#volume 9

i am now on book nine.

Well, would you look at that. Our final omnibus volumes. I like how bright and happy Tachibana looks for this cover. What's there to say about Volume 9? You know, a lot of slice-of-life series kinda have this penultimate volume slump in my experience. You gotta have that one that just gets everybody where they need to be for the finale.

So here? A lot of it is still focused on the Nishida/Yoshizawa B-Pair and they really make our bookend. But like, the series never really invested in them too heavily to begin with and they were never as interesting as the main plot so it's fine and all but kinda part of what I'm talking about. Yui seems to be taking it alright, but eventually her school finds out she's working at the restaurant so she bows out end of the year. Our final moment is pretty fun though, Yoshizawa gives her shit about it at the staff party and Akira starches him. Just full-on punch. Love it.

I did get a kick out of this bit from Chapter 66. I mean, the funniest moment was Kondo's kid giving Tachibana a cup and string phone just to run outside with it and say "poop." Which, classic. Been there. Done that one as a kid, would recommend. Akira borrows the Window By The Waves book written by Kondo's author friend from her aunt Tomoe. Who drops this great line that's totally got nothing to do with After the Rain itself. Seriously, this is one of the greatest strengths of the series and I always love spotting when the author slips in a diagetic way of inviting readers to revisit the series. Paranoia Agent, Wano, it's cool every time even if it's low key like this.