Title: Rainbows After Storms Vol. 5
Author: Luka Kobachi
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Yuri
Publication Date: August 12, 2025
The Story
We open up with their kiss against a backdrop of fireworks. After that, things get a bit weird between them as they realize what they had done. Then, summer break ends, and they return to school, but Chidori is avoiding Nanoha for some reason. That reason is revealed, but it ends up not being a big deal, well, at least not to Nanoha. With summer vacation over, it’s time to start focusing on the school culture festival.
We get a fast track to the festival itself, where they decide to do a haunted house. Chidori is dressed up like a bloody nurse while Nanoha is just a simple ghost. Their job is to scare customers as they are exiting the haunted house, but it’s so cramped that they are forced to hide together under Nanoha’s sheet, which is incredibly hot (not romantic, but temperature-wise). However, being that close, and after their kiss, it does get a bit steamy in the romantic sense.
Once their duties are fulfilled, they are given a break and are allowed to walk around and enjoy the festival. They head to an empty classroom to have a bit of a chat. There, things get a bit “playful” between them, and the moment we’ve all known would happen eventually happens.
After this, we meet a brand-new character named Mai. Apparently, Mai and Nanoha knew each other from middle school. Mai was always into basketball, but a serious injury caused her to quit the team. We spend some time learning her backstory, and we end the volume on Mai coming to a realization… one that might throw a big monkey wrench into things!
Characters
Nanoha and Chidori continue to be a rather cute couple. Seeing how embarrassed they were around one another after their kiss was quite fun to read. All the while, they wished that they could kiss again, but they could never find the opportune time to do it. Plus, it’s not like they were avoiding one another, but after the kiss, they became more aware of each other, which made them nervous. That’s true love right there, and rather than it being an off-putting scenario, it was filled with cuteness. Their love is so pure that it’s almost too perfect, but I like how, even though they know how much they love each other, they are still taking baby steps with their relationship. It’s a nice balance that’s truly working out well.
We have our new character, Mai. She knew Nanoha from middle school and had always been on the basketball team, no matter what school she went to. When she sprained her ankle, Nanoha was there to help her out. She always viewed Nanoha as a big sister, but Mai made a huge mistake. She didn’t talk to Nanoha about what high school she was going to end up in, and just assumed she was going to… one with a super long name that I’m not going to attempt to spell (I’ll never forgive the Japanese!) She applied there and was disappointed that Nanoha wasn’t there, but she transferred to Nanoha’s school, not after suffering what could have, a career-ending injury that required surgery.
Now that she has quit basketball and reunited with Nanoha, she feels that everything is right with the world, except that she doesn’t know what to do now that she’s done playing sports. That’s when Nanoha gets an idea and helps her find something to do. If you know what Nanoha is doing, it’s pretty easy to figure out what the suggestion is.
Final Thoughts
This was a cute, yet interesting volume of Rainbows After Storms. The first half was dedicated to Nanoha and Chidori continuing to be a cute couple together. Then, the back half introduces us to a brand-new character that is also interesting in her own right. She’s kind of outgoing, sporty, and seems more like a tomboy than anything. Her past with Nanoha instantly built that bond between them, but it also means that there are quite a few avenues they could explore with this.
One of the subtle jokes that I liked in this volume was the reason why Chidori was avoiding Nanoha after their summer break. It was and wasn’t due to their kiss. Without spoiling it, Chidori does something after their kiss, so when school goes back in session, the reason Chidori gives is quite funny, but they do not flat-out state what caused the reason, but if you paid attention and remember the scene after the kiss with Chidori at home, then you will put things together and realized what the reason was. Show, not tell, at its finest. While it wasn’t hard to figure out, it was a memory test, and if you remembered, you got the joke, and that made it so much better!
I’m looking forward to seeing where the next volume takes us, but there is one little thing that’s nagging me about what happened at the end of this one. It’s a common complaint that I have with romance series, so I hope that this one does something different and doesn’t fall into that trope. If it does fall into that certain trope, I hope that something unique is done with it to not make it another run-of-the-mill occurrence that we’ve seen a thousand times already. Here’s hoping that this series can surprise me!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
