What does come as a surprise is that the village elder has chosen Gimmy, a young man who enjoys inventing and tinkering with things, to produce the doll to be exchanged for the gift of the rain. Gimmy slaves away all night creating the perfect doll. Yet, entranced in his work, he runs out of time before making anything remotely worthy of an offering. His siblings, twins Mel and Mil, decide to help by posing themselves as dolls in a crate to be delivered to the offering site.

Let the shenanigans begin.

What follows is a fairly predictable story in which Gimmy attempts to right his wrong by retrieving Mel and Mil. Upon meeting the Amefurashi, Gimmy has a hard time believing that the rain goddess is actually a teenage girl named Sora. Misunderstandings and mysteries continue for the rest of the volume culminating in an encounter with another Amefurashi that doesn't end particularly well for Sora and her Nimbus Tree. It ends up being less exciting than it sounds, sadly.

Amefurashi features some enjoyable, albeit sometimes sketchy, artwork. Character designs and backgrounds are all detailed and lively, even if some characters look out of place in the setting; Gimmy looks like a stereotypical golfer, and Sora looks like a modern tomboyish girl with her baseball cap and whip. Their character designs do fit their personality, but in the psuedo-Middle-Eastern setting they just look, well, odd. At least they're easily identifiable.

The English adaptation of Amefurashi is solid with a few exceptions. The first of which is Del-Rey has decided to go with the word 'switch' rather than 'whip'. While a proper substitution, it just ends up being confusing. "Use the switch!" doesn't exactly flow mentally to "Use the whip!". The other problem lies in the near non-existent translation notes. Most Del-Rey releases have multiple pages of translation notes, Amefurashi, on the other hand, only has two. No, not two pages, but two translation notes total. Some more explanation into the Amefurashi and Nimbus Tree could have been explored. Also, it probably would have been worthwhile mentioning the interchangeability of the words 'switch' and 'whip' for those not in the know.

All in all, Amefurashi is an excellent manga for younger readers looking to get into the medium, though it might lack some of that oomph for manga veterans. Though the end does foreshadow some expanding potential in later volumes...

Rating: C