Exams, summer break, sleepovers, birthdays. High school life is both chaotic and relaxed for Chidori and Nanoha in Rainbows After Storms, Volume 3. 

This summer, they are both devoted to having fun and making memories, so their prioritize a group sleepover at Nanoha’s house with the requisite number of underwear discussions for a not-really-shoujo manga about girls. Despite the fantasies of those in charge of this manga fantasies, girls, who are mostly mortified that they have bodies at all, hardly ever discuss underwear. 

Chidori and Nanoha go on a date. They are impossibly adorable.

We are told, repeatedly that they are keeping their relationship secret, but in Volume 4 that faced is no longer really credible. In fact, I read this volume this time thinking that their friends are gently trolling them, because the lead-ins to Nanoha and Chidori stuffing their hands in their mouths, felt way too on the money to be accidental.

The art and story here are gentle, silly and just a little banal, presumably to create a soft nostalgic feel for the presumed readership. It makes for a very fast-reading volume, as nothing unusual or complicated is going on. This story is exactly what it appears to be, a high school love story between two nice girls. 

And then the final chapter shows up, throwing that whole last sentence out of the ring.

In an earlier volume Chidori has indicated that Nanoha is not her first love. And she looked clearly pained at the memory. In the final pages and older girl is seem arriving on a train, confidently, perhaps even arrogantly, wondering how her kouhai is doing…. and we know immediately that this woman is Chidori’s sempai. And…we already don’t like her. Something is about to happen.

What will the next volume bring? Well, Rainbows After Storms, Volume 4 is already out from Viz Media so don’t wait to find out. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 4 Underwear, bras, etc.

Overall – 6