Koi wa Ameagari no You ni
After the Rain

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"Youth... At times it can be wild, at times vicious. And yet, all those emotions from that age become an irreplaceable treasure. Although you may not see that right now..." - Masami Kondou

An injury, the fear of writing again... What do these two things have in common? Yes, they prevent you from pursuing what you want to do, and leaves you stranded alone while everyone else is moving on, as if time itself has stopped.

Story: 9
Revolving around the conflicting themes of moving on to pursue what you love or staying still for love, this is a beautiful allegory of life and regret.

I'm pretty sure that ... this manga is not mainly about romance. Although the theme of love is there, it is not as important compared to the main characters' interests and their decisions for the future.

Akira Tachibana is the best runner in her track club who has to take a break due to her ankle injury, and Masami Kondou is a family restaurant manager who has given up on literature due to various personal reasons.

With an age gap of 28 years (Akira is 17 and Kondou is 45), this manga tries to show the audience a different kind of relationship compared to what some people may think as a "normal" relationship. It is one where both help each other to reaffirm their thoughts for them to live the lives they want.

For me, any misconceptions about their age gap has successfully been removed through Kondou's personality. In the first few chapters they show how he gets scolded by his workers and the way he can't really handle his job. He is a very kind person and cares for his workers despite their criticism. Tachibana is rather blunt with her words, and seems more mature than others, except of course in "love", which she has experienced for the first time. Although they are somewhat similar I felt like they were a really good match allowing them to learn something from each other.

The symbolism of rain was very interesting in this manga. In fact, the reason I started reading this was because of the rain/umbrella on the cover. Obviously there's the melancholic but also refreshing feel, but in this case I think there was more. For me, it represented the length of Tachibana's injury or recovery, because when they first met: Kondou tells her: "I'm sure that it'll stop raining soon.". Now at this point he doesn't know that Tachibana is injured, but you can still say that he wanted her to go back and continue to live her life.

The use of metaphors was really impressive as well, for example the polished sea glass, the Rashomon story and the bookmark with the swallow. They helped a lot to emphasise this theme of making a decision, whether changing something or not. From unlikely things the author managed to connect them with the feelings of the characters. Fitting them into the plot itself mustn't have been an easy task either. Maybe it's just me who's bad at making metaphors but honestly, there were really good.

The reason I gave this a 9 and not a 10 is mainly because of the ending. It felt abrupt, and basically you could predict it from the start. However I do think it was appropriate and I guess you could say it was a beautiful ending.

Art: 9
I love the rain. I tend to try to find any manga with covers showing rain, despite the famous saying "Don't judge a book by its cover". And this manga perfectly nailed it in showing raining scenes. I don't ask for much, but there's this feeling that you get from looking at raining scenes and you really think you're there, you can hear the monotonous susurration or the heavy pattering sound. This was a perfect example of it.

Of course, rain wasn't the only good part of the art. I mostly felt like the art (overall) was cute, creating a relaxed atmosphere (except a certain point in the manga where I got really angry at a certain character. Manga readers/Anime watchers should know exactly what I'm talking about here). I also have to mention the eyes... Wow. especially Tachibana's eyes. They are simply mesmerising.
Only thing that prevented me from giving it a 10 is the sometimes very long and thin limbs and necks of certain characters... I know nothing can be perfect but just saying...

Character: 9
I completely fell in love with Kondou's inspiring lines throughout the manga... The one I showed at the start was just one of numerous examples. He is often cheerful (although he does lament himself for all the bad things his workers say behind his back) and a good father. Thanks to Tachibana, he experiences the youth he thought would never see again and this leads to building his courage again to write once more.

Tachibana is someone who still doesn't seem to know the real meaning of love, I think it's more of an admiration, and that's why I always thought that her relationship with Kondou as "friends" was interesting. Although she could be misunderstood to be a cold-hearted person, she is innocent and caring. Her interactions with Kondou shapes her choice to start running again as the manga progresses.

