A pretty good representation of their relationship.
Akira Tachibana is a 17-year-old high-school student and former track star who ruptured a tendon and has been using her free time to waitress at a casual family restaurant, a job which would be utterly boring if not for the staff's manager, Masami Kondo, a 45-year-old divorcee whom Akira has completely fallen for.
The story follows Akira's attempts to confront Kondo with her feelings and the way their relationship develops after he realizes she looks at him as more than a co-worker.
It also explores the main duo's relationships with several side characters, such as Haruka Kiyan, a member of the school's track team who feels hurt by Akira's cold, avoidant behavior; and Chihiro Kujou, Kondo's old college buddy and writing partner who has become a successful author in the years since they grew apart.
After the Rain (恋は雨上がりのように, Koi wa Ameagari no You ni, "Love is Like After the Rain") is a seinen romance manga by Jun Mayuzuki. It began in 2014 and ended in 2018 at a total of ten volumes. Kodansha released the series in English as a five volume omnibus set.
A twelve episode anime aired during the Winter 2018 season. Production was handled by Studio Wit.
This series provides the following tropes:
- Age-Gap Romance: Akira expressed a romantic attraction toward Kondo, who is over twice her age.
- Amicable Exes: Kondo mentioned that he and his former wife chat about their son Yuuto over the phone.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: While despairing over her injury, Akira tucked into a restaurant named Garden to avoid the rain. Kondo gave her some coffee and showed her one of his party tricks, starting her fascination with him.
- Bittersweet Ending: The manga ends with Kondo finally rejecting Akira outright when she visits his apartment on New Year's day, after which Akira stops working at Garden. Both have obviously grown stronger from the experience, with Akira entering rehabilitation and Kondo working on a new novel, but they never meet again.
- Body Motifs: Being a track runner, Akira's feet and toes are used symbolically through the series to convey her feelings. She has an ankle injury with its consequent physical and spiritual scar, dances barefoot in the opening while proclaiming innocently her love, later gets a pink pedicure and high-heeled sandals when trying to look pretty to Kondo, and also does a little happy dance in flip-flops to celebrate summer break.
- Bookworm: Kondo is an avid reader.
- Broken Ace:
- Akira lost her only passion in life— she was a successful track runner— after hurting her ankle.
- Kondo was a motivated writer who gradually sacrificed his dreams for family, only to see that crumble.
- Bubbly Waitress: Nishida is a cute blonde waitress who has a cheerful, bubbly personality. She wants to be a hair dresser, but is currently working at the restaurant to earn money. She actually cuts the hair of the newest member of the kitchen staff, a high school boy whom she develops a crush on. (It's also reciprocated).
- Burger Fool: Garden doesn't sell fast food, but it's very casual and not a prestigious place to work.
- Compensated Dating: Discussed; Kondo puts off Akira's advances by saying that people will assume that he's paying for her company if they date. She doesn't care.
- Could Have Been A Contender: Kondo worked on novels for years, and whether or not he was right to move on is an ongoing question in his life. Akira is developing a similar attitude towards running.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode of the anime contains the word "rain", with full episode titles being rain-related terms.
- I'm Standing Right Here: While talking about what Yui’s type is, Akira turns the subject on Kondo, who overhears it just as he’s about to walk into the kitchen. Yui vehemently objects and says he smells just as he walks right in to play it cool.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Kondo insists that he sees his relationship with the much younger Akira as a non-romantic friendship. She isn't thrilled about the "non-romantic" part.
- Jaded Washout: Averted/defied by Kondo. His life didn't go how he wanted, but he tries to be mature about it.
- Leg Focus: Akira's legs get a lot of attention, both as Fanservice and as a means to show how important her legs are to her as a runner.
- Live-Action Adaptation: A feature-length movie got released in 2018, with a very compressed version of the main story.
- Love Confession: The first act is about Akira building up to confessing her attraction toward Kondo.
- The Quiet One: Akira isn’t particularly chatty.
- Real-Place Background: Both the manga and the anime extensively use locations in and around Yokohama and Kawasaki, including train stations, parks, Akira's high school and the restaurant itself.
- Romantic Rain: Akira and Kondo meet for the first time during a rainy day, and from then on their romantic angles involve rainy weather.
- Oblivious to Love: Kondo suspects something is off with Akira, but doesn't realize that she's attracted to him until it's spelled out for him.
- Scars Are Forever: Akira has a scar on the back of her foot where surgery was done to repair her torn Achilles tendon. She's very conscientious about it. We first see it in episode one, and it is still visible in the final episode.
- Stalker with a Crush: Akira got her job at Garden to get closer to Kondo, who she is infatuated with.
- The Stoic: Akira’s Longing Look towards Kongo isn’t any different from her usual unemotional expression. The viewer can tell what she’s feeling based on her actions, but she doesn’t emote otherwise.
- Title Drop: The novel Masami's trying to write on is called After the Rain.
- Visit by Divorced Dad: Inverted, Kondo's son generally comes to him.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Akira. The show does focus a lot on her eyes on key scenes.
- World-Weary Waitress: Kubo is a diminutive waitress with huge lips and a penchant for snarking at their manager, Kondo, such as pointing out on one occasion when he forgot to zip his fly, or lambasting him for always apologizing to customers.
