With You and the Rain

Episode 5

This week, Fuji discovers one of the true joys of pet ownership: shedding season. What she doesn't realize is that every season is shedding season. Oh, sure, it's worse in spring or summer, when you really can brush an entire second animal off of your dog or cat (or rabbit or raccoon or what have you), but one of the true constants of life with a furry family member is that everything you own – and most of what you consume – will involve the presence of at least trace amounts of pet hair. (Hence why books like Crafting with Cat Hair exist. Yes, this is a real craft book that exists.) A corollary to this is that whenever you're wearing a color that will best show off the animal hair, your pet will want to snuggle with you the most. And if you have multiple pets? The dark ones will wait till you're wearing light clothes, and the light ones till you're wearing dark. It's just science.

But what is Kimi? Although Fuji seems perfectly happy to say that he's a dog (and most people accept that), this week brings yet another theory about what her companion is: a raccoon. This is distinct from a raccoon dog, which is probably what he truly is; the perky teen Fuji and Kimi meet in the part specifically says that he's an araiguma, the Japanese word for the good old North American trash panda. A raccoon dog is a tanuki, although the English word “raccoon” gets used for them as well a surprising amount of the time. But the teenager uses araiguma because she's observing Kimi washing his food, something that tanuki don't do – it's a strictly raccoon behavior. Kimi is, of course, washing his apple slice because he dropped it, but to a girl who's never actually seen a raccoon in the flesh, he's close enough when paired with this action. And hey, if you can keep them from getting rabies, raccoons do domesticate fairly easily (Rascal by Sterling North, anyone?), although it's illegal in some places to keep them as pets.

More importantly for the episode, Fuji agreeing with the girl that Kimi is a raccoon is a little hard to parse. She later says that she was teasing the girl (whose friend thinks he's a tanuki) and that he's really a mixed-breed dog, but is that strictly true? Fuji's not stupid; she has to know that there's something very off about her pup. She's denied that he's a tanuki before, but maybe she's not sure? Or maybe she just enjoys making other people believe that she believes he's a dog. It isn't until the girls start arguing about Kimi's identity that she steps in, perhaps fearing that her teasing went too far. There's a real possibility that Fuji simply has a sly sense of humor that no one in her life has picked up on, although we haven't met her brother yet. Maybe there's a reason for that.

It doesn't matter what Kimi is at the end of the day. That's because he offers Fuji a kind of companionship that's comfortable for her introverted self – and it is introversion that best describes her, since this week we see her contrasted with someone shy and socially awkward. The manga creator who wants Fuji to write her a script is clearly a very different sort of person. Like Fuji, she seems to prefer to keep to herself, but unlike Fuji, that's because she's uncomfortable around other people. Fuji doesn't dislike others or interacting with them; she just needs space to recharge. A lot of people confuse introversion and anxiety/shyness, so I really like that this episode goes out of its way to show viewers that it, at least, knows the difference.

Except where maraca-child is concerned. I'm so glad that her mother took those things away from her and stopped her from making creepy eye contact while playing them. I may see that kid in my nightmares tonight. It's a good thing I routinely have a dog and at least three cats on the bed to keep me safe.

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With You and the Rain is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.