In their time, Nanoha and Chidori have spent 3 years together. In real time it has been a very slow, very gentle, even tentative 5 years. Hana ni Arashi ran from 2018-2023. I’ve had this final volume on my to-read pile for literal years and only just managed to finish it up, motivated by Viz Media’s release of the series in English as Rainbows After Storms. So, let’s finally look at Hana ni Arashi, Volume 13 (はなにあらし)
Like Kase-san and Yamada, we’ve watched Chidori and Nanoha mature as they, for the first time in their lives, are required to think about next year differently than they have for the last 12 years. Every year thus far they have been presented with little choice – another school year. Now they must *make plans* for next year. Where they will go, what they will do, how they will accomplish these new goals… they have talked about how they will do those things together. But, also not with their every day school friends, who have also decidedon their new courses in life.
Nanoha, Chidori and their friends spend this volume wallowing in nostalgia; smiling at the energetic first-years, visiting places that they have spent so much time in and will very likely never see again.
Finally, there is one more thing to do. They go to the roof to bid farewell to the town and each other. And so Nanoha can blow their confession in the absolutely cutest way possible that has me grinning even now. This series, and The Summer You Were There are proof that and ending can be 100% predictable and still hit the mark. This one hit the mark. Kobachi Luka kept me reading through 13 volumes of one of the nothing happen-est high school love stories and I liked it. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 0
Overall – 8
Now you can like it, too as Rainbows After Storms, Volume 1 and Volume 2 are out from Viz Media and Volume 3 will be on the way in April.
Oh, and PS – their friends and they don’t “never see each other again,” at last. Thank you Kobachi-sensei for acknowledging the existence of phones and trains! It is so bizarre when mangaka act like high school is a cliff one falls off of, to never see any of one’s old friends ever again.
