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EP. REVIEW: Buddy Daddies


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TheSleepyMonkey



Joined: 11 Jul 2022
Posts: 887
PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 6:36 pm Reply with quote
This has been my second favorite series this season, so far. Simple, yet effective.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 1:03 am Reply with quote
Yeah hopefully episode 2 assassination was just bad luck and next one are gonna be better, or at least they faster. Otherwise its good enough, I like that the the two buddies are already living together and seem to have a good relationship with each others rather than the more usual route of having all three character meet for the first time together.
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Kirki



Joined: 11 Jun 2019
Posts: 296
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 7:18 am Reply with quote
Rei is more cat than human Laughing That's the perfect description if I ever saw one. The way he quickly fell asleep when he was sleeping in the bed with Miri and Kazuki instead of the bathtub is so freaking cute.

I am a bit perplexed about what the show was trying to do with the mother though. Of course, if those two were to keep on being with Miri, the mother was bound to not want her, but the way the show went about it seems a bit... preachy? I get that the message was that not everybody is fit to be a parent and a child if far better off with a family that wants her, but I wish it would stop at that. Because putting in Kazuki's mouth lines like: "The maternal instinct should come to you naturally when you become a mother!" and "How dare you not want your kid!" even when she explains her situation of unwanted pregnancy, depression and being taken advantage of in every step of her way, feels a bit like taking the piss on women who believe that having kids destroyed their potential and their future. (None of these justify child abandonment of course, but still.)

I honestly don't know whose side the show intended to take on this, Kazuki's or the mother's. One way of viewing it is that Kazuki is extremely naive about family dynamics and even though the show did not justify the mother's actions, it understood them, and I will choose to go with that for the time being. Because the other one is that women that don't want kids are unnatural and an anomaly in a proper society.
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absent
Subscriber



Joined: 15 Dec 2022
Posts: 30
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:54 pm Reply with quote
Kirki wrote:
Rei is more cat than human Laughing That's the perfect description if I ever saw one. The way he quickly fell asleep when he was sleeping in the bed with Miri and Kazuki instead of the bathtub is so freaking cute.

I am a bit perplexed about what the show was trying to do with the mother though. Of course, if those two were to keep on being with Miri, the mother was bound to not want her, but the way the show went about it seems a bit... preachy? I get that the message was that not everybody is fit to be a parent and a child if far better off with a family that wants her, but I wish it would stop at that. Because putting in Kazuki's mouth lines like: "The maternal instinct should come to you naturally when you become a mother!" and "How dare you not want your kid!" even when she explains her situation of unwanted pregnancy, depression and being taken advantage of in every step of her way, feels a bit like taking the piss on women who believe that having kids destroyed their potential and their future. (None of these justify child abandonment of course, but still.)

I honestly don't know whose side the show intended to take on this, Kazuki's or the mother's. One way of viewing it is that Kazuki is extremely naive about family dynamics and even though the show did not justify the mother's actions, it understood them, and I will choose to go with that for the time being. Because the other one is that women that don't want kids are unnatural and an anomaly in a proper society.


The scene with the mother made me pretty uncomfortable too. I was neutral on Kazuki's character, but those lines left me disliking him a bit.

Rei, on the other hand, became a lot more likeable for me in the latest ep. Miri seems to bring out the best in him.
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Matcha.8



Joined: 08 May 2021
Posts: 130
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 5:48 pm Reply with quote
I liked the first episode but Miri in the second episode killed all my enthusiasm. She's one of the most annoying anime kids I've come across. I simply couldn't suspend my disbelief to accept that a kid would laugh through an entire gunfight. I'll wait for a few more episodes to see where it goes before deciding if I actually want to come back to this.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:30 am Reply with quote
I want to like the show and I like Kazuki and Rei's dynamic but I also agree that Miri is the weakest part of the show for me. She just comes across as way too screechy and too much like someone's stereotyped view of kids from someone who hasn't actually been around kids and she lacks the charm of Anya in Spy x Family.
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Chipp12