Haruka Kyan:
Lovely character who truly cares for Tachibana, as her long-time friend. She wants Tachibana to get back to running and does a lot to convince her. A lot of development between her and Tachibana, including flashbacks.

Yui Nishida:
Co-worker at the family restaurant, same age as Tachibana. She quickly becomes friends and talks a lot about her love interests and gets advice from her. I think she was an essential character to affect Tachibana's thoughts on getting back to running.
Would've been great if they showed how she was at the last chapter, but I guess that's asking for too much.

Takashi Yoshizawa:
He loves Tachibana, but it is unrequited. Annoying is probably the best word to describe this guy. I don't think he was particularly needed in the story (ok maybe at one point).

Ryosuke Kase:
Worker in family restaurant, in his 20s. I think his interaction with his sister was very interesting but the author didn't go deep enough.

Enjoyment: 10
I don't know what else to say.

Overall: 9
Give it a try unless you absolutely hate big age gaps no matter what.

What are we to do with ourselves, our lives, and our romances?
The biggest questions of our lives is really what we are suppose to do with them. A vague statement meant to be applied. In itself, its a common problem to deal with whether we are young or old. Just in different ways.

After the Rain tries to tackle these topics in a wholesome way, its downfall trying to fumble with the very answer itself and reaching something sweet but lukewarm after presenting and, at the end, dismantling it's main theme.

Story/5: (Quick tl;dr, this is a romance story with bittersweet realism and a giant age ... gap. Keep these in mind.)
Without spoilers, The story is a strange premise. If you go down the romance tags, a lot of the more well-known ones tackle age gap relationships and interests. This story stuck out to me the most for being one of the most mature and realistic ways dealing with this issue.
Now, our two main characters are from 17 to 45. One of the largest I've seen in a manga at the time. Not on the grounds of grooming or pedophilia, but how do you make something like this romance work? How can you portray this without it coming off as degeneracy even for the sake of it seeming plausible to present a message? More so, how will you tie such a thing into the philosophical talking points of the manga and it not seem morally reprehensible and also a mature story that wouldn't sound like some unrealistic erotic doujin?
((Spoilers Ahead: Please skip to ART to avoid any possible spoilers.))

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This is a story about aspirations, inspiration, and what it means to lose both. It is also a story of delving into an unexplained feeling and trying to grow from it.
So early on, when a confession occurs and our goofball 45yo man is dumbstruck, it all comes off as realistic. When you are old, you don't start to think of things occurring to you like you would in your teens. Unlike other manga, our character tries VERY hard to be a mature adult and role model to our other character even when romantic feelings get involved.
Even more, we are not surprised when romance never happens even when our female heroine tries so hard to both understand her feelings and pursue her love. She lost all her passion for her one joy in life from injury and gave up on it immediately. Our male protagonist, on the other hand, shares similarity when his aspiration to be a successful author falls short five years before the story begins. There's a comparison to be drawn from the two from start to finish on how they both supply this emotional necessity to pick themselves back up and push towards what they love the most even after all the hardships and doubt. It even pairs well when tackling topics only specific for age. Things you deal with as a young girls. Problems you suffer from when you are an older, divorced father. This realism is both lovable and also the downfall of this manga as what was used to both help nurture and grow these two into something more is also being framed as the catalyst for the romance between them.

As I asked earlier, how do you handle a romance such as this in a tasteful way and still keep all the themes I mentioned earlier properly?
Well, you don't. A romance never truly happens. It can't, or else it will abandon all the other morals and purpose the chapters try to set up from the start. Unlike other mangas, this one doesn't pull a "Age is just a number" or "I will wait till this love is acceptable". From the start, it wasn't going to work. The premise is pretty clear about this from metaphors and story itself. Disappointing to readers as everyone loves a good romance, the point isn't to fulfill a love story. It's telling a story of growth and maturity. Doing the right thing. This is why many characters seem unfulfilled and constantly troubled. This is why there is no official hook-up for anyone near the end. Only epiphany. In the end, if that is upsetting for you, blame the story premise from the start. This was never meant to be a blooming romantic tale and would be ruined it if did.

