First Impression: With You and the Rain

“Is that…a dog?” On her way home during a downpour, Fuji comes across what seems to be an abandoned animal. However, it doesn’t look like a dog (more like a tanuki…) and it doesn’t sound like a dog (instead of barking, it writes notes to communicate). But Fuji, who obviously doesn’t write a lot about animals in her job as a novelist, believes it to be a dog and takes the creature in. The two build an immediate rapport. With this magical creature, Fuji finds a companion, someone to share warmth with in her previously solitary existence. Besides perhaps solving her loneliness, I wonder what other magic this “dog” will bring into Fuji’s life?

To me, this is an absolute head-scratcher; why adapt this series when there are so many more excellent pet-changes-owner ones out there? When I reviewed volume one of the original manga, I found it to be mid—it was mildly funny, a little heartwarming, and rather boring. All that is also true of this anime adaptation. Look, the tanuki is pretty cute—he acts like a dog, just a really, really smart one. But the “I’m a dog” joke got old pretty quickly, though the series still used it another half-dozen times in just this one episode. The action is very slow, and the animation soporific. That’s largely by intent, and the series admittedly does use rain as effectively as any I’ve seen since another anime with that weather in the title: After the Rain. I’m also intrigued by the possibility that Fuji is more than lonely, that there’s something at her core that this “dog” is here to help correct. But I’m not intrigued enough to return to the show—not unless I need something to help me fall asleep.

With You and the Rain can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

Twwk
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