It’s a function of today’s anime landscape that we can get surprisingly polished productions from unexpected sources. There are so many studios out there now, many with very little track record. There’s a spectrum of expectations with known quantities – say, Production I.G. or Bones on one end and J.C. Staff on the other. But Lespirit or Enishiya? It’s anybody’s guess, but that makes it quite rewarding when you get stuff as well-produced as Takopii no Genzai or this series. It’s mostly down to recruitment of talent, surely, but that’s as important a skill as there is for an anime studio. There was certainly nothing in Tsukimisato Tomohiro’s resume to inspire great confidence, but the evidence speaks for itself.
As you can see from the title Ame to Kimi to won this season’s Patron Pick ballot, pipping a victory on late votes. I’m not surprised, as it’s a pretty distinctive and appealing piece of work. As with most quirky and odd series which succeed, it’s fully committed – there are no gestures towards conventionality here. With You and the Rain just surfs the mood generated by its weird premise and hypnotically soothing soundtrack. The minute you start trying to explain stuff is the minute you break the spell, and it seems to get that.
The first chapter here is about as close as this show gets to plot. Fuji-san gets recruited to write a story for a manga artist. Her editor seems to think she’ll be hesitant about this, and indeed she’s cautious. The mangaka is initially AWOL from the Zoom call and when she appears, is obviously even more socially awkward than Fuji. She says she’s a fan, but we don’t know what sort of stuff Fuji writes to be a fan of. Kimi photobombing the meeting is in the great COVID-era tradition of pets doing just that, but as with all he does you get the feeling this was intentional – at attempt to break the tension and overcome Fuji’s reticence, maybe.
Next up is a walk in the park, where the ginkgo are in full bloom. But Kimi is more interested in the chestnuts, which he recruits Fuji-san to help him access. A high school girl wanders by and – someone maddeningly – calls Kimi a raccoon. That’s progress I suppose – he looks closer to that than a dog. And I suppose the fact that he’s washing his apple slice might make one think that, as raccoons (an invasive species in Japan) do that as they lack saliva. Back at home Fuji sets about working on a draft while the chestnuts soak, but Dad arrives with a box of apples. He’s a chef, as it turns out – Italian food in fact.
It’s fall, so Kimi is shedding like crazy. And dervishing his shedding coat into balls to play with, even the stuff Fuji brushes off him. Soon he demands another trip to the park, and the pair meet a different high school girl. This one gets it right, calling Kimi a tanuki. She’s friends with raccoon girl, who shows up and corrects her. Tanuki girl has a nekomimi haircut because she wants to be a cat (again, don’t start explaining). Fuji notes that Kimi is in fact a “mixed-breed dog” (he’s not). Raccoon girl is gravely offended at having been lied to. Then the pair head home and Fuji-san makes dumplings for a tsukimi party on the veranda. Just because it’s a mood.
Finally, perhaps the oddest sequence of the series so far, and that’s saying something. Back in the park after the credits, a young child appears and starts dancing with a pair of maracas in her (I think) hands. Her (I think) Mom shows up and shushes her (I think) – and, as it happens, confiscates the maracas. Kimi tries to soothe her (I think) mood with homemade pinecone ones, but the child won’t be mollified. Is this what passes for a cliffhanger ending in Ame to Kimi to?
The post Patron Pick Summer 2025: Ame to Kimi to – 05 appeared first on Lost in Anime.
