Daikichi is a single, never married, thirty-something male who takes the responsibility of raising Rin, a five year old girl who was in the care of his grandfather who passed away. Nobody in the family wanted her, so Daikichi took responsibility. The setup of Usagi Drop sounds close to a Hallmark Hall of Fame type of thing, a family drama produced by a greeting card company.
The premise is convoluted enough to move it a step away from standard family drama. Usagi Drop isn’t describing an emerging social trend or playing with nostalgia for a bygone age. Rin’s birth is unclear during the 11-episodes of Usagi Drop, but it leaves us with 5-year old Rin is 30-something Daikichi’s aunt. It’s a deliberately unusual and obfuscated birth situation, which is a fantasy staple and in a way Usagi Drop plays a bit like a fantasy.
There is just as much attention paid, if not more, to how Daikichi changes than on Rin, but the magic of Usagi Drop happens when both of Rin and Daikichi move at the same time. Early in the series, there is a scene where a tired Daikichi carries a tired Rin on his back as they trudge home long after both of them should have been there already. Rin tells Daikichi that the moon is following them and he runs with it. There’s a lot going on in that scene and I’m not going to ruin it by pondering on it for too long, but Usagi Drop has a handful of these cornerstone moments that move their relationship into new places. The writing pushes movement and scenes, no matter how mundane or meandering, don’t go to waste.
Other than the unusual birth situation, the humor and light drama of Daikichi and Rin’s situation is played straight, as in the humor that arises comes from normal child rearing situations that would occur from a single man who didn’t have the luxury of coming up to speed with the realities of raising a child and taking the responsibility for raising her seriously. The humor is not wacky or creepy comedy. The reality isn’t gritty. It has a hopeful glow.
Now, that’s how these 11 episodes play out. Apparently, the manga takes the story further into territory that some feel wrecks the story. I don’t know what that is, though looking at the pieces I have a pretty good guess, but hey, the eleven episodes we have of Usagi Drop are worthy of a view. Enjoy it.
Loved “Usagi Drop” and quite like how you worded the last paragraph as it’s how I feel about it too, especially considering the particular feeling and atmosphere seen in the anime, the manga’s later plot turn seems like it undermines some of that magic. But that doesn’t really bother me as I’ve only really followed the anime and quite adore it.
Yeah is definitely a great anime, I didn’t read the manga yet but i’m gonna try it this week.
A well written summary, I loved this show.
Quite a different setting, with Daikichi trying to be a good single parent.
I liked that Usagi Drop managed to be really heartwarming without being cheesy.
I guess I don’t want to take a look into the manga, scared of a sad ending ^^
I’m of the same mind. I’m going to remain ignorant of what the manga did. Anime adaptations sometimes change it anyway and since I don’t read manga, well, why go find out? If they continue the anime to include the second half, I definitely will watch it because I’m a fan of the story presented in the anime.
The drawing / quality on this anime looks amazing…I’ve never seen it but the picture makes it seem really realistic.
The art style for Usagi Drop is different from many anime, particularly nowadays since it really tries to go for a water color type feel. The image above, I’ve bumped up the saturation by a lot to look good as a still on a web page. The colors in the anime are a lot less saturated.
Usagi Drop was by far one of the most enjoyable anime I’ve seen this year. A lot of things that happened in it I was quite familiar with either in my own childhood (the tree part) or my fatherhood (quite a few things). It was also nice to learn the differences in culture of child rearing in Japan, such as what they do with their teeth when they lose them. The eleven episodes were a masterpiece and though I would like to see more, I’m worried because of the manga situation. I was going to read the manga until I heard it nosedives, but I’d rather stick only to the anime adaption that I’ve grown to love.
Yeah, the little details like the teeth give it life.
I saw this in crunchyroll a few days ago, and I really wanted to watch it. Unfortunately it was in English subtitles! This makes me extremely excited to watch it now. Subtle, simple character growths are always the most fun to watch (like Ouran).
Hope you enjoy it. If that’s the type of thing you enjoy, then Usagi Drop has a good chance of being something you’ll like.
Too me whats fantasy is the fact that Rin is simply too good to be true.
To show such maturity as five years of age is really something, something in a good dam way because all i can think of a 5 year old is being a cry baby.
Haha, yeah, definitely some of that too.
[...] Posted in Anime | Tagged with comedy, drama, Production-IG, slice-of-life Comments: 12 comments [...]
Thank you the amazing review. I am always on a look out for animes. A lot of animes have affected me in many ways. I am glad to hear a touching story that I know I will really enjoy. I am looking forward to finish 11 of its episodes.
Hope you enjoy it. It’s the kind of show where if you’re receptive to its charm it can be a good watch.
I am a mecha fan… but I will check this anime out… something to watch…. that touches the hear is never a bad thing…. thanks for the share…