In volume 3 of the writing woman and the mysterious not raccoon but instead dog manga, the dynamic sees no change for about 2/3 of this volume! We get to see her take care of a girl, who ends up liking the dog. We get a chapter where a young woman handing out tissues is confused but also amused at the dog using a sheet of paper to say it wants one. There’s a New Year’s party with friends and once again Mimi just can’t admit she likes coddling or the dog.
But then we get two different chapters that involve our main protagonist’s writing career. One of them explains her and the dog’s relationship in a much more serious way than all the others.
The first one is something that happens at night, where our still nameless woman burns the midnight oil to write. This doesn’t really get expanded on much, other than to show she’s working hard. The second one is a meeting where she spends all day with an editor or someone she’s helping out. It’s not entirely clear, but in any case, she spends the day trying to get things done with this person. And when she returns home, she finds her dog whimpering.
Despite letting the dog know she would be out all day, from the moment they met they’ve been close and generally together, so even despite knowing this, actually experiencing it affected the dog’s mood considerably. When the woman sees this, she begins thinking how this is the longest they’ve ever gone without seeing each other, and for the dog, it’s not something it’s used to. This also likely brought back memories of being abandoned by its previous owner, but the circumstances of the dog is still mysterious. Whether we will find out…don’t think for this series it’s necessary. But it was a nice change of pace that highlights how these two have been since they’ve met months ago.
But for the most part, With You and the Rain is still mostly about characters of different ages feeling totally baffled by the apparently not raccoon/tanuki and said animal responding in its unique way. Volume 3 doesn’t mess with that formula. The only thing that it continues doing is showcasing Ko Nikaido’s art repertoire, and as long as you’re in for some comfort manga, this still remains a nice work for slice-of-life enthusiasts.