If this wasn’t Noitamina, you would be calling this lolipedo bait, right? Yeah, if you were the kind of person who also called Ikoku Meiro no Croisee lolipedo bait. As in, you’re the type of person who decides what an anime is about based on its labels rather than what it actually holds. Noitamina do not make Good Anime. People make Good Anime for Noitamina.
Except for Fractale. Fuck Fractale.
I read the first chapter of the Bunny Drop (no, I’m not calling it by the weeaboo name) manga before this season began, and I’m glad this episode kept the languid, laid back presentation. The episode is mainly the middle aged bloke watching the little girl be herself and helping her out at occasional intervals to reach the clock or pick a flower. I liked how they both said very little, yet their actions would show that they were still thinking of each other, such as the scene with the girl try to wave her hand to extinguish the flame, copying what he had done earlier. I also liked how it showed how similar they were without the main character having to give a voice-over narration of “we were so similar”. Compare the little girl trying to keep away from the other young brat to how the man would sit away from the table with all the bishies with multicoloured hair. Then a fat bloke voiced by Norio Wakamoto decended from the sky on a set of invisible wires, dancing and singing and…and…
…umm
…hmmm
Something is not quite right here…
Yeah, as much as I’d like to praise Bunny Drop, a lot of what happened in the episode was catapulted out of my mind by the episode I watched immediately either. I suppose you could use this as an example that Bunny Drop isn’t particularly memorable, or that it doesn’t hold much weight. And I think both these claims hold a certain amount of truth. But that would also do disservice to how friggin bad Uta No Prince-Sama was.
Let’s make a sliding scale of bishies with no top buttons on their shirts. On the far end of the self aware spectrum lies Hosaka from Minami-ke. For those who haven’t seen the show, he is a parody of a bishie. His top buttons are eternally open, stripping at every available opportunity, usually when something involving the girl he likes is involved. Not that he strips to her or anything. He simply strips while lost in his own thoughts. What’s great about it though, is that any girl who sees him simply thinks he’s a creep and want to get as far away from him as possible. It’s a show that points at bishies and says “haha, look at how utterly ridiculous the idealised form of these things are”. Hosaka from Minami-ke is an example of a parody done right. Then there’s the example of a parody done wrong, the Ouran kind. The ones that do all the types of things something like Prince-sama does, but acknowledges what it is doing. “Look at me! I’m doing bishie things! It’s funny because I’m pointing out what I’m doing”. Pointing out what you doing does not constitute humour. It just makes you self-aware, which is still preferable to what Prince-sama is doing.
Asides from the one good scene of the fat principal descending from the sky on invisible wires, everything else is played totally straight. The male characters line up to introduce themselves, their hair colour, the number of buttons they have on their shirt and their single defining character trait. There’s the genki one, the flirtatious one, the glasses one (actually I’m not sure if there was a glasses one, but I assume there was), the one with the dark past, and so on and so forth. It’s the exact same as your shitty regular harem cycling through the haremettes. Now you might say “hey, only one of these get made for every 10 shitty male orientated harem crap, so give us this one”. I would if I ever gave the shitty harem shows a free pass. But I don’t, because they’re shitty. And so is Prince-sama. The female lead has no personality. The plot that actually appeared was so laughable I started to eat my microphone. The dancing wasn’t even any good. This was a massive pile of rainbow coloured poo and it drove all memories of what happened in Bunny Drop out of my mind. Damn you Uta no Prince-sama!
The Cart Driver 
Why not just… rewatch Bunny Drop?
Send yourself a D-Mail: “Don’t watch Uta No Prince-Sama.”
He doesn’t have the Reading Steiner.
That’s for the best. If he had Reading Steiner then he would remember having watched it which would make sending the D-Mail pointless from the outset.
Oh right.
I did not expect this review to get focused on that otome adaptation shit!
I demand a refund.
I loved both of these for completely different reasons. Usagi Drop because its a return to the awesome jousei noitaminA shows and I adored the very subtle atmosphere of the show, and Uta-pri because its complete trash and I laughed my arse off through the whole episode.
Fortunately I had the mood whiplash in the right way – I watched Uta-pri 1st so Usagi Drop’s charm wasn’t washed away in a torrent of rainbow coloured bishies and Norio Wakamoto flying through the sky.
Hmm… I was kind of expecting your review about Bunny Drop (IMO this name is cuter, more fit to the show) but I only see a description of a bunch of bishies who you claim to have wiped your memories about lil’ cute Rin.
Memory-modifying bishies aside, I should mention first that any little girl with the name Rin is an instant WIN for me (yea w/ capital letters) because of the unforgettable character development in Inuyasha ep.35. I guess that due to this bias I consider this as one of my favourites for this season. Or maybe because I loved Yotsubato too, which gave a lesson to the creators how to create a non-pedobait little girl character. This was something very nicely done.
Sure, the show isn’t memorable but it’s because this is how this is supposed to be. I mean the sole reason of Yotsubato’s greatness was the lack of plot. This is the type of show which holds nothing againist other shows with mechas,tits,drama,moe,a super-exciting plot or shows which simply want to make you cry.
The plot thing is like this:Some great comedies cower in fear in a corner when the question of an overall plot comes up (Yotsubato), some pretend to have one (Excel Saga, School Rumble) and some sacrifies a few jokes and actually do some development in half an episode or so (2 half eps were boring in Nichijou due to this). I’m not saying that this is going to be a comedy or anything, I brought up comedies because of the obvious similarity to Yotsubato.
