I think the concept intrigued me more than the execution of this one and I'm unsure whether it was the Netgalley advanced copy that isn't fully-formed or because it felt like it plodded along.

I like the introspective stories but this one dragged because I wasn't necessarily connected with the characters, yet I do want to try again when I have the final version in my hands.

I was really excited to pick this up, as I’d heard good things about the movie and was interested in the story.

This volume follows Hodaka as he leaves home and finds himself in Tokyo. He meets Hina, a girl who can bring sunshine and helps her to find others who need her power.

Up until the last few pages, not much happened. The characters where fine, the art was nice, but this segment of story needs the next for it to become engaging. It seems to me that the movie was not meant to be split into separate chunks- it should be read all together- then you can get the bigger picture. For now, I feel very neutral about everything, hopefully volume two will shed some light on things.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha comics for providing a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm really glad that I was able to read this Manga since I haven't been able to see the film adaption. "You Name" is one of my all time favourite anime films, so I'm really excited for the main characters to make a cameo in this story!

The Manga itself is wonderful and endearing, and the artwork would be wonderful to see in animation! The flying whales, the sunshine.. And not to mention the characters!

I'm looking forward to continuing this Manga and seeing what happens next. At the end of this volume, we could see that trouble was beginning to stir.
I can only hope that "sunshine girl" will be okay 😔

Rating: 5/5

Thank you so much to Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for providing the eARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately, this title won’t load for me. The cover is lovely though, and it sounds like an intriguing premise. I will be checking it out once it’s available to the public anyway.

I think I heard that this turned into a movie which peeked my interest. The idea of someone controlling the weather also sounded pretty cool so I decided to check this book out. So Hodaka runs away to the city of Tokyo when he meets the very girl who controls the weather and from then on this book turns out to to be a very good start. I thought this book was a nice introductory and enough makes me what to learn more about these characters and what's in store for the following books.

'Weathering With You, Vol. 1' by Makoto Shinkai with art by Wataru Kubota us a manga about a young man who runs away to Tokyo and the odd characters he meets along the way.

Hodaka runs away for his own reasons to the big city of Tokyo. Along the way, he meets a man who helps him out, but seems suspiciously shady. He is helped out by a young woman named Hina who feeds him. He discovers in Hina a strange gift she has to dry up the rain and make the sun come out. How their relationship develops is the main plot of this volume.

I liked the story, and didn't realize there was a movie. I felt like the story meandered a bit and introduced things that aren't that important to the main plot, at least not so far. I liked the art also. Hina is definitely a more interesting character than Hodaka at this point.

I received a review copy of this manga from Kodansha USA and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this manga.

A great manga companion to the "Weathering With You movie"! I absolutely loved the film! The manga differs slightly, but the essence of the story is preserved. I'm also happy to enjoy more of Makoto Shinkai's artwork, which is gorgeous.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and Vertical Comics in exchange for an honest review.

This review is being published after the release date (September 22nd, 2020)

Content/Trigger Warnings: Homelessness, physical assault, gun violence, mentions loss of loved ones


Did I request this manga because I loved Your Name? Yes. Did I completely fall down a rabbit hole reading this manga and therefore need to know what’s going to happen next? Also, yes! I really loved Your Name. It was a very emotional, whimsical series and movie. So naturally my interest was at an all high when I saw this was available for request. And this book didn’t disappoint! It fully captured my heart and I think many manga readers are going to fall in love with this series, if they haven’t already!

We follow a boy named Hodaka, who’s run away from the island he grew up on, fleeing to the Kabukichō neighborhood of Tokyo to start a new beginning. However, Hodaka finds himself struggling to adjust to the new city and all the gloomy weather. Until he comes across a girl named Hina, who has a the special ability to bring out the sun, also known as a sunshine girl. Together they’ll turn Hina’s ability into a means of helping Hina gather funds to support herself and younger sibling, but Hodaka is keeping secrets and Hina is keeping her own.

“All this time, I think… I was chasing the light that you bring, Miss Hina.”

I loved these characters so much. They’re not your typical main characters who are fierce warriors or magical beings. They’re just two kids who come from rough backgrounds, trying to survive in the big world. I love when characters are just like everyone else, but we get to see their hardships, they’re struggles. It makes those characters feel more realistic and easier to connect to. And of course, the story line that pulls these two characters together is so beautifully woven. I loved seeing the small pieces of Japanese myths and legends tie in to the events happening and the characters.

