うさぎドロップ Episode 05
Usagi Drop – 05

Rin is having nightmares but refrains from joining Daikichi in his futon like before.  During the day, Rin begins helping make breakfast and she wants her own chopping knife, which they make for kids. Daikichi says he’ll think about it. They head for his parent’s house and on the train, Daikichi recalls his conversation with Rin’s mother Masako. She agrees to meet Daikichi at a family restaurant near his grandfather’s place.  Daikichi leaves Rin with his parents and his father says to make sure he has a long talk with Masako. Plus, Daikichi’s mother is looking forward to spending quality time with Rin and Rin is certainly happy spending time with her.

Daikichi heads to the restaurant and sits in a booth where he hears the person behind him being addressed as “Saionji-sensei.”  He gets a call Masako and discovers this is the woman sitting in the booth behind him. Further to that, Daikichi learns that Masako is a manga-ka and her pen-name is “Saionji.” She remarks on how much Daikichi looks like his grandfather, Souichi-san.  Masako comes clean on Rin, saying that Souichi named her and that she had been talked into having Rin just as her career was taking off. She did have Rin stay with her at times, but only identified herself as Souichi’s housekeeper. She gives her blessing for Rin to continue to live with Daikichi since she no longer considers Rin to be her child.

Outside the restaurant, Masako tells Daikichi that he should register Rin at school with his family name rather than “Kaga.” He says he’ll talk about this with Rin, something Masako doesn’t agree with. However, Daikichi says he and Rin will decide together on the name situation. Back at his parent’s home, he discusses the situation with his parents which leads to his mother getting irritated with Masako. Daikichi tells them that he will has Rin about adopting her rather than unofficially allow her to use his family name.  This leads to an argument between Daikichi and his mother, but Daikichi is determined to do what is right for Rin, whether that be adoption or not.

After returning to his own home with Rin, Daikichi buys her a knife and teaches her to make curry. After a bath and teeth brushing, Daikichi broaches the subject of becoming Rin’s real father and Rin taking his family name, Kawachi. Rin declines, saying that her father is Grandpa (Souichi) and thus she is KAGA Rin, which is the name her father gave to her and thus important. Daikichi is Daikichi and she doesn’t want that to change. Daikichi is touched by this and starts to tear up, but denies it as “sweat” when Rin asks about it.  Sometime later, Rin and Kouki graduate from kindergarten, which Kouki’s mother captures on camera, and Daikichi makes another call to Masako, which results in her being depressed and eating puddings.

Whaaaah! I tell you, this anime just rocks on every level.  Outside of a couple of, “wait, when did this get said” moments, I don’t think I noticed a bad thing here.

I’m glad Daikichi finally met Masako. I didn’t even think about her not being at the funeral, nor did I consider that maybe Rin would have stayed with Masako from time to time. However, that would have to be true if no one knew of Rin until the funeral.  That makes it even more tragic that Masako abandoned her child for a career as a manga-ka.

With Daikichi’s now having Masako’s blessing to continue raising Rin, I like the continued look at how they are becoming more like a father and daughter. I wouldn’t be a fan of bathing with a 6-year old girl, but I know that sort of thing is acceptable in Japan. I liked how he helped brush her teeth.  I loved how she decided to try to help cook and that Daikichi bought Rin a knife for that purpose. I guess Daikichi is going to need to buy a camera now since he only had a cell camera at the kindergarten graduation. After all, there are going to be other events in Rin’s life that Daikichi is going to want to capture as a photo or in a video clip. ^_^

The end scene with Rin getting the OK to hug even though her classmate had said only babies do this was rather cute. I liked how Daikichi wondered if he were raising Rin or if she were raising him.

That reminds me, the scene where Daikichi is crying and using Rin’s “sweat” excuse made me chuckle. It also adds into Daikichi’s ponderings on who’s raising who.

I also like how Daikichi’s parents have done a great deal to make Rin feel welcome in their home. I look forward to seeing more of this as well.

This anime really has been “must see TV” for me this season. An anime like this is the reason to watch anime at all. ^_^