Sara Talks Anime

If there’s one thing I dread to see whenever I watch anime, it’s rain. Maybe it’s because a lot of times that I see rain in anime, it’s linked to a devastating event for whatever character is being shown. Pair that with the description of the series calling it “a heartwarming adventure of friendship and shared seasons” (https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GW4HM7WDV/with-you-and-the-rain) and the first episode being this wholesome, I can’t help but fear that at some point, this will go into the realm of more of an emotional drama.

You may say I’m overreacting, but I’ve seen Stardust Telepath. It’s better for me to suspect that a wholesome series veers off into emotional drama than expect it to remain so cute and wholesome all the way through.

While the synopsis gives a pretty good breakdown of how the hook of the series goes, I’ll try and provide my own basic overview of the episode here: Fuji, a female novelist getting drenched by the rain after giving her umbrella to someone who needed it, finds a “dog” in a box in the rain that asks her to take it home. She does so, and the rest of the episode sees the two bonding (including the what I can only assume to be common adventures of taking a pet to the vet and strangers interacting with your pet while you’re not around).

Something I will note is that water (and rain) are things that you see a lot of in this episode. While this is expected due to the series name, I didn’t realize how much I’d see it. I don’t mind it at all, don’t get the wrong idea. However, I suspect that water and/or rain is going to become a recurring thing across the run of this series.

Regarding the little companion that Fuji ends up taking in, while it refers to itself as a dog, it’s pretty clear that it isn’t. Last I checked, dogs don’t have the muscles necessary to be able to write on paper (which this “dog” uses to communicate). But you know what animal does? Raccoons. You know what animal in Japan includes dog in the name but seem to act more like raccoons? Raccoon dogs, known in Japan as tanuki. Thus, I believe that what everyone is seeing as a “dog” is actually a tanuki.

I don’t know if it’s actually supposed to be that obvious or if I’m just completely off. However, with how it acts and how the synopsis of the series on Crunchyroll describes this creature as a “dog-poster” (I think they mean poser), and considering that tanuki in Japanese mythology are known for shape shifting, I think it’s safe to assume that’s what the little fella is. Gonna keep my eyes on the series to see if that REMAINS the case, though. Then again, I’m not completely caught up with Japanese mythology, and my only experience with it is in anime, so I could be getting things completely wrong regarding how the tanuki work.

While the theme songs are more on the chill side, I think that is what works best for this series…or at least, what first impression the series wants to give you. While they’re not songs I’d be rushing to add to my playlist, they still work perfectly well for the series.

Something else I’d like to comment on is how Fuji (at least, in my eyes) looks more androgynous, at least in terms of the head area. Heck, I didn’t even realize her gender before I looked at the My Anime List page for the series to get the romanized Japanese title for the tags and found that their description refers to her as a woman. …then again, I didn’t read the synopsis for the series page on Crunchyroll, so I could’ve found out a lot faster if I did.

But I will be returning to this series week after week. It appears to be a chill series so far, and I need that right now. And hopefully, you find it to be just as chill as I do. :]

ADDITIONAL POSTS ABOUT WITH YOU AND THE RAIN:

• With You and the Rain Episode 2 – “The Evening Sun”