I was slightly surprised to see Daikichi’s family reappearing so soon and being shown in a very different light from the first episode. A pleasant surprise though, as this portrayal is much more favorable.
A good chunk of this episode covered Daikichi and Rin visiting Daikichi’s family. Though she greatly enjoys the train ride there, Rin goes silent and antisocial when she enters the house. A reasonable response, Daikichi points out, after experiencing their somewhat heartless sides during her first meeting with them. It was nice to see his family realize and regret that and make an effort to befriend Rin. It must have been worth it, too, since they got to have a great time playing with beanbags and cat’s cradle… lul. Even the… shall we say difficult child Reina has fun happily playing.
What’s on Daikichi’s mind is more serious, as well as potentially plot-developing and twisting. While searching his grandfather’s house for clues about Rin’s mother Masako, he finds a not-so-well-hidden modem. Questioning Rin about whether his grandfather used a computer, Rin reveals that the grandfather’s maid’s name was… Masako! ~dun dun dun…
Rin’s fear of death is certainly reasonable. Her grandfather, who she was extremely attached to and moreover the only person she was attached to, was taken away from her by death. I’d think it’s natural for her to be concerned about the same thing happening to Daikichi. And I guess death is something of a hard concept to grasp for a six-year-old. Daikichi plays the parent role perfectly, reassuring her that she doesn’t need to worry and promising that he’ll stick around. (Though he’s 0 for 1 with the promises so far… D:)
Finally, Daikichi makes another sacrifice for Rin – stepping down from his job to a lower one so he has more time for her. Probably somewhat of a difficult choice to make, seeing as he’s very successful in his current job and has remarkably loyal subordinates. (Offtopic: I wouldn’t have guessed he was a successful manager from the first two episodes. He seemed more like a average-worker type.) It’s over quick though, and he’s able to prepare lunch with Rin and walk her (instead of running her) to her school the next day.
‘Even the… shall we say difficult child Reina has fun happily playing.’ Lol, She’s, like, the opposite of Rin in many ways, but clearly not so different after all. I also assumed that Daikichi was an average worker type at first, and so his willing demotion was an interesting point; he probably won’t, but I wonder if he might come to resent Rin a little bit later on for his drop in wages/ position…
A lovely show so far (‘distilled cuteness’ as another, I think, called it elsewhere, lol), which is just fine with me, but I also hope that the less pleasant scenes and future conflict are handled just as subtly as they seem to have been so far.
Thanks for the read.