Category: Manga

February’s Manga of the Month: Bunny Drop

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Bunny Drop (うさぎドロップ) by Yumi Unita

Bunny Drop is a heart-warming story of growth, discovery, and family for two unlikely people, the 30-something bachelor Daikichi and the alone-in-the-world 6-year-old Rin.

Like so many stories, this one beings with a typical life-changing event, a death in the family in this case Daikichi’s grandfather. During the funeral ceremonies little Rin, the recently discovered illegitimate daughter of the grandfather, attaches herself to Daikichi who not only resembles his late-grandfather but seems to be the only adult not angry at her existence. As the family coolly discusses Rin’s future, Daikichi hotly proclaims he will become her guardian and raise her himself.

Dai is most certainly inexperienced but he has genuine affection for Rin and his commitment to bringing stability to her life makes you instantly root for him. Rin in what seems like child’s intuition connects with Daikichi right away. Their bond is an unspoken one that is written tenderly. They are learning about the world together as well as each other creating everything from hilarious outbursts to sweet realizations. It is also wonderful to see real change in each volume that stretches their relationship. This is equally felt as Dai’s family becomes more involved, we begin to learn about Rin’s past, and Dai starts treading the waters of love.

So despite the fun and sweet but not fully grounded premise, there are beautiful moments of wisdom interspersed among the comedy and drama. With an anime TV series coming out this summer and a Japanese live-action movie also due out mid-year, it is a perfect time to fall in love with Bunny Drop.


Ongoing Investigations: Case #113

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I jumped into the Incredible Change-Bots series with a copy of book two. From what I can tell the first book ends the series but was popular enough that they made a sequel. Since this is a comedy it was no too hard to find a silly reason for new silly events to occur with the Change-Bots. The story itself is unabashedly a Transformers: Generation 1 parody down to having Autobot and Decepticon analogs with its own version of Optimus Prime and Megatron as well as most of the other well know Transformers. It takes the overall silliness of the original Transformers cartoon and pushes it to its logical comedic extreme. The humor often very dry even if the jokes themselves are rather goofy. There is humor beyond being a transformers parody but the Transformers parody is a framework that is omnipresent an inescapable.  I think overall the series would work a bit better as a page a week web comic so that the joke does not wear out its welcome. As it stands I found myself losing interest about half way through the book. It was never bad but it just could not sustain my interest. The art is rather of crude but it adds a whimsy to the story that an extremely detailed art style would have prevented. I can clearly see the appeal that a book but I never really got into it. Then again I never liked Adventure Time so maybe I just have a broken sense of humor.

Incredible Change-Bots Two doesn’t have such a complex story that you can’t pick it without having read the first; you probably could have guessed that from the title. What I didn’t realize was that it wasn’t just a funny robot series, it is a Transformers parody without trying to hide it in the least. This is most apparent in its opening recap of their history from the war on “Electronocybercircuitron” between the “Awesomebots” and the “Fantasticons” to their landing on earth and continued rivalry. Sadly, those first six pages are the best part of the entire book. They are funny enough to make you giggle as any parody should but the rest isn’t nearly as amusing. This may stem from it not pulling as obviously from Transformers as the opening sequence did; I wonder if the first book is different in that respect. Or perhaps it is just my personal taste about how long a joke can go on. I have rarely seen a parody that didn’t wear out its welcome in about 60-seconds. I agree with Hisui that I could see this as a weekly one-page comic worth tuning-in for because once again its major downfall was length. I really enjoyed the art-style which can be kind of elaborate on the splash pages but most of the time feels like high-level crayon drawings; it added nicely to what humor was there. P.S. I don’t know why Hisui doesn’t like Adventure Time!

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Karakuri Odette vol. 1: My Life as a Teenage Robot

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I had never heard of Karakuri Odette, not one bit. In a lot of ways, this is what I want from the Manga Movable Feast; I like being introduced to a series, but I get recommendations all the time as I’m sure many others do, so having the push to pick it up is helpful. Karakuri Odette also provides a story that has underlying themes to mull over so it fulfills another point when I think about what I want from the MMF. The series is rather subdued but combines coming of age moments with the moral ambiguity of what exactly robots are for. The storytelling somewhat reminded me of (wonderful) Nari Kasukawa in the quiet approach to humor and relationships but Julietta Suzuki folds in a darker look at morality with it.

As we stated in our Mushishi article for the MMF a compelling method of examining humanity is looking at people through an inhuman lens. Androids fill this niche extremely well because while they look exactly like a human they are still removed from humanity by virtue of their creation. Androids can commingle with humans without creating a fuss but still allow an outsiders perspective of what makes a human a human. Androids are also useful metaphors for those who are alienated or on the fringe due to their nature. They are at first glance part of the group but they are also fundamental removed. Karakuri Odette can be seen as a romantic comedy that uses robotics to examine more than just the concept of can a human love a robot and be loved back. Karakuri Odette takes the older concepts often used in classic science fiction to explore the heart of humanity. At the same time it is a sweet story with tales of friendship and romance mixed with dash of humor. It hearkens back to the day when shojo used science fiction to tell stories while having a more modern sense of whimsy.

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