Rainy Day Anime!

It’s Winter where I live, and that means rain, rain, and more rain! I wake up in the morning and it’s dark and sprinkling. I go run errands or go to work, and it’s still showering. I go to bed at night to the pitter pat sound of drizzle on my roof as I drift off to sleep. My front yard is a soggy pond of mud. Every parking lot I stop in is a mine field of puddles. My toes are perpetually wet! I don’t hate precipitation. I’ve lived in the Northwest of the US all my life, so I’m actually quite accustomed to the damp. And sometimes I actually enjoy the squalls. The problem is when it pours and storms without stopping. Liquid sunshine can be nice, but after a week of umbrella weather without stop, I need a break! I know that all this falling water is needed to help the flowers to bloom in the coming Spring. But honestly, when I spend day after day getting drenched in angel tears, it’s hard to remember that. So if you’re not a fan of the down pour. If you rage against the storm. Or if you would rather just avoid a soggy paw day. Here are some anime that show that one rainy day can make all the difference! (Terms that mean rain, count: 15)

Ponyo

This sweet Ghibli studio film is about a little boy named Sosuke that lives near the sea and the all the trouble that ensues when he befriends a strange little fish princess. One day while beach combing, he finds a strange little fish stuck in some trash. So, being a nice kid, he rescues the fish and decides to take it home in his plastic beach bucket to keep as a pet. He names the fish Ponyo and feeds it some ham, and they become fast friends. Little did Sosuke know, that strange fish was actually an escaped fish princess! As Sosuke feeds Ponyo and shows her kindness, the little fish princess becomes more and more happy to stay with the humans. Not to mention that she becomes quite human looking herself. Everything was going pretty well, that is until the Sea King notices that his little princess has gone missing! The Sea King is quite powerful and none too happy about his daughter disappearing to the human world. And with his demand for his daughter to be returned, he brings a great big storm!

The World is Still Beautiful

Though this anime is filled with silly tropes and historically inaccurate clothing, the basic core of the story is quite endearing. It’s set in a fantasy world and is about a young prince named Livius that was cloistered away from the rest of society for years. His only companion was his mother. Then, seemingly at random, his mother was assassinated. While reeling in grief and outrage, Prince Livius waged his revenge on the entire royal family. And within a few years, not only had he killed and schemed his way into the imperial throne, he had also conquered the whole world. Though Livius now ruled the whole world as the Sun King, he found no joy or beauty in it. And that’s when he meets his trope-tastic and weirdly modern bride. Nike is a princess from the Rain dukedom, where the royal family can control the weather. Princess Nike is particularly skilled at calling rain with her singing. Livius, having spent his entire life in the Sun Kingdom, a hot dry land where water was scarce and it never rained, was curious about rain and demanded that Nike cough up some rain nearly as soon as they met. When Nike explained that she had to find the beauty in a place before she can sing a song to call the rain to that location, it becomes clear that the king doesn’t even know what is beautiful about his land, nor does he seem to care. In the end Nike decides to make it her mission to show Livius what’s beautiful about the world! First by singing a song to call a rain shower that not only puts out a fire at the castle (an assassination attempt on the king) but also makes a rainbow.

After the Rain

After the Rain is a touching series about a high school girl and a middle aged man that are forced to work through past trauma and find the strength to start again from the beginning to achieve their dreams. And it all begins with a rain storm. The main character (Akira Tachibana) was once a high school track star, the thing she loved most in life was running, ever since she was a little kid. Unfortunately, she has recently suffered from a serious injury to her ankle and is no longer able to run without pain. She’s receiving physical therapy to help her recover, but she’s also having to face a very real future in which she might never run again. Walking home from school one day, she gets caught in a huge rain storm and scurries into a franchise style diner (like Denny’s) to get out of the rain. At this point Akira is feeling the lowest she ever has, her future in running is gone, her friends seemed to have abandoned her, and dripping wet from rain. And then a kindly gentleman that works at the diner gives her a free cup of coffee to warm up. She didn’t order any coffee, she hadn’t even looked at the staff of the restaurant. And then the gentleman did a little magic trick making the little tubs of creamer “appear” in his hand. It was very cute, and put a smile on her face. It was just one kind gesture, but that turned her day around. Akira was smitten. When she noticed that there was a sign saying that the diner was hiring, she applied to the job immediately.

This anime is also about the kindly gentleman. His name is Masami Kondo, he’s in his 40’s and loves dad jokes, silly little magic tricks, and always tries his best to be a good restaurant manager. Unfortunately, he’s too nice and his employees kind of see him as spineless because he apologizes too easily. Years ago when Masami was younger, he wanted to be a novelist, and even wrote a few works of literature. He loved writing, writing was his life! But it also got in the way of his life and eventually his love of writing caused his marriage to collapse. So now he’s trying to learn how to live his life with out his writing. But is that really better?