had to go with my mother to her DR appointment today, which was why I picked this title to watch as it was something I could Download to watch while I was out. I busted out laughing on episode 2 when he asked her if her toenails where red because of her injury. x'D Sooo many strange looks I got. One lady glared at me, as if I was laughing at her.. =w=,

I don't like that one male co-worker much so far. He learned she liked the manager and used it against her.. the kiss on the cheek without permission pissed me off too.. ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ I had guys that I didn't like do that to me. (｡･̆д･̆｡) Disgusting...

I like romance stories where a younger person falls in love with a older person, especially if that older person is divorced/widowed and with a kid (Sweetness and Lighting is a good example.) I love watching the two grow close and anticipate them becoming a family. So glad I picked this title to watch today. ( ͒ ु•·̫• ू ͒) ♡
 
Oho!
Demonskid said:
Sweetness and Lighting is a good example
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It's funny you say that, because I felt like this was exactly what Sweetness and Lightning was missing, when I watched it--which is why I was so pleased to find that the manga had that mixed-up-feelings romance in every nook and cranny.
 
interregnum said:
Oho!
It's funny you say that, because I felt like this was exactly what Sweetness and Lightning was missing, when I watched it--which is why I was so pleased to find that the manga had that mixed-up-feelings romance in every nook and cranny.
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When ever I feel like an anime is missing something, I go looking for the manga to see if what I was looking for is there.

I'm glad this anime focuses on the relationships. I can't help but root for certain characters. Like the blond co-worker, I cheer for her to get together with loudy (I'm so terrible with names.. ( ิټ ิ))

Kondo's friend is funny... I like this guy! xD
 
It ended.. I'm sad.. why did this end? (｡º̩̩́⌓º̩̩̀).゜

@OneCraftyLady I really enjoyed it. >w< Makes me sad there's no DVD/Bluray release... Eventually licensing rights run out, when that happens we'll lose access to it legally.. it's why I like getting physical copies of my favorite shows and manga.
 
Okay--final manga-to-anime comparison update thing:

We all knew the show must have sped through the latter part of the series to wrap things up, and it absolutely did. There's all kinds of adaptation distillation, which both keeps to and swerves away from the source material--probably both to the detriment of the anime, if I'm honest.

But the manga--while brilliant--doesn't quite stick the landing either, and it does so in a simultaneously better and worse way.

Where the anime ends with Akira and Kondo each sort of acknowledging that they both need to get back to the things they are passionate about, there's this sense of unbreakable connection or, heck, of "give it a little more time and we'll be ready for each other" that it leaves us with. Which is rather the opposite in the manga, where Akira basically makes one last big push to have Kondo love her--which he admits to us that he does--but which Kondo recognizes as being something that will stop Akira from reclaiming the part of her youth (read as: track) that she thinks she's lost forever. So he tells her flat-out to give up on him--which is not what he wants, but which he knows is best for her. After that, there's a time skip, with Akira back to being the best runner ever and Kondo kinda back to writing. And they don't talk to each other, anymore.

Yui and Yoshizawa's budding romance builds to a date that's not called a date but is totally a date. She's gotten his heart a-racin' on more than one occasion, in the lead-up to this, and he's certainly convinced she's pretty darn great. And the date that isn't a date but is totally a date goes very, very well. And then she confesses to him. And he rejects her. And...it stays that way. She cuts her hair short (as is tradition, it seems, when girls get rejected), and his grows everlong without her to keep it trim. And soon enough after she has to quit the restaurant because her school caught wind of her working there, which is not allowed, and Yoshizawa is super-bummed about it. (The quiet/serious chef even asks him directly if he's gonna be okay about it, because everyone knows he clearly likes Yui.) And...he never says anything about it to her or anyone. And she never comes back to the story. (Except when she gets to meet Haruka, months later, when Akira takes them out.) And that's just how that subplot ends.

And Kondo's author friend gets involved with a 17-year-old boy author who is the talk of the town and a HUGE fan of his. The boy's name is Akira. I have no idea if they're friends or lovers or what. And the story does nothing to clarify it. But they are probably the only romance possibility that's not dropped or destroyed by the end of the book. In fact, they are the subject of the final panels of the epilogue. Not Akira, not Kondo--them. It's really f***ing weird.

Oh! But Akira slugs Blondie McHaircut for a rude comment he makes about Yui. Which is hilarious and great.

...except that the reason he makes the comment is because he's in a miserable mood because of something (unspecified, potentially?) that happened to or with his sister that's really bothering him and he's just lashing out. Of course, we never get to see what happened with that minor subplot, either.

I was left with an odd taste in my mouth, honestly.

