Happy Rain

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"Rain is rain, brother. It comes from the sky. It's a wetness known as water - aqua pura. Mammals drink it. Fish swim in it. Little boys wade in it. And the birds flap their wings and sing like sunrise. Water! I recommend it."

—Starbuck, The Rainmaker

"We love rain! We love rain! Splash, splash, splash! Fun, fun, fun! Rain, rain, rain!"

—Invader Zim

Those occasions when people are happy to be rained upon. Perhaps there was a drought, perhaps it was too hot, or perhaps the protagonist just enjoys Singin in The Rain. In Fisher King situations, may indicate the defeat of the Big Bad.

Compare Redemption in the Rain.

Examples of Happy Rain include:

Anime and Manga

  • Wolf's Rain might be a subversion - everybody would be happy that it's raining for the first time in decades if it weren't for the fact that... they all die before it starts. But it does mark the start of the world's rebirth, so it's happy in that sense.
  • Yotsuba and The Heavy Rain. (Though I like how my paper copy puts it better: "She can find happiness in anything. Nothing in this world can get her down. Nothing.")
    • That's not a heavy rain—that's just a shower. This is a heavy rain. "Enjoy everything"—even typhoons.
  • At the end of the Alabasta arc of One Piece, after the conspiracy is foiled, it starts raining after their artificial drought is brought to an end.
  • During the Johto arc of the Pokémon anime, after Ash and co. help fix a drought.
  • Done in the Azumanga Daioh manga with Osaka, who seems to be HAPPY about going to school the day there is a typhoon.

"Whoooo!! Ain't it tough!"

  • The ending of an episode of Kimba the White Lion has the animals cheering during a rainstorm that ended a drought.

Comic Books

  • Lanfeust parodies at one point a TV commercial for shower gel: on an island populated by beautiful nubile women, the coming of the rain is an occasion for everyone to strip naked and take an outdoor shower.
  • The end of Asterix and the Magic Carpet where Cacofonix's singing starts to make it rain, which is joy for the Indians because they have gone for 1001 hours without it - which means they no longer have to bathe in mud.
  • Happens on two occasion in Lucky Luke: In The Wagon Train, when the caravan of California-bound settlers was running out of water after crossing a desert; and in Barbed Wire On The Prairie, when a showdown between ranchers and farmers had turned to the latter's advantage because of a drought (the rain came just after an agreement to share water was reached).
  • In the V for Vendetta comic book, the rain storm that saves him from burning into a small pile of ash and the rain that Evey stands out in the middle of.
    • Made it into the movie, too.

"God is in the rain."

  • A fairly recent but iconic Storm cover shows her laughing in the rain.

Fan Works

  • In With Strings Attached, when the four and the Hunter broke the curse hanging over the Plains of Death, it rained there for the first time in three years. John loved it.

Film

  • Singin in The Rain, obviously. You don't have to take our word for it, just look!
  • The film version of Dune: When Muad'Dib makes the rain fall at last, the Fremen rejoice.
    • This is... a bit awkward if you've read the book. Rain on Arrakis would drown the sandworms, filling the soil with a deadly poison and destroying the only source of Spice in the universe, thereby also preventing space travel. Probably not the effect the filmmakers were going for...
      • The scene compresses a bit from the books about Leto II terraforming the north pole of Dune, where the capital city was located, presumably involving magically created thunderstorms, and this issue was discussed when the sandworms started dying... so Yeah.
  • Ikiru Heavy rain and snow are of no concern to the dying protagonist, who has achieved his goal, is playing and singing in a swing and can't be happier.
  • Shara: In the middle of a summertime street festival, a sudden downpour drenches everyone, but it's actually welcome as a symbol of the release of pent-up energies.
  • Betelnut Beauty: The heroine walks into a summer downpour and lets out a long, liberating scream.
  • Lagaan subverts this. The villagers see dark clouds on the horizon and already are singing and dancing bollywood style to celebrate. Then a short, excited pause. Then the clouds pass without raining. Aww, crap.
    • Of course, in the climax of Lagaan it does rain, and everyone gets excited again.
  • Happens in Pleasantville, the where Tobey Maguire is joyous at the rain that comes in to their tv town
  • The big celebration during of the the (false) endings of Baz Luhrmann's Australia. The kiss in the rain between The Drover and Lady Sarah. It's on some promotional material.
  • The final scenes of Breakfast at Tiffany's take place in a torrential downpour.
  • In the movie Blindness, when it rains for the first time all of the characters rejoice and party.
  • When Andy Dufresne finally gets out of the prison in The Shawshank Redemption, it's raining. It's even shown on the promotional poster. Of course, he had more reason than most to be happy with a heavy rainstorm, since he'd just literally "waded through a river of shit".
  • At the end of The Lion King it rains after Simba defeats Scar.
  • Disney's Balloon Farm
  • Everyone celebrates at the end of the film adaptation of Holes when it starts raining.
    • Notable because this was the first rain the former lakebed had received in 100 years.

