Rainy Day Serenade is getting a second life. Haruka Kawachi’s beloved manga will return with a spinoff series, Namidaame to Serenade: Gaiden, launching in Kodansha’s Kiss magazine on November 25. The announcement came in the magazine’s December issue, giving fans of the long-running series a new chapter to look forward to just as the original story has closed.
Rainy Day Serenade (Credits: Kodansha)
The spinoff follows a heartbroken Kikunoshin, who runs into a sudden commotion at the Fuji Sakura cafe he frequents. That setup keeps the series’ familiar emotional core front and centre: everyday places, complicated feelings, and the small disruptions that change a person’s direction. For readers who followed the original for more than a decade, returning to Kikunoshin in a new story — rather than a simple reprint or side collection — is a meaningful continuation.
Rainy Day Serenade spinoff release date and story
Kawachi launched the original Rainy Day Serenade in Kodansha’s Kiss magazine in 2014, and the series ended in November 2025. Kodansha shipped the manga’s 14th and final compiled book volume in February, closing a run that spanned over ten years. The spinoff’s November 25 launch therefore arrives at a fitting moment: the main story is complete, but its world is not quite finished yet.
Kodansha USA Publishing has licensed the original manga and is releasing it in two-in-one omnibus volumes, making the series accessible to English-language readers who want to catch up before the spinoff. That availability matters, because Rainy Day Serenade’s appeal has always rested on its slow, character-driven storytelling rather than a single hook — the kind of series that rewards readers who take their time with it.
There is also more on the horizon. The series is inspiring an anime adaptation in 2027, which should introduce Kawachi’s story to a much wider audience. A spinoff manga launching ahead of that adaptation keeps the property active and gives existing fans something new while newcomers discover the original.
Haruka Kawachi’s career beyond Rainy Day Serenade
The spinoff also fits neatly into Kawachi’s broader career. She launched the Musashino Rondo manga in Shodensha’s Feel Young magazine in 2020, with its fifth volume arriving in July 2025, and that series inspired a live-action adaptation in April 2025. Earlier, her Natsuyuki Rendezvous manga received an anime adaptation on Fuji TV’s Noitamina block in 2012, the same year that manga ended.
Other works include Request o Yoroshiku, launched in Feel Young in September 2014 and ended in 2019, and Sekine’s Love, published in English by JManga. Across those titles, Kawachi has built a reputation for emotionally grounded stories about adults navigating love, loss and everyday life — a tone that Rainy Day Serenade carried throughout its run.
For now, the key date is November 25. Whether the spinoff is a brief return or the start of a longer new arc remains to be seen, but for fans who said goodbye to the series last year, a new story centred on Kikunoshin is welcome news indeed.
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Source: Anime News Network — read the full story there.