OVERALL RATING: 8.1/10

plot: 8/10 -- this anime is about nike, the youngest princess of rain dukedom, who has the power to make it rain. for the sake of her country, she has to travel to the sun kingdom & get married to the king, livius. the big thing about their relationship is that although the king ascended the throne years ago, he is still a child. throughout this anime, we get to see how their relationship developments despite the age gap. nike is about 17 whereas livius is 15, however, i do know that in the manga, livius is actually 12 & the anime reflects this with his appearance so it was a bit weird since i initially thought nike looked to be in her twenties. with every episode comes another obstacle between their developing relationship & it was pretty enjoyable to me. there were some unsettling things, however. for example, when livius believes that nike cheated on him with bard, his uncle, he immediately has bard thrown in prison & plans to have him tortured. there are some moments like these that indicate how livius truly is just a child no matter how mature he can be in other aspects & i did not enjoy watching this episode. other than these moments though, the anime was fine & i enjoyed seeing how nike & livius navigated through their relationship & grow together.

world/setting: 10/10 -- nike comes from a place called rain dukedom while livius lives in the sun kingdom. i honestly really enjoy anime with a royal type of setting such as kingdoms & royalty so it was really nice to see here. nike had to leave her homeland & go to the sun kingdom in order to help her people & seeing her navigate through the sun kingdom & learn more about its history & its people was lovely. something that pushes me to rate the setting a 10 is how the world is clearly not perfect & i love seeing that. even in these royal kingdoms, the crimes & hardships of the kingdoms are clear. it is not all sunshine & rainbows. from the very beginning, we get to see how nike immediately gets robbed as soon as she gets to the sun kingdom & some people are unkind. i believe this imperfect world is the best setting to have.

purpose: 10/10 -- there is a clear goal for both nike & livius & the anime does not ever get sidetracked. every episode is based upon their developing relationship & how these two overcome obstacles to stay together. there are many things that happen that get in the way of their relationship, but they work hard & build trust between one another.

characters: 6/10 -- i have to say that the character development is truly amazing. both nike & livius grew so much in this anime. however, regarding everything else about their characters, i can't say they are great. first of all, from the very beginning, i could not get over the fact that i was seeing a woman who looks over 20 be romantically involved with a boy who looks 12. i understand that some people may be able to ignore this since they are actually 17 & 15, but just seeing how they looked made me wary for most of the anime. additionally, i found their personalities to be very flawed. it isn't that they're imperfect that makes me dislike them. consider this: throughout the anime, nike comes to live with livius & become his partner. however, livius has the power to get her thrown into prison at any time. he has so much power over her while she is in the sun kingdom. in fact, he has threatened this more than once to get his way. nike is a very strong & righteous character which i enjoyed for a female lead. livius has also shown a mature side to himself & his background his very intricate as he had to ascend the throne at a young age & he actually did very well for his kingdom. i know that livius is very cold & cruel due to his upbringing, but seeing him threaten nike by saying he could burn down rain dukedom was awful. that line stuck out to me & i remembered it throughout the whole anime. i was so surprised nike just accepted the threat, as well. i think their development & background as characters are amazing, but the characters themselves & their actions just did not line up well, in my perspective.

storytelling: 10/10 -- something i really like about this anime is that we are not spoonfed information. instead, we are shown the different characters & their personalities as the story progresses. we get to learn more about nike & livius with each new episode, but we are not directly told anything. we are shown, not told.

enjoyment: 7/10 -- if the characters appeared to be a bit closer in age, i would have enjoyed this anime so much more. their appearance in age just kept nagging at me throughout the entire anime despite the plot being pretty good. i also loved the world/setting, i really like anime with a royalty aspect. this anime has many wholesome & funny scenes that were great to watch, but it kind of got washed away for me when some of the worse scenes occured.

animation/visuals: 5/10 -- i did not enjoy the characters being drawn to look almost 10 years apart in age. however, everything else was pretty fine to me. nothing really stood out in terms of animation. the artstyle seems to fit an older type of anime, but i did see that the manga is older than the anime & the anime does well with matching the art of the manga.

pace: 10/10 -- the pacing of this anime was very good. with each new episode, the relationship between nike & livius slowly developed & we got to see them navigate through everything. it was not a smooth development, in fact there were some setbacks, especially by the people who did not want them to be together, but the pacing was perfect. nothing felt too fast or too slow.

soundtrack: 8/10 -- the music throughout the season was great. in particular, i really like the song that nike sings to make it rain. i think the opening is also pretty good. i wouldn't say they are amazing though, just pretty great.

gut feeling: 7/10 -- i think this was a pretty good anime. i just think it wasn't for me due to the age gap. i know some people enjoy seeing age gaps, but it just wasn't for me despite the plot being pretty good.