Usagi Drop Reviews

The best thing about Usagi Drop is that everyone knows about it and its finale thus you don’t necessarily have to hold back in what you say when you talk or write about it, but I’ll try to do it anyways while I cover both versions.

There are a good bunch of manga and anime about someone taking care of a child all by themselves but Usagi Drop has the unorthodox approach and quick progression of having a thirty years old man adopting his illegitimate 6 years old aunt, the kind of stuff that makes you raise an eyebrow and check the source out of curiosity alone.

And then you get a sweet and wholesome slice of life and coming of age feel good type of series centered in how the life of the adult, Daikichi, changes completely now that he takes care of a child, from small changes like doing a little more excercise or changing a bit his diet, to more drastic changes in his daily rutine and even changing his job in order to spend more time with Rin and take care of her properly. There’s also a good focus on his own insecurities (as well as others’) as a father figure and how he deals with stuff while he learns from other parents he interact with, as well as he actually tries to communicate with Rin’s mother.

As for Rin, she begins as a melancholic child, sad, silent and distant child because of her backdrop but learns to open up to others rather quickly, this results in a character that is both adorable due to her fondness of bunnies (which remind me of Yuzuyu from Aishiteruze Baby) and other kids things she does, yet at the same time is quite mature for her age, making her a very likeable character, even if her characterization definitely does not represent a typical girl of her age.

There are more characters of course but none of them gets as much focus as the main pair, they all have some backdrop stories, their own way to deal with parenting, and all are lively and likeable in their own way, but their role in the show is to further enrich the dynamics between Daikichi and Rin more than providing something on their own, and their backstories are mostly told instead of shown.

The quick and rather unorthodox setup and all the stuff that happens, along with the character dynamics are what make the show worth the watch instead of the actual plot, which is basic and simplistic and has some issues which I want to adress here. First, the message is that, despite the fact that now your life has changed completely and that now you have to make a lot of sacrifices, all of that is worth it if you manage to make your child happy, which in turn will result in your own happiness. That is sweet and all, no problem with that, but why does the series makes it sound that Daikichi’s life outside of his role as a father is now…kinda…completely over?

This is an issue I have with anime and teenagers’ mentality, you’re not old at your thirties and your life does not necessarily has to be completely dedicated to your kid, you can still have stuff and time for you alone…I mean Daikichi and Yukari are single so it makes sense for them to be completely dedicated to their children but what about the other parents that are married? They sound as if their lives are completely the same as Daikichi’s when it should not.

And seriously, does not the author and any teenager knows about people in their thirties that still go outside sometimes, begin a new family, or a new career? They would be shocked to see what thirty, forty and even fifty years old people are like in my country. This issue only grows stronger in the second half, after the time skip, but I want to leave that for later.

And I have to point out this about Mariko’s story, she is in a relationship she doesn’t want to, and in a family she doesn’t feel part of, for her daughter’s happiness, yet I don’t think a child can possibly grow happy in a family like that. This portrayal in particular wouldn’t be accepted as proper theme exploration in our times, but I guess it’s a japanese story after all, and was made a while ago, and there are women like that, so I’ll have to accept it, but I wanted to point this out. She still left her husband in the second half out of screen so all of this was pointless though.

Another thing with the setup is that, despite Daikichi feeling and saying that his life has changed completely, we don’t actually see any of that previous life he talks about before we see him as a father figure for Rin, as with most characters’ backdrops, it’s implied or told instead of actually shown thus it’s hard to actually understand this supposed big change.

And finally there’s the fact that, as a wholesome and sweet feel good type of everyday life story, Usagi Drop has no conflict to make the plot and subject more compelling, Daikichi has it a little easier than the rest because of Rin’s rather mature side, he gets all the paperwork needed for the adopting and the inscription on kindergartens and schools all too easily and stuff, there aren’t any different takes on parenting and conflicted characters about parenting (as it was the case in Aishiteruze Baby) nor any sense of urgency (as it was the case in The Pursuit of Happyness). This doesn’t mean that Usagi Drop is a bad show nor does it handles its theme poorly, is just that it does a good job for its genre, but does not takes an extra step to be even better.

Compared to the anime, the manga has obviously slower progression, some differences in how some things play out and I think Daikichi has more or at least longer internal monologues, thus I found it to be slightly better than the anime up until chapter 24.

