Title: Rainbows After Storms Vol. 4
Author: Luka Kobachi
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 163
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Yuri
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
The Story
We open up with Chidori getting kicked out of her room by her grandma because she wanted to wax the floor. This leads to a rather cute phone conversation between her and Nanoha. Once that little one-off chapter is done, it’s time for the obligatory beach episode!
Here, we get to see all the girls in their bathing suits, and of course, Chidori is pretty embarrassed about being in one. She feels that she’s too pudgy and ugly to wear one while Nanoha looks just like a model, getting all of the compliments. Of course, Chidori’s friends tease her a little bit (in a good, harmless way), but Chidori takes the comments a bit seriously. In the showers, Chidori and Nanoha have a bit of a talk to help calm Chidori down… even if she gets inadvertently compared to Mochi.
After this, we enter a bit of a longer arc. The school is hosting an open house, and Chidori is in charge of trying to find new members for the literature club; however, she’s just sitting in the club room behind a desk, so it’s no surprise that nobody is showing up. Nanoha shows up and scolds her a bit because she got roped into recruiting when she made plans to watch the fireworks with her on the second night. Despite that, Nanoha decides to step out to try and get some more members for the club.
After she does, we are introduced to a new character, Miku Igarashi, who seemingly has quite a past with Chidori. We spend some time getting to know that past through some flashbacks before things get a bit heated between them. Nanoha returns with some new recruits, so things are put on pause; however, that pause doesn’t last very long!
Characters
Here, one of the biggest focuses (aside from our new character) is on Chidori and her insecurities over her body type. She made numerous references to her stomach, how it’s a little flabby, and even that played into her past with Miku. It wasn’t something that was truly made fun of, but it was merely referenced from time to time. This was done to highlight and accent Chidori’s insecurities and give some validity to them. Nobody ever came out and made fun of her for being pudgy, but people have noticed, and that played a big role in the way she feels about herself. She hasn’t completely overcome those insecurities, but at least we know Nanoha is there to prop her up whenever she’s feeling bad about it.
Our other big focus is on our new character, Miku Igarashi, a former member of the literature club, now an alumnus of the school. She decided to stop by and say hello to Chidori, which made Chidori recall the past that they had together. At first, it seemed as if the two of them were going to be good friends. Then, Miku got a bit more personal with Chidori, leading her to believe that something romantic could happen between them… until she saw Miku leave one day with her boyfriend. Since then, things got distant between them, so when Miku returned, there were still all of those questions floating around Chidori’s head. Not to mention, Miku has kind of a poisonous sweet attitude. By that, I mean that she teases and jokes and thinks it’s innocent; however, it’s doing more harm than good, but when she realizes it, she brushes it off as if it’s no big deal. There is a bit more to her and why she is that way that’s explained towards the end of the book, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.
Final Thoughts
All I will say is thank god for Miku because, if I’m being honest, this series was starting to get a bit stale. On the bright side, we only received one chapter where we were reminded that Chidori and Nanoha were dating and trying to keep it a secret from everybody! Those reminders were severely annoying in the first volume, so I’m happy that they stopped.
Miku was the breath of fresh air that this series needed. Chapter after chapter of Nanoha and Chidori just acting cute/shy/secretive with one another was getting old, so when we got introduced to Miku and saw the resulting drama from her introduction, it was as if a huge sigh of relief had washed over me; however, it wasn’t just the change of pace that I was happy about, it was the fact that Miku is an incredible character with a great past with Chidori. Adding that dynamic to Chidori’s past was a great call as it added some much-needed backstory, which, in turn, gave us many new layers to Chidori’s character. It was handled so well that I truly hope that Miku comes back and sticks around; however, with the way things wound up, I would question what purpose she would serve at this point in time.
Next, I’m hoping we get the same treatment for Nanoha. I would love to dig into her past and see how she became the way she is today. She can’t just be all sunshine and rainbows… or maybe she just is? This series is called Rainbows After Storms, and Nanoha always seems to be that rainbow after Chidori experiences a “storm.” Whether it is her insecurities over her body type or having to stand up to someone like Miku for her, Nanoha has been that rainbow. It makes you wonder what other “storms” are in store for Chidori… or maybe Nanoha has a storm of her own that caused her to become the rainbow?
It’s an interesting thought. I’m hoping to see more unique dynamics like this going forward!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