Just like Your Name, Weathering with You has underlying themes to it. Looking at Hina’s character in this book, he character is designed to show the weight that women often carry. Women are often expected to provide warmth, comfort, and happiness, more time than most being the caregiver of the household. Now, I don’t want to spoil too much (especially for the anime), but the author does a brilliant job of showing this and how if affects women, how much energy the deplete from themselves, and the toll it begins to take on their bodies. I thought it was so beautifully done and I think this book shows the beginning of that process really well.

And of course, I have to talk about how stunning the art style is because it is gorgeous! The beginning of this arc we have one to two pages of colored art and it is everything. That alone had me gasping for breath. It so beautiful and I wish more manga had more little glimpses into colored panels. Even the black and white panels just really had an extra emphasis on the events happening throughout the book. The illustrator of this book is truly talented and I can’t wait to see what they’ll do next!

Overall, I really enjoyed this manga with my whole heart. I think the story line does a fantastic job hooking the attention of the reader, pricking the curiosity of those who want to know more. It truly is a beautiful story and I can’t recommend this graphic novel enough. I hope my fellow manga readers will be picking this series up and if you haven’t checked out this series yet, please do. It truly is wonderful!


The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I adore all Makoto Shinkai films and had the pleasure of watching Weathering With You this spring, in the "before times", at my local indie cinema. So I'm very glad I managed to get an advanced copy of the manga edition

For those not familiar with Shinkai's work his stories usually have themes of childhood love, separation or distance, introspection, loneliness, the natural world and usually have scifi or fantasy elements. The art style is always stunning. And his worlds are beautiful and evocative and I don't think I've ever gotten through one of his films without sobbing my little heart out!

In Weathering With You, we see a version of Japan plagued by near constant rain storms. Hodoka is desperate to escape his small island town and runs away to Tokyo. Chasing a small beam on light on the ocean. When gets there he struggles to find himself work and hears rumours of the 100% Sunshine Girl.

The manga follows a similar pace to the film but there are the occasional small snippets that weren't in the film and I'm hoping we see more of these because I'd love to have a little more insight into the world as I loved it so much.

Looking forward to the rest of the series and hopefully more fleshed out parts in the manga that we didn't see in the film!

I'll be honest. I haven't seen the movie yet but from volume 1 of the manga I can tell I'll love it. Makoto Shinkai weaves a wonderful story and creates likable characters to move the story along. I will be buying this when it comes out.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics!

I think I really do have to thank Netgalley and Kondasha Comics for this copy, as I would never have picked this up otherwise. I think I did see the anime around, and I was mildly aware that it's by the same guy who wrote Your Name (which I love), but I wasn't as enthralled. Upon reading this first volume however, I've become intrigued.

The concept of the Sunshine Girl and mysterious weather phenomenon is interesting. It has a supernatural feel, yet at the same time, there's a grittiness to the Tokyo setting that makes it feel more realistic in contrast.

But so far, the first volume (and probably the beginning of the movie too) is slow - intriguing, but slow.

⨳3.5⨳
I need to know what happens next asap! I’ve already added the movie to my weekend playlist~

I basically requested it because I love “Your Name” and that cover art is so beautiful!
The first volume does what it should- pulls you in, keeps you close, and leaves you wanting more.

The story is pretty simple. 16-year-old Hodaka runs away from his home on an island and comes to Tokyo. life gets brutal and just then he meets a mysterious girl Hina, a ”Sunshine Girl” who has powers to change the weather and make the world bathe in the clear light. But her powers come with a cost.

There’s enough catch and captivity in the story that keeps you reading along with the interesting side characters which add to it.

I also loved the landscape arts here of Tokyo and the serene island. As an occasional landscape sketcher, they caught my eyes and I do want to replicate some of the scenes.

If I had to review for the whole series, I feel it would definitely be 4.5 star rating but since it’s the first one without much of revelation, I’ll go with 3.5.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I didn't watch the movie, but so far I'm enjoying this manga and I hope to read volume 2 soon. The art is exceptional, paired with great storytelling and compelling characters.

3.5/5

I was given a free copy of this book for an honest review.

