02.06
When people say “anime,” the types of shows that come tomind are usually something including robots, people punching each other, and/orgirls in sailor suits. Usagi Drop,while not the best anime out there definitely stood its ground in a time when moe is dominating the market.
Enter Daikichi—he’s not exactly a bum, but he’s not exactlythe picture of perfection either. He’s single and in his thirties, holding up areasonably good job, and he’s just fine with that. You’d expect that lastsentence to be followed with something starting with an “until,” but josei don’t really work that way.
Enter Rin—the six year old illegitimate child of Daikichi’srecently deceased grandfather. The rest of Dai’s family isn’t exactly pleasedwhen they find out such news following a death in the family, leading Rin to bein quite the situation until Daikichi makes the snap-decision to tend to who istechnically his aunt.
What follows is a series made of some of the mosttrue-to-life and heartwarming moments in a time in television when childhood isstarting to take a backseat to the more appealing yet still awkward angstyteenage years. You’d assume that Daikichi and Rin are both at a loss forsomething that the other is able to complete, but to say that would cheapenthings significantly. Daikichi is in a position in his life where raising achild wouldn’t drastically hurt him, nor would it benefit him, either. Ifanything, one would think Rin to be the needier of the two, but upon actuallyinteracting together, she comes off as the more independent one. Bothcharacters don’t necessarily need to rely on the other, but they do so anyway,making for an interesting relationship between caretaker and child.
As the series progresses, the duo is faced with day-to-daychallenges, such as the daily commute, grocery shopping, and basically gettingthrough life as a whole. It’s not exactly “slice-of-life” in the way thatsomething like Lucky Star isconsidered. Rather, it relies on how the two act as a unit to surpass theirproblems, giving warm-fuzzies to anyone watching. I wouldn’t exactly call thema team, but it’s not like the two are lone-wolf types that set theirdifferences aside for the greater good, either; it’s a portrayal of real lifeproblems in a realistic manner, which I found enjoyable enough.
Where the series starts to flounder, however, is in itssupporting characters. With Daikichi’s parents and sister, his co-workers,parents of Rin’s classmates, not to mention Rin’s real mother, there are justso many possibilities for how the story can progress, yet so little actual useof the supporting characters themselves besides the one time they wereintroduced. You’d think that with the source material manga being over and donewith by the time the anime began that some liberties would be taken in somecharacters and story-progression, but no. Instead, what we get is an animatedversion of the first four volumes of the series, nearly verbatim (or whateverthe manga to anime version of that word would be). While I do applaud thedecision to stop the series early in favor of avoiding the more awkward latervolumes, I would have enjoyed the decision a lot more if the anime tried harderto become a separate entity from its source. I mean… it worked for Yu Yu Hakusho.
As a whole, UsagiDrop isn’t the best series in the history of anime, but at 11 episodes, itdoes provide as a nice dose of something new. And with the live-action Lserving as the live-action Daikichi in the movie version of the series, youmust admit that you’re at least somewhat curious about it.
(For more of my Episodic Reviews of the series, check out my personal blog. It’s like my own personal spin-off of the AR Blog.)
Originally posted on Saturday, September 24, 2011.