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auraticflow · 7 years ago

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An In-depth, Objective Review of Koi wa Ameagari no You ni (as of episode 2, and chapter 48 of the translated manga)

This is in response to the review posted by Vrai Kaiser on the site www.animefeminist.com, which claims to view “Japanese pop culture through a feminist lens”. The specific link to the review is here.

This is going to be a very in-depth review of Koi wa Ameagari no You ni thus far, and has been included under the cut.

The review is clouded with constant air of arrogance - in the comments below, Kaiser has started off a reply to other commenters with “Nah, I call b******t”, indicating that she is unwilling to listen to both sides of the discussion. She has furthermore criticised the anime through a personal lens, when she states, “Then, about halfway through the episode, I realized they’d made it personal. Because this anime cast Hiroaki Hirata to play Kondo”, which discredits her review as she by planting her own personal bias into it. It also finishes with an underwhelmingly small nod to the animation quality, simply stating that, “Oh, and the animation looks nice”, and they do not continue further.

Let's start with the anime’s core premise: Akira Tachibana, age 17, has discontinued participating in the track and field club at her high school following a leg injury. She has instead started to work at a family restaurant and has steadily fallen in love with the manager, Masami Kondou (some people have spelled it as Kondo), age 45, who however does not return such intense feelings.

I will address this premise later, because this anime is defined by more than its cover. I implore you to continue reading normally.

First of all, the animation quality. Wit Studio has done an incredible job with the anime, cleverly incorporating 3D animation with 2D art style to create environments and backgrounds that look and feel very natural and realistic, though there are occasions where it may clash, but these occasions are few. On top of this, they are just as detailed as the foreground of the anime itself. For example, the streets are populated with people who act natural, cars that both look and move realistically, much like real-world traffic does, and in the restaurant, we are given mouth-watering animation of the food that is being served to its customers. Although the anime is centered on the main characters and their lives, we also get glimpses of the lives of the people around them, most clearly shown through the families and friends who eat in the restaurant, or people taking their daily commute, as shown in the start of episode 2. This anime is fantastic in showing off its world, immersing us into the story and its characters.

The anime generally sticks closely to its manga source material. Many of the poses and scenes in the manga are reflected exactly in the anime, with many additions in the anime to cater to anime fans, which serve to help set it apart from the manga. Because of this, one can read the manga and still watch the anime even if it is just to see it voice-acted and animated. This does however become slightly troublesome when character movements feel a little restrictive, because it so strictly references the manga. One scene where this is noticeable is when Tachibana is laughing at Kondou’s confusion of her painted nails in episode 2 - she barely moves her body while laughing, giving her a slightly odd pose while doing so. Scenes like this however can easily be ignored by casual viewers and are more nitpickery than anything else.

Next are its characters. As the designs are faithful to the manga, a pleasant feature across the anime’s cast of characters is that they are all unique. This can easily be seen in their faces - none of the characters suffer from Same Face Syndrome, where the characters have the same faces just with different hair and eyes - a problem that can be found in other animes, likely due to mix of the wide range of ages amongst the characters, and their designs being reflective of their personalities.

Take Kubo Kayo for instance, the comically full-lipped waitress who seems to be in more command than her own manager. She is short and senior, but with full lips which show her loud personality and her eagerness to snap quickly at her manager. As she is only a side character, it is somewhat unfortunate that most viewers will only associate her with her comically shaped lips, however this does grant her uniqueness. Because of her behaviour, we can also presume she’s a full-time staff member who has been working at the restaurant for quite some time.

In contrast to her are the other two waitresses – Tachibana and Yui Nishida – who are of similar ages, both clearly displaying a very young appearance. Yui’s face is bright and cheerful, yet Tachibana’s is generally aloof or expressionless. As a whole, the anime does a fantastic job gathering all of these unique characters inside the family restaurant setting and treating them as real people. None of the characters are ever copied and pasted, each have their own individual personalities, much like the real world when one gathers people from different backgrounds and age ranges together.

Now the pacing. Unlike the manga, the anime can feel a little slow and drawn out at times. Moments in the manga, especially when one is reading quickly through them, can feel intense and fast, inspiring a sense of urgency in the reader. The anime however takes time to slow down and let the viewer take in the scene, a stark contrast to the standard fast-paced action anime. This may be seen in the scene following Tachibana’s confession where, amongst many other moments when Tachibana regards the manager, there is a slow zoom-in to her eyes. This is fine at first but it can feel little drawn out and annoying when we want to see what is happening. At the same time however this can create some anticipation for the moments that are coming, and serves to highlight Tachibana’s more observant and passive personality. She does not leap into action - the action typically comes to her. These slow moments also occur when the anime displays shots of the environment, especially during Kondou and Tachibana’s first meeting. Although these shots are beautiful, sometimes they feel as though they are displayed for a second too long. With that said, these drawn out moments can still be easily ignored as the anime continues, as they are only brief moments in the span of an entire episode.

Finally, the story and its premise.

Once again, I implore you to, before reading this section of the review, if you have skipped the earlier paragraphs, to please read them.

Starting with the story. It has a head-turning premise, one that is easily problematic - which can be very effective in drawing attention to the anime. From a genre standpoint, this is a Slice of Life anime, and most anime of this type tend to be high school romances with the typical tropes (eg. beach episodes, hot springs, sporting carnivals, and other high school-type episodes). They can be slow and the plot may not be entertaining enough to carry the anime the whole way through. They all tend to be “very safe”, pairing characters with similar ages and interests, with the occasional “fall-over-and-plant-face-into-female’s-breasts” and other such scenes to add some comic relief and romantic tension.

