Ranked #341

Usagi Drop Specials

These four little specials are so cute. At five minutes each they're a perfect filler between episodes. Usagi Drop has been named as a slice of life anime, well these little shorts are like a slice out of that first slice of life!

I think these episodes followed on beautifully from the parent anime, the sound and the style seemed the same to me, as did the characters. Of course in five minutes you can't always expect the same character development from what you get from something twenty minutes long!

Although I would have loved to have seen something like the Episode 3.5 "Dear My Santa Claus" developed into a longer Christmas Special it was still really beautiful. But at the same time those Christmas Specials are done by everyone these days. So in a way it was probably best they kept it short and sweet and merely showed another reference of the care, respect and love Rin and Daikichi have for one another and how they react to another new event in their new relationship.

I'm going to end my review by stating that making these short episodes was a much better idea than trying to condense these extra scenes into the parent anime and I'd definitely watch them again and again, just like I will the main Usagi Drop episodes. read more

I'm going out on a limb here and writing this based on the first Special, "Aquarium of Leaves".

I loved the manga and almost flipped when I found out that they were going to do LAM and an animé. At the same time, I was somewhat leery of them taking too many liberties and ruining something I cherished. When I found out that they only had the go-ahead for one (half) season, I wondered if they were going to super-compress the story or restrict themselves to the first portion.

But I'm not writing a review of the parent series, in spite of how it seems at the moment. I truly enjoyed the animé and rewatch episodes often.

The reason I blathered on so much about the parent show was to point out that these specials (the first episode, at least) are what most would consider "filler" or "non-cannon". They don't appear in the manga.

That being said, I think the first episode followed the spirit of the manga and animé very well, adding spice to an already tasty dish without distracting, overwhelming, or being so bland as to be unnoticable.

The art and sound seemed to be comperable to the parent without cutting corners. The characters seemed the same even though I thought Daikichi didn't come across quite as belligerently clueless as he does in my favorite parts of the manga and parent show (which is why I marked "Character" down).

The thing which stands out most clearly for me was the story. I thought it carried the same feel as the manga and the parent animé (which follows the manga so closely) while giving us a fresh peek into Rin and Daikichi's lives. From her creativity to his acceptance and encouragement of it, it's as sweet as my favorite parts of the parents which birthed this little gem.

It's a very enjoyable "day-trip" back to a place I had feared was old ground. Enough of the familliar to make me feel at home, but with with so much new and novel to keep me interested and immersed. It definately left me wanting more (MUCH more), but not at all dissatisfied with the brief visit I got to spend with Rin and Daikichi. read more