The last episode of After the Rain aired and even though there was all kinds of build up last week, the final 25 minutes with Akira and Tencho were strangely…sobering. I am not trying to talk bad about anime, because I have been a fan for most of my life and love them by heart, but this is a very classic situation. The last episodes are hardly ever living up to the hype they create at the end. Is it because Japan is just like that? Down to earth and not much over the top? Whatever it is, it did not make me jump in joy with the last episode, but it was still a nice adventure. Let’s talk about episode 12 in this review!
Japanse Title: Tsuyu no atosaki (つゆのあとさき)
It seems like some time has passed since the fight Akira had with Tencho because the breath of Haruka starts to fog in the air and Tencho needs a heater while he is sitting at home and writing. Both of them seem to have simply continued their everyday life. Akira still has some friends at school, even if it’s not Haruka, and while she keeps pretending that she doesn’t miss running, she soon has to decide on her future path and career. It does seem to bother her. When she meets Yuto in the break room at work, he seems to have hurt his face and when she asks how that happened, he tells her he fell while running. She offers to teach him how to get faster and they practice at the back of the restaurant. It’s then that Yuto tells her the words his father taught him: It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, as long as you get up again…
Yes!! We see some interaction between the two of them, see once again how much Yui likes Yoshizawa and in the end we even see that he has taken a liking to her as well and probably forgot all about Akira. It is cute, it isn’t rushed and even though I would have loved to see the two of them going out and hugging each other, I think it’s good that they are taking things slow. Yoshizawa shouldn’t be throwing around his heart that easily and it will make his relationship with Yui much more meaningful if his feelings for her grow slowly. The two of them are so cute and I think the voice actress has such a cute way of speaking Yui. Even I fell in love with her after getting to know her better. This kind of normal relationship was needed in the story and I would even go as far as wish for a spin-off with these characters.
Tencho’s son is back! He grew a bit, didn’t he? He seemed so much more mature already. When Akira taught him to run he was so cute and at first I thought it would be his determination that will make Akira start running again, but then they made this cute little trick where he teaches her the words his father taught him. Not his mother, no, it was Tencho who told him it is fine to fail, as long as you get up again and finish what you were doing. I think it was just another drop in the barrel that contains her feelings, which will flow over soon so she can start running again. I think the interaction between the two is also very cute, because she is very patient with the boy and seems so proud when he gets it right. Since there was the moment where they talked about future career paths I thought maybe Akira would make a good trainer. She does seem serious enough and knows a lot about running…
Do you remember episode 4, where Akira dreamt up a kiss between her and Tencho after they went on a date? I think this might be his answer to her dream. The artwork is so beautiful, it made this scene so impressive and beautiful. How she ran to him over clouds that created waves like water and literally smashed into him,… I am pretty sure it was his imagination and it shows that he does care for her. Probably not as a man, because it was a simple hug, but he loves her as a human and wants her to be happy. Can it be any more romantic? Akira probably would die from happiness if she knew about this scene…
In any case, this was the highlight of the whole episode and it was drawn so pretty, I can forgive them for other things I wasn’t too happy with.
I have never been in a Japanese high school and we don’t have anything similar where I am from, but here it is normal that you have to fill out a form and tell the teachers what you want to do with your life. You have to understand the Japanese school system a bit for that. There are just some schools that are better than others. You have to take a test to get into most of them and some schools are famous for having hard entrance exams, so if you manage to get in you are basically a genius. Other schools have less strict rules and tests and thus if you come from there, it might not make a good impression in the future, when you are looking for a job. Since we are already talking about jobs, the same goes for universities. There are prestigious ones, better known ones and the ones go just ‘get into’ if you failed all other entrance exams and don’t want to wait a year to re-take the exam (or if your parents don’t allow you to wait another year…). If you go to a good university you will probably find a better job. Some companies even go so far as only hiring students from a certain university, because they tend to be smarter or because they have had good experiences with those students. It’s not set in stone but happens. If you want to work in a certain field, certain universities will make it easier for you get a job in it. So deciding on your career path early is essential in Japan, and teachers are there to try and help the students. Early on there are meetings with students and their parents to see if their dream is realistic or not and what they would have to change or improve if they want to attend a certain university etc.
It is stressful and way too early, because how can you know what you want to be when you are older at the young age of 15? Add to that the pressure form society and probably also the pressure parents give their children to study well and we have something that any person would hate. Stress.
I will be back with a full series review soon, but lets look a bit back to what this episode resolved and what it lacked. I am happy that my wish of more Yoshizawa and Yui was granted. I am a bit disappointed that Kase just randomly…stopped? He didn’t give a damn about Akira or her feelings for Tencho in the end, even though he was trying so hard in the beginning to go on a date with her and blackmail her.
Last but not least, the resolve with Akira everything else but satisfying. It was a cute ending, but what did she decide? Is she going to run? Is she still in love with Tencho? Did they decide to wait until she is old enough to have a real relationship with Tencho or will they just be friends? At least show us if she actually decided to do rehabilitation! We saw her staring at the phamplet and thinking back to the time she and Haruka promised to feel the wind at school. Was that code for ‘I will do rehabilitation and then we can run again’? If yes, that wasn’t enough for me. At least the drawings were really cute…
All in all it was a cute show and I enjoyed watching it. The artwork is so pretty and sparkly that it made up for some of the missing story and let me still look back at the whole of the series with a warm feeling, and that’s what counts.
Thank you for reading my reviews for After the Rain and I hope you will be back with me when I start my reviews for Otaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii next season! Also check out the other series we will review next season.
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.
