Manga Match 43 Clear Up After Rain {Ame Nochi Hare}

Oof. Well I've come to be grateful that when I was working it kept me pretty busy because now, with nothing much to do, I've been pretty bored. Not that that's anything to complain about, I love relaxing, but it makes me anxious for the tumultuous times ahead with a heavy school load. I'm not the only one feeling the pressure as my younger sister is also finding the transition from summer relaxation into schoolwork mayhem to be overwhelming. It's a sobering feeling not really being able to help her, nor really understanding how I can help her. I'm grateful that the conventional teaching methods worked for me, but it also keeps me from being able to really sympathize with my sister.

{Spoilers}

Wow I didn't even know how to transition that so I didn't even try *dab*

I've been browsing some different subsets of anime and there's a pretty popular kind on switching bodies/genders. It started off with a manga recommendation to read Shishunki Bitter Change and then it got me into this manga that's already completed. Clear Up After Rain was a refreshing change to my usual formulaic shoujo reads. It was different in the sense that there was this mystery element of these five boys all changing into girls whenever it rained by a stroke of fate or maybe misfortune. But the mangaka really took it up a notch by adding in the element of not just romance, but the evolution of the boys into people that were sympathetic towards the problems girls had and were able to find romance to treasure through their fateful encounters as both boys and girls towards the people surrounding them. It was a bit stressful at times because it seemed to be only a matter of time until someone found out their secret, however by trusting in the secrecy of the bubbly chairman and the serious dorm head, the five of them were able to keep this gender-change phenomena a secret. Towards the halfway point in the story I couldn't help but feel distress as our five main boys weren't getting any closer to solving the mystery behind their gender change and this becoming an increasing problem in their relations with their love interests. However, it was discovered by Yuusuke that the only way to stop the phenomena was to confess your true feelings to the one you love. And this lead to the conclusion of a diverse group of love interests and their counterparts. For Yuusuke it was maturing enough to realize that love was the one thing he didn't want to have to compete with against his golden boy brother. He realized that the girl he loved was far more important than just a win and wanted to mature enough to truly and sincerely love her. Oof that was the feels. And then there was Madoka who for the majority of the story found his fiancee to be more of a sister than a true love interest. However through seeing her mature as well as the sympathy towards women that he gained through his time as a girl he was able to realize his feelings for her. Not only that, but he was also able to confront the reason why he stopped chasing calligraphy as his career and was pushed forward from his stagnant phase. And then the last and most complicated of the requited loves is Hazuki. As a boy he's fallen in love with a girl, Asumi, and as a girl Asumi's older brother, Takuma, has fallen in love with him. Not only that, but the girl who he loves has a classmate who also loves her, although unrequited. When Hazuki is confronted with wanting to confess his feelings for Asumi and having to answer Takuma's confession, he realizes that he can't answer Asumi's feelings while not having answered Takuma's confession. In the end he's able to successfully tell everyone what he means to tell them in earnest and is able to have a happily ever after with Asumi. And then we've got the two karate boys, Goro and Touma. Both of their loves were unrequited, with Goro falling in love with the girl who loved Asumi and Touma falling in love with Hazuki. They were both able to earnestly speak their true feelings to the ones they loved, a smack of reality to the face when the other three boys were able to live happily ever after. But I think in the end it ended up being a satisfactory ending.

It was just the right amount of romance, suspense, drama, and mystery to keep me intrigued and reading more. It was a well thought out piece and I'd really recommend reading it. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into when I started reading it and it was a bit confusing and slow to start off with, however I couldn't help but root for these pure boys and their romance.

I was so happy at this point. It was the turning point after which all of the love stories came to a conclusion and all the boys switched back to normal.

Hngh they're so cute as girls

*secretly sad that ToumaxHazuki never sailed*