Father’s Day is coming up later on this month, so I thought I would look at one of my favorite anime featuring an adoptive “dad” in Bunny Drop (Japanese title: Usagi Drop). In this show, the 30-year-old bachelor Daikichi goes to his grandfather’s funeral, and finds out that, somehow, said grandfather had left behind a 6-year-old daughter, Rin. With her mother nowhere to be found and her very existence something of an embarrassment to the rest of the family, Daikichi takes it upon himself to take custody of Rin and care for her as her guardian.

The premise definitely has similarities to Listen To Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!, which I covered last month, with the main difference in the shows being the ages of the characters and that Bunny Drop plays out more as a straight-up, slow-paced slice-of-life, mainly highlighting little moments in the lives of Daikichi and Rin such as going to and from school, meeting with friends and relatives, and taking care of Rin when she gets sick. (This show is also free of objectionable content, which makes it much easier to recommend compared to last month’s show.) The bottom line, though, is that I cannot help but love shows like these, where someone with little experience in parenting learns and grows by taking care of someone.

I do not really have much to say about this show, as almost anything I could say, I already mentioned either in an old guest post I wrote for this show, or in my post on Listen To Me, Girls…, with which this show shares a number of the same themes. Daikichi also ends up relying on others around him a lot as he deals with the various aspects of childcare he has no idea how to handle, and makes some personal sacrifices, most notably at his workplace, in order to better accommodate Rin. And in a particularly poignant moment in the show, Rin tells him that, even though Daikichi is not her father, it is okay for him to simply be Daikichi, the one who looks after her.

Probably the one other thing worth pointing out here is how many of the characters, not just Daikichi but also other struggling parents and childless adults looking toward the future, feel a lack of confidence over their ability to be parents and raise a child. As a single, childless male myself, I can completely understand how intimidating child-rearing looks. If anyone asked me if I was ready to raise a child, my honest answer would be “of course not, what kind of a superhuman do you think I am?”

And yet, as shows like Bunny Drop show, the struggles of parenthood are not insurmountable, and while I would not trust my own self alone with parenthood, I know that, once the time comes, I can rely on help from God and others around me to stumble my way through it. More importantly, shows like this also make the ever-important point that, for all of its difficulties, parenting is rewarding. Whether it is the personal growth the experience gives us, seeing the smiles on our childrens’ faces, or watching them grow into healthy, lively adults (or anything else; I’m sure those who are actually parents have more to add), raising a child is worth it.

So if you are looking for a heartwarming show about adoption and the joys of parenthood, Bunny Drop is highly recommended. There is no objectionable content of note, so it is easy to recommend to Christians. That said, this anime is an adaptation of a manga, which is also available in English, and covers the first four volumes of the manga; if you decide to check out the manga, please do not go past the fourth volume. Suffice it to say that all of the good manga material is in those four volumes, while the material past that… has some issues.

Bunny Drop can be streamed for free on Crunchyroll.

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stardf29

Frank is known as "stardf29" on various parts of the Internet; it stands for "Star Defender 29", which is something he came up with during his chuunibyou years. Now, when he's not doing things for the Navy or indefinitely delaying his writing projects, he likes engaging in anime, especially of the slice-of-life sort.

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