RogerBW's Blog

2018 modern romance/slice of life, seinen manga adaptation in 12 episodes: AniDB, vt "After the Rain". High school student Tachibana Akira has a crush on Kondou Masami, the middle-aged manager of the restaurant where she does a part-time job.

But fortunately this isn't another Ojisan to Marshmallow, in which cute young women are throwing themselves at a slobbish middle-aged guy because that's simply the proper way of the world. This is something rather more subtle than that. Both of them are aware of the generation gap, and Masami is sensibly reluctant to get involved at all; but it's when they start talking with and getting to know each other, rather than (at Akira's insistence) acting like a new couple, that things get interesting.

The main story, as it turns out, is not about their romance or otherwise (indeed, there was a lot more to be said there and I felt the show rather dropped the ball), but about not giving up on your dreams. Akira was a running star but has abandoned that, and her school friends, after an injury; Masami has his own dreams that he gave up to be a restaurant manager.

This show certainly plays to Japanese stereotypes, but the principals and even the secondary characters come over as real and interesting people. The artwork and animation are gorgeous, even if this is a distinctly rainier Japan than the one that one usually sees.