Oh noooooooooooo… 
Daikichi is proving himself to be quite the perv:
But seriously, the honeymoon is over and Daikichi is going to run himself ragged as a single “parent.” Sadly, this is the reality for so many women (and some men) ever since cracks started to appear in the nuclear family ideal. We cut their social benefits and look down on them when they already have it hard enough, then wonder why some kids come to school unequipped — how mind boggling!
Well, at least this’ll get him in shape.
Last week, commenters and I discussed the difficulty in integrating Rin into Daikichi’s life. This episode only serves to confirm our suspicions. In a culture where one proves his or her loyalty to a company by sacrificing long hours at work, how on earth will Daikichi ever have time for Rin? During the pinky promise scene, I was saying to myself, “No~,” because I just knew he was going to break his promise to her; it was a ticking time bomb.
Like records, promises are made to be broken.
Of course, the anime knows what it’s doing and tries its to heighten the drama. Scenes of Daikichi at the office (more like a corner in some shirts warehouse) are interlaid with scenes of Rin trying her best not to glance at her classroom’s entrance but ultimately failing. Predictably enough, Daikichi loses track of time and arrives late to the kindergarten. Mirroring Rin’s frustrations with Daikichi by having her betray a “promise” she had made with another kid was a nice touch.
Children can’t help but take after their parents.
I’m amazed by a couple things: (1) No one scolds Daikichi for arriving late and (2) people aren’t gossiping (well, maybe they are, but we don’t get to hear it) about how Daikichi is a bad parent. Usagi Drop isn’t going to get too heavy for now, I guess. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. I wonder if it’s as easy as eating burdock to get a young kid to forget a broken promise. You could hypothesize that Rin understands how hard Daikichi’s trying, but then that makes the young girl a little too precocious for my tastes. Besides, if this is a story about a single parent’s realistic experiences, giving Daikichi an uber-child would kind of deflate that sentiment.
I’m going to pretend he’s getting a mouthful of waxy crayons ’cause it’s funnier that way.
In the end, Daikichi can’t be a parent without sacrificing something. He’s always going to pick Rin up late, and his work performance is naturally going to suffer. Despite this, the anime seems to draw the unequivocal conclusion that parenting is still worth it:
I wonder if Japan’s declining birth rate has anything to do with this optimism.
The singular hint of foreboding in this episode, if you could even call it that, is when Daikichi calls Haruko, the mother of the bratty girl. He doesn’t call his mother nor his sister; he calls his cousin and I find this a little sad. Sure, Haruko is currently raising a daughter around Rin’s age so it makes sense to turn to her, but even after calling Haruko, Daikichi doesn’t turn to the two women who should be closest to him.
Plus, did you notice how we never got a good look at the old lady in Haruko’s home? I assume, then, she’s an in-law, but I could be wrong (I won’t spoil myself with the manga). By the way Haruko seems hesitant and somewhat exasperated in her own home, I assume also that things aren’t exactly peachy keen between her and her mother. Hopefully, we’ll get a closer look at Haruko’s character, because I find family dynamics utterly fascinating.
Let’s Compare and Contrast
Since Aishiteruze Baby is rather similar to Usagi Drop in many respects, I thought it’d be interesting to see how the two anime deal with the same plot, i.e. being late in picking up a child from school.
The most important difference between the two anime is that Yuzuyu, the young girl in Aishiteruze Baby, is given more of a voice than Rin. While Rin is certainly unhappy when Daikichi arrives late, she doesn’t really get to vocalize her feelings. Yuyuzu of Aishiteruze Baby, on the other hand, is more than mad; in almost the exact same scenario, she feels neglected and eventually jealous. Even so, Yuzuyu has trouble expressing her frustrations like any child would.
So it struck me: Rin fades too much into the background. Other than the time she dashed away from the family to grab some bellflowers for her father’s coffin, Rin’s too much of an idea — an obligation — than a real character. We see her in the corner of our eye, but we don’t really engage her through the anime as a person. How does she really feel about her new situation? — of Daikichi being late? She grimaces on the surface, but what does that really mean? For the most part, the anime is in Daikichi’s head.
