Usagi Drop

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Finished reading this. It was quite a nice read. I'm still trying to gather my final thoughts on this manga.

So here's my theory for the ending of Usagi Drop.

Rin's recurring school subject of choice in her high school years is Classical Japanese (the translations might have made this harder to pick up, but it's the equivalent of Latin for American schools). Rin goes out of her way to take classes in that topic with the pretense that she's smart and wants to learn. But it also foreshadows the ending, and may have been a part of the reason she accepts her love for Daikichi.

The manga's author's familiarity with Classical Japanese grammar strongly suggests that she read Classical Japanese works. When Rin is going over different grammatical forms with her friends, the author would either have to look them up or know them to be able to produce all the forms.

One of the staples of Classical Japanese literature is the Tale of Genji. It's read in translation in most (university level) Japanese Literature classes, but it's especially important to Classical Japanese literature.



The parallels between the Tale of Genji and Usagi Drop are limited, but I hope this helps explain where the author got the ending.

*Edit: fixed spoiler tag.

*Edit 2: I took classes at Harvard in Classical Japanese, so I was more aware of how distinctive knowledge of Classical Japanese is, but it's much more common in Japan and many Japanese majors will read Tale of Genji in college (I did that too).

Interesting idea. I'm impressed with your knowledge on traditional literature.

your spoiler could probably stand to be fixed, though.

thanks!

How in the hell can he get "romantic" with her and not see the six year old Rin every time he looks at her. in my near thirtyfive years, i've watched a few kids grow up into adults, but they will always be kids to me. even when they have kids of their own, i will still alway see that silly little kid who ate weird stuff off the floor and ran around doing silly kid shit. there's no way i could just forget all that. even more so if i had raised them, blood or not.

and this dude is just like, "sure, whatever. just finish school first". i don't buy it.

I will post Red Vodka's comment on the last chapter here as well as my response.

Red Vodka:

I personally don't like the ending. The entire theme was ultimately about growing up and family. The second half abandoned that theme and went for a typical high school drama story. I remember reading another person's review, and I agree with their point. A lot of things the author builds up simply gets dropped in the second half. There was a big tension between Rin and Kouki, with the bad boy past and the old girlfriend. There was the conflict of responsibility and personal romance for the parents.

Yet then Rin simply falls in love with Daikichi, and Kouki's mom remarries with another man. So I just wonder why the hell I had to read through all that drama to see it get discarded.

Then there's the ending. Daikichi even said it himself that Rin's actions were cruel to him as a parent. The reason is that he sacrificed so much in order to RAISE Rin. To help her become an adult one day. To become independent.

With this ending, nothing changed. Rin is still living in the same house, and still with Daikichi. To be honest, I got more of the sense that it wasn't romance, but that Rin simply wanted to continue everything as it was. To continue her childhood. So to me, the ending is anti-climatic. After everything, things are just going to remain the same as they were.

Me:

I have to agree.
It also felt kind of insulting to depict Rin as someone unable to go beyond having feelings for Dai (which aren't actually fully explained imo), or unwilling to leave the nest.

Dai as well had become a perfect father figure, so the only way this makes sense to me is in that he is submitting to her wishes.
Which would mean he is still acting as a parent.
Which makes all of this even more wrong.

As someone who has a family with a history of incest myself, I feel like the author completely dismissed how earth shattering and irreversibly damaging a relationship that is.

As you say, this whole story was meant to be groing up, about what being a parent actually is (as we find out Dai became one completely by choice and was unrelated by blood (WHICH BTW WAS ANOTHER CONVENIENT DEUS EX MACHINA/BOMBSHELL JUST CASUALLY DROPPED INTO THE PLOT)) and family.

I feel like I've just read some fangirl's horrific and moronic slaughter of an incredible novel.

Very sad

---

While I find the revelation of genji monogatari's (I have only read a little of it) similarities to usagi are very relevant and interesting, it only further disappoints me.
A rather lazy nod toward a classic tale certainly doesn't help thread together the parts of the plot that were left unresolved.

