Ame to Kimi to

With You and the Rain is a slice of life made by Lesprit studios, and it's got a lot of charming features about it, making it a very relaxing and peaceful watch.

Positives:
Voice actor work: Fuji, as the main character, who's a novelist and voiced by Saori Hayami, one of the most iconic VAs out there, shows off her voice range, making Fuji a very laid-back and calm character, which is perfect for this type of anime, and the raccoon-dog she adopted adds a lot of very wholesome and silly moments throughout by its sounds and expressions. Even the side characters like Fuji's neighbour, ... her twin, friends, and the vet offer a lot of contrast, making the anime more laid back and relaxing than your usual slice of life

Music: The music is very relaxing and gives off a lo-fi vibe, mainly through the Opening and ending themes. It adds to the slice of life elements very well

Story: It's straightforward but extremely refreshing at the same time, as you just slowly vibe to all the characters and the goofy pet that causes tons of lighthearted and funny moments as it gives its reactions through a pen and paper. It's also progressing the relationship between Fuji and the people around her, so it doesn't feel static at all.

Artwork and animation: In my opinion, this anime's biggest up. From the backgrounds to the character designs, everything looks wonderful and charming at the same time. They've used a fair number of first-person shots, making things more interesting.

Overall, it's a genuinely wholesome and relaxing anime perfect for people who enjoy the slice-of-life genre and animal-focused anime.

Another season, another Saori Hayami anime to bless us die-hard fans and welcome more newcomers into the relaxing SoL loop we love and can never have enough of.

- So what sets this apart from the other SoL anime and why should you watch this:
A "dog" in the form of a tanuki and a very heartwarming, enjoyable and connected to our Fuji side cast to go with it but also the sound and presence of the rain for anyone who likes rain altogether. I was on the "Don't really like rain" team before I started this show.

Art/Animation- 9
Lesprit is a not very well known a studio ... for taking up SoL series but they have knocked it out of the park with beautiful sceneries and especially the crisp interaction of every rain drop either that is a footstep in the rain, on the umbrellas or the rain altogether.

Sound - 9
As predisposed the sound of the rain, the environment but the Lo-fi like OST 100% of the time all work in tandem to deliver a relaxing and pleasant experience.
The VAs all did a stellar job. Needless to say a calm and serious Saori for any Saori fan is a treat, but what stood out to me was Ella's voice, since seeing a child VA voice an actual child is always welcome to the realistic factor of any anime; and You's voice, which sounded exactly like what you'd expect a "dog" to sound like.

Characters - 8.5
It is quite clear that the author had some personal experience when writing these characters because everyone feels unique and like real people/animals. The cast works very well together with Fuji herself. If anything leaves something to be desired was the latter half of the cast that was realistic yet indifferent and plain.

Overall Ame to Kimi to is highly recommended for all SoL fans and for anyone who just wants to have a break from their hectic daily life and watch a chill day to day experience with the best "dog". What do you know, by the end of it you might like rain more if you disliked it like me or you might as well find yourself already at home from the get-go~

This is what I call an "atmospheric anime". There's no action to speak of, no ecchi, no drama, no real plot. This is just a plain slice of life.

But it's beautiful.

This maybe isn't the most beautiful anime I've ever seen, but it's in the running. The art is fantastic. The main character is drawn beautifully, as a beautiful woman who is beautiful without having massive... female artillery (I got that from "Cultural exchange with a game center girl" and I'm keeping it). She's tall, thin, understatedly lovely, and not any single part of her is designed to cater to ... the ecchi crowd. (and the faces are drawn and animated like real faces instead of cat-girls with flat faces and a flappy mouth that doesn't actually move the rest of the face properly, especially in side profile). This might, honestly, be the first anime woman I've seen other than maybe the female MC on ReLife that's actually my type.

And I absolutely love that.

A lot of slice of life anime have a common deficiency. The characters tend to be one dimensional. You get the cute, moe main character, the cute, moe glasses girl, the cute, moe gyaru, the cute, moe ditz. None of the characters in this anime are like that. They are so well written it's almost like they're real people. The voice acting is very understated - which is perfect for this anime.

The "hook" to this anime is a small "dog" (which is actually a tanuki but the ones who pick up on it ain't telling), and the story is basically about the main character Fuji finding the tanuki in a rainstorm and spending the rest of the anime living a quiet and peaceful life with her tanuki. That's all it is. I can't really spoil anything because there's really nothing to spoil. But the best part about this anime is that it's perfectly fine being what it is. It's not trying to be anything it isn't, and for what it is, it's amazingly well done.

As much as I love this, and as highly as I rated it, though, I'm going to call it mixed feelings. Not because I have mixed feelings about it, because I really don't. But more because I can see a particular group of people HATING this anime. If pure slice of life annoys you, if you hate slow paced anime, if you hate a lack of story or drama, if the reason you watch anime is jiggly, floppy flesh that bounces around hyper-realistically attached to high school girls who blush way too much, this anime is not going to be for you. But if you're the type of person who just likes a beautiful anime that really doesn't have, or need, a point beyond a woman and her "dog" interacting in a beautiful way, then you'll love this.

Mixed feelings, but only because you're either gonna love it or hate it. I'm not sure there's a middle ground with this one. It's the former, for me.