The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting

Episode 10

The tenth episode of The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting manages to be more than an emotional gut punch—it's a feelings-obliterating-flurry of blows. It very neatly divides into two halves, and if one or the other doesn't split open your heart then you were probably watching a different show than I had been.

The first half is centered on Kirishima and Yaeka having a pleasant day out playing. This is the comfy-womfy feel-goodery that the series has deftly delivered all season, and if you love watching saccharine moments so sweet that they practically give you a toothache, then it's here in spades. Yaeka makes cute squishy faces. Kirishima takes silly pictures. There's a big hide-and-seek game involving the rest of the family sidekicks and Yaeka's new friends that culminates in Kirishima being scary in a wholesome way. Kirishima and Yaeka also get a chance to share a few tender moments talking about how much they have impacted each other.

Then comes that second half, and whoo boy it's a doozy.

We all knew that the looming threat will surface at some point, and that Kirishima was going to unleash his wrath in retaliation. Yaeka getting hurt at all is upsetting, but thankfully it's nothing too dire. Kirishima is of course cutting loose and reverting back to his prior self, the one that earned him his demon moniker. Like all great sequences involving a you-hurt-someone-I-care-about-so-lets-go-beast-mode situation, it is as cathartic as it is terrifying. The near silence as Kirishima pummeled Yaeka's attacker is a pitch-perfect example of this. While we obviously want to see Kirishima and Yaeka continue to have happy days together as part of an extended-found family, it will be interesting to see Kirishima enact vengeance to protect her. Let's just hope the demon is not all that is left of Kirishima when everything is said and done.

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