Usagi Drop

Daikichi Kawachi is a 30-year-old bachelor working a respectable job but otherwise wandering aimlessly through life. When his grandfather suddenly passes away, he returns to the family home to pay his respects. Upon arriving at the house, he meets a mysterious young girl named Rin who, to Daikichi’s astonishment, is his grandfather's illegitimate daughter!

The shy and unapproachable girl is deemed an embarrassment to the family, and finds herself ostracized by her father's relatives, all of them refusing to take care of her in the wake of his death. Daikichi, angered by their coldness toward Rin, announces that he will take her in—despite the fact that he is a young, single man with no prior childcare experience.

Usagi Drop is the story of Daikichi's journey through fatherhood as he raises Rin with his gentle and affectionate nature, as well as an exploration of the warmth and interdependence that are at the heart of a happy, close-knit family.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Usagi Drop
Side story:	Usagi Drop Specials

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Characters & Voice Actors

Kaga, Rin

Main

Matsuura, Ayu
Japanese

Kawachi, Daikichi

Main

Tsuchida, Hiroshi
Japanese

Nitani, Yukari

Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka
Japanese

Nitani, Kouki

Supporting

Sakai, Noa
Japanese

Yoshii, Masako

Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya
Japanese

Kawachi, Kazumi

Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi
Japanese

Gotou

Supporting

Kano, Yui
Japanese

Mi-chan

Supporting

Hirakawa, Daisuke
Japanese

Kawachi, Kenji

Supporting

Itou, Masakazu
Japanese

Maeda, Haruko

Supporting

Ueda, Kana
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nakatake, Tetsuya

Producer

Matsushita, Keiko

Producer

Kamei, Kanta

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Wakabayashi, Kazuhiro

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"Sweet Drops" by Puffy

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Ending Theme

"High High High" by Kasarinchu

Reviews

Sep 28, 2011

Archaeon

Recommended

Raising a child isn't easy, and every parent or guardian knows just how taxing all of the daily tasks can be, the sacrifices that need to be made in terms of work and social life, and the almost constant stream of considerations and worries. The truth is that looking after children is one of the biggest causes of stress and grey hairs (or hair loss), amongst adults, but given that the majority of people in the world are (or will be), parents, it's a little odd that such a major topic is still a rarity in anime.

The again, who wants to watch a show about ...

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Sep 15, 2011

Activelee

Recommended

“Daikichi… Daikichi, wake up.”

“…mmhhh… Yes.”

I’m happy. Why? Well, because this show did so much right that it’s tough not to be. Usagi Drop stayed true to the essence of the manga (before the timeskip) and didn’t stray far, if at all, from the original story progression. It captured splendidly the little nuances of an abnormal parent-child reality.

Our lives are full of insignificancies. Waking up irritable and half alert, washing your teeth, brushing your face, fumbling to find your valuables, grocery shopping without a list. The shit we wade through daily but clean up and forget soon after. These are experiences almost all can relate ... to but never share with one another because it’s stuff not worth sharing. Then of course, spliced in between those bits of irrelevance are the undoubtedly meaningful moments to be remembered. And we want to save those precious moments by documenting them. It’s in our nature to try and preserve the best times of our lives in some form or another. So when something like Usagi Drop comes along that personifies ‘life’, in both the boring and the beautiful, we’re able to really connect with the characters and their story on a more personal level.

Rin is modest, caring, independent, and responsible. She’s very mature but then not without those traits which you find ever-present in kids around her age. Joyful, curious, and downright adorable! In terms of lovability, she’s on par with Ushio in my book. You just want to squeeze those little cheeks and embrace her till she dies of asphyxiation. She’s that HNNNGGable. Needless to say, her expressions are genuine signs of love and appreciation, even for something like a poor attempt at tying pigtails. How she feels shows on her face clear as a sunny day. And the window through which we get to see all these sides of her is Daikichi.

Daikichi’s a very straightforward guy, both in personality and appearance. On top of that, he’s nurturing, compassionate, and protective. A little awkward at times but it comes with the job. Not to say I don’t like my dad, I love him, but Daikichi is the kind of father I wished I’d had growing up. He juggles his new responsibilities well with work and still manages to maintain a good relationship with everyone around him. Standing in as a guardian for your past grandfather’s illegitimate kid probably isn’t easy so I think he deserves a break here and there for his goofups. Watching Daikichi is a true breath of fresh air what with all the high school/university kids hogging most of the attention in anime. What you get is a middle aged guy just trying to do his best to provide for himself and his new little house warmer.

TWO little house warmers considering the frequency of Kouki’s visits. He and his mother are two more people you’ll find to be endearing as they interact with Rin and Daikichi. Aside from his apparent cheekiness, Kouki’s a good kid and it shows in his submissive yet protective behavior towards Rin. Looking at their close friendship and the overt chemistry between Yukari and Kawachi, it’s quite easy to envision them becoming a family in the near future. In fact, beyond the show’s conclusion you could say they’re already family.

And because of the relatively fluid art and animation, we’re able to see how they become so close. Soft watercolour-esque scenes start out each episode before the opening song rolls. It’s really a nice way of preceding the bulk of the episode. Character designs are markedly simplistic but there’s no need to fuss over it. With some added touches of realism, it’s nice knowing they do change clothes each day and night and that Daikichi does grow a stubble if he doesn’t shave every day like any other grown man. The backgrounds are subtle yet detailed; from pavement cracks to packaged market meat, everything in view is easy on the oculars.

