After the Rain

Episodes 1-2

Love is like after the rain – the air thickens with a palpable pressure that bridges the space between you and others. It's soft, wet, fleeting, and most often associated with early springtime. At least, that's what I think After the Rain is going for with its title, whose full translation from Japanese would be "Love is Like After the Rain". As this season's premier drama, After the Rain looks to be an intimate portrayal of adolescent infatuation – but only one half of its would-be couple actually fits this description. With the controversial subject matter of a May-December romance, this could be turn out to be either a standout show of the season, or one of those shows that we all try to forget ever happened a couple months from now. Disappointment is always a possibility with this kind of premise, but rarely is the line between success and failure at treading a fine line drawn so clearly as it is in these first two episodes.

So yeah, let's start by addressing the two-ton elephant in the room. This is a show about the feelings of attraction that arise between a 17-year-old girl and a 45-year-old man. I'm not certain whether I'd characterize their relationship as a romance at this point – that word comes with an expectation of closure that I'm not sure the show is going for – but the story does concern itself with feelings of attraction and desire. Of course, it should go without saying that this relationship would be unacceptable in real life. The difference in power and experience between teenagers and grown adults is so great that romantic entanglements between them tend to be hotbeds of abuse. Age of consent laws exist for a reason, and it's not hard to find horror stories from people who've lived through this distressingly common form of predation. I bring this up because After the Rain is broaching some sensitive emotional territory, and I want to be clear about where I stand on one of its possible outcomes. If you're turned off by anything that even hints at the possibility of this sort of abuse, you're totally justified in steering clear of this show.

At the same time, I don't consider what I've seen from the show to be worthy of any blanket condemnation. While I do consider relationships of this stripe to be fundamentally unethical, the advent of attraction across vast age gaps is common, normal, and deserving of honest examination in art. It's pretty standard for teenagers to crush on adults, and so long as nobody takes advantage of them in this phase of life, these crushes can be benign or even a formative experience for adolescents coming to terms with their romantic desires. This is the main reason why I'm alright with the emotional status quo as presented by these first two episodes. At this point, the central “relationship” is just a vehicle for exploring the complex emotional lives of the two characters involved. I want the show to continue in this direction, regardless of whether it approaches a point of reciprocation or not. (I'm not even saying that the latter would be impossible to pull off, but it's such a thin narrative tightrope that I wouldn't recommend that the show try it, strong start or no. This story is already playing on hard mode – there's no reason to bump up the difficulty even further in pursuit of a questionably achievable payoff.)

In truth, I'm mostly opposed to these stories when they're told from the older (usually male) POV. Such cases tend to be unrealistic fantasies starring caricatures of young people who likely have no reason to be into the skeevy older protagonist. Justifying this attraction from the younger partner's perspective is much more work than an indulgent fantasy would be interested in putting in, so it's a good sign that that After the Rain invests so heavily in Akira's side of things. The show is smart in its understanding of romantic attraction originating as much from a person's sense of themselves as from their impression of the other person, and this insight serves as the story's major strength. It seems as though Akira likes Kondo because she wants a reassuring, caretaking presence at a difficult point in her life. When we do see Kondo fantasize about being with Akira, he imagines himself as much younger, suggesting that his side of things is rooted in a sense of nostalgia for his bygone youth. (More importantly, he hasn't acted inappropriately on these feelings, which would be inexcusable as both the adult in this equation and her boss at work.) In the end, while not all great character pieces are romances, great romances are all rooted in character. Whatever route it ends up taking, After the Rain will have to keep these priorities in check to live up to this initial promise.

Now with that preliminary explanation out of the way, I'll get to the show's actual content. First off, the series' visuals look great, easily marking it as one of the season's most impressive productions. The direction in particular stands out – not only are individual frames and shots attractive, these episodes successfully envelop the audience in an atmosphere of subtle sensuality that defines good relationship stories. Fluctuations in chemistry and tension are particularly important, and the variations between scenes speak volumes to how the central relationship is going without any dialogue being exchanged. For example, Kondo has probably known that Akira has the hots for him ever since the shirt-sniffing incident, but he's been in denial or playing dumb due to how awkward that would be to deal with. He's a good guy, but he seems to have confidence issues. (He's easily pressured into things by customers and employees alike, so my bet is that he plays up the Most Approachable Dad shtick in an attempt to reclaim this vulnerability.) He likely finds it inconceivable that a young woman would find him attractive despite evidence to the contrary. Rather than addressing the truth, he's just hoping that the whole thing will go away on its own.

At the same time, he's a little too interested in Akira's well-being for someone who should just be her manager at work. While I don't think that he's pursuing her intentionally, his knowledge of her feelings may be getting sublimated into excessive paternal concern that he doesn't pay to his other employees. This is made evident when we see him transition from Dad Mode into more serious states of contemplation, revealing that while his thoughtful and goofy sides are both genuine, he may be using one to get away from the other depending on the situation. Much of this show's emotional content is conveyed through the ebbs and flows of the duo's rapport, which can make their relationship both a challenge and a pleasure to interpret.

On the flip side of this relationship, it's pretty clear that Akira suffered a devastating emotional blow recently by losing her ability to run track, losing both her main passion and the center of her social life at once. When Kondo became the first (perhaps only?) person to comfort her over this, she became fixated on him. We haven't seen Akira's parents yet, so they may not be around much, leading her to look for a surrogate parent in a romantic partner as many people her age tend to do. The big concern is that she's spending her youth pining after an older guy, and that she'll come to regret this later. Hopefully this will be reflected in whatever we learn about Kondo, as his backwards-looking perspective is sure to intersect with Akira's current disregard for embracing the experiences of her age.

To sum up, if After the Rain turns into an uncritical romance between Akira and Kondo, that would be bad. However, the show is not doing that at this point whatsoever, so I'm alright with its angle. In order to talk about its actual content week-to-week, I'll be putting the “is this problematic?” discussion aside unless the story changes significantly over time. As it stands, After the Rain is a promising drama with some interesting insights into what we bring to our own feelings of attraction. Aesthetically, it's simply gorgeous, with moments of loaded sensory atmosphere that I'd compare to the love films of Wong Kar-wai. I'm looking forward to more – although, much like the actual experience of blossoming attraction, each new glimpse brings with it the possibility of disappointment. In the end, you can only hope for the best and try to enjoy this experience in the moment. No matter how things end up, you've learned something; it's hard to truly waste time in your youth.

Grade: A

After the Rain is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.