Episode 4 – With You and the Rain

Appropriately enough, I watched this episode on a rainy day with my cat Kathryn on my lap. That’s unusual, because Kathryn, for whatever reason, usually only watches IDOLiSH7 with me. But her preference for brightly colored boy idols shows that Kimi having distinct likes and dislikes of his own is perfectly normal – animals are their own people (for lack of a better word), and that means that they, too, have their own tastes. And Kimi’s in no way runs towards matching clothes with Fuji’s dad.

It’s hard to blame him. Fuji’s dad has some pretty ghastly taste when it comes to both clothes and names for pets; you’ll notice no one calls Kimi “Angel-chan” but him. (Not that I don’t have my own dumb nicknames for my animals. Poor Oliver will always be my scruff-muffin.) He’s Fuji’s polar opposite – loud, a little tasteless, and always with his emotions dialed up to eleven. That makes me wonder if Fuji’s quiet demeanor is in reaction to her dad always being so loud in everything he does. She says that she’s always liked her quiet solitude, but maybe that’s in part because it was in such short supply whenever her dad was around. I’d be interested to meet her brother to see if Dad’s an outlier in the family.

Still, you can’t argue that Fuji is loved, both by her very outgoing father and by Kimi. When the “dog” asks if Fuji would still rather be alone, it’s not hard to imagine that he would offer to make himself absent to give her that space, because the furry little guy’s demonstrated that he’s always willing to go the extra mile for her if he can. His disappearance at the festival is a case in point: he didn’t just wander off because he’s a “dog,” he left to find the perfect spot for the two of them to watch the fireworks from. That he didn’t consider that Fuji would have a panic when she couldn’t find him is much more pet-like of him, but his desire to please his person is both charming and adorable. He knows he’s the creature she’s most comfortable with, the one who makes her feel like she’s got space even though he’s there. It’s the perfect distillation of a human/animal bond, right down to the pet not quite understanding everything about how their person is going to react.

That’s something that this episode gets very right. Even when Kimi isn’t leading Fuji to the perfect fireworks hill, he’s doing his absolute best to be the perfect companion. How cute is it that he’s waiting with a towel for his person when she comes home? It’s like a step up from bringing her slippers and the newspaper. Playing with the rubber ducks is another sweet moment; Kimi’s trying to involve her in his games and wants to please her. Of course, he doesn’t realize that squeaky toys aren’t pleasant sounds for people; he loves them, so he wants to share. It’s a very recognizable behavior and incorporates the “dog” in “raccoon dog,” a common translation of “tanuki.”

With You and the Rain continues to prove that it understands the pet/person bond while it pokes gentle fun at what it would be like to have a literate animal in your life. Even being able to write doesn’t help Kimi to avoid the dog next door (although crowds do), and he’s never too human – just human enough to remind all of us that the animals we share our homes and lives with aren’t just ambulatory stuffed animals…and that’s what makes them wonderful.

Rating:

With You and the Rain is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.