Another key difference between the anime is the male protagonists’ safety nets. When Kippei is late in picking up Yuzuyu, his mother comes to the rescue. His sister then gives him a tongue lashing when he comes home. One wonders if Daikichi’s mother and sister are even aware of his current predicament.
Stray Observations
• Nice track jacket, Chie:
• I like that the anime isn’t making a huge deal over Daikichi trying to quit smoking.
The anime handles it wordlessly and with subtlety. In addition, it illustrates Daikichi’s slow maturation without banging the audience over the head with the idea, i.e. a perfect secondary plot that doesn’t interfere with the primary events of the episode.
• I’ve never heard of a temporary kindergarten. Oh, I don’t doubt that they exist, but I’m just saying I’ve never heard of them. From how it’s portrayed in Usagi Drop, like a glorified daycare center to me.
• What’s with anime and making young girls piss themselves? If this show keeps this up, I’m gonna start skipping the tertiary scene at the end of the ED.
Another solid episode and nice review
Thanks for reading.
”I wonder if Japan’s declining birth rate has anything to do with this optimism.”
Couldn’t have said it better. Seriously, if there’s one reason why I wouldn’t want to live in Japan, it’s because of the ridiculous work ethic. Maybe it’s just a dissonance of cultures, but for your life to be reduced to the loyalty of a company sounds implicitly oppressive, not to mention unhealthy.
With all the shit he has to go through at work and also being a single parent, the anime can be a little biased when it comes to parenting. Sometimes, parents feel like strangling their kids — that’s just how it is. Daikichi, on the other hand, either has the patience of a god, or the anime isn’t really giving a balanced look at parenting. As a result, I feel this message might be a little irresponsible.
> No one scolds Daikichi for arriving late
They’re an emergency daycare, and it’s his first night. It would be a bit childish to scold him over a problem he knew existed, couldn’t avoid, felt bad about already, and tried to mitigate by running his ass off to get there as soon as he could. Besides that, he scolded himself in front of Rin, despite telling her he might not be able to make it there before nightfall, and he had improved the situation by the second night. Clearly new to the parenting thing, but not quite at “bad parent” levels yet.
> What’s with anime and making young girls piss themselves?
Kids piss themselves. Wetting the bed isn’t just a TV trope, you know :)
I’m not saying that Daikichi should be scolded. I’m only surprised he wasn’t. In these stories, there’s usually a judgmental character whose sole purpose is to annoy the audience.
If this was anything but anime, I’d think nothing of it. In anime, however, young female characters piss themselves way too often.
I see, funny that I read way too much into that when I too was expecting the same kind of stock character and conflict.
If I remember the manga correctly, the bed-wetting thing was done with far more tact than usual, so I gave it a pass. Wonder if the anime will change it up.
BTW, I agree with your insights about the idealization of Daikichi and Rin, and how they’re not as “real” as they might appear – but I also feel the point of the story is less about child care and more about the odd relationship the two share. I haven’t had time to read much of the manga, though, so I could be wrong.
There aren’t many anime like Usagi Drop and, hell, they aren’t many family dramas in anime period. I’m getting much of my impressions from the live dramas where people tend to be… a little preachier, you could say?
I was being somewhat facetious about the bed-wetting thing anyway. But still, young girl and urine in anime…
Yeah, we might not wanna go down that road. I assume you haven’t heard the spoilers to the manga’s ending.
It seems that Daikichi is in his right mind in regards to child care. He actually has the right idea, which is surprising since this usually comes around once the main character makes a mistake.
The only conflict I can foresee is going to be keeping his obligations and trying to find Rin’s mother or something or other.
Well, I haven’t read the manga, but I wonder if the adaptation’s short length (I heard 13 or so) contributes to the fact that they won’t dwell too much on conflicts. After all, Rin got over the broken promise awfully fast.
I think this anime is about one man’s struggle to help a young girl that would otherwise be abandoned to an orphanage/”institution”, and how the two of them come together to form a nice family of sorts.
With this in mind, Usagi Drop wants to explore all of the practical and commonplace difficulties that a parent (a single parent in particular) can run into. And so we see arduous work/parenting conflicts, difficulties in trying to keep the child entertained and/or content, the use of child care facilities, shopping for kids clothes, bed-wetting, etc…
However, it’s pretty clear to me that this anime is aiming to be a “comfort food” anime. In other words, like fellow noitaminA shows Anohana and Wandering Son, it’s aiming to be heartwarming, life-affirming, and generally uplifting. As such, I doubt we’ll see anything particularly… hard-hitting, if you will.