This first Manga volume by the writer of the popular anime and manga Your Name centers on Hodaka Morishima, a 16 year old who has left his small island for Tokyo. On the boat trip, he almost went overboard, and was saved by Suga, who becomes his salvation in the harsh reality of trying to make it in a new place with no prospects.

Along the way Hodaka meets Hina, a beautiful girl with a special gift, and their friendship grows as she uses her gift to change the world around them. But Hodaka is meant to be trying to get an interview set up with her, and that could make her question his motivation.

This first volume was interesting and the art style is beautiful. I can see this manga quickly becoming as popular as Your Name was, and the fact that a movie is already available will help it to reach those who are less interested in reading the manga.

A manga with an odd but appealing premise of nearly-constant rain, possibly-real enormous creatures related to an unnatural level of rain, and a "sunshine girl." Good though not extraordinary art and writing. If we had a better budget this year I might buy this, but it's quirky in a way that won't have high appeal for most of our readers.

I got this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange of my honest review.

In the same mood of "Your Name", this manga starts really slow and the mystery remains around the main characters all along this first volume. We have Hodaka a boy who runs away from his island to Tokyo where he struggles to adjust to this new city with its bad weather, he meets Hina a girl that has some special powers: she is able to bring sunshine. The story gots intersting from this point, the reader is eager to know what's going to happen with these kids, what is the story of Hodaka and what will be the price to pay for Hina to have such powers.

It is so intriguing, you just have to know what's going to happen next and it's impossible to stop at the first volume.
I really liked it as much as I liked "You Name" and "5 Centimeters per Second" by the same author. His books are so captivating and beautiful in their own style. I got hooked to Makoto Shinkai's work with "5 centimenters per Second" which is my fovorite of all his books. It was enjoyable even with the long slow pace of the story developement.

This manga is very beautiful and moves at a pace more like a slice-of-life than a fantasy story. Hadoka runs away from home and we do not discover why for a while. He makes some good connections in his new home in Tokyo, but of greatest importance is his relationship with Hina. She has a drive to bring joy to others and possesses a strange ability to control the weather. I found her character the most endearing and relatable while Hadoka was tough to sympathize with. I’m looking forward to reading further into this manga series! I would recommend this story for anyone that really enjoyed light fantasy like 5 Centimetres Per Second and Penguin Highway.

<i>arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

This was beautiful but in an almost sad way. I think it felt like that to me because I have a guess for something that’s going to happen in the next volume or two that I think will drastically change the story and our main character.

The whole weather aspect was interesting to me especially The Sunshine Girl. I hope we get to see more of how all of that works and how it came to be or if it has always been like that for the world in this series.

I liked our main character but he didn’t really stand out to me. I felt myself more drawn to the mythology of it all over caring about what he was up to or feeling.

Overall, this was an alright start to the series and I am interested in continuing!

3/5 ⭐️

Weathering with you, is one of my favorite Makotoa Shinkai films. I've loved his work since Voices from a distant star. This manga expands on the universe he created with the movie is a way fans will feel embraced by something familiar while still getting some new insight.

It's simply just beautiful, and a bright ray if sunshine as cliched as that may be.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kodansha USA, Makoto Shinkai (author), and Wataru Kubota (illustrator) for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Having read the light novel and seen the film, what I can say about Weathering With You as a story is that it's not as awe-inspiring as Your Name, but it is definitely a beautiful work from Makoto Shinkai.

Weathering With You is about a boy who runs away from his island life to Tokyo, seeking work. He ends up meeting a Sunshine Girl, a girl who can pray and the sun comes out (this version of Tokyo gets an abnormal amount of rain). When Hodaka starts to really care about Hina, he learns something a bit devastating about the fate of a Sunshine Girl.

The manga version has beautiful artwork and the translation and order of events are presented in a slightly different way than that of the film or the light novel. The changes are appreciated, and having experienced this story in three different mediums has been quite a joyous experience. The movie and manga are far superior to the light novel, but both movie and manga are equal in their storytelling and absolute beauty. The amount of detail drawn in each panel to really create awe with the weather and backgrounds is stunning. This was a great manga and feels like it will be a two-volume set. I would highly recommend this novel for any Shinkai fan, someone who has or has not seen the film, or anyone looking for a story about young love and sacrifice with a mythical twist.