The thought of this anime without highlighting the main relationship can appear disinteresting, and can lead to assumptions, such as “Tachibana will simply fall in love with one of her coworkers”. That is what would be expected, however the anime takes steps to reiterate that the male lead is a much older man. These kinds of stories, and especially in reality, are what one would find in media stories and especially in magazines or tabloids (such as young men with “cougars”). This is because they naturally draw attention - humans are curious about things such as “forbidden or taboo relationships” or problematic premises; it breaks away from anything “safe” in today’s world. There is a constant need for political correctness in the 21st century, and things need to be “the way they should be”. This anime pushes that boundary and it draws attention in. And if this anime did not have such a premise, it could be described in phrases like “once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”.

Serious props should be granted to Jun Mayuzuki, the very reclusive and unknown (at least, in the Western world) author of this manga and anime. They push the envelope well, but not too much so. Making Tachibana be 17 is on the boundary of “young” and “just old enough” to cause heads to turn and discussion to arise. It is noteworthy to see how among watchers that it would “acceptable” if Tachibana was 18 or 22, how even just one or a few digits off can cause such discomfort. Would the anime still be as prominent, or have such a problematic premise if Tachibana was instead a little older? Why is an anime deemed “unwatchable” if the digits are off?

Mayuzuki is also very deliberate in their writing, which is much more prominent in the manga due to the manga being further along in the story than the anime. Not one detail is off, and they all serve a purpose. This can be seen if one pays attention to when Kondou blushes – blushing in manga and anime can be fairly overused if done every time something embarrassing or nice occurs. His reaction to Tachibana’s pursuits is carefully crafted and interesting to observe. And for those who have or are planning to read the manga further as of the second episode’s release - Mayuzuki’s writing of Kondou’s “midlife crisis” is absolutely fantastic, either she has done some extensive research and story planning, or they are writing from their own or somebody else’s knowledge, which either way makes it feels very realistic and accurate.

To go back to the premise, the most important thing to consider here is this: the anime takes place in Japan. The story seems to tackle the issue of “compensated dating”; that is, when older men pay younger females, even schoolgirls, for their company, and occasionally even sexual favours. This topic of conversation is one that comes up during the manga, and will likely be seen in a future episode of the anime.

In regards to criticisms of “manipulation”, there is no such manipulative behaviour going on in the anime. While it may be argued that there is a power balance as he is her manager, his own awkwardness and clumsiness however, along with constant nagging from Kayo, belies this point, instead showing that he in reality has rather little power. He is unassertive and passive.

Tachibana is pursuing her manager, however he is not being a pervert or creepily seducing her - in fact, he is rather clueless about her true feelings. As will likely become evident later based on the manga, he constantly tries to resist their relationship, and tells Tachibana the easily spottable problems of such a relationship, “what would people think?” and “it just wouldn’t work”. He puts her down in a gentle yet firm way, and considers her feelings too. He does not refuse it like a stern manager would - he clearly cares about all of his workers, including Tachibana. Because of this, it is absurd to believe he is “preying” on Tachibana as some may suggest, or that this was written to validate older men preying on younger females. Nothing like this occurs in the anime or the manga, and it is clear that there is no tolerance for such creepy behaviour amongst the story’s characters.

As stated earlier, this anime seems to tackle the issue of compensated dating in Japan, meaning that this wasn’t necessarily written for a Western audience. We in the Western world have very black and white taboo views of such a relationship, and are very quick to call it “paedophilia” and “underage dating”, and this is accentuated by our need to be “politically correct” in fear of backlash. This is especially troublesome when scenes or story points are taken out of their context - we can easily become blinded by distaste for something and instantly boycott or condemn it. Recall the Pewdiepie Fiver incident that occurred earlier in 2017 - it reiterated a lesson that needed to be told on the internet and the media - “context matters”.

The watchers of Koi wa Ameagari no You ni are easily split into two main categories - those who were open-minded enough to continue watching, and those who took one glance at the age-gap relationship plot summary or the first episode and immediately deemed the anime unwatchable, with some barely commenting on the high animation quality.

With that out of the way, the big question is now is if Kondou and Tachibana will end up together. People have pointed to the opening theme and their very interactive parts of it as a “sealed deal” as to the ending of this anime, but others have also pointed to the title of the anime, “After the Rain”, as that Tachibana will eventually move on with her life. A thing to note that the original translation of the Japanese name of the manga translates to “Love is like After the Rain”, which is a generally accepted title, however all names seem to be synonymous with the anime. With the way Mayuzuki writes, it is still hard to predict, even if one is up to date with the manga. Kondou still speaks with his ex-wife, although the relationship is strained. He does also further acknowledge Tachibana’s feelings for him and he constantly thinks about his situation.

If Kondou and Tachibana only remain close friends, it could be seen as an easy “cop out” by the audience in fear of backlash. It can cause disappointment amongst fans who would be unsatisfied with the ending. But if Kondou and Tachibana become partners, there may be backlash still due to the age gap in the relationship. It will be interesting to see how the inevitable conflict between Kondou’s ex-wife and Tachibana would be addressed going forward. The ending is ultimately hard to predict as Mayuzuki bounces between both concepts in their writing, which prevents the reader from making assumptions and keeping them on their toes.

So, should one give this anime a watch? Absolutely. People seem to have had their opinions on the relationship changed for the better upon seeing its context. And it is okay if others watch it and decide it is simply not the series for them. The anime overall is very positive and is going to teach positive life lessons, as the manga does. As the saying goes, “one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover” and in the anime season of 2018, this anime is a perfect example of that.

Disclaimer: I do not own these images, they are from the anime animated by Wit Studio and the manga illustrated by Jun Mayuzuki.

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