Something I've Read: Bunny Drop

“Don’t you think this world is better than you expected?”

When the committee were trying to decide what anime to show this term, we decided that we wanted to show a plot based action show and a more episodic slice of life show, and Usagi Drop (or Bunny Drop) was one of the first anime we looked at. We rejected it for reasons that aren’t actually related to the anime itself, but rather the manga’s reputation, in particular, the ending. And…you may see why.

Something I’ve Read: Bunny Drop.

Spoiler Note: Usually, I’ll try to avoid spoilers whenever possible. This review discusses things from the very end of the series, so obviously, spoilers are below.

Bunny Drop, written by Yumi Unita, can be split into two parts. The first part, in the first four volumes, is the story of Daikichi, a thirty year old bachelor who finds himself caring for a young girl called Rin, his grandfather’s love child. The second half, set after a ten year time skip, focuses much more on the now teenaged Rin. Time skips are a pretty common thing in series, but Bunny Drop’s time skip is weird in that the two halves might as well be different series.

The story starts at the funeral of the main character, Daikichi’s grandfather, when he meets a mysterious little girl named Rin, who it is revealed is actually his grandad’s love child who he was raising in secret from the rest of the family. After the funeral, a family meeting is called to discuss the situation, during which Daikichi realises that no one is thinking about the little girl who just lost her father. In disgust, he pulls himself to his feet and delivers an incredibly epic put down to the rest of the family.

“When Rin grows up, I’m sure she’s going to a much better adult than all of you.”

He then walks out into the garden and asks Rin if she’d like to stay with him. She accepts, and so begins Daikichi’s new life as a single dad. And that’s pretty much it. It’s just a picture of the relationship between them, viewed through Daikichi’s eyes mostly as he struggles through fatherhood, told over the period of about a year. The authors clearly put a lot of thought into this, and small things are treated with a care and loving seriousness that means that despite the small scale of the manga, it works wonders.

Both Daikichi and Rin are wonderfully fleshed out, being character’s I could actually imagine meeting in real life. Little things, like Rin wanting to learn to cook, or Daikichi’s changing relationships during work really help us understand and care about them. 

After the timeskip, Rin is now in high school, and the story shifts focus away from the parental relationship. The slice of life aspects are still there, but in terms of relationships, it’s shifted focus towards romance, both for Rin and Daikichi. And…to be honest, I find it fairly boring. It’s a high school slice of life where the intelligent, popular girl struggles with her feelings for her rough and tough childhood friend. Some bits of it are nice, but mostly the second half is just kind of…there. I’ve seen it before, and I’ve seen it done better. Teenaged Rin is just less interesting as a character than young child Rin, and Daikichi’s storyline doesn’t have that much going for it either, it essentially being him being repeatedly shot down by his crush.

Then…things begin to get weird. Rin finally meets her mother, who is now pregnant, and they begin to bond. Meanwhile, both her love interest and Daikichi’s love interest get paired off with other people, and in the grand tradition of pair the spares, Rin reveals she is in love with Daikichi. The man who raised her from the age of six. This….raised some eyebrows. Sure, there are a couple of things thrown in to make it more acceptable, like Rin not actually being Daikichi’s aunt, but even with those, people were still calling bullshit and creepy.

Although I did find the ending creepy, from a story telling perspective I’m just amazed at how badly it was written. The entire thing feels shoehorned in. The revelation that Rin and Daikichi aren’t actually related feels like it was crammed in just for the sake of the pairing, which we hadn’t seen any sign of before. The series did an excellent job of setting up their parent and child relationship, you can’t just tear it down and put a romantic relationship in its place and expect it to work. And it doesn’t. It manages to be creepy and contrived at the same time.

Technically, the manga is pretty simple. The art style is fairly plain, if pretty distinctive, and characters are definitely recognisable between each other. The backgrounds vary between very plain and fairly detailed, but the art style usually fits the tone of the story nicely.

I would well advise anyone to check out the first four volumes of the manga, which are genuinely brillant, but I can’t say the same about the volumes after the time skip. Bunny Drop is translated by Yen Press, and volumes 1-6 have been released, with volumes 7 and 8 being planned for release fairly soon. There is an anime version of the first four volumes as well, which I’ve only seen the first episode of, but looks like a pretty good adaptation. There is also a live action movie, which I haven’t seen, so can’t really comment on.

If anyone within the society is interested, I do have the first four volumes that people can borrow if they want to check them out. Otherwise, most places that sell manga have at least a few volumes.

+ Great characters, fantastic first half

-Weaker second half, creepy and badly written ending.

Next Week: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!