The problem is how it handles this. Along the way, the story is very slow and focuses VERY heavily on this story plot. In doing so, ALL the other aspects seemed to get watered down along the way and we seem to be missing out on details that probably would've made the story more appealing. Things like the backstory of our 45yo main character. I put emphasis on his age BECAUSE he wasn't always a man who abandoned his dreams and became content with life. Along the way, he grew to love writing, met someone, had a child, and had his life and ambitions fall apart to an extent. We don't see enough of this. We don't see enough of a lot of things that would make the story a lot more enjoyable. The pages seem like a waste and I can understand why people would become bored or frustrated with the plot after some chapters. Especially when they have doubt of a great and unsatisfying ending. So, if most of the pages aren't filled with that, what are they mostly used for...?
Well. Fluff. Unrequited romantic fluff with a clear idea of where this is all going to end.

Now, finally, to get to the point of explaining all this and why I haven't mentioned the obvious. "Are you saying it would have been BETTER if there was romantic fulfillment?" Well, no. Absolutely not; that would completely destroy the foundation that makes this all even remotely work. The problem is that I even have to talk about that BECAUSE the actual main focus of the plot seems to frame this unrequited love so much. More importantly, try to frame it like a romance plot. A lot, for dozens of grueling panels and heavy-handedly. It only begs the question... why?
Why go to such lengths to attempt that?

I mean, think about it in a theoretical. If you DID want this to be the "Taboo Romance Story", then this manga seems to fairly do a good job at how well it focuses it's time on the female and male main characters. Their interactions and "intimate moments". Yet, that doesn't seem to be the premise of it since we get what it is trying to do from the very start supposedly.

Is the point about the struggles of an adult man keeping his convictions to being a morally good person and role model? No. Because his intentions and convictions are set IN STONE from the very beginning. There is never any doubt, only caution. Which are two different things.

So, was it... maybe... suppose to be a story about a man who has always been a good role model with a story modeling his convictions and covering about a young girl , who is level-headed, confused by emotions and held down by their own problems with the complexities of both as they meet? Yeah, if you read only the beginning and ending while cutting out 90% of the inbetween, fine. But you have a lot of fat here that isn't spent doing that. So it seems confusing and wasteful and muddies the message. It's why you have so many fans split on how to feel about this story. It's why it a lot of times start seeming questionable or almost like... well... justifications for why all of this would be alright and persuading the reader should the ending actually be the romance while abandoning everything else it was presenting. It comes off as bait. Hey, maybe the ending pulls some kind of 180 and this is a romance, eh? or something else becomes involved. It's really hard to tell and that's bad, especially when there is this lingering feeling in the book itself letting you know "Guys. Listen. This isn't right." A feeling in the background by constant meetups, forced dates, and other mushy scenes. You want to make it seem believable and appear like a dilemma that needs solving? Fine. I understand. But the core of your writing needs to say that instead of being boring.

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Art/8: A majority of this manga's appeal is a very clean and lovely style they do for characters. Backgrounds and sidecharacters don't have a focus so usually they don't seem special, but when someone is focused on, there is so much detail to their design and facial expressions. Simple things from the slightest mouth gesture to even the perspective of the character being drawn to express an emotion is big in this. Most things aren't discussed or mentioned but instead uses the scene to show a mood and point. Now, it does seem like the quality quickly drops often or has almost no focus. The reason it has an 8 is because it is really good when it does and would have a 10 if this quality was more consistent.