Literature

  • The climax of the Discworld novel The Last Continent, when Rincewind the Wizzard more or less accidentally brings rain to the country of Fourecks for the first time. The aboriginal people were particularly happy, as they finally got to use their word for "the smell of rain."
  • In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story The Hour of the Dragon, the death of the king and his sons from The Plague is immediately succeeded by a terrible storm—but the next morning dawns clear and bright, with the end of the plague. This is interpreted as a sign from the gods of wonderful wonderfulness. (They're wrong.)
  • The second Red Dwarf novel finds Lister back on Earth that has been turned over entirely to garbage. The planet attempts to kill him, first with acid rain and then with oily rain with lightning. Lister suffers a Heroic BSOD before striking a deal with the planet. When this occurs, it starts to rain normally and Lister starts to atone for humanity's mistakes.
  • At the end of the Warrior Cats novel, The Fourth Apprentice, everyone is happy that the rain has finally came and the drought has ended.

Live-Action TV

  • Lost has John Locke sitting in the rain and grinning (though it's mostly only happy for him).
  • In the Supernatural episode "Changing Channels," the end of the episode has the Trickster, who has been revealed as the archangel Gabriel, trapped in a circle of holy fire in an abandoned warehouse. Dean sets off the sprinkler system in the warehouse, and Gabriel looks up to see a torrent of artificial rain pouring down to extinguish the holy fire. The moment is played up for rather more drama than it really warrants, which to this troper suggests it's foreshadowing something in the fast-approaching series finale...
  • An episode of Quantum Leap, where Sam leaped in the body of a rainmaker in a place suffering a terrible drought, had this : especially notable as it rained against all possible odds. Considering that in the Finale, it was revealed that Sam's leaps are the doing of God...
  • James May has one of these moments during the Top Gear Vietnam special, even cheerfully singing a Beach Boys song...until his motorcycle runs out of gas. It doesn't hurt that his close friend Jeremy Clarkson is hating motorcycling and everything about it.

Clarkson: Name an upside to this, May! Name one upside.
May: Well, you're not hot any more, are you?

Music

  • Rain by DDT.
  • The protagonist of Rupert Holmes's hit "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (and his would-be mistress/wife) enjoy the aforementioned beverage and getting caught in the rain.
  • "Let it Rain", by Eric Clapton.
  • Sort of a mixture of an inversion and playing the trope straight in "Rain" by The Beatles. The narrator sings that all the people run and panic in the rain, while he nonchalantly claims that he doesn't mind rain, and says the weather's fine and relaxing.
  • Rain is a Good Thing by Luke Bryan.
  • Taylor Swift's "Fearless" and "The Way I Loved You" have her dancing in the rain.
  • Eddie Rabbit's "I Love a Rainy Night"
  • Garbage's "Only Happy When It Rains".

Theatre

  • The film and play The Rainmaker is about a con man who charges $200 for his services during a drought. Of course at the end of the film it does rain, the guy gets $200 for doing nothing, and everyone lives happily ever after.
  • 110 in the Shade, the musical adaptation of The Rainmaker, builds an awesome Crowd Song ("Rain Song") out of this.

Video Games

  • Polka (it's a little hard to tell about Frederic) is happy about the rain they encounter. Unsurprisingly, as her main product, floral powder, depends heavily upon the right amounts of rain to grow the flowers that go into it.
  • Katamari Damacy's June just loves the rain, so much that she always goes out whenever it rains... or is it that it rains whenever she goes out? Well, in any case, she always enjoys it.
  • The SNES game Robotrek had this as a minor sidequest. When the rain dances and attempted sacrifice from the island villagers did nothing, the protagonist just needed to return and use a magic umbrella to bring rain to the island.
  • The rain-making Song of Storms in The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask has purifying properties, and is able to cleanse curses. Hearing it at bathing in the rain serves as the spiritual closer for one Vengeful Spirit, allowing him to forgive his brother and putting his soul to rest so he can be at peace.

Web Comics

Western Animation

  • In one episode of My Little Pony, a wish accidentally makes it stop raining and thus causes a drought, even putting the Sea Ponies in danger because they need to be in water to live and the lakes and rivers are drying up. Thus, the ponies and their human friends are happy when it finally rains again, and there's even a song about wanting to have some rain again.
  • At the end of the heatwave episode of Hey Arnold!, it rains, returning everyone to sanity. In a subversion, the rain just keeps coming, and everyone has grown tired of it long before the storm has passed.
  • The Heckle and Jeckle cartoon The Rainmakers (1951) has the magpies impulsively wishing it would stop raining forever after a ruined picnic. When the consequences (horrible heat and drought) kick in, they set out to undo the wish—and when they succeed they're given a big honorary parade in the pouring rain.

Real Life

  • Woodstock.
  • Truth in Television. If you just went through the gas mask training chamber in any military training organization, you'll be overjoyed if there's rain to wash the stuff off when you come out. You'll also have very clear sinuses, rain or not.
  • More cheerfully, hot and humid summer days when the thunderstorm finally gets here and it cools off.
    • If you live in a desert, you may find yourself doing this whenever it rains.
  • And some people just like rain.
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