Usagi Drop - Episode 6

Did anyone else find this image slightly disturbing?

Episode Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (4/5)

A fresh and heartwarming episode to start the weekend for me. Like always, the daily lives of Rin and Daikichi are enjoyable to watch, with elementary school now a part of their daily routines. The story about each person in the family having a tree was interesting, making me wish I had a tree, too. It's too bad that they didn't expand on the relationship between Masako and the orange-haired guy. There's only five episodes left so there isn't much time left. Since I haven't read the manga, I wonder if the anime will be able to cover everything. With the way it's going now, Usagi Drop is definitely going to be one of my favorites for the Summer 2011 season.

A picture makes for a good memory, especially for the guardian of a growing child. Thus, Daikichi takes the opportunity to capture the moment of Rin's first step into elementary school. However, his photography skills are not the best, resulting in a poorly taken photograph. Luckily, a seemingly skilled photographer (Kouki's mother) lends a helping hand in this important time, forever capturing the day where guardian and child take another step forward in their lives in a single photograph.

As a child, I bet many of you loved to run around the grocery store while your parents were shopping. Rin is no different. While Daikichi goes to buy the necessary ingredients for the day's meals, Rin wanders off, causing Daikichi to go into a state of panic when he doesn't see her. He eventually finds her in the cereal isle, amazed that she has never seen or eaten cereal before. She first thinks that cereal is like sweets that can be eaten as a snack, but even after Daikichi agrees to buy it and explains to her how it is usually consumed, the prospect of eating something new plastered a big grin across Rin's face. On the way back home, Rin suggests that they take a different route in order to see the cherry blossoms. While walking, Daikichi is inspired to plant something to commemorate Rin's transition into elementary school. This idea actually comes from the time when his mother planted a tree for him when he was born. He then tells of the story where, even though he and his sister both got a tree planted for them, she got angry because his was a fragrant olive tree while hers was a tea olive tree. Welcoming the idea of planting something, Rin suggests that they plant a loquat tree for her. So once they got home, Rin takes out one of the loqaut seeds that she had been saving in order to plant it. For a moment, Daikichi hesitates about planting it since he's not sure how long it'll take. But Rin's persistence pays off as Daikichi ends up going along with her suggestion. After planting the seed, Daikichi tells Rin a story about ninjas who jump over hemp trees every morning, allowing them to eventually jump extremely high. He then suggests that Rin do the same over the loquat tree. Surprisingly, she actually believes him and starts jumping over the newly planted seed, repeatedly. That night, while helping Rin prepare for school the next day, Daikichi teaches her about "stranger danger"; he tells her to blow on a whistle she is given really hard if a stranger starts talking to her. Although Daikichi looked very serious about the whole thing, Rin looked like she was just agreeing for the heck of it.

The next day, Daikichi wakes up late and starts panicking about Rin being late for school before seeing her already up and ready. During breakfast, Rin excitedly tries out her new cereal, even thinking that it looks like dog food. Her disappointment when Daikichi told her that humans can't eat dog food was amusing. Shortly after, Daikichi's phone rings with Kouki's mother turning out to be the caller. She then informs him that Kouki, who got way too excited for school, has already run off to his place. Right after finishing the call, Kouki arrives. What's surprising is the fact that the he looks like an animal who lives in the wild as his clothes are covered in sticky willows. After telling Rin to go get a comb, Daikichi helps to remove the sticky willows. When he's all done, Rin and Kouki start to make their way to school. Suddenly, while he is in the middle of putting some pants on, Daikichi hears a whistle being blown and rushes outside to see what is going on, tripping once in the process. But after screaming at him about how, if he does that, no one is going to help him when there really is trouble, Kouki immediately stops. Unfortunately, Kouki continues to cause more trouble as he decides to take a "shortcut" to school, causing Rin to follow. The two end up getting lost, with Kouki breaking a random house's flowerpot on the way. That night, during dinner, Daikichi starts complaining about how troublesome Kouki is, with Rin fully agreeing. However, Daikichi tries to cut the boy some slack by saying that all boys that age are like that, a comment which Rin didn't look all too happy about. Changing the subject didn't help either as Rin also realizes that her loquat tree is different from Daikichi's fragrant olive tree since hers was not planted after her birth. The depressed look on Rin's face after she realizes this causes Daikichi to be reminded of how smart Rin really is and that he can't hide details from her, expecting them to stay hidden. Not knowing whether her mother or his grandfather had planted a tree for her doesn't help the situation either.

In order to figure out whether Rin had a tree planted for her or not, Daikichi has no choice but to ask the only person who knew: Masako-san. The fact there is a tree wasn't too difficult to get from Masako-san but as for where and what type it is, she is unable to give Daikichi a clear answer. With only a crudely drawn map as a reference, Daikichi makes his way back to his grandfather's house in an attempt to find Rin's tree. Meanwhile, Rin, who is being taken care of by Daikichi's mother, gets shown Daikichi and Kazumi's trees. Then, at the same moment when his mother talks about her tree being the big one in the backyard of his grandfather's house, a strong gust of wind causes Daikichi to notice the tree, a 60-year-old tea olive that is staggering in height. And when Daikichi returns to his parents' house with Rin's tree, he declares that her tree is, in fact, a fragrant olive tree just like his, a six-year-old one, to be exact. To end off the episode, Daikichi thinks back to before his meeting with Rin and believes that, despite not knowing one another, they were still drops in the same river. With such a heartwarming episode, some comedy should be added, right? If you thought that, then you're in luck as the scene after the ED shows what happens when the teaching of "stranger danger" backfires. In this case, Kouki starts blowing the whistle while running toward Daikichi's place, dragging Rin along. Once they get there, Kouki explains that there's some "weird, old guy following them", causing Daikichi to menacingly walk out the door in order to have a chat with this stranger. Luckily, Rin stops this from getting any worse by explaining that the "stranger" is actually their neighbor, Matsui-san. Because of this, Daikichi forces Kouki to apologize for his rude behavior. But after this, Daikichi praises Kouki for doing the right thing by taking Rin along with him when he suspected there was danger. The relationship between Daikchi and Kouki seem like father and son to me. This could possibly end up becoming true if Dakichi makes a move on Kouki's mother. I actually wouldn't mind seeing that ending. No episode preview but I'll still be looking forward to the next episode.