As far as the production in the anime adaptation goes, it did a wonderful job in traslating the story to its medium, the manga has a serviceable art style that becomes better as it goes on, but the artwork remains simplistic all the way to the end, and the backgrounds are often absent. The anime has basic and simplistic designs with facial repetition among its characters, but the artwork is far better, the backgrounds are breathtakingly beatiful, and it of course benefits from its lively body language, fluent motions and pastel special effects that are used at times. It’s so rare to get a slice of lice series that wasn’t made by Kyoto Animation that pays so much attention to detail and artsy elements in its visual presentation.

As for the sound, both the opening and ending are made to sound as innocent and pure as possible, and the background music is made up almost completely of sweet piano pieces. Nothing really memorable but all of it fits the tone and feels the series was going for pretty well. The sound effects are appropiate and the voice acting is spot on, every character has a voice that fits them well, there aren’t that many famous voice actors but those that appear in the series does not sound like their typical roles thus they managed to stand out amongst the rest of their very similar roles (Kana Ueda), everyone did a good job, even the children who were voiced by actual kids.

Thus despite its actual quality being way too exaggerated, Usagi Drop is a fairly well made feel good slice of life series with an interesting premise and an acceptable portrayal of its theme within its genre, as well as loveable characters with good interactions between them, and a much better than needed presentation. And for once, leaving it incomplete worked in its favor because the second half of the manga dropped the ball so hard it made a hole in the ground, good job IG.

After chapter 24, the series makes the common mistake of relying on a big time skip which in this case skips the process of how parenting changes along the years and makes the characters change a lot out of screen, both in body and personality.

What follows after that is a boring and uninteresting high school drama romance that is not about the initial subject anymore, nothing feels important, the character dyamics changed a lot out of screen as well, the biggest conflicts now are that Kouki used to have piercings and red hair, and that Rin and Reina want boyfriends now, who cares about all of this?

I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite, since Aishiteruze Baby also has high school drama and romance, but over there it wasn’t presented after a big time skip, it served to develop the characters and their relationships, and the author more or less tied it up with the main subject, over here it feels like the author didn’t know what to tell anymore.

It’s not that I’m against the idea, I’m against having elements that have nothing to do with the initial hook, on top of being far less interesting. Showing parenting now with teenagers instead of kids could be interesting as well, but that’s not the focus here. And now the message is lost even further, now the kids are not kids anymore yet the adults are still reluctant to find happiness on their own, why? It doesn’t make sense anymore. Showing Daikichi and Yukari having feelings for each other, not getting together because of their kids and then having her marry a random guy that is not shown even once was pure bullshit. I already complained about this “you’re now too old to live your life” mindset and this second half of the manga only made it way worse.

But despite its lows, the adaptation could have been continued a bit further, because there’s a whole volume about Rin wanting to meet her mother, which makes perfect sense, and the manga shows how she finds her name, all the procedures she goes through, little discussions with Daikichi because of that, good stuff. The only minor complain I have is that the reunion itself was very lighthearted, but I’m willing to say that it was still ok because of Rin’s mature attitude, fitting with her personality, and because of her realization that she does not feel that woman as her mother and that Daikichi and the rest are her actual family.

I’m in favor of this type of message, although the people that gave birth to you is undeniably related to you, that doesn’t mean that they are your actual family, especially if they abandoned you, family is the people you grew out with and that cared about you, blood related or not. Thus I think that the anime could have shown the time skip and avoid the silly high school drama to adapt the 7th volume up until chapter 43 and this message, which would have make a perfect ending for this story.

But then the author pissed all over her own story, themes, message and characters from chapter 44 onwards by changing the series completely to a disgusting romance with incestuous vibes, even using the tropes of not blood related relatives, parents that aren’t biological parents, and betraying her own messages along the whole series up until even the exact previous volume. This was a story about parenting and all of a sudden turned into a disgusting telenovela with all of its stupid tropes and plot twists, with rushed revelations to make it even worse. On top of that, after the manga was finished, the author decided to release an extra volume showing stories that take place between those ten years, that only added more salt to the wound. Some of them were shown in the anime specials, but they mean nothing on their own, they are short side stories that don’t add much. In the manga, they only aided in reminding you of what could have been shown instead of the stupid highschool drama, and how good the series was before it was ruined, they show some characters backdrops along those ten years but what does it matter at that point? That should have been shown earlier to make people care, not once the story was over.

And that’s how a perfectly serviceable heartwarming story was ruined because of its author just to be original (although it wasn’t) and to subvert expectations, betraying its premise, setup, character dynamics, development and themes along the way. Shotout to Production I.G for realizing this bullshit and deciding to stop the adaptation midway, now go consume Aishiteruze Baby instead…and Koi Kaze if you happen to want more of that other stuff.

Anime 6/10
Specials 5/10
Manga 4/10