Usagi Drop - Episode 5

For all of her outer happiness in the daytime, it seems that Rin still suffers come the night as her mind is wracked with nightmares and bad dreams - nothing that a cuddly toy rabbit can't fix though, even over and above Daikichi it seems.

While Rin frets over cooking and wanting a knife of her very own (cue a joke about delinquents getting younger by the day), Daikichi has even more important concerns at hand - namely meeting Rin's mother having finally tracked her down.  As Rin is left with Daikichi's parents, so he sets off to meet with the woman in question, Masako.

Compared to the depiction of a harsh, short-tempered woman we'd perhaps assumed previously, Masako in person proves to be anything but - a quiet, ponderous young girl who seems to perpetually have her head stuck in the clouds.  Thanks to this personality it's difficult to really get a feel for Masako's true feelings towards her daughter, but under Daikichi's questioning it seems that Rin came second to Masako's work; a scenario which eventually led to where we are now upon the death of Rin's father.  Ultimately, it seems that Rin's real mother has no intention nor desire to take her daughter back (outwardly at least), with her only request being that Rin takes on Daikichi's family name to avoid being teased at school - a request that comes under some serious consideration during the episode only to be shot down by Rin herself.

Once again, this was another decidedly decent episode which managed together blend emotion and touches of comedy in the same kind of manner that Usagi Drop has proved to be more than fluid at throughout the series so far - indeed, right from its first scene this week it manages to do just that admirably.  Aside from that, the introduction of Masako is an intriguing one, as her final scene seems to suggest more to her personality than meets the eye perhaps - certainly, if nothing else it appears that we haven't seen the last of her.  This adds an interesting additional element on top of a series that could more than comfortable continue to subsist on the dynamic of Daikichi and Rin alone, which continues to be a thing of a beauty and an increasing weekly joy in my anime viewing schedule.