Joined: 30 Mar 2012
Posts: 300
PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:47 am Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
She just comes across as way too screechy and too much like someone's stereotyped view of kids from someone who hasn't actually been around kids

https://buddy-animeproject.com/special/interview/03.html
According to this interview both director and one of main writers have kids and were using their own experience on child raising in making this show so I don't think that's the case.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:55 pm Reply with quote
Chipp12 wrote:

https://buddy-animeproject.com/special/interview/03.html
According to this interview both director and one of main writers have kids and were using their own experience on child raising in making this show so I don't think that's the case.
I feel bad for those parents if they had to handle a real life Miri.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23668
PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2023 6:09 pm Reply with quote
As I said in a different thread, I can understand how Miri could grate on somebody's nerves, but I find her cute. Sure, it's unbelievable that she'd be oblivious to gunfire but overall I find her behaviour reasonably realistically child-like.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:28 pm Reply with quote
After episode one I was like "eh, I was reasonably entertained, also Toyonaga Toshiyuki is great, so let's see what this show will offer down the line".

After episode two, I was like "DAMN IT Miri is such a huge turnoff, she's both overly saccharine and overly screamy, whhhhyyyy" Yes, kids can be loud, kids can be screamy, but not all the damn time! also, not all kids are loud and screamy, and there's a reason why screaming kids tend to annoy people IRL. Also, why are anime writers only able to think in extreme behaviors when it comes to kids? (It's either extremely quiet, or extremely loud and obnoxious.) And another thing about Miri, there's nothing organic about her behavior, it's really just her mugging for the camera and doing whatever is (supposedly) cute in any particular moment.

Aside of Miri though, the whole thing that episode two introduced with the Bad Guy Hitman was just kind of hilarious? I mean our heroes are hitmen, too, the show starts with them hunting down a target and then casually kill him and it's supposed to be cool and funny. In episode two they attempt to hunt down a target with the intention of killing him, fail, and it's supposed to be funny. But then this guy shows up who is also a hitman who murders people, but when he does it it's clearly supposed to be bad... oh come on. Either handwave the ethics away and just live the fantasy, or maybe don't make your main characters murderers for hire?

And then episode three had Miri being screamy and obnoxious, and on top of that it did the whole "bad mother" thing with Miri's mom which was so utterly insensitive and lacked so much empathy it made me genuinely angry. I don't necessarily mind Kazuki having that reaction, it's that it was clearly the stance the show was also taking, and that was just so... ugh.

Too bad, because I actually kind of like Kazuki (Rei not so much but he's serviceable as a character), but after episode three... ehhh. I'll give this show one more episode because I just really love Toyonaga Toshiyuki in this role (and I rarely get to hear him in anime, he keeps appearing in shows I don't watch), but if I don't like the next one better than the first three I'll drop it.
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Chipp12



Joined: 30 Mar 2012
Posts: 300
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:46 am Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
And another thing about Miri, there's nothing organic about her behavior

Shimokura Vio wrote:
僕は基本的に「罪を背負っている殺し屋が幸せになれるのか?」という昔からあるオーソドックスなテーマみたいなものを、全体的な流れとして意識しましたね。それとは別に個人的に楽しかったのは、4歳児の思考回路が全然わからないことです。キャラクターを動かすときって「このキャラはこう思っているから、こういう行動をとる」とか因果関係を結び付けられるのが普通で、そこをどうコントロールするかがシナリオのポイントになるんですけど、4歳児って何が出てくるのか本当にわからない。そこが逆に、すごく面白かったんです。打ち合わせで子供がいる方たちから出てくる4歳児エピソードも楽しくて、みんな親バカ感があふれていましたね(笑)。
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:12 am Reply with quote
Chipp12 wrote:
SHD wrote:
And another thing about Miri, there's nothing organic about her behavior

