So the plan for Usagi Drop was me picking a time to watch it when I had some energy; instead I watched it when I was tired and ready to go to bed. But damn, did this anime wake me up!

It was on a Friday night (or really early Sat morning to be specific), and I was sleepy. I had a lot to do on Sat, so I knew I might not have made time for it then, so I decided that I would go watch Usagi Drop. My fear was that watching it so late would make me appreciate it less, forcing me to find some time to watch it on Sunday or when I had some free time. The only problem was I clearly fooled myself: great animes are great any day, time, month, or part of the year, and merely a few minutes into the show, not only did my sleepiness go away, but my love for the series increased tenfold.

For Part II of Reliving Daikichi and Rin Once More, I will discuss Episodes 1-3, the arc where the two get acquainted with one another, and boy, out of all the things that stood out to me in these episodes is the pacing. We have to get accustomed to Rin being shunned by everyone because she is the illegitimate child of her grandpa, Daikichi having to tackle work and raising a kid by himself, and both living a lifestyle that’s long and tiresome. If the pacing had been off, none of the moments would seem sincere–but Kamei and the Production I.G staff did a hell of a job making sure they hit hard, and they resonate with the viewer, in this case me.

Sometimes, the best things that happen when re-watching great shows is appreciating or further understanding a scene or two that you might have missed before. I remember re-watching Summer Wars and further understanding the meaning of family; Tokyo Godfathers and the care of an abandoned baby; heck, I even found some things to appreciate in Inglorious Basterds when I re-watched that! So for Usagi Drop, there were two things that I think I did not acknowledge too long when I first watched it: the first was when Daikichi left Rin at the nursery home.  It was an important scene of trust, as Rin had not found anyone to latch onto after Grandpa’s death, yet here was Daikichi, who took her home, but now is leaving her in the care of strangers. No wonder we saw Rin feeling uneasy and uncertain.

The drama of that continued once Daikichi left, as he tried hard to leave work early, but he could not. The alternating scenes between him and Rin of course also provided the contrast (along with Rin’s frustrations–after all, there was a reason she knocked down those pieces) and helped develop the characters in a great way. I was definitely hoping Daikichi would finally get out of work and pick Rin up, and was subsequently satisfied when he ate those paper potatoes.

The other scene that I acknowledged the first time but held weight with me even more this second go around was Grandpa’s funeral. The reason being is I had went to my first funeral in October, as my Grandma had passed way. Naturally I expected to feel saddened and pretty distraught since it was someone I had known for a long time. However, I hadn’t seen her too often over the past couple years, and only got to see her one more time during the summer, so I didn’t think it’d be too bad. I was fooling myself–it was well worse than that as I was practically crying most of the time, and it took until almost the end for me to really accept it. Well, I almost didn’t, mainly because I had a hard time leaving.

So now I look at Grandpa’s funeral a little bit differently: while he may not have kept in touch with family, Grandpa was obviously remembered in many ways, and just everyone gathering together acknowledges his character; Reina’s throwing of the flowers I now saw as 100% unrealistic, and now that made me wonder how she is being raised; and of course, Rin learning of Grandpa’s death early in her youth is a feeling that I can share now.

So all right, there are probably some other parts I would want to talk about, but A) I would, at best, be summarizing and B) I’m pretty much will be going into fanboy mode, so I’ll cut it short here. Simply put, leaving Usagi Drop away for almost a year still has not changed how I feel about the series, but now I can only appreciate it more. For Part III of the series, I hope I will not just be gushing about Daikichi and Rin, as I’ll be checking out Episodes 4-7.

Remembering Love Participants (Week 2; Will Be Updated)

• Kluxorious: Detroit Metal City
• Chikorita157: Clannad After Story Part II
• Glo: How Samurai Champloo Made Me Remember…How Awesome Anime Is
• Trzr23: Haibane Reimei: A Whole New Level
• Deluscar: Gintama and The Art of Seriousness
• Marina: Aria The Natural and Neo Venezia’s Cat Kingdom
• Ty-Chama: Rock Lee Vs Gaara, A True Underdog Story
• Nadav: Aria
• Foomafoo: Kare Kano: Role of Family Background to Character Relationships
• Nopy: Martian Successor Nadesico Part II
• Ahelo: Kimi Ni Todoke
• Yumeka: Haruhism
• BeldenOtaku: A-Channel