Forum - View topicREVIEW: After the Rain Omnibus 1
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I_Drive_DSM
 Posts: 217 |
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I did not quite get the same feeling from this series as described. I feel other than Kondo not outright refusing Tachibana's advances (I'm also approaching Kondo's age so I would have set the boundary) the series doesn't get too deep into any innuendo or further uncomfortable imagery, which it very well could have done. It just seemingly lingers on Tachibana having a crush.
I did not think the artwork was overtly stiff in either the manga or the anime. If anything it's sometimes simplistic nature gave the series a real elegance. |
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bemused Bohemian
Posts: 404 Location: central Mizzou (Moral Oralville) |
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From what I saw of the anime adaptation (haven't read the manga but want to) the tone there never led me to believe Kondo ever intended to romance Tachibana beyond his eventual realization of her crushing on him. He had enough life experience to realize this fantasy of hers was just that. And though the story does a fair job outlining the frailties, faults in his persona we suspect early on that Kondo has the soul of a poet, albeit a bumbling one, and wishes to do no harm rather than be that of a conquering menace ignorant of societal taboos re age, workplace ethic.
After the Rain was my favorite anime the season it was released for viewing on Amazon and I do hope it gets made into a BD for English consumption (it's currently out in Japan). The writer did a credible job keeping my interest piqued rather than insulting it with a direction the story could have pursued to earn it B-grade noir fodder. I found the end result poignant rather than repugnant. |
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melmouth
Posts: 167 |
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Japanese mangaka, in providing fun reading for young and young-ish Japanese, often delight in inserting titillating fake trangressive elements in their stories. The results often remind me of nothing so much as the story titles of "True Confession" magazines published way back in the '50s, which always seemed to promise sin, but never delivered any it in the actual story, due to the essentially total censorship prevailing during that time.
Every once in a while, though, a Japanese story product will deliver actual transgression, or near-transgression. I personally am looking forward to the possibility of such a development in this story, because these two people are desperately closed-off and alone, and each could be saved from further decline into despair by the other. The violation of Japanese social norms that would result from their getting together would add to the rejuvenation provided. I realize that some American manga readers would fall into frenzies of denunciation if that were the way this series turns out, but I would find that fun to watch. The New Puritanism of the young of this age, so relentlessly present on ANN, grows tiresome after a while. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I have a few of those magazines, and some from the '30s - they're pretty wonderful examples of how far you could take a premise and social history. (The "True Crime" magazines got to go a little farther, I find, possible because of a presumed male audience.) One of the best in my collection is one from 1954 with the blaring headline "I Joined a Teenage Sex Club!" To be clear, I don't have a huge problem with the potential romance between Akira and Kondo, but I did want those who would be uncomfortable to be aware of the possibility; that's part of my job as I see it. (I have a much bigger issue with the college guy.) But I agree, they're both closed-off people who need a chance. I want them to have some relationship in the end, though I don't think it necessarily needs to be romantic for them to help each other open up. |
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