Manga Reviews (2010-2019): After the Rain vol. 5 by Mayuzuki Jun (a Neo-Tokyo 2099 Manga Review)

A delightful and entertaining manga series that is easy to follow and enjoy. I definitely give “After the Rain” a high recommendation!

MANGA TITLE: After the Rain vol. 5

STORY AND ART BY: Mayuzuki Jun

FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shogakukan

PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Vertical Comics

RATED: 14+

Available on September 17, 2019

As winter deepens, Yui works up the courage to give Yoshizawa her hand-knit scarf. The staff of Garden ring in the new year together, and January begins with new-fallen snow. Alone in his apartment, Kondo’s pen glides along manuscript paper. Akira heads out, hand-made scarf and umbrella in hand.

“I’m sure it’ll clear up soon.”

So many seasons have passed since the day Akira and Kondo met. In this final volume, what will the two of them write in the clearing sky…?

It’s the final omnibus volume of “After the Rain” and the answers to everyone’s questions of whether or not Tachibana Akira will ever run again? Will Kondo ever write again? Or will there be a relationship between and older man and high school teenager?

Find out in “After the Rain” omnibus vol. 5!

What is “After the Rain” all about?

Vertical Comics is currently releasing mangaka Mayuzuki Jun’s hit manga series “Koi wa Ameagari no Youni” (After the Rain) in North America.

Serialized in Shogakukan’s “Gekkan Big Comic Spirits” back in 2014 and then finding its final home in “Shukan Big Comic Spirits” in 2016, the series would receive an anime adaptation and also a live action film adaptation in 2018.

The series revolves around its two protagonists, Tachibana Akira, a high-school student who was a promising track star until a significant ankle injury forces her to abandon running.

Depressed about not being able to train and run anymore, while walking in the rain, she was offered free coffee by Kondo Masami, the manager of a family restaurant.

Taking shelter in the rain, Tachibana would eventually work at the same family restaurant.

As for Kondo, he is 45-years-old and is a divorced father and has a young son named Yuto who comes to visit once in awhile. When he sees Tachibana, she often has an angry look on her face and wonders if she hates him, but in truth, Tachibana is falling in love with her manager.

And as their relationship has grown closer and Kondo knowing it’s not right for him to pursue a relationship with a teenage girl, can he continue to resist her charm? Meanwhile, if there is one thing that Tachibana has done is make him feel good about life and wanting to do something about his life.

But can he help Akira get back to the one thing that she loved all this time… Running?

Vertical is really releasing interesting manga that explores unique relationships. We have “The Delinquent Housewife” about a teenage boy who is in love with his sister-in-law, but finds out that she is a former gangster girl. “Arakawa Under the Bridge” about a businessman who starts living under the bridge with odd characters and falls for a girl who thinks she is from Venus and “My Boy” about a 30-year-old woman and a young 12-year-old boy which started out as a fill-in mom that wanted to teach the young boy soccer but instead starts bonding with the boy, and he with this woman.

With Mayuzuki Jun’s “After the Rain”, the story revolves around two people who have non-interesting lives. For Tachibana Akira, her life was about running and with that passion taken away due to a significant injury/surgery, she has given it up to work at a family restaurant.

At the family restaurant is a 45-year-old man who just works as a manager and never thought anyone would be interested in him because he’s 45 and has a kid. But it turns out that the athlete, Akira, has fallen for her manager. And she intends to let him know.

But will he reciprocate the same feelings? Or will he feel inconveniences because he know that a 45-year-old man with a young woman would be perceived as very wrong?

The fifth and final omnibus volume collects graphic novels 9-10 and the build-up of the series finally concludes with a story that I felt was the best conclusion that I felt was acceptable.

There have been manga series (as well as television drama series) that have explored older and younger relationships and for the most part, how Japanese writers for various series have shown how there will be a lot of hardships, a lot of heartbreak but somehow in the end, there is somewhat of a “love conquers all” mentality.

And of course, with the difference in cultures, in America, these types of relationships are often in the news and are frowned upon. In Japan, it’s also frowned upon but the law of age of consent in Japan is different depending on the area, for Tokyo, it’s 18. In the more desolate islands of Japan (Marcus Islands and Okinotori Islands), it’s 13.

And to add a little more context, in Japan, for entertainment couples, people are fascinated by old and young relationships. More recently, a 50-year-old guitarist for a popular band married a 23 year old girl. And they dated for several years. Another from a major pop group had his second child with a woman is 26-years younger than him. It happens quite a bit in Japan.

I’m not sure why, but somehow these taboo romances pop up in drama, anime and manga and it’s no doubt showing the differences between cultures and depending on the individual, it will dictate how we react to these type of stories.

So, when reading “After the Rain”, I often read the manga with the American side thinking, “Wow! Are these two really going to get together? That would be wrong!” and the other side thinking,”It’s manga and of course, based off Japanese culture, so she’ll be turning 18 and when she graduates high school, maybe then they can explore a relationship”. But the former often dominates the latter when reading this manga series.

For the most part, I have been pulling for Akira to get back to running again, Kondo to get back into writing again.

Two individuals who are in a funk and somehow enjoy time spent with each other. Akira, may it be not having that father figure, she falls for Kondo for the man that he is. While for Kondo, he was a guy in which his wife left him, he has been a man who has given up in life and just working to make ends meet, take care of his son when he visits and nothing else. But Akira became like a light that came into his life, made him feel energized, young and feeling inspired.

But he wanted to reciprocate that gratitude right back with his light, and giving her that extra push that she needed.

While the other characters make an appearance in the final volume, the focus is primarily on Akira and Kondo and building upon a conclusion that I felt worked.

If anything, I never felt uncomfortable reading the “After the Rain” series, while Vertical’s other manga series “My Boy” definitely does (featuring an older woman and a boy).

And I’ll leave it at that, because I really do feel that people should read this delightful manga series.

I found Mayuzuki Jun’s artwork to be appealing and well-done, not confusing, chaotic but straightforward and easy to enjoy and appreciate.

Overall, a delightful and entertaining manga series that is easy to follow and enjoy. I definitely give “After the Rain” a high recommendation!