Usagi Drop Review: Wholesome Fun… Unless You’ve Read The Manga.

With Covid-19 still at large, the university anime club that I belong to has been forced to meet on Discord to watch and discuss shows.
One of these anime was Usagi Drop, directed by Kanta Kamei and based off the manga by Yumi Unita, and, boy, is this a wholesome one.
Usagi Drop follows Daikichi Kawachi (Hiroshi Tsuchida), an everyday guy who, upon arriving at his grandfather’s funeral, learns, much to his surprise, that his grandfather had a six-year-old illegitimate daughter named Rin (Ayu Maatsura).
With most of his family scorning Rin and wanting nothing to with her, Daikichi decides to take care of her.
But, with little to no experience in handling children, he is in for one heck of a struggle.

From here, the anime kicks off, expanding on the growing relationship between Rin and Daikichi.
Their bond is great and they grow so much from it that, at times, I wondered who exactly was supposed to be the parent here, Rin or Daikichi?
Like them, the other characters are also good, with Daikichi’s family slowly coming to love Rin, and the two befriending a mother, Yukari Nitana (Sayaka Ohara), and her son, Kouki (Noa Saki).
Daikichi and Yukari’s friendship is especially great, with the two having fantastic chemistry to the point that I actually wanted them to end up together.
Backing up these characters are the constant adorable and funny moments, along with the animation, which in every episode, before the opening, takes on a unique style.

The music is also good, delivering many cheery and feel good moments for the anime.
Overall, Usagi Drop is a heartfelt show that any aspiring parent would enjoy watching… just don’t read the manga.
No, seriously, DON’T.
I heard about the manga a few episodes in and looked it up after finishing the anime.
It was the worst decision I could have made because it taints the entirety of Daikichi and Rin’s father-daughter relationship.
Spoilers for the manga (you shouldn’t read it though), but the story actually ends with Rin, now 16, admitting her feelings for Daikichi after the two learn they actually aren’t blood related and the two enter a romantic relationship.
That’s disgusting.
It makes Usagi Drop feel like a grooming story and I honestly don’t know what Yumi Unita was thinking.

Thank god the anime didn’t adapt the ending and left Daikichi and Rin’s relationship as a father-daughter one that we can all love.
It is because of this that the anime remains great, just so long as you don’t think of the manga’s ending while watching it.