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EP. REVIEW: Buddy Daddies

Rei is more cat than human 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.

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.

And another thing about Miri, there's nothing organic about her behavior

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）。

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）。

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.

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).