Protocol: Rain (Japanese: 僕らの雨いろプロトコル, Bokura no Ameiro Protocol, lit. Our Rainy Protocol) is an original anime television series created by Team Kitsune.
Shun Tokinoya is a second-year high school student who lives with his mother and younger sister. After his father was killed in an accident and his sister was injured, he quit the game he loved and now works at an esports café. He spends all of his time studying and working part-time, while also socializing with his childhood gaming buddies. Suddenly, he discovers that the café is deeply in debt. Shun and his friends join Fox One, an esports team affiliated with the café, in hopes to win the Xaxxerion championship and the prize money in order to repay their debts. Shun returns to the world of online games, where he is confronted by "Bakuretsu-kun", who used to play the game with him.
If we're getting our lives ruined, we get our lives ruined together!
- Art Shift: the Xaxxerion footage is animated in mid-2000s grade CGI.
- Big Brother Instinct: Shun has this towards his younger sister Mio ever since the incident that left her paralyzed, wanting to get into a high-paying job after college so that he can take care of her.
- Big Sister Instinct: Nozomi, being one year older than Shun, has this towards him, chastising him for not eating properly during school lunch and initially reluctant of her father's request for Shun to join Fox One due to his trauma after the accident.
- Bland-Name Product: Xaxxerion is based on currently popular sci-fi first-person shooters with a massive esports scene, such as Apex Legends and Valorant, though graphically it resembles either Unreal Tournament 2004 or Unreal Tournament 3.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Mutsuki reveals to Shun that he can see in the future about his opponents moves, though whether he means he can figure out their move ahead of time strategically, or if he has actual Psychic Powers is left ambiguous to both the characters and audience.
- Disappeared Dad: Shun and Mio's father died in an accident.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After the final round, Shun fulfills his promise to Mio that he would become a pro gamer which eventually motivates her to walk again. Not only that, but Yuu's decision to reveal herself in the final round gave her a PR push so large that her agency (which had previously disapproved of her being a pro gamer) had to not only claim that her moonlighting was part of their project but that they would be sponsoring Fox One, essentially earning them a powerful backer. Though she had to lose several followers in the process.
- Family Man: Shun takes on this role for his mother and sister, being the breadwinner for the family.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Yuu's manager Yoshiko fills this spot, regularly chastising Yuu's role in Fox One and how it could affect her Teen Idol career. She reluctantly relents when the rest of the team calls her out on that attitude, and manages to get Fox One as a whole sponsored when they win the tournament.
- Female Gaze: Shun gets a shower scene, which gives the audience a shot of his naked behind.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Shun won't allow Akito to marry Mio, even if he won an esports tournament and became filthy rich.
- Obfuscating Disability: This is brought up by Shun when Mutsuki brings up how he's actually holding Mio's recovery back, thinking she's only faking it for his attention. It turns out to be a downplayed version of this: Mio had fully recovered from the accident that disabled her, but she mentally still believes she can't walk.
- Promotion to Parent: Shun fulfills the "bringing home the paycheque" part of this trope ever since his father died in an accident.
- The Reveal: Right at the end of episode 1, "Bakuretsu-kun", Shun's old Xaxxerion rival/friend, is revealed to be his childhood friend Yuu. Yuu later does this in Episode 12 to the general public, which almost costs her her professional career in the process.
- The Rival: "Bakuretsu-kun" is this to Shun. Once she joins Fox One, Mutsuki Naito becomes his new rival.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Yuu's commitment to Fox One, even under her "Bakuretsu-kun" moniker, puts both her and her idol career at risk and her manager frequently gets angry that she keeps putting gaming ahead of her other responsibilities. Yoshiko, during her rant at a very unattentive Yuu, points out that she could lose her job or worse if anyone would find out and sure enough, the press are quick to stalk her almost instantly. The moment Yuu reveals to the public that she is "Bakuretsu-kun", she comes extremely close to losing it all, and is only saved by Yoshiko having to convince the sponsors backing Yuu that it was a PR stunt.
- Teen Idol: Yuu, Shun's childhood friend, is a popular teen actor who has also appeared in advertisements. Mio is a fan of the drama Yuu stars in. She is also "Bakuretsu-kun", a skilled esports player, which earns the ire of her manager.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- The rest of Fox One are not at all thrilled when Shun reveals that in order to get Mio to go to rehab, he made a deal that if the team loses the final round, he'll leave Mio and never see her or his mother again. Nozomi especially calls him out on making such a brash decision so nonchalantly. By that same token, Mutsuki calls him out on focusing on Mio and claims she's still holding him back, appalled that Shin would focus on her instead of his rivalry and drops it out of spite.
- Yoshiko reaches her Rage Breaking Point when driving Yuu home from Xaxxerion tournament. Yuu brushes off her manager's initial concerns about potential stalking by trying to justify that her and "Bakuretsu-kun" are entirely separate and that she locks the doors to her apartment. Upon hearing this, Yoshiko slams the brakes both metaphorically and literally on Yuu's e-gaming career and forces her to drop out of Fox One out of fear of the both of them losing their jobs. The paparazzi picking up on the story only worsens Yuu's case in her manager's eyes, who only manages to avoid Tabloid Melodrama by talking to the PR firm.
- Worthy Opponent: Mutsuki views Shun as this, even after he beats him in the final episode. He drops this attitude briefly before their final battle after Fox One keeps suffering losses in the leadup.