To supplement the animation is the writing which shines through in the dialogue. Ayu and Tsuchida’s performance as the voices of Rin and Daikichi leave little more to be asked for. Thanks to them and all the other seiyuus, the talking that goes on in the show becomes one of its strengths. For example, in one episode, Daikichi and Harumi, Reina’s mom, have a serious discussion about Harumi’s marital problems which is eavesdropped on by Rin. But noticing this, Reina takes her aside and shows her how she copes when mom and dad don’t get along. Not something seen every day, you get both the child and parent’s perspectives of when things aren’t going so smoothly at home. Really, kids are keen in times like that and it’s great to see that the anime picks up on this detail. And it’s not only those I’ve listed who have depth of character but everyone has their own charm about them and grows, if just a little, in their own way in the span of only a year.

Now soundwise, the piano melodies and environmental acoustics fit well with whatever present surroundings were onscreen. The opening/ending songs are two very cheery jingles. Catchy it was but not enough to my taste to warrant a replay every week. Though, I would’ve never known that the group who did the opening is the same group who did the Teen Titans theme song (one of my favorites) had I not looked it up. Nostalgia, woo! From their tower they can see that all together, the music worked in pacing the way scenes played out.

Usagi Drop was an engagingly heartfelt tale of an atypical family living and learning how to adjust to their odd circumstances and the intricacies it affords. It handled themes like the importance of family values and the trials of child raising with great consideration for its audiences.

Despite its title I advise against dropping this anime because sitting down to watch Rin and Daikichi go through child/parenthood is an experience to be cherished. And I, for one, certainly have.

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May 29, 2013

ktulu007

Mixed Feelings

Usagi Drop started out as a manga by Unita Yumi. The anime adaptation was handled by Production I.G. It's also the second Josei series I've been asked to review. The other being Nodame Cantabile. Let's take a look at Usagi Drop and see how it compares.

The story follows a man named Daikichi who goes to his grandfather's funeral only to discover that his grandfather had an illegitimate child named Rin. His family treats her like a nuisance, which angers him so he makes a snap decision to take custody of her. You know, like all of those other stories where someone without kids is somehow ... forced into looking after one. The anime follows the two in their daily lives as they grow closer and as Daikichi uncovers information about Rin's past. There's really not much in terms of an actual story. The biggest negative is just that the series is largely boring. A bunch of ordinary events like a kindergarten graduation or visiting family may be a natural part of life, but they don't make for an interesting or compelling narrative. Not unless there are some really spectacular characters behind them, but I'll get to that in a bit. The most tension you get is that Rin comes down with the flu for all of an episode. The series tries to maintain a humorous tone most of the time, but most of the jokes aren't really funny. They're just like those stories that some parents tell about their kid doing something kind of stupid that the parent finds hilarious but no one else actually cares about because it's not really funny but you feel compelled to fake a laugh to be polite. To give the series some credit, there are some cute moments and Daikichi's search for Rin's mother is kind of interesting. It also avoids the cheesy romance plot that usually comes with "single person is compelled to look after a kid and discovers the 'joys' of parenthood" stories.

Then we have the characters. The kids in this act like actual children which translates to them being pretty obnoxious most of the time. The only real exception is Rin, who's, thankfully, the one we spend the most time with. She can be annoying at times, but most of the time she's mature in enough ways to be tolerable. Most of the adult characters are just kind of boring. They spend a lot of their time focusing on their kids, which kind of reminds me of some people I've known who were interesting before they had kids but won't shut up about their kids now that they've had them and aren't interesting anymore. Now, before you send me a bunch of angry messages, I'm not saying all parents are like that. I'm specifically talking about parents who don't have interests outside of being parents or don't seem to since all they ever talk about is their children.

The art in this is kind of sketchy. The opening scenes for every episode have this kind of chalky unfinished look and then it transitions into a more complete look. Initially I thought that they'd just run out of time and hadn't been able to completely finish, but after a few episodes it became clear that it was just a very odd stylistic decision. They also have some very strange moments where the character's faces convert to a very minimalistic style which I think is done as an attempt at humour, but I'm not sure since it can be hard to discern what's supposed to be funny and what's just whimsical. The backgrounds tend to be pretty plain. Most of the time the characters and various objects do look pretty nice though. The flora especially.

The cast in this is decent enough. Although not really anything special. the music is kind enough to play an effect most of the time something funny is supposed to have happened. Which is kind of weird. Did they just know the material wasn't going to actually be funny and having a character hold a sign saying "laugh" would've been too obvious? The music is pretty fitting for the series. It's slow and soft.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. Most of the focus is on six year olds so it makes sense that there's not yuri in this.

So, that's Usagi Drop. Honestly, I'm not in the demographic for this since my general reaction to children can best be summed up as "meh." It's a mostly light-hearted and very dull series. There's nothing egregiously wrong with it, but you probably aren't going to be entertained by it unless you really like children. For myself, I give it a 5/10. Meh.

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Usagi Drop

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Nitani, Yukari

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Usagi Drop

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Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

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Reviews

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