After the Rain will end next week, so in Episode 11, we are getting a set up for the final 24 minutes. It was a bit of a slow episode and didn’t have a lot of details to talk about, because most of the things will probably only lead to something in the last episode and thus it is hard to say much without making assumptions. Have fun reading the review!
Japanese Title: Souu (叢雨)
Haruka hears that someone from another school made a recovery after she had the same injury as Akira and that this person is now threatening to break Akira’s record and keeps reaching new personal best times. This brings Haruka so far as to face her friend, telling her that she will always wait for her because she thinks that whatever other people can do, Akira can do even better, since she is strong and Haruka looks up to her. Tencho has a similar experience with Chihiro, who visits him at home and they share some old memories, trying to do things they did back then like making drip coffee and writing short stories. They end up talking about each other’s problems and fear because Chihiro’s book will be turned into a movie and he is scared of the time that his two seconds of fame will be over. Tencho on the other hand just wants to at least influence one person with his writing…
The two of them are really close friends, we already know that much. However, I feel more and more like the two of them have more…tension?…between them than Akira ever was able to build up with Tencho. She is supposed to like him, but I feel like even the scene where Tencho and Akira hugged in one of the episodes, she didn’t have that much tension with him compared to with Haruka right now. I am not trying to see more than there is, but it does seem to me like there are more feelings than just friendship between the two of them, at least from Haruka. It might be unintentional by the producers but I like that we as viewers get the freedom to reach our own conclusions.
He was my personal highlight in this episode. Without him I wouldn’t have liked it as much. He is supposed to be the same age as Tencho, but he seems to be so young at heart that I sometimes forget it while watching him. Next thing I know, he throws out all this grown-up wisdom and his fears and my heart just grows even more fond of him. Add to that his random cuteness and boldness and he is pretty much my favorite character in the whole series.
We know now that Tencho wants to write, just write. It doesn’t matter how many people will read it, but he wants to touch someone with his writing. I am not sure if he really is that modest, but it seems like this will be building up to the final episode, since we all know that Akira will read every word he writes, admire it, and love it. So there she has, his reader! If Akira is reading it, I am pretty sure she can make Haruka read it as well…In all honesty, I think Tencho just has too little self-esteem, because there are so many people around him that love him and probably would read his book, if it ever got published or he just made them a copy. The people at the restaurant, Chihiro, Akira and her friends, and maybe even his ex-wife. She watched over him for all those years after all… We’ll have to see where this will go for him in the next episode.
She is so strongly in denial that she already starts hitting things and getting angry at everybody who simply tries to mention her former passion. I mean, she even got angry at Tencho for telling her she should take Sundays off and make room for a hobby. He didn’t even say it should be running, he just said she should do something else besides work. She still got very angry at him, the guy of her heart. As if he didn’t have the right to give her advice – oho! Normally, you would be open with the person you like, and Tencho was also pushing really gently, but she exploded. With Haruka telling her that she will wait forever, I think it is safe to say that Akira will probably end up doing rehab in the next episode. We can’t be sure because this is a Japanese series, but still… It seems like this is what the episode was trying to build up to and I really hope we get a beautifully animated running scene of Akira.
Let’s see, what are the questions I want to get answered at this point? I will start with the not so important ones: Where are Yoshizawa and Yui? Did they end up together? I really want to know! I mean, he was so much in love with Akira that he even started working at her job, and now we don’t even get to see what he’s up to. That one scene with Yui cutting his hair was NOT enough to satisfy me!
Will Akira start running again? Will Tencho be able to publish a book? Or at least keep writing for someone? Maybe for Akira? Is Akira actually in love with Tencho or just used him to run away from her sadness because she couldn’t run and didn’t want to start rehab because she was scared it wouldn’t get back to how it used to be? I think it would be great to know if Haruka really was just a friend. Of course, I also would like to see Akira fall in love with someone her age, but maybe that’s too much to ask for… See you next week!
The summer anime season is over. We had a few refreshing titles that kept us company through the hot months, but fall is bringing so many new titles and a few sequels we’ve been waiting for a long time.
