After The Rain Episode #11 Anime Review

If I hadn't touched you, would I still be smiling?

What They Say:

Akira Tachibana is a soft-spoken high school student who used to be a part of the track and field club but, due to an injury, she is no longer able to run as fast as she once could. Working part-time at a family restaurant as a recourse, she finds herself inexplicably falling in love with her manager, a divorced 45-year-old man with a young son.

The Review:

Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)

I'm going to seize this opportunity in saying that this week's episode of After The Rain is the 'calm before the storm'. Get it? Rain? Storm?...I'll see myself out. Anyway, for being the penultimate episode of a series literally built upon the growth and development of both adolescent and mature emotion, the eleventh installment of the series is actually rather uneventful, in a sense. Mind you, I'm not saying that it's boring or anything like that. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The subtlety of this week's episode is actually more concerning than anything when you really get down to it.

Despite centering the entire series around the relationship of Akira and Kondou, the last several weeks have driven us away from that- giving each character ample time to focus on other aspects of their lives. For Kondou, the repeated meetups with Chihiro have clearly shaken up his dormant passion for writing. Akira, on the other hand, is literally being forced to own up to her past and figure out just what the hell she wants to do with her life. I'm getting serious Tsukigakirei vibes from Haruka, by the way. Not in the sense that she's after Kondou, but the fact that she is a best-friend archetype whose sole purpose is to grow conflict for the leading female. What I'm getting at, however, is more of question that an apparent and inherent theme. The last few episodes of After the rain have me asking, "Was the point of all of this, for both protagonist, just an excuse to hide from their pre-existing issues?"

Now, of course, you can't attribute the entire series to either a yes or a no answer based off of a generic question like that. There is clearly some level of companionship between Akira and Kondou- that much is almost indisputable. But why, in the series' final moments, has that become more of an afterthought than anything else? Considering the type of show this is, a second season seems rather unlikely- so the entire romantic aspect of After The Rain now has a total of twenty minutes remaining to breathe its last breath and bring peace to the slightly-illegal pairing of an older man and a younger girl.

If it seems like I haven't done much summarizing of the episode, it's probably because I haven't. In fact, this is essentially a tame rehash of the episode where Akira and Haruka go to the festival. There is not one piece of episode eleven that we haven't seen before- but that's exactly what makes me so suspicious of everything. I can't imagine this being a directorial misstep considering literally everything else we've seen, so what is it? Will there be any amount of closure for our blossoming couple? Or will the last three months end their melancholic field trip with a lesson as simple as, "Don't lose sight of what matters to you?" And even though I'm a sucker for vague, generic and slightly-depressing themes, I'm really hoping that this series ends with the former of those two. I can't imagine it leaving a lasting impression on me if the focus slips away when it matters most.

In Summary: 

As mentioned earlier, this episode can be seen as a sort of 'calm before the storm'. There is only one week left to lay rest to not only the relationship of Kondou and Akira, but their respective relationships with the other people who matter to them. Haruka continues to ruin everything by being an obsessive best-friend that can't handle the fact that Akira might want to move on while Kondou, on the other hand, needs to lean on an old friend to realize his own dreams. Regardless, with the clock running out, After The Rain is going to need to put in some overtime next week if it wants to end on as high of a note as it started.

Episode Grade: B-

Streamed By: Prime Video

Re:Zero ~ Chapter 2 Vol. #03 Manga Review

The meaning of courage

Creative Staff:

Art: Makoto Fuugetsu

Original Story: Tappei Nagatsuki

Character Design: Shinichirou Otsuka

Translation: ZephyrRZ

Lettering: Bianca Pistillo

What They Say:

Having experienced agonizing death numerous times at Roswaal manor, Subaru seeks to defy his fate once again. Enlisting the help of diminutive yet powerful Beatrice, Subaru might finally overcome this trial...but success comes at a steep cost. Subaru is faced with a choice -- will he live with the burden of regret, or will he take his chances and start over again?

The Review:

Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)

You know what's worse than dying every three days? Nothing. Well, maybe dying every two days or something- but that's beside the point. What I'm trying to say is, Subaru hasn't exactly been having the best time lately. In the last installment of Re:Zero, we even saw him going to Beatrice for help. Beatrice. This demonstrates in itself how fed up Subaru is with current predicament. Regardless of how terrible their motley companionship is, Beatrice was somehow able to get Subaru past the third night as Roswaal Manor for the first time thus far. But just when he thinks his luck is beginning to change and that he might actually be able to carry on with his life, he finds out that Rem has died in his place. And as if that wasn't enough, now Ram has spiralled out of control and is blaming him for it. Poor Subaru...Dude just can't catch a break.