Character/9: Characters, atleast our two main characters, are very well written. The side characters are not shown or spoken of enough, but at the very least
used to display the depth of our more important ones. Specifically, the male and female protagonists. It isn't particular personality traits or anything close. Sure, we have a seemingly stereotypical kuudere female and goofball clumsy male, but the look into their desires and what they do is what really makes them shine. The only reason it isn't perfect is there isn't enough content in the story on both the characters and the side characters.

Enjoyment/5: It's a realistic story with subtle enjoyments and subtle harsh feelings. Not rosey, not cynical. This comes off boring at many points to read through or unrewarding. With the sort of ending that it has, it will seem even more unrewarding to finish. I can understand the intention, but trying to portray realism and in the way it does it here doesn't exactly mean that, at points, the artistically beautiful work we have here wont come off as a dull slow-burn to nowhere but predictable.

Overall/tl;dr/7:
If I were to recommend any kind of Age gap romance to someone, it would definitely be this. Too many manga from Usagi Drop and others hold the mistake of trying to preserve this idea that "some exceptions are ok". Not the aspect of age gap itself, mind you, but something along the lines of a much older man and a highschooler. I get that writing stories of taboo relationships can be interesting and they surely are, the regularity and lack of giving a sense of maturity to them seem to just indulge in the simple vulgarity and excuse of allowing immaturity, however. (Especially of the older party.) There is no story that tries to explain and show why such a situation can be manipulative or immature as opposed to real thought-provoking stories that focus on this like House of the Sun.
Here we have a story of an older male. Who is experienced. Each time, disappointing the shippers, he does the right thing in his role as a more experienced person who struggles with his own dilemmas while assisting another's.

On the other hand, I wont be fooled that this TRIED very hard to also be a manga about romance. A heavy focus with a story meant to be portrayed. Themes and arts. At heart, this was really trying hard to be a love story by appearance. Yet it couldn't. No matter what, it was only recipe for a let down and could have been much more if done differently. Not in completing a romance but put more perspective on the other themes it had instead of placing it on the backburner.
Which makes the experiences, as whole, tediously boring and the growth subpar which finally concludes onto a vague close of the narrative. It spends so much time saying very little.

Story would have been better if it didn't try to be a romance.

The two main characters and how their struggles parallel each other, executed well. The side characters were completely necessary and had well-deserved scenes.

So what's the point of the alleged romance?

In the first place I think this story is guilty of "romance is the ultimate form of love," having this girl fall in love with her manager because he was nice to her, just to preach about how "you don't need a reason to fall in love," like romance is this great, transcendental thing. Uh yeah, there's the physical attraction aspect, and in ... the beginning the manga makes great pains to demonstrate how unattractive manager-kun is by consistently pointing out and drawing his bald spots, how he keeps leaving his fly open, and the weird boomer sneezes he makes (despite me checking the characters page to confirm if the man was reasonably attractive). Doesn't help that how beautiful the girl is keeps getting shoved in my face, but this is what I was expecting from the female-focused cover. Yeah yeah it's "seinen" but i'm tired of this in seinen manga when shoujosei can portray female beauty just fine.

So now. The main issue.
A romance plot was set up at the beginning, however this is promptly forgotten about in favor of dealing with individual struggles regarding personal hobbies that the characters go through, which have really nothing to do with each other except for some vague parallels. This makes the ending even more offensive because it sloppily inserted the theme of not giving up on your passions into their relationship, which made absolutely no sense and made for a terribly unsatisfying ending.

Basically, this story should have chosen ONE:
a) if it was going to forget about the romance, there should have been no romance plot or premise set up in the beginning, where the two may or may not develop romantic feelings for each other over the course of the story that may or may not be confessed;
b) if it wanted to properly deal with the characters' romantic feelings towards each other, actually make that kind of angst progress throughout the story instead of making them forget about that in favor of their hobby angst.

In the end, this story seemed like it tried to go for "realism" in how it handles this premise but ultimately ended up being unrealistic and idealistic in the way slice-of-life can oftentimes be.