...I think I've commented on this before, and it's probably worth re-stating. Rin never saw Daikichi as a father- they put a lot of time in explaining that- so it sort of makes sense she'd develop these feelings. After all, he's the guy she's been closest to for so long, they're not related so there's nothing in her hormones telling her that its not okay... its not fair to say Rin just suddenly has these feelings, she clearly struggled with it through the tail end of the series. Its a mixture of their closeness and the fact that she refused to see him as "Dad" that she fell in love with him, and I'm hard-pressed to say its exploitative and disgusting when really its quite conservative- they never kiss or do the dirty, and hell, they're still even using separate beds after the two years pass and he says they can be a couple.

Daikichi, on the other hand... I always got the feeling that he wasn't so much "Accepting" of her love as he felt more trapped by it. After all, he made it his mission in life, after "adopting" her, to make her happy- that's been his goal the whole time, and it hadn't changed when she became 16- and now that she was older and she had born her heart to him and he saw there wasn't much way he could dissuade her from it, he'd have to make a sacrifice no father would be happy with in order to assure HER happiness... they talk a lot in the series about the sacrifices parents make for their children, And its possible he sees this as the ultimate sacrifice he CAN make- sacrificing the parent part of himself in order to be the partner to Rin that she wants him to be, and to keep her happy, which is why he needed two years to do it. In that sense, its SORT of a sad ending, but all the same I think it'd be possible for the two to find happiness.

I liked the ending. But I would of liked the ending even if it was "Safer", because while the conclusion and climax are important to the story, it'd be stupid to walk away and not remember the journey- and even if you didn't like how it ends, you can't deny that the trip to get there was awesome.

thanks

You make an excellent point, but (and this is nothing more than personal opinion) I cannot believe that Rin would not see Dai as a parent. I had tried to, clumsily, address the point you made about Dai essentially accepting Rin as a partner as an act of sacrifice. Once again I thi k it's a romantic notion, but not one any parent would make.
The real issue I take isn't so much in the ending of the series and much more in how the ending is presented. It's so rushed. So much is left unresolved.
What of Koichi?
His mother?
The sudden revelation that dai's granfather isn't her father?
Every other chapter explored her upbringing in far greater depth, and in the end we kind of fast forward through it.
But perhaps that had been the author's intention all along.
Thanks for sharing pocru

Hahaha, if you've ever been in a real world adult relationship it's usually the more complicated situation that plays out rather than the situation you wish for. In rare exceptions there are happy endings, so if you can relate to that more, all the happiness to you.

But since you have to ask...

Daikichi never makes it really clear why he wanted to take care of Rin in the series. There's a number of times when he tries to form coherent reasons (felt sorry for her, wanted to be a better man, felt like he could provide for her something no one else could) but most of these reasons would not justify the level of passion he puts into raising Rin. Most people, I think, would never make that kind of self-sacrifice for someone they aren't related to, unless they are in a situation where it makes sense for them to adopt a child.

Daikichi also isn't that dumb or crazy; he's got responsibilities as a manager at his workplace and has enough social skills to interact normally with his co-workers and other parents. And as a single male, and not being gay (he's attracted to Nitani-san, obviously), he must surely have normal sexual needs.

Clearly the solution that the author imposes at the end of the series isn't the best one nor a satisfying one. I agree with that completely. But what she's trying to find in that awkward mess between Daikichi and Rin is advocating a type of relationship that exceeds typical ones because of the emotional bond between the two. I'd say most marriages hardly ever have that level of dependency and willingness to sacrifice. Rin is always trying to figure out what Daikichi means to her, because he's always more than just a father figure. That's why from the beginning of the series Rin never calls him "father" but by name. As childish as that may be, Daikichi never fulfills a defined family role but something more in Rin's mind (and heart). It's only towards the end that Daikichi fully understands Rin's needs, which is a dependable man in her life. He's of course conflicted (portrayed by his inner dialogue spoken out loud), but he also acknowledges his own needs (a caring female figure) in resigning to the situation.

*edit: some of this post echoes Pocru's words above. had to put it in my own words, maybe it'll help?