Usagi drop is one of the rare josei series to receive anime adaptions. Josei manga targeted towards older women, and usually the smallest segment of the manga/light novel market. It is rare that josei works achieve popularity to gain an Anime adaption. Furthermore, it is rare for Josei manga to receive official English releases, so we are less conscious of differences between Josei and works written for other audiences.
What sets josei series apart from other genres is their focus often on the complexities of real world relationships. Characters in josei series can be flawed, grey and interpersonal relationships are complicated. In shoujo or shone slice of life romances often focus on an average/flawed main character entering into a romance with a perfect or idolized partner. The story is told by enumerating the main characters good qualities and introducing the idol partner’s flaws to make them social equals. This makes for good entertainment, but it doesn’t reflect common real world relationships. The head cheerleader rarely hooks up with the nerdiest guy in school. Josei series in contrast might instead deal with why a women chooses to remain with a flawed partner. Why a women remains with an abusive husband. This type of stylistic difference is important understand when reading a josei titles. You are entering stormy waters where ships are not meant to sail. If you sail ships in these waters they will often sink or veer off course. Sometimes ship will evaporate as if they were never there. In the rare event a ship is on course, it may be the only ship that is sailing.
Usagi drop is not a romance. It is a slice of life/drama. The story is about the complexities of familial relationships. The main character Daikichi is a 30 year old man, at his grandfather’s funeral adopts his supposedly illegitimate daughter. The story is told from his point of view and deals with the struggles of suddenly becoming a single parent. The story is told largely from his point of view, and the cast introduced are other young parents. The second half of the story is told ten years later and from the point of view of now almost adult children. It deals with typical struggles of teens transitioning to adults. Love, angst, what do I do with my life and increasingly complex relationships with families.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
The author’s storytelling is excellent if not masterful. I think many people will notice that the supporting cast is given the ‘right’ amount of character development. The level of character development a character receives is used to make the reader feel that Daikichi’s and Rin’s household is normal, when it is anything but.
Daikichi is a man who has never married and chooses to adopt his grandfather’s (adopted) daughter. Child rearing is a difficult activity and most single person rarely enters into parenthood voluntarily. Many of Daikichi’s coworkers have families of their own, but represent the typical nuclear household where two parents raise biological children. Their families are mentioned, but rarely introduced as they are far removed from Daikichi’s world. Instead the characters who play central roles in the story are the Nitani familyare typical single parent household born from a failed marriage. The one nuclear families we catch a glimpse of is Reina’s family which is a nuclear family, with a troubled marriage.
I also like that how time skip shifted the point of view of the story. The beginning of the story is told from the point of view of parents and their struggles as young parents. The second half of the story is told by children who are now young adults. Both Kouki’s and Rin’s decisions and outlooks are conscious of their single parent and in contrast their classmate’s desires seem more trivial. Decisions like whether or not they should attend university are influenced by their family relationships. Kouki and Rin both show a greater disposition towards choosing a path that is not necessarily based on desires, what will be best for the people who raised them.
I feel that Kouki’s character is misunderstood as many people express disappointment with how he grew up. His character is portrayed beautifully and represents who he is at the age of 16. A wayward teenager with no father figure. He is in a rebellious phase where he frequently disappoints those who are around him through a lack of discipline and by lashing out. The worst of these streaks are often resolved by Daikichi, illustrating his need for father figure. Despite his flaws, he is honest, kind hearted and cares deeply about his loved ones. He is essentially a lost teenage boy.
Rin at age 16 also seeks a mother figure and forms a bond with her mother, by her own choosing. We are shown from the beginning that Rin’s mother is a flawed character, but not necessarily a ‘bad’ person. As Rin enters adulthood she is aware of the sacrifices Daikichi has made by raising her. Sacrifices that most people would not make. He essentially sacrificed his youth, career and social prospects by adopting her a child he never had societal obligation towards. Rin’s mother illustrates this clearly.
Many people are disappointed in the ending, to the point of they describe the ending as ruining the series. However, this is simply because the ending violates a taboo. Daikichi is not a biological father, but a surrogate father. Given her circumstances Rin’s desires are not hard to understand. Her desire is fundamentally to remain in a single household with the person that sacrificed everything to raise her. The romantic relationship is for the most part one sided, even though Daikichi comes to accept it. In the end this manga is simply a story about the complexity of family relationships and what makes a family. This story begins and ends with as unlikely a family as any.
