「うさぎドロップ」/「 LC斐爾 」

One of the few famous quotes in Canadian politics is one by Brian Mulroney, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and the 18th Prime Minister of Canada, during the 1984 campaign. As the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada that took over after Pierre Trudeau resigned, John Turner inherited Trudeau’s premiership (yes, we can swap prime ministers without elections) and government in the latter part of his term. Just before resigning, Trudeau had appointed a ton of loyalists to various positions.

Technically, it is the Governor General of Canada (who acts as the representative the Crown) who makes these appointments, but he or she only does so on the advice of the prime minister. In this case, the appointments had only been recommended by Trudeau but weren’t finalized by the governor general when Turner became prime minister, so he could have stopped them. During the 1984 leaders’ debate, Mulroney attacked Turner for allowing these appointments and Turner replied that he had no option. This was the lead-in to Mulroney’s famous line:

You had an option, sir. You could have said, ‘I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price.’ You had an option, sir — to say ‘no’ — and you chose to say ‘yes’ to the old attitudes and the old stories of the Liberal Party. That sir, if I may say respectfully, that is not good enough for Canadians.

This left Turner shattered in the debate and pretty much won the election for Mulroney. Unfortunately, ever since then, media coverage of electoral debates has always focused on finding that snappy equivalent knockout line, but no one has produced one since.

I like Usagi Drop. Yes, I have read the entire thing. No, the ending was not what I would have liked, but I’m not particularly angry about it. I mean, 95% of it was great, which is a far better ratio than most stuff out there. What’s more is that I think the initial reaction absent the surrounding context made it seem much worse than it actually was, especially with the important reveal that Rin isn’t actually Grandpa’s biological kid.

In fact, I’d say that I don’t really have a problem with most of the ending “arc” and it’s only the very last chapter that makes me raise an eyebrow. I can buy that Rin could have developed romantic feelings for Daikichi. After all, I think it’s an important note that she sees him as a guardian and not her father. He’s always simply been Daikichi to her.

The problem, then, and the part I find hard to believe is Daikichi’s response, which pretty much amounts to a ‘welp, guess I have no choice’. It’s really strange because, even though he was clearly uncomfortable the idea, he didn’t put up that much resistance. It’s strange enough that he offers to wait two years and hopes the problem might go away. After the two year wait period, Rin kind of goes ‘hey, it’s been two years’ and he’s sort of resigned to the whole thing.

What I’m struck by with Usagi Drop’s ending is that Daikichi had an option: he could have said no, but he chose to say yes. It would have been perfectly fine for him to say no. Rin couldn’t have seriously been expecting Daikichi to reciprocate. She would’ve been fine if things continued the way they were. She was prepared to have things stay the same. Things might’ve been awkward for a while, but a ‘no’ would have closed the matter. Instead, we’re left with, well, whatever it is that we have now.

I’d like to stress again that I still think the manga is excellent, even the second half of it. However, Daikichi’s response is baffling and his rationale is unconvincing. Quite frankly, it’s not good enough, especially for such an otherwise great manga. I’ll defend it, but I’ll concede that the end is not at all what I wanted.