Shimokura Vio wrote:
僕は基本的に「罪を背負っている殺し屋が幸せになれるのか?」という昔からあるオーソドックスなテーマみたいなものを、全体的な流れとして意識しましたね。それとは別に個人的に楽しかったのは、4歳児の思考回路が全然わからないことです。キャラクターを動かすときって「このキャラはこう思っているから、こういう行動をとる」とか因果関係を結び付けられるのが普通で、そこをどうコントロールするかがシナリオのポイントになるんですけど、4歳児って何が出てくるのか本当にわからない。そこが逆に、すごく面白かったんです。打ち合わせで子供がいる方たちから出てくる4歳児エピソードも楽しくて、みんな親バカ感があふれていましたね(笑)。

...Okay? Just because this is what they had in mind while writing doesn't mean they did a good job and the end result is an organic and consistent behavior, and not "whatever is cute/convenient in this particular moment" which is the case with Miri. Also, it just keeps to the usual "cute obnoxious kid" anime tropes way too much to be realistic in any way - not that I want realism, per se, just something that is more in line with her being an actual character and not a collection of tropes.

(While we're on this topic, also let's not forget that at 4 years old Miri is able to speak only in baby talk and needs assistance using the toilet, but at the same time she's able to navigate a large, busy city, all alone, using public transport all on her own. Also, there's no policeman, no civilian, nobody who notices a four year old kid running around completely alone; but in the exact moment it's needed for a plot moment suddenly the authorities show up.)
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Chipp12



Joined: 30 Mar 2012
Posts: 300
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:16 pm Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
but at the same time she's able to navigate a large, busy city, all alone, using public transport all on her own. Also, there's no policeman, no civilian, nobody who notices a four year old kid running around completely alone; but in the exact moment it's needed for a plot moment suddenly the authorities show up.

Well I guess for all the talks about trying to make it as realistic as possible this definitely doesn't struck a such (together with bullets not hitting protagonists at all in the second episode).
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2023 11:41 am Reply with quote
Chipp12 wrote:
SHD wrote:
but at the same time she's able to navigate a large, busy city, all alone, using public transport all on her own. Also, there's no policeman, no civilian, nobody who notices a four year old kid running around completely alone; but in the exact moment it's needed for a plot moment suddenly the authorities show up.

Well I guess for all the talks about trying to make it as realistic as possible this definitely doesn't struck a such (together with bullets not hitting protagonists at all in the second episode).

Not just this - most everything in the show is not realistic whatsoever. Which wouldn't necessarily be an issue, except so many things are just not "realistic" within the show's on context either, so many elements are inconsistent or just plain don't gel well.

Like the weird good hitmen/bad hitman thing I mentioned in episode 2. We're meant to take away that this particular guy is a Bad Guy because he kills in cold blood and collects his targets' last lines. Which is bad, sure, buuuut if one stops to think for just a split second, one starts to wonder just how is it worse than casually blowing someone's brains out to comedic music? You can't even make the argument that unlike that Bad Hitman, Kazuki and Rei at least try to dispose of their targets humanely (whatever that means) because the show itself shows them not actually giving much of a damn. The show could have even gone the "criminals gain conscience after having to take care of innocent small child" route, but nope. We're just meant to accept that Kazuki and Rei are Good Guys because they're cute young guys, they're funny and they take care of this kid, while the other guy is neither cute (I assume) nor young, and his murders are framed as drama and his actions as cruel, while Our Heroes' murders are framed as comedy and their actions are comedic and cool.
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Oggers



Joined: 29 Nov 2017
Posts: 357
Location: Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 12:37 pm Reply with quote
I'm in the camp of wanting to enjoy this anime, but finding Miri really irritating most of the time (and yes, I know real kids can be just as irritating if not more so, but that doesn't mean it's always fun to watch). As much as the anime tries to sell her cuteness, she just doesn't have much of a personality beyond "happy" and "loud". At least episode 4 does have her deal with the problem of the other kids at daycare avoiding her, which gives her a little bit more emotional range.
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