Rain and the Gray WorldCreated by Aki Irie, is a supernatural fantasy seinen manga whose cover immediately attracted me as it reminded me of Rumiko Takahashi’s art style mixed with Kamome Shirahama. Witch Hat Atelier. Translation: Its art style was full of charm and whimsy. It shamelessly featured its title character wearing Nike shoes – something which, funnily enough, became crucial to the story. In fact, I would have used it as a preface explaining why people should read it before it became a source of anger (we’ll get there).
It follows Ran Uruma, an elementary school kid and heir to a family of powerful magicians. All Ran wants to do is have friends and grow up to be a powerful witch like her mother Shizuka, who is powerful but also extremely irresponsible with her powers. As fate would have it, Ran has the means to speed up the growing pains of becoming an adult by wearing the aforementioned Nikes and transforming into a 20-year-old woman. Her magical misadventures also put her in the crosshairs of a rich, eccentric playboy, whose apparent intentions are undersold on the manga’s back cover, questioning whether she will be “friend or foe”.
Charitably, I read along. Not because of the beautiful art that practically glows on the page and evokes vintage shoujo vibes, but because I found the characterization between Shizuka and her family interesting – having an absent mother as well as bombarding them with the use of magic, whether by choice or due to some higher calling as the Satoru Gojo of the world. It’s good, messy family drama. But mostly, I was hoping and praying that clear alarm bells would be ringing in my mind about the little girl who Shazam–like MikeHer path to adulthood will turn into a coming-of-age story about the dangers of growing up too fast, neatly framed as an allegory for magic. Turns out, even a beautiful manga from a bygone era comes with all the stink of that era.
Ran’s “growth” into an adult body is mostly played for fan-service-laden comedy, with men turning into cartoon wolves upon seeing her. Keep in mind, she’s still an elementary school kid, which makes the entire transformation sequence, at best, inconvenient and narratively redundant. Even moments that should matter – like her learning to use her magic and getting better at it as an adult – never feel like they serve the story in any meaningful way because you’re just bracing yourself for everyone to stare at her.
It doesn’t help that his transformation is kept a secret, like he’s Spider-Man, despite the existence of magic not being a well-kept secret, with him and his mother having giant cakes, milk cartons, and summoning chicks littering the city when they first connected in the manga.
All of this sits on top of a narrative that feels aimless, constantly sidestepping the possibility of a thoughtful coming-of-age story by slipping into an illustrated version of a born-sexy-yesterday tale without saying much about it. Of course, that trope was tired in the beginning and hard to see in a new manga series that should know better. So when the story suddenly turns into a cataclysmic crisis and hurtles towards the finish line, “disappointed” is an appropriate word to emphasize my reading experience, given a mixed-feeling recommendation for an otherwise promising manga.
Again, I can’t emphasize enough how unimaginably beautiful Irie’s artwork is Rain and the Gray World. I was just hoping that the second half of its title would be more about the trials and tribulations of growing up too fast than a colorful expression of my disappointment after reading it. Let’s just say this is a reminder that you really can’t judge a book by its cover, especially if it’s a manga.
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