Anyway, the death of Rem doesn't only weigh heavy on Ram. In fact, our beloved protagonist takes it just as hard, willing to kill himself for a chance to reset things once more. Of course, both Beatrice and Ram don't take kindly to this idea. Ram hates it because she wants to be the one to kill him in order to sate her undying rage. Beatrice, on the other hand, is pissed because she just spent three whole days making sure he stayed alive. Regardless, Subaru bites the bullet and jumps off a cliff several seconds after pouring his heart out to both of them. The result? Oh, would you look at that, he's started over yet again.

Now that Subaru's life has begun again for the umpteenth time in the last week or so, he really needs to figure out what's going on. And, after some gruelling research, he uncovers that his death (And Rem's) had been the result of a curse. But where did the curse come from? Dedicated to uncovering the truth, Subaru retraces his steps, finding common ground from each lifeline and how that may have been transferred to Rem during his time in Beatrice's room. And since the curse wasn't stemming from anyone residing at the manor, the only other option was the village. Subaru tests this theory once he learns from the tsundere loli that a curse can be lifted as long as its still dormant within the carrier. So after taking the obvious route of making physical contact with literally everyone in the village, Subaru manages to uncover that the curse is coming from a gosh darn puppy. So much for man's best friend.

Upon the reveal of this, Subaru sets off to the village right away, hoping that he may be able to save the children and other residents in time. But with Roswaal away on a 'business trip,' Ram is hesitant to let him leave. Through sheer willpower (And an intense desire to stop dying), Subaru manages to persuade her under the pretense of Rem coming along with him. Now, the only two main characters to have died in prior timelines thus far have set off on an adventure to kill a puppy together. I now understand why Rem proceeds to fall so hard for him in the future. My mother always told me that the quickest way to a girl's heart is the slaughter of a cursed dog. Unfortunately, by the time they get to the village, both the dog and the children have disappeared. Now, it is up to Subaru and the blue-haired love-robot to find it and prevent the untimely demise of pretty much everyone.

In Summary:

Despite being a bit repetitious (Which is hard to avoid considering this is the fourth time around this particular loop), Re:Zero is able to remain entertaining through several pages and panels that perfectly emphasize the slope to insanity. Whether it be an enraged close-up of Ram as she blames Subaru for the death of her sister or a terrifying collage of "I feel sick" draped in the background of Subaru's smiling face, the artwork carries this volume further than it ever has before. Unfortunately, considering the artist-alternation formula Re:Zero's manga has been elected to roll with, this is destined to change next volume when we are reintroduced to the art of Matsuse in place of Fuugetsu. Luckily, the actual story of this series is complex and unique enough to allow us to overlook that. Even with the reversion back to the lesser of the two mangaka (In my opinion), I'm excited to continue on with the happy and colorful tale of Subaru and his best friends.

Content Grade: B+

Art Grade: A

Packaging Grade: A-

Text/Translation Grade: A-

Age Rating: 13+

Released By: Yen Press

Release Date: October 31, 2017

MSRP: $12.99

Winter 2018 Anime Accolades

Technical Awards

Best Original Soundtrack/Score

After The Rain

Music by Ryo Yoshimata

Sound Direction by Yasunori Ebina

Best Insert Song

"Haru Ka Tooku" (A Place Further Than the Universe)

Written by Yoshiaki Fujisawa

Performed by Saya

Best Opening Song

"Azalea" (Citrus)

Performed by nano.Ripe

Best Ending Song

"Otagai No Uchuu" (Junji Ito: Collection)

Performed by JYOCHO

Best Opening Animation

After The Rain

Directed by Ayumu Watanabe

Best Ending Animation

Darling In The FranXX

Directed by Atsushi Nishigori

Best Adapted Story

After The Rain

Created by Jun Mayuzuki

Directed by Ayumu Watanabe

Best Original Story

A Place Further Than The Universe

Script and series composition by Jukki Hanada

Directed by Atsuko Ishizuka

Best Artwork/Animation

A Place Further Than The Universe

Art Direction by Saho Yamane

Character Designs by Takahiro Yoshimatsu

With Hiroki Kawashita as Director of Photgraphy

Acting Awards

Best Supporting Actor

Daiki Yamashita

For Kengo Suguri in Beatless

Best Supporting Actress

Yuka Iguchi

For Hinata Miyake in A Place Further Than the Universe

Best Leading Actor

Yuuma Uchida

For Yaichi Kuzuryuu in The Ryuo's Work is Never Done!

