The Moon on Rainy Night Volume 6 Review

Kanon and Saki are best friends who have grown closer over the summer holidays, but a one-off remark from Kanon has left Saki shaken and running for the hills. Saki has feelings for Kanon, and now worries her running off has tipped Kanon off about her true feelings. Luckily a talk with her hairdresser, an older woman experienced in queer relationships, reassures her and instead, Saki invites Kanon round to her place to watch the festival fireworks. As Saki feels reassured in their friendship once more, it’s now Kanon’s turn to feel a stirring in her heart for Saki. Meanwhile, Kanon’s little sister Rinne begins to suspect Saki is hiding something, but can’t linger on it for too long because a new student joins her year and seems extremely nervous. Can Rinne form a friendship?

There’s a lot of emotional back and forth in this book, but it doesn’t feel like a lot of plot actually happens. Admittedly after reading it once, I had to re-read it once more to remember most of what happened as a lot of it seems to take place in a small amount of time with little progress. I think this is the weakest volume so far, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing here to digest.

Saki has a few moments of panic at the start of the book, worried her secret feelings for Kanon are now out, which is something I’m sure anyone who has had to hide their feelings from someone can really relate to – especially the over-analysing and the following panic parts. Luckily she has a heart-to-heart talk, under the trope-y disguise of wanting to help a ‘friend’, with the hairdresser from the previous volume, and Saki puts the moment into perspective. It’s really nice when a story includes older queer people to help a younger generation, like in Bloom Into You. Her big moment however comes from the fireworks night, where she reassures Kanon (via text) that she will be there for her, no matter what. It’s a really sweet moment, and also plays a part in Kanon’s feelings for Saki starting to bloom too.

We don’t get a lot of insight into Kanon’s feelings so far, as she says outright she has no idea how she really feels either, and that’s OK. The big explosive moment of fireworks as Kanon looks at Saki in a different way is lovely, but not every big emotional reveal is sudden, sometimes it takes you a while to figure out what you truly feel. Especially for someone like Kanon, who’s been through her own emotional journey in the past and is still figuring out what her life is with this deafness.

In addition, Kanon and her family get a lot of great moments in this book, good comedy and emotional bonding too. For example: the scene where Saki brings home an abandoned cat, with Kanon expressing interesting in keeping it. I did find the arguments between Kanon and her mum really funny. They’re yelling at each other passionately and it really shows Kanon’s mum’s more comical side, whilst staying true to her character, which is nice to see.

Then we get to Kanon’s little sister Rinne, who’s been a constant presence in the series so far, but in the second half of this book, she takes over the POV of the story, with her returning to a new year of school and meeting a new student who seems incredibly scared to go near anyone. Rinne at first puts on a ‘don’t wanna get involved’ mentally, but when she does eventually reach out her hand to her, she learns that the new student Chiyama suffers from a condition called ‘hyperhidrosis’, a condition where your hands sweat excessively regardless of temperature or level of physical activity. She suffered from it so badly that she was bullied for it in her previous school, therefore her parents transferred her to this school late in the year, in hopes of her finishing the school year away from the bullies. Despite how unusual it is to see this condition portrayed in the media, it’s easy to imagine why Chiyama feels so uncomfortable around others. Being a teenager is hard enough when you’ve got regular hormone and body insecurities, so having a disability on top of that can feel very isolating.

I like the way the mangaka is introducing new disabilities and conditions into the story, and not just another deaf character (as we now have two, as confirmed in the previous volume). A lot of disabilities are not just the easily seen ones such as wheelchair users, some are lesser known physical disabilities and others are internal such as mental disability. So to have the author willing to have Rinne, the sister of a deaf person, showing kindness towards someone else suffering with their disability, is lovely to see. The only thing I want to flag up is the references; in every volume so far, the mangaka lists the books they’ve read as research for the aspects of deafness they’ve written into the story. It’s great to see them not just showing they’ve done their research, but also wanting to portray it authentically. However, the list in this volume doesn’t include anything that covers this new disability. I looked into hyperhidrosis and a few of the easy-to-find facts, such as it having no cure, merely treatments to make the person suffering from it more comfortable, such as medication and surgery, seem to be true. But it’ll be interesting if Kuzushiro goes deeper into this condition in the future, and if they plan to list their sources, to show it as authentically and kindly as the other disabilities.

Kevin Steinbach continues his excellent translation, alongside the notes that really help not just with the new conditions introduced but the various other Japanese cultural tidbits along the way.

The Moon on a Rainy Night continues to be a heart-warming story of finding love, despite life throwing curveballs at you in various forms, from misunderstandings to disabilities. The addition of new disabilities and stories to tell really makes this world feel more authentic, and I look forward to seeing how this translates into the anime when it premieres later this year.

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.