On the whole, its fairly realistic (certainly for an anime), but it will be slightly idealized in its lack of personality conflicts and heated verbal clashes.
But the thing is — are there any current or recent anime with the opposite viewpoint? No, I think it’s safe to say that shows involving realistic parenting (and not that stupid filial crap in Astarotte no Omocha) are rare and that Usagi Drop is a one of a kind. As such, Usagi Drop does have sort of a responsibility to give a balanced and healthy outlook to parenting, especially when its viewers likely don’t have children of their own yet. They might look at something like Usagi Drop and go “Hm, parenting is hard work but it’ll always be worth it when I get to give my daughter a piggy back ride through the city!” Things aren’t always so peachy keen, but that’s why I think young people’s indifferent attitude toward childrearing in Japan is what’s fueling such optimism in the anime.
I didn’t think it was a big deal for him to call his cousin, since they did sorta make a connection during the funeral and he needed somewhat specific information in this situation. Besides, his own mother and sister don’t quite have the right attitude for advising him.
The rest of the episode was kinda sad to watch, though. You just know he’s going to mess up on things, and it doesn’t look like he’s very keen on seeking help (phone-calls aside). I mean, he doesn’t even let his boss know about his new predicament… He’s bound to need some partners on this.
However, they do seem to be making Rin into a kind of ‘uber-child’. I just find her to be too independent and introverted for her age, and that helps her “fade into the background”. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that she doesn’t remain a bland character.
I dunno… he turns to a single person to talk about Rin. That’s really lonely. He’s got that friendly guy at work who keeps bugging him for drinks, but I’d go mad being so trapped in my own head like that. Yeah, his mother and sister don’t have the right attitude, but that’s why it’s sad to me. Your mother and sisters should be there for you (and your dad too, to be honest).
Yeah, Rin hasn’t really emerged as a child character. She’s something to pity, but she doesn’t strike me as… young.
If you’re getting parenting tips or an urge to parent from anime, I don’t think that’s already an irresponsible thing.
Daikichi attempting to quit his smoking habit was the highlight of the episode for me. I didn’t even notice that it was going on until I looked back after the final scene and thought “Hey, he did that before and showed more restraint each time. Cool.”
I think the problem with Rin is she’s a plot reliant prop, especially in comparison to Daikichi. The plot requires a child to act like a kid? Boom, she’s there. The plot requires her to convey her distrust without words before getting over it? Boom, that happens. She isn’t a bad character, she’s just kind of put where a dramatic situation is needed with little consistency. After all, I know that all the kids I know would be pretty pissed if their parents arrived late to pick them up, and they wouldn’t be afraid to vocalize it.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here. Why isn’t it irresponsible to get parenting advice from anime? Even so, this isn’t the point I’m trying to make. No one has to explicitly acquire advice or an urge for parenting from Usagi Drop or like-minded anime. They just have to internalize the values they see and we know quite well that pop culture plays a huge role in shaping our cultural attitudes and values.
Which is why I’m going to try and make comparisons of the anime to Aishiteruze Baby. Each anime have their strengths and minuses, but I think Aishiteruze Baby shines in the fact that its little girl, Yuzuyu, is a better realized character than Rin so far.
…Woops. I meant to say “It’s already an irresponsible thing.” Pretty sad that I deliberated for awhile on how best to phrase that, and I ended up missing my point entirely.
Well, Rin is only given two episodes so far, and she’s far from unlikable. Still, keep the comparisons coming as they crop up.
I honestly get the impression that no one paid much attention to Rin even before the funeral. She didn’t pay any mind to how she was being ignored, and if her father really was as old as they say (regardless of how improbable that is genetically- although it might hint at a mental defect; children conceived after 50 tend to be more likely to have disabilities, after all), it’s likely she was raised in a very low-tempo environment, so I think it would make sense if she acted a little strangely.
That’s very difficult to say. You also have to consider that some children act out when they don’t receive much attention.