- With 2018 being done and over with, there were a few anime in my back catalog from the previous year that I haven’t gotten around to finishing yet. Whether it is because they fell through the cracks of my schedule, I lost interest in them over time, or because I just didn’t think the subject matter of the show would appeal to me altogether, and one of these shows that I have finally gotten around to completing is After the Rain. - This show starts out with the basic surface level premise being that, this 17-year-old high school student falls in love at her part-time job with her 45-year-old manager who has been divorced and has a child. Now at the beginning like most people who see this social taboo being executed, I too felt uncomfortable with this premise of a teenage girl falling in love with a grown man, but as the show goes on you realize this isn’t really what the show is about, and thankfully this original premise eventually falls to the sidelines of the plot, to make way for what the show is really about, which is personal growth and coming to terms with the promises you’ve made. The show basically implies that the romance that started between the 2 characters was just a materialization of the frustration each of them felt after losing sight of what they really wanted to do in life. And by leaning on each other to find this lost motivation, they individually found in each other the motivation to keep pushing forward towards their goal. - Overall, I really liked how the show handled this premise, from how they didn’t make their connection explicitly romantic, to how they made the manager a semi-responsible adult who understood the gravity of the situation when one of his teenage employees tells him they are in love with him. The way he handled the situation by showing her that there is more to life than her small young view of the world, was really interesting to see, and by her showing him the drive and dedication that comes with being young he realizes that it is too soon to give up on his lifelong goal. Because of this, I am really glad that I finally got around to watching this show, because while on the surface I thought I wouldn’t like this series, after finally giving it a chance, I’ve learned that this show had much more to say than just the surface premise you see in the first few episodes.

In the end, I would rate After the Rain an 85/100 because I really liked the ending message of the show, and how this series actually tells a complete story within the 12 episode runtime, unlike (unfortunately) the majority of anime that come out nowadays, this show ends with a satisfying conclusion, and I can get behind that😊😊😊