Actually I have no idea what this show will become, but this one thing is for sure: it will be the quiet type which I can call an example of ‘anime with common sense’. Fans won’t go wild trying to find out who the time traveller is from 2036, fanservice will be deported, pedophilia beheaded, moe imprisoned for life. Only way to scew up would be to make a Yotsubato without jokes. That would be plain boring.
It’s a well written and realistic slice of life about a 30 year old taking care of his 7 year old aunt.
So, now that I’ve actually watched this, I really liked it!
Or maybe it was because Daikichi is totally my type of animooted man.
If they manage to bring out the mangas quality this anime is sure to become MY second favorite this year. When I previewed this seasons anime post, I decided to check out the manga since it sounded interesting.
Want me to spoil?
To a certain extent. They should not follow the manga after a certain point.
Do you mean the 10 years after point?
Yes, because it becomes really really bad and disgusting afterwards.
Reminds me of that one episode of Natsume Yuujinchou s2 ruined when I decided to watch Akikan afterward. Now I try to not watch good anime on the same days as possibly-bad ones.
“no, I’m not calling it by the weeaboo name”
Why not ? You’re a weaboo, so aknowledge it and get on with it !
Scamp is tsundere
He’s just hardcore that way. It’s either うさぎドロップ or fully-translated, no pussy-footing it with translation for our Scamp!
Because ‘Usagi Drop’ sounds like shit.
except manga community has been calling it usagi drop since its translation, so it’s not like we’re going to suddenly switch just cuz.
But the manga community called FMA hagane no renkinjutsushi as well, so sometimes I find it’s a good idea to ignore weeaboos
??? i’ve never heard it called that. maybe the hardcore oldies <_< abbreviations ftw.
i’ll have to check out usagi drop anime sometime, though manga spoilers have me hoping they don’t follow through to the ending (not sure if the spoilers i heard were true or not, but if true, WHY JAPAN WHYYYY)
ouran only points out their own actions because the same exact scenarios often play out in most stupid shoujo stories, sans narration. it’s like those literal music video parodies where the narration points out every ridiculous thing that’s happening in the video to the music. BUT ANYWAYS stops explaining
You heard correctly. It is true.
WHY JAPAN?! WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?! D8
I’ve heard enough vague hints about the manga ending to know what it is. I’m just going to run off the assumption that the anime will either never reach that point, or change the ending entirely
Oh, please, you loved Prince-sama and are just too embarrassed to admit it!
Scamp is Noitamina’s battered spouse. No matter how many times he gets abused, he’ll keep coming back for more.
I just gotta remember that night in Eden and I come crawling back
I clicked on Bunny Drop and I did not get Bunny Drop. I am disappoint.
The simulcast licensee in my region calls it Usagi Drop, therefore it is Usagi Drop. DEAL.. Also Bunny Drop sounds like something involving rabbits and a low-flying C-130 Hercules, so I’d rather not call it that.
Daikichi is cool. He’s at least in my eyes more attractive than those Prince-sama Bishis. shudder
A real woman would only go for a man who can actually button his shirt properly
This post managed to make me feel all these in rapid succession:
1 – Bunny Drop is worth checking out, noitaminA and all (except Fractale, yeah…)
2 – …but maybe I should check out Minami-ke first…
3 – So THAT’s what was wrong with Ouran (which I didn’t truly enjoy, although my friend pointed out that I should be…Pfft)
4 – Is there any harem or reverse harem show that has main protagonist with a personality in the first place?
5 – …wait, shouldn’t this entry be entitled “Uta no Prince-sama”??
4:
Bakemonogatari.
5:
Because no one would read it if it were because Uta no Prince-sama sucks.
4 – Oh right, I totally forgot about Bakemonogatari!
5 – Point taken XD
Read 50 chapters because Scamp recommended it, good shit as long as they stay away from 10 year skip which killed the manga.
My favorite part of the first chapter was everyone talking about at grandpa’s funeral that he still was quite a stud.
Bunny Drop was freaking adorable and wonderful.
Reverse harems make me want to die.
I can’t believe you. D:<
This is not about Usagi Drop/Bunny Drop. You will suffer for this Scamp-su.
Also, Ouran as in Ouran High School Host Club? The bishies in that show are not part of any parody in the show.
Saw it last night. Wished it wasn’t too much of a slice of life (story wise) but enjoyed the watercolors & the off-beat theme… but lolipedo is still the elephant in the room.
Scamp is a guy, he will always have biases whenever there’s bishounens and yaois in it. Well I agree with him though >.>
That’s wrong. Many of Scamps favourite anime are actually pretty homoerotic (like Berserk, Death Note, Durarara, Code Geass, and, of course, Gankutsuou), and he he blogged Hetalia for a long time. He often describes himself as a “fujioshi trapped in a straight males body” 😉
He doesn’t like it not because it has bishis, but because it’s terribly written and the characters are bland and cliched. I don’t think he would be the guy to judge an anime how it appeals to his own sexual preferences, but how it’s written or animated, or how the characters are crafted.
Also, where the heck is yaoi in Uta no Prince-sama?
There is a reason this is my largest tag
Whereas it stuck me, after some thought, that the main character in this show must be the Belldandy-equivalent for thirty-something single women. Single dad with a stable career, in over his head with an adorable young daughter? My aunt would be weak at knees.
‘Trolling my readers’
…
Fuck you. I wanted to read about Usagi Drop and what you thought about it, not about some random anime and bishõnen.
is it weird “usagi drop” makes me think of literal rabbit droppings, but “bunny drop” makes me think of adorable candy and mascot?
There’s a reason we here in ‘merica call it Usagi Drop, y’know? It’s what happens when the U.S.A. G.I. …drop… uh, I hope I didn’t offend anybody.