Best Leading Actress

Kana Hanazawa

For Shirase Kobuchizawa in A Place Further Than The Universe

Character Awards

Best Supporting Character (Female)

Matsuri Mizusawa (Citrus)

Played by Shiori Izawa

Best Supporting Character (Male)

Goro (Darling In The FranXX)

Played by Yuuichirou Umehara

Best Main Character (Female)

Shirase Kobuchizawa (A Place Further Than The Universe)

Played by Kana Hanazawa

Best Main Character (Male)

Masami Kondou (After The Rain) 

Played by Hiroaki Hirata

Best Character Ensemble

A Place Further Than The Universe

Character Designs by Takahiro Yoshimatsu

Directed by Atsuko Ishizuka

The Final Awards

Best Director

Atsuko Ishizuka

For A Place Further Than The Universe

Best Anime

A Place Further Than The Universe

Directed by Atsuko Ishizuka

After The Rain Episode #10 Anime Review

Any place where you won't get wet from rain is also a place without sunlight.

What They Say:

Akira Tachibana is a soft-spoken high school student who used to be a part of the track and field club but, due to an injury, she is no longer able to run as fast as she once could. Working part-time at a family restaurant as a recourse, she finds herself inexplicably falling in love with her manager, a divorced 45-year-old man with a young son.

The Review:

Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)

Before we get into the bulk of this review, I just want to thank After The Rain for including so many quips about Kondou's passion for writing. Sometimes, especially during weekly reviews for ongoing shows, it becomes easy to lost motivation or the passion for something, even if it's something you love. But in this particular instance, where a character so emphatically reiterates his love for that exact thing, it becomes virtually impossible to lose motivation. If anything, it's like you a have morale-based personal trainer breathing down your neck and inspiring you to keep going. For me, Kondou is that personal trainer- which is strange because I have never been a borderline pedophilic, divorced forty-something-year-old.

That aside, After The Rain has returned to its roots this week- almost as if it's starting from zero. And no, I'm not saying that Akira is somehow killed and has to return by dea- (*choke*) to an earlier part of her life. I'm saying that we get to see an Akira who isn't at all overwhelming and fiery but instead softspoken and admirable. Also, I apologize to anyone that does not get that reference. For those of you that do, however, you're welcome. Either way, the episode centers around an innocent trip to a secondhand book fair that Akira comes across while throwing away some old newspapers. Why did Akira's family have so many stacks of newspapers, you ask? No idea. But that is beside the point.

She invites Kondou [offscreen] to the event and, obviously, he obliges. When the two of them meet up, however, there are a few glaring difficulties. First off, everyone thinks Akira is Kondou's daughter. Considering we've all sort-of been expecting this, it isn't much of a big deal. Hell, knowing Akira, she might even be turned on by this or something. The second difficulty comes in the form of Kondou being that one friend you bring to the dealers' room at an anime convention only to have them disappear four seconds later. Luckily, this secondhand book fair is an outdoor event, so Akira is able to bypass the issue of not getting any cellular service and simply send a "?" text to the object of her affection (This is a callback to an anecdote from earlier in the episode meant to emphasize the closeness between two parties and blah blah blah). Kondou responds with an "!" text and, next thing we know, our protagonists have been reunited.

Perhaps the biggest scene in all of this, however, is a major flashback to Kondou's past that illustrates the downfall of his marriage. Of course, we've known about Kondou's affinity for novels and writing for quite some time now. What we didn't know is that he was so obsessed with this several years ago that it destroyed his marriage. It's actually rather interesting that things played out this way. Up until now, at least for me, the series did a solid job at painting Kondou as a victim and never really emphasizing why his marriage failed. So now that we know it was essentially all Kondou's fault, it kind of changes up his characterization. He's no longer an aloof, wonky old man but an old man who was incapable of sorting out his priorities and ultimately paid the price for it.

The scene after, however, takes that same picture which was so meticulously painted for us and turns it on its head when Akira pretty much tells Kondou to his face that this is why she likes him so much. And just like the picture, Kondou's perception of himself flip-flops when he realizes that his love for writing isn't one in the same with self-destruction. In fact, he feels more inspired than anything. The hopeful ending of the episode signifies that perhaps he may learn how to balance this love with his love for real life and maybe even go on to explore more facets of it with Akira...Or...maybe learning this balance could somehow rekindle the flame of his previous marriage? Oh, please god, no.

In Summary:

From a thematic standpoint, the tenth episode of After The Rain is easily one of, if not the strongest episode thus far. Our perception of Kondou changes dramatically upon the reveal of his past life and, from this point on, it is completely up to us to decipher exactly what kind of a person he is. And while this viewpoint may drastically change from person to person, the single thing that all of us can absolutely not ignore is...how gosh darn cute Akira looked in her street clothes this week.

Episode Grade: A-

Streamed By: Prime Video