When It Rains, It Pours: Mellow Rain

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Announced Date: Thursday 5 November 2026 on MBS at 24:59, unbroadcast when this record was written.
Staggered Relay: Five further stations carry it on their own dates and times, the last starting 12 November.
Date Discrepancy Resolved: MyDramaList’s 4 November conflicts with the Japanese sources’ Thursday 5 November; 5 November 2026 is the Thursday, so this record uses it.
Committee Funded: A production committee formed for the series shares the credit with MBS.
Novel Adaptation: Adapted from Michi Ichiho’s novel, published in Fleur Bunko with a later Dear+ Bunko edition.
Returning Leads: Asahi Ito as Nakarai Sei and Jun Muto as Hagiwara Kazuaki.
Crew Unannounced: Neither a director nor a screenwriter is named on any source consulted.
No Score Recorded: Nothing has been broadcast, so no editorial score has been given.

EDITOR’S VERDICT

Reviewed by Renkaze, editor of BL & GL Flix

What the announcement confirms

A première on Thursday 5 November 2026 at 24:59 on MBS, followed by a documented regional relay through Telewakayama, Chiba TV, TV Saitama, Tochigi TV and Gunma TV, each with its own start date and time. A production committee shares the credit with MBS. Asahi Ito and Jun Muto return as Nakarai Sei and Hagiwara Kazuaki. The source is Michi Ichiho's novel. The season is set four months after the first, with Kazuaki back from Osaka.

What it does not

No director and no screenwriter are named on either source consulted, which is a substantial gap for a second season. No episode count, no running time, no content rating. No supporting cast has been announced. Nothing states how much of the source novel the season draws on, or whether it continues past the first season's material. The date itself required adjudication between sources rather than simply being read off an announcement.

What would change this record

Broadcast, and a first-season record in this catalogue to link it to, which does not currently exist. On the season, the open question is the one every domestic sequel faces: whether ordinary life between two settled people yields enough material for a run, or whether a complication has to be imported to fill it. The announced premise, which removes the previous obstacle by bringing one man home from Osaka, commits to the harder version. Whether it sustains that is not knowable in advance, and no score is recorded.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

When does it start?

Thursday 5 November 2026, at 24:59 on MBS. Regional stations follow on their own dates through to 12 November.

Why do some listings say 4 November?

MyDramaList gives 4 November, but both Japanese sources behind this entry state Thursday 5 November, and 5 November 2026 falls on a Thursday while 4 November does not. This record follows the Japanese sources.

Where can it be watched?

MBS first, then Telewakayama, Chiba TV, TV Saitama, Tochigi TV and Gunma TV, each at its own time. No streaming or catch-up service has been announced, and no arrangement for viewers outside Japan.

Is it a sequel?

Yes, it is the second season. The first season is not currently held in this catalogue, so there is no companion record here to link from.

Is this based on something?

Yes, Michi Ichiho's novel Futtara Doshaburi, serialised in Fleur and published in Fleur Bunko, with a later Dear+ Bunko edition.

How many episodes is it?

Not announced. Neither source gives an episode count or a running time, and no director or screenwriter is named either.

Which parts of this record are settled?

The broadcast dates and the source novel. The drama itself has not gone out, and the crew is only partly named. This catalogue records such fields from the finished work and from published credits, and leaves them visibly empty when neither exists yet.

Written and verified by Renkaze · Last updated 20 September 2026

Details here come from pre-broadcast announcements for a second season, and its start date had to be adjudicated between conflicting listings. Unreleased productions change dates and credits routinely; see our site disclaimer on corrections.

What When It Rains, It Pours: Mellow Rain is about

Six stations, five different weekdays, five different times, and a first-to-last spread of a week: this is how a great deal of Japanese television actually reaches people, and it is worth understanding because it shapes what the programmes themselves can be.

A production like this is not commissioned by a national network and rolled out simultaneously. MBS is an Osaka broadcaster, and the drama is funded by a production committee, a consortium that shares the cost and the rights between several companies. The finished programme is then placed with independent stations region by region, each slotting it wherever it fits. Chiba gets it on a Friday, Saitama the following Wednesday, Gunma after that.

Two consequences follow. The first is that there is no single national moment: the audience for any given episode is assembled gradually over a week or more, in pieces, which makes the communal viewing that drives online discussion harder to organise and pushes conversation toward whoever saw it first. The second is scale. A committee-funded drama relayed through independents is working with less money than a network production, and that is one reason Japanese boys' love of this kind runs short, shoots on few locations and favours interiors and two-handers.

A domestic sequel about two people negotiating ordinary life suits those constraints almost exactly. The economics and the register are not unrelated, and it would be a mistake to read the modesty of such a series purely as an artistic choice.

When It Rains, It Pours: Mellow Rain

SYNOPSIS

CONTENT DETAILS

KEY TAKEAWAYS

EDITOR’S VERDICT

What the announcement confirms

What it does not

What would change this record

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What When It Rains, It Pours: Mellow Rain is about

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