One last bit of symbolic whatnot, for old time's sake:

The story-proper ends with Akira holding aloft the gift Kondo gave her on the day he tells her enough is enough.

It's a parasol.

That is, something to help her walk around in the sun instead of in the rain.

...which would have meant more to me if they were meeting up or something, rather than her being at track practice or whatever.
 
interregnum said:
Okay--final manga-to-anime comparison update thing:

Where the anime ends with Akira and Kondo each sort of acknowledging that they both need to get back to the things they are passionate about, there's this sense of unbreakable connection or, heck, of "give it a little more time and we'll be ready for each other" that it leaves us with.
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This is not how I saw the ending at all. The way I see it the anime ended with them both as friends, going their separate ways in life because they helped each other get through their own internal struggles. Through their own internal rainstorms, if you will. So the part where she says "It'll stop raining soon" and he puts his umbrella down and smiles at her and they gaze at each other for a second before it's interrupted by what is assumed to be a work related phone call, further symbolizing again how they're in different places in life. And he watches her walk away and the sun starts shining and it shows the clouds reflected beneath her and he calls her name.

Now, after he calls to her you see the clip where she runs into his arms. He's imagining that right? Because that's how I've always taken it and it isn't the first time he imagines her doing something she's not doing. Then it goes back to them standing in front of each other and they promise to let each other know when they accomplish their dreams/promises. To me it didn't feel like a "we'll go off on our own to accomplish our dreams and then come back to each other later to be a couple" but totally them parting as friends and planning to keep in touch as friends, even though it's obvious that Kondo does love her he knows he needs to let her go, which is why he only imagines her running into his arms and then after they finally part ways he turns to watch her go, because he's in love with her.

I haven't read the manga yet, and reading what you wrote about it makes me want to read it even more honestly but even if it's not as forceful in the anime, he's totally forcing her out into the world even though he doesn't want to do that, because he does love her.

interregnum said:
One last bit of symbolic whatnot, for old time's sake:

The story-proper ends with Akira holding aloft the gift Kondo gave her on the day he tells her enough is enough.

It's a parasol.

That is, something to help her walk around in the sun instead of in the rain.
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He gives her a parasol. Omg I can't handle that that's so incredibly perfect...that I can't handle it. I need to get and read the manga asap.
 
OneCraftyLady said:
This is not how I saw the ending at all.
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Technically, I was only going off of memory, because I found it an unsatisfactory conclusion to the show (though I liked it as an episode) and never went back to watch the final episode a second (...and third) time, so I was mostly remembering what was said about the finale, at the time.

But I've gone back to take a look, again, and--with both your interpretation and the manga weighing on my (per a quick look back in the thread) very sure-of-itself optimistic perspective--I'm pretty sure it's simultaneously both and neither: they definitely promise to stay connected and are both clearly in love with the other, and I think their mutual "I'll tell you when I've done what I need to do" moment is full of hope (that I would choose to interpret as "maybe that'll be our time," though certainly not a promise to wait for one another)...but the lines that close out the show ABSOLUTELY sound like "I"ll never forget you, person I'll never see again," which is the total opposite message.

A little have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too of them, in my opinion.

Regardless, the manga is very clear that their relationship--friends or otherwise--is DONE. Akira goes back to track, which means she's no longer at the restaurant, and, unless we read into her using the parasol (which, given the context of that final panel, we'd have to really want to do), no longer keeping Kondo in her mind as anything but a memory.

In slightly other news, it does earn her going back to track, though, which I never felt the show did. It's also very clear about the severity of her injury--and how likely it would be to come back from it. So, her reluctance is half fear of not being able to get back to 100% (which sucks if you're as naturally gifted as she is) and half being in love with Kondo, the latter of which she often uses as an excuse not to admit the former. The show keeps her injury's details so hidden that it actually muddies the justification for how "go back to track!" is the solution and makes it rely more on an audience assumption that she "obviously has to go back to track" because it's more comfortable to assume her affections for this much older man are deflection instead of genuine. (Which I never liked. Because it's boring. And undercuts Kondo's character.)

But I'm just rambling, at this point.

OneCraftyLady said:
I need to get and read the manga asap.
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Whole thing is available in 5 nice, chunky volumes for your book shelf. I think it's absolutely worth it.

And you, especially, will LOVE it.
 
I'm not sure how I feel about a romance between a high school student and a 45 year old man. I get a 20 year old difference, but 27? I guess it's not so weird in Japan.
 
Doesn't happen that often when it comes to anime, but this one I was forbidden to continue watching without my significant other being present :) However, 3 episodes in we're both a bit uncertain why this is tagged as seinen rather than josei, it is surprisingly common though.
 
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