Bunny Drop Manga Volume 10 Review (finale)
Usagi Drop/うさぎドロップ Manga Volume 10

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***SPOILERS***

Well, if you thought things were over after Daikichi decided to marry the girl he adopted twelve years prior, you were wrong. For this final volume of Bunny Drop, Unita-sensei decides to do some omake stories, going back to when Daikichi first adopted Rin and moving forward to after Daikichi and Rin are married.

For the first story, Daikichi is teaching Rin about the bugs that are OK to kill and the ones that are not OK to kill. Personally speaking, any bug that gets into my house is dead, but that’s just me. Still, it was nice seeing the young Rin, but I couldn’t help but think, “Daikichi’s going to bang her in twelve years.” *_*

The second story stays with the young Rin, but also brings in Kouki and his mother and a trip to the park. Watching how Daikichi was a father figure for Kouki, and how well Rin and Kouki got along, I kept thinking, “Man, I sure wish that Daikichi and Nitani has become a couple.” *_*

The third continues with the foursome ending up at the aquarium. Again, seeing them together really pushes the “what might have been” if Daikichi and Nitani had become a couple. They would have been a good family.  I guess Unita-sensei is acknowledging this at some level.

For the fourth story, Unita-sensei shifts focus to Rin’s mother, Masako. The story is done from the perspective of the man who would become her assistant, which shows how he came into the role and how Masako and his relationship evolved.  It is one of those nice stories that doesn’t advance the main story, but works well in a collection of omake stories like volume 10 here.

In the fifth story, we get to see how Kouki ended up hooking up with Akari.  The story is told from Kouki’s perspective with the ending happening while they were in high school, where he reflects on how he’d taken things for granted then when Rin was still within his reach as a girlfriend. It is an interesting story, and again, works as a side story.

The finals story takes place after Rin and Daikichi are married. Basically, Unita-sensei is letting us know that Kouki meets another girl, whom he’d met once as a child and who knew Rin.  So Unita-sensei is telling us, “He’ll be fine without Rin.” We also get a glimpse of Masako, her husband, and their child, again to say, “They’ll be OK.” Then things wind up with Rin and Daikichi, were Rin convinces Daikichi to resume going out drinking if he wants, and to bring her along. So I guess we are being told, “Rin and Daikichi will be alright as a couple.” Whatever.

I wish more manga titles would have a volume or two (or more) after the main story finishes where some side stories that couldn’t be worked into the main story get told just the same.  In that light, I do like how Unita-sensei fleshes out things with this volume. Of course, the fact that Rin and Daikichi got married kinda ruins things, but I do love the concept of the manga volume.

On the Yen Press side of things, Japanese honorifics are retained. We have a color splash page at the beginning, which I liked. There are no translator notes, but the interview with Unita-sensei for the anime versions 4th DVD are printed here, which is nice.

In the end, if one discounts the Rin-Daikichi thing, this is a nice volume of side stories to flesh out things from the series.