Story:
A 30 years old man "adopts" a six year old girl out of pity and has to live with the consequences of suddenly becoming a "father". That is technically all there is to it, but it is more than enough to work with. After all, the life of a child is full of events, a lot is changing and on top of that, we have 2 characters who have their lives turned upside down from one day to the next. All this is shown through Daikichis eyes, which is the perspective I can relate to a lot more. It also makes Usagi Drop as sweet as a candy cane. This is slice of life done right, a little bit of drama here and there but ultimately a ride of fuzzy feelings and smiles. The only downside is that it's way to short with only 11 episodes.
9/10
Art:
Despite being focussed on a cute little girl, the anime does not fall into "moe territory". It is cute and simplistic, but nowhere near the point where you could get the feeling it is forced. Being a story about children, Usagi Drop is bright and colorful, which fits this show very well. I also liked to see some normal looking adults for a change, you rarely have that in anime either.
8/10
Sound:
The opening theme is kinda childish, fitting the anime well (fitting seems to be the major word of this review) and it is pretty catchy. Yet, it is not that great in my eyes, but as I mentioned in other reviews, this may just be a case of me having a very different taste in music. Pretty much the same goes for the ending. Something Usagi Drop really shines in though is the voices. Rin is voiced by an actual child, making her sound very convincing, but the others aren't bad either. Soundtrack is spare but never distracting.
9/10
Characters:
The main selling point of this anime. Rin is the most adorable child you will ever see (spoiler: your child will not be this well-behaved) and it is pure joy seeing her grow from the shy little thing in episode one to the happy, normal kid in episode 11. Daikichi does a really good job being a father for her. His initial decision was pretty crazy from a realistic point of view, but he knows this as well and keeps improving to make Rins world a better place. The rest of the cast was okay, none of them stood out as special, but I guess that was not the point of Usagi Drop anyway.
9/10
Enjoyment:
I have a working day of about 8½ hours plus 1½-2 hours of driving. When I get home, I just wanna relax and have some fun. When I tuned into my daily dose of Rin, I felt at peace. It made me think that life is good. To watch a child grow up can really be all the joy you'll ever need and I think I can finally understand parents who give up everything for this one little thing.
Okay, that was very cheesy, I apologise.
Usagi Drop will give you a good feeling, wether you like children or not. As long as you don't mind the slice of life genre, you should definitely take a look at this.
10/10
Overall:
9.0/10
