What are we suppose to do with ourselves, our lives, and our romances?
The biggest questions of our lives is really what we are suppose to do with them. A vague statement meant to apply to meant. In itself, its a common problem with deal with whether we are young or old. Just in different ways.

After the Rain tries to tackle these topics in a wholesome way, its downfall trying to fumble with the very answer itself and reaching something sweet but lukewarm.

Story/5: (Quick tl;dr, this is a romance story with bittersweet realism and a giant age gap. Keep these in mind.)
Without spoilers, The story is a strange premise. If you go down the romance tags, a lot of the more well-known ones tackle age gap relationships and interests. This story stuck out to me the most for being one of the most mature and realistic ways dealing with this issue.
Now, our two main characters are from 17 to 45. One of the largest I've seen in a manga at the time. Not on the grounds of grooming of pedophilia, but how do you make something like this romance work? How can you portray this without it coming off as degeneracy and disgusting? More so, how will you tie such a thing into the philosophical talking points of the manga?
((Spoilers Ahead: Please skip to ART to avoid any possible spoilers.))

This is a story about aspirations, inspiration, and what it means to lose both. It is also a story of delving into an unexplained feeling and trying to grow from it.
So early on, when a confession occurs and our goofball 45yo man is dumbstruck, it all comes off as realistic. When you are old, you don't start to think of things occurring to you like you would in your teens. Unlike other manga, our character tries VERY hard to be a mature adult and role model to our other character even when romantic feelings get involved.
Even more, we are not surprised when romance never happens even when our female heroine tries so hard to both understand her feelings and pursue her love. She lost all her passion for her one joy in life from injury and gave up on it immediately. Our male protagonist, on the other hand, shares similarity when his aspiration to be a successful author falls short five years before the story begin. There's a comparison to be drawn from the two from start to finish on how they both supply this emotional necessity to pick themselves back up and push towards what they love the most even after all the hardships and doubt. It even pairs well when tackling topics only specific for age. Things you deal with as a young girls. Problems you suffer from when you are an older, divorced father. This realism is both lovable and also the downfall of this manga.

As I asked earlier, how do you handle a romance such as this in a tasteful way and still keep all the themes I mentioned earlier properly?
Well, you don't. A romance never truly happens. It can't, or else it will abandon all the others morals and purpose the chapters try to set up from the start. Unlike other mangas, this one doesn't pull a "Age is just a number" or "I will wait till this love is acceptable". From the start, it wasn't going to work. The premise is pretty clear about this from metaphors and story itself. Disappointing to readers as everyone loves a good romance, the point isn't to fulfill a love story. It's telling a story of growth and maturity. Doing the right thing. This is why many characters seem unfulfilled and constantly troubled. This is why there is no official hook-up for anyone near the end. Only epiphany. In the end, if that is upsetting for you, blame the story premise from the start. This was never meant to be a blooming romantic tale and would be ruined it if did.

The problem is how it handles this. Along the way, the story is very slow and focuses VERY heavily on this story plot. In doing so, ALL the other aspects seemed to get watered down along the way and we seem to be missing out on details that probably would've made the story more appealing. Things like the backstory of our 45yo main character. I emphasis his age BECAUSE he wasn't always a man who abandoned his dreams and became content with life. Along the way, he grew to love writing, met someone, had a child, and had his life and ambitions fall apart to an extent. We don't see enough of this. We don't see enough of a lot of things that would make the story a lot more enjoyable. The pages seem like a waste and I can understand why people would become bored or frustrated with the plot after some chapters. Especially when they have doubt of a great and unsatisfying ending.
It is even worse when it becomes true, but it isn't the ending's fault. Everything before lead to the conclusion. If there was more viewpoints and certain side characters or arcs were handled differently, the ending it has would seem so much better.
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Art/8: A majority of this manga's appeal is a very clean and lovely style they do for characters. Backgrounds and sidecharacters don't have a focus so usually they don't seem special, but when someone is focused on, there is so much detail to their design and facial expressions. Simple things from the slightest mouth gesture to even the perspective of the character being drawn to express an emotion is big in this. Most things aren't discussed or mentioned but instead uses the scene to show a mood and point. Now, it does seem like the quality quickly drops often or has almost no focus. The reason it has an 8 is because it is really good when it does and would have a 10 if this quality was more consistent.

Character/9: Characters, atleast our two main characters, are very well. The side characters are not shown or spoken of enough, but at the very least
used to display the depth of our more important ones. Specifically, the male and female protagonists. It isn't particular personality traits or anything close. Sure, we have a seemingly stereotypical kuudere female and goofball clumsy male, but the look into their desires and what they do is what really makes them shine. The only reason it isn't perfect is there isn't enough content in the story on both the characters and the side characters.

Enjoyment/5: It's a realistic story with subtle enjoyments and subtle harsh feelings. Not rosey, not cynical. This comes off boring at many points to read through or unrewarding. With the sort of ending that it has, it will seem even more unrewarding to finish. I can understand the intention, but trying to portray realism and in the way it does it here doesn't exactly mean that, at points, the artistically beautiful work we have here wont come off as a dull slow-burn to nowhere.

Overall/tl;dr/7:
If I were to recommend any kind of Age gap romance to someone, it would definitely be this. Too many manga from Usagi Drop and others hold the mistake of trying to preserve this idea that "some exceptions are ok". I get that writing stories of taboo relationships can be interesting and they surely are, the regularity and lack of giving a sense of maturity to them seem to just indulge in the simple vulgarity and excuse of allowing immaturity. (Especially of the older party.)
Here we have a story of an older male. Who is experienced. Each time, disappointing the shippers, he does the right thing in his role as a more experienced person who struggles with his own dilemmas while assisting another's.

On the other hand, I wont be fooled that this TRIED very hard to also be a manga about romance. A heavy focus with a story meant to be portrayed. Themes and arts. At heart, this was trying hard to be a love story. Yet it couldn't. No matter what, it was only recipe for a let down and could have been much more if done differently. Not in completing a romance but put more perspective on the other themes it had instead of placing it on the backburner.