どうもすみません、この記事を英語で書きます。
Last week I saw a nice Anime (Usagi Drop). It was about a girl, who's parents either die or abandon her. A relative decides to take care of her. It was one of the best stories I have seen - beautiful, emotional and at times even educational. Of course it has a few faults, but none the less. The Anime ends at one point, but the story kept me awake so I decided to read the Manga, which had more to offer.
I started to read the chapters that followe the plot in the Anime. 10 years have passed and the kid is now a teen with love issues. I knew immediately, that the quality of the story lessened but I kept going. It was still a nice story, even though it felt like any other 08/15 school Manga. But then things got serious. If you don't want to be spoilered, read no further.
First, the relation between the girl Rin (age 16) and her caretaker Daikichi (age around 40) is a bit weird. She is the daughter of Daikichi's grandfather. So this makes Rin the aunt of Daikichi. And she falls in love with him. At some point, Daikichi gets to know about this and the situation between them gets awkward - as one might expect.
All this can be normal but here is the twist. I see this in many Manga and Anime. While I usually don't care if the story is mediocre, but with a plot as powerful as in Usagi Drop, this is not forgiveable. At a turnpoint of the story, suddenly it gets revealed, that they are not blood related. Daikichi's grandfather adopted her. Also Daikichi knew from the beginning of the story, that this fact is written in the old mans testament, but it was not revealed to the audience. I WAS BUFF!
This is in my opinion a very lazy storytelling. I knew that Yumi Unita, the author, did not intend to write a story as long as this. Maybe her initial plans were to end the story where the Anime ended. But this doesn't change my opinion. As mentioned earlier, other works, usually an incest setting, where the siblings find out, that they were in fact not blood related and therefore gave them a green light for the continuation of their sketchy doings, isn't as bad as with Usagi Drop.
Even worth, the caretaker says multiple times, that he sees her as a daughter. But they still manage to come to an agreement: Daikichi will marry Rin.
Personally, this sounds disgusting. The story made a 180° turn for me right there. What do you think about this?
以上です
エミン