The Moon on a Rainy Night Volume 5 Review
Summer break has finally begun, which Kanon dreads ever since she lost her hearing – fireworks, festivals, the sound of laughter from others, are now lost to her. But this summer is different; she has a short story to write, a choir to practise for and her best friend Saki to keep her company through it all. Meanwhile Saki is thrilled to spend every day with her crush, but will her feelings for Kanon start to spill over?
As the synopsis states, this volume mostly takes place over the summer holidays for Saki and Kanon, and there’s a lot of mini-stories going on. Some of it is a continuation from the previous volume: one is the school choir, with several panels dedicated to rehearsals and Kanon learning to enjoy music in a different way as a conductor, whilst working with her hearing impairment. Then we see Kanon tapping into her skills as a writer, exploring her creativity in another way outside of music, although there isn’t too much of a development on that front (any writer reading this will sympathise with the writer’s block Kanon experiences).
Lastly we have a surprising development for one side character: Tomita. She has been a consistent bully type character across the series so far, suddenly dropped in the last volume, only to come back in this book with a revelation. Due to excess experiences with loud sounds because of her interest in music, she’s now lost hearing in one ear and is struggling to cope. Admittedly I found this development a bit sudden and not too well foreshadowed; it felt more like a comeuppance for the bully character to learn their lesson…but I think that’s sort of the point. When a life-altering event happens in real life, we’re not always given the ‘heads up’, sometimes we just happen to have (for example) a car crash that eventually leads to having a physical disability. Real life isn’t some story with a satisfying build-up and climax, sometimes things just happen, and we must deal with the consequences regardless of whether we’re ready or not, and regardless of how we were before. I’m reminded of a quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (of all things) when writing this; ‘The big moments are gonna come, you can’t help that. It’s what you do afterwards that counts. That’s when you find out who you are.’ And it applies to Tomita here; she was very dismissive about Kanon’s disability previously, and now that she has a similar disability, she has to face not just her past actions but also figure out where to go from here. To be fair to her, she does apologize to Kanon, and Kanon in turn pays attention to Tomita, instead of giving flowery words to say it’ll be ok, but instead allowing Tomita to let out her rage at the situation. This could lead to a new, fascinating dynamic for them in the future, and also would be interesting to see how Tomita’s friends, who also joined in the previous bullying, would take to her new situation.
The volume also tackles some new small moments over the summer period too. First, the girls have to help another classmate prepare for the upcoming summer festival, by researching maid outfits. The chemistry between Kanon and Saki in this part is super cute and seeing them in different maid outfits is fun too. I appreciate the way the manga shows how visually and audibly overwhelming a mall can be too, especially for someone who has a disability, it’s a nice touch on mangaka Kuzushiro’s part.
Then we have another small story, this time related to the adults of the story. Miura-sensei from the school asks Kanon for help in regards to his daughter, Haruka, as she wants to learn piano and begs Kanon’s mother for help. What could have been a simple throwaway or gag-centric story ends up exploring struggles with parenting. Miura-sensei reveals that he is raising his daughter alone, as a single father, due to losing his wife the year before. In turn, Kanon’s mother explains the struggles of raising Kanon with her disability. The self-blame over what happened and wanting to do right by her daughter, but not always knowing how, is relatable. Considering Kanon’s mother has been portrayed as quite strict up to this point, it’s nice to see another side of her, and as a mother myself with a disabled child, seeing the human feelings and conflict on page like this is much appreciated; the conversations being had, showing the strength of these parents, making the best out of their situations.
In terms of the ‘yuri’ side of this tale, there’s been only very small moments…up until the last few pages. Kanon says the line “You might as well come out and say you’re in love with me!” in a joking way, which throws Saki off, but whether this will pay off in the next book…we’ll see. The yuri side has been muted since Volume 3, but I’m hoping it’s a slow burn that will eventually explode into fireworks (this would be fitting, considering the next volume, due in December, has summer festival fireworks on the cover).
Translator Kevin Steinbach continues to provide an easy read for this series which is highly appreciated, not just for the translation notes but also for providing the references Kuzushiro used when creating this story.
Summer is here in both in this manga and in the UK (hilariously, it’s raining as I write this) and The Moon on a Rainy Night is an evolving tale, showing the complex lives of these characters and how life-changing events can affect us. It’s a humanizing and beautiful story so far, but I would like to see the main girls be happy and gay together soon please! Fingers crossed we see the relationship develop in the next volume.
Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
