Weathering with you vol 1 by Makoto Shinkai

Illustrated by Wataru Kubota

Hodaka had run away from his isolated island in favor of the alluring big city of Tokyo. But the city is not kind to a young teen with no work experience and no ID. On the boat ride in to Tokyo, Hodaka met a man who runs a gossip tabloid, so Hodaka reaches out to him for help when he can’t find anywhere else to go. Hodaka’s life changes when he meets a girl working at a local fast food restaurant. She gives the starving Hodaka a burger, and he comes to find out that she can summon the sun from behind rain clouds. For the next several rainy months, Hodaka and Hina market a profitable business of charging for Hina's services to people who desperately need sunshine and can pay for it.

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There is nothing stand-out about this manga, though fans of the movie will probably appreciate the information gleaned about these two characters that may have been missing from the feature film. The storyline doesn't have many major developments until the very last few pages, so some readers coming into this fresh might be frustrated with the slow pace. There are a few big narrative leaps that really didn’t make total sense to me, and they pulled me out of the story enough that I thought I was missing pages. This might be only a purchase necessary for where the movie or Your Name​, also by Shinkai, is popular.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: Vertical (Kodansha)
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
ISBN: 9781949980837 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Magic, Friendship, ​Kodansha