After the Rain

Episode 4

So Kondo wasn't serious about that date thing during their rainy day talk, but he still gets bullied into it when Akira brings it back up later. That's our pushover daddy. Unfortunately for their forbidden embroilment, the restaurant's cook Kase-san finds out about the situation and uses it to blackmail Akira into dating him. What follows is our heroine starting to get what she wants and, at the same time, having to deal with unintended consequences of her wish for the first time.

This episode did relatively little to progress the central Akira/Kondo relationship, instead establishing Kase and his role in the entire affair. So far, he represents an actively shitty guy compared to Kondo, as well as the external pressure of how society might react to a relationship between the show's central pair. Given the parallelism between Akira's two dates, it's clear that we're supposed to compare Kase's behavior to Kondo's and end up sympathetic to the older man. For one thing, the overtly sexual way in which Kase looks at Akira makes it clear how much Kondo does not do that. Beyond that, Kase's just a pushy asshole who's forcing Akira into a relationship that she clearly does not want. The dude's a sleazebag in general, but the jaded expression on his face and the savvy with which he grasps Akira's situation makes me think that there's more going on underneath his pursuit as well.

This brings us to the big date. Of course, it mostly consists of our two lovebirds thinking about themselves the entire time – Kondo dwells on how out of place he feels in these youthful circumstances, and Akira moons over how much she longs to feel closer to Kondo. It's sad that for as much as she disliked her date with Kase, she tries to replicate everything that they did on her day out with the man she really admires. This emphasizes how Akira is riding high on feelings of infatuation, rather than considering what she knows about Kondo and what would make him comfortable. She latched onto Kondo because he was there for her at a painful moment in her life, and she's mistaken that attachment for star-crossed love. Since she doesn't really know what to do with this form of love, she just tries to go through with the motions of romance as they've been laid out by the culture that surrounds her.

So that's my take: I don't think that Akira's really in love with Kondo, at least not yet. She's attracted to him, but more than anything she likes the idea of love as a distraction from her personal problems. This is really evident in her lack of consideration for Kondo's feelings. An emotionally aware person would be able to read his behavior to realize that he's trying (and failing) to turn her down nicely, and then stop pursuing him because, as Kase makes clear, it's wrong to try to date a person who's not interested in you. Akira treats her feelings for Kondo like a drive to be satiated, something that can be pushed to completion by sheer obstinacy, as though Kondo were a stubborn obstacle on the track ahead of her rather than a person. In this way, her treatment of Kondo is similar to how Kase treats her – although to be fair, Kase is much more reprehensible in his behavior, not only for being even more aggressive but for clearly knowing better. Akira is just a child acting childishly. It's also notable that Kondo is most sincerely attracted to Akira whenever her burgeoning character strengths manage to shine through her general immaturity.

At the same time, I don't think this misdirected infatuation between them means that they totally lack chemistry. In terms of personalities and virtues, they are in fact very compatible. As it stands, however, the possibility of a potential relationship actually working between them (after some years have passed) would depend almost entirely on Akira's growth. Right now, I'm predicting that this infatuation will work out as more of a learning experience for her, when either the relationship's continuance or conclusion will teach her the real textures, values, and responsibilities of love.

Overall, this was another excellent episode from After the Rain. Four episodes in, its quality no longer feels like a fluke, and I look forward to the rest of this rich and beautiful ride. As an aside, shout out to the comments for identifying Kondo's quotations as coming from Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon short story. That comes back this week from both Akira and Kondo's POV. (Akira ignores a lecture on it while daydreaming about Kondo in class, and Kondo starts quoting it again when he's taken aback by Akira at the bridge.) This story reflects one of the show's major preoccupations: the difficulty of reconciling two different perspectives, especially in matters as delicate as those of the heart.

Grade: A

After the Rain is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.