After the Rain: Manga Review (8/26/2024)

 I didn't get this manga.

This manga is about a high school girl who has a crush on the 45 year old manager of her family restaurant. That's all I knew about this manga coming into it, and I purposely stayed away from learning anything about the manga because I had heard a lot of good things about it and I didn't want to get spoiled.

But I didn't get this manga. At first, I was just deeply uncomfortable. I didn't like the way that this girl had a crush on this middle aged man, and I didn't like the way that the man didn't just immediately rebuke all her actions.

But then I kept reading, expecting it to get better somehow, and I began to think that the series was about how the author could turn this weird situation into something of a nice friendship between the two characters where they both learn the value of having someone with a vastly different life around you or something. Maybe something like Domestic Girlfriend where the story randomly pulls you in. Maybe the story did accomplish that on some level, because I kept reading, but finally I started to think that this story maybe had to do with how each character was able to rediscover their own passions (with the girl, running, and with the guy, writing).

I think that the story is all of these things, but I also think that it somehow isn't either. While each of the things that I stated above are delved into a little bit, I would say that the story ends up being more slice of life where nothing really happens instead of some kind of character drama. So I don't really know what this manga was trying to go for, which is why I say that I don't understand this manga.

But, to be honest, something kept me engaged to the story the whole time, and perhaps that's what matters. It's a short story, enough to be finished in a day, and each of the side characters are pretty charming, even if they only stay side characters (which is to say, not much happens with them).

This manga was released in a seinen magazine, but I think that it's way closer to being a shoujo. Not only does the story deal with the thoughts and experiences of a teenage girl, it also has the shoujo feel. The art style is drawn in a certain way, and the way each of the characters interact feel indicative of a female perspective, if that makes sense.

As a young male, I feel as though I may never understand some of those feelings or some of the actions of why some people act a certain way, and I'll just accept that as what it is. I've never had an unreasonable crush on someone twice my age, after all.

With all these thoughts, this manga is sort of hard to rate for me. I don't think I was entertained and I also don't think that I particularly enjoyed this manga, but on some level I understand that maybe I just didn't understand this manga.

So I'm giving a 5/10.

Post Script Notes:

https://medium.com/@ChristopherInoa/after-the-rain-is-thankfully-not-a-problematic-love-story-f5ae58ea3771

https://www.yuristargirl.com/2019/09/after-rain-volume-5-delivers-right.html

https://beneaththetangles.com/2018/02/23/what-would-it-take-for-you-to-approve-of-after-the-rains-romance/

Having read a couple of reviews on this manga, I wanted to point out a couple of things:

I feel as though the author shouldn't be praised just for not having the characters have sex or develop some sort of more intimate relationship. I think that that should be the bare minimum. However, throughout the entire story I always felt this sense of uncomfortableness that resulted from the weird, almost will they won't they relationship that developed between the two main characters, and I think that that in of itself made this series worse for me. Maybe if you're ok with that then you'll like this series more.