part of me hopes for a second season.

Didn’t really tie up all the loose ends, but great ending. Thanks for all the laughs and the motivation, Nichijou. KyoAni strikes again. Cured my minor burnout this week. Sorry for a late and short intermissions this week! You will be missed, Nichijou. Too bad there’s no more episodes next week, guess there’s really only Mawaru/Idolmaster left now.

Walking into the new season, and a new year.

As I finish watching Usagi Drop, part of me feels unsatisfied. Certainly, the anime had a good run. They chose a fitting point to end, right before the time skip in the manga occurs, with Rin’s teeth finally starting to fall out. Reading the manga, the ending can be quite controversial, which is why I’m happy they chose this point to end it, instead of possibly rushing to a time skip and a rushed ending. Rin stays cute, Daikichi stays a fatherly figure, we’re all happy.

As Rin’s child teeth slowly start to fall out, it indicates a sign of maturity, as Rin is growing up, with adult teeth soon to take their rightful place where the old teeth once stood. Daikichi and Rin have finally got onto good terms with each other, with the last scene filling in the detail that the first episode had shaded out; Rin and Daikichi are now together, walking through the forest. A family at last.

Like the film, the anime also seems to share its sort of difficulties.

He also praised child actress Mana Ashida, saying that she “seamlessly accomplishes her evolution from forlorn waif to perky if unusually perceptive kid, while effortlessly charming everyone.”. However, the reviewer criticized the film for “the lack of friction between the (main) characters”. – A review of the live action adaptation.

As we move along the show, we see Rin’s development, both in her character and in her relationship with Daikichi. From being a closed bud and hiding her emotions, we hear the tinkling of bells in the show, and see Rin slowly bloom into a beautiful bellflower, full of energy and compassion for others, the girl her father, Daikichi’s father, saw in her. In Japanese, the word for bellflower is rindou, which makes up part of the name that her father bestowed upon her.

The language of flowers give the bellflower a message of gratitude, and the phrase “thinking of you.” Perhaps Rin is always thinking of her grandfather, and now Daikichi. Although he may not satisfy the requirements to be a fatherly figure, Daikichi will “always be Daikichi.”

However, we fail to see the reality in all this. In real life, parenthood is a troubling, sometimes even frustrating matter, and Usagi Drop fails to emphasize this. There are little mentions of the troubles of parenthood, save for Daikichi having to change his job a bit, and Rin catching a cold, making things look much simpler than it is. Rarely do they argue in a serious matter, or have any tension between the two.

But in the end, Usagi Drop seeks not to accomplish this. It is simply the pursuit of happiness between Rin and Daikichi, a heartwarming tale between a fatherly figure and his adopted daughter.

Music has always been an inspiration for me, and listening to the OST again rekindles the emotions I had felt, emotions of nostalgia, happiness, and simply, a smile starting to appear once again my face as I recall the touching times when Rin and Daikichi were truly happy together.

As I keep to my words, Usagi Drop is a show with moments that touch the heart, a fantastic soundtrack, and a simple, yet touching story. And since it has accomplished what it set out to do, I am already satisfied.

Spoilers ahead. But I’m assuming you guys already watched the episode, since it was quite epic. The penultimate episode of Steins;Gate, I’ve been hearing.

I was going to do a shallow blurb on how great I found the recent episode to be, while praising Mamoru Miyano for his excellent voice acting at the end. I don’t think anyone else can do it justice.

Then I read E Minor’s post on how the story has already established an ending since episode 22, and commenting on it made me think quite a bit, which established the foundations of this post.

The anime did do quite a spectacular job tying up all the loose ends together near the end and made sure most, if not all characters, had a part in the plot. Heck, even the whereabouts of Mayushii’s metal Upa was revealed in this episode. Such a close connection between each character deserves praise in my books. Usually, the minor characters are just comic relief and forgotten easily after a couple of episodes in your typical generic anime, so to see a everyone all tied up in the story, like Mr. Braun, Suzuha, Feyris, Daru and the others having a role to play leaves this an anime to remember for me. Close to topping my top 10 charts.

However, in tying to tie up all loose ends, you sometimes have to bend the rules a bit. Professor Nakabachi is suddenly Kurisu’s father (completely ignoring last name differences), and pulls out a switchblade (aren’t those illegal?) and attempts to kill his own daughter just because of his jealousy. Really now. Possibly the most shallow character I have seen to date. Sure, I can understand how her father isn’t that smart as Kurisu, but he’s certainly done some fine work of his own, or else he wouldn’t get as far. I doubt all of his works was through stealing and behind the scenes work. Of course, the desire to be #1 in the scholarly/academic world is something I couldn’t possibly understand.

The story most certainly could have ended at episode 22. With Kurisu leaving, Okabe achieving his original goal at the cost of sacrifice. Everyone has to make sacrifices. Hasn’t he been sacrificing the happiness of other people already? I think the producers or the staff are just trying to make everyone happy, although everything feels shoved in at the end. Everyone gets a happy ending of some sort at the end. Okabe saves them both, and the other minor characters are just left in the dust because a) they don’t remember anything, b) they do, but only the happy times (with Okabe) and ignore the sacrifice they made, or c) forget them, they’re just minor characters. I already spoiled myself by reading the ending, but I think they could’ve planned all this better.

Although, to go through all the trouble to save Mayushii seems like a wasted choice to me. Too much credit has been placed in the role of “childhood friend”. Mayushii wasn’t a round character at all, in fact a very static one. So far, all I understand about Mayushii is that she is the childhood friend of Okabe, enjoys going to Comima and making cosplay outfits, and hangs around with Okabe. But Kurisu? Okabe genuinely loved Kurisu. Kurisu’s been a pretty vital character. Okabe would probably go insane without her. She’s the one who perfected the microwave, time leap machine, and is pretty smart. Probably the person Okabe interacted with the most, and the deepest with. Not fitting for her to have her ending through shoving it all in the end; it simply does not do her justice. To sacrifice her to save your childhood friend, who doesn’t have much of a clue to what is going on instead of Kurisu seems magnanimous to me. Perhaps the duration you’ve known the character has impact on the choice, and not based on the depth of the relationship alone. But think about it. When explained what suffering Okabe has gone through, Mayushii wouldn’t comprehend most of it, looking like the character who will just go “pat, pat” and give a word of thanks. Certainly an ending I would find tough to swallow.

It feels more like a rushed ending. One can only imagine how the quality of the show will sink if only given 12 episodes. One point arises, why go through all the potential trouble and save Kurisu when she remembers nothing of what has happened? I have a feeling that they will just insert a flash of memories like they did Feyris and the others and suddenly everything’s back to normal. And Okabe obviously doesn’t need time to have a second thought about all that just happened, because all the trauma is pushed aside after being slapped and the thought of saving Kurisu makes him jump right into it, while the other characters just go with the flow. Sigh.

Of course, I can also envision myself changing my opinion depending on the next episode’s ending. A low percentage, but possible.

I know it gets slow at first. Or honestly, really slow. For those of you who have not watched it, give it a try! Just watch it from around episode 9 or so. And maybe some episodes to note. But I understand if it’s not your taste. In fact, I don’t think all the blabber and dragging on with the D-Mails and such would’ve been necessary. Cut all this in half, and you cut faster into the action and more about the time travel, which is what the show is interesting for. More people would watch it instead of dragging through ~10 episodes just to see the action begin.

I should just go to AX next year as Hououin Kyouma. FUUUUHAHAHAHA!

The ending sure boosted my spirits though.

It is the will of Stein’s Gate.

El Psy Congroo.