The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting 組長娘と世話係
Synopsis
Kumichou Musume to Sewagakari is about Tooru Kirishima’s notoriety is spread far and wide in the underworld. He is most commonly known as “The Demon of Sakuragi”—a man who is not afraid to resort to violence if deemed necessary. After almost jeopardizing a peace treaty, his boss tasks him with the most difficult job he has ever had: taking care of seven-year-old Yaeka Sakuragi—the boss’ precious daughter—so that Tooru understands what it means to be responsible for another life.
At first, the two do not seem to meet eye to eye, as Tooru has no clue on how to communicate with Yaeka, and the young girl is not used to expressing her emotions. However, as time goes on, they come to understand each other despite their differences. The fearsome right-hand man of a yakuza boss and the child he must protect are about to learn that family is not always bound by blood.
Watch Kumichou Musume to Sewagakari Online
Review
Do you enjoy childcare?
Do you like wholesome and heartfelt moments?
Do you like shows that make you want to protect and care for others, as if you were a parent?
Last but not least, are you interested in reminiscing about your childhood days with your parents/nanny or any other parental figure?
Then this show is for you.
The show revolves around the Tooru and Yaeka duo, with Tooru in charge of babysitting Yaeka on the orders of the household’s and Sakuragi Group’s head, Kazuhiko. You can see how the duo clicked right away. Whenever Tooru does something sweet for Yaeka and vice versa, you go awwww, that’s so sweet, and as a result you die from cuteness overload. You can literally see how both of them were vital to each other, practically inseparable, and aided each other’s growth throughout the entire series.
Tooru, formerly known as The Demon of the Sakuragi Group, literally mellowed out and learned to be more happy, enjoy life, control anger, and have other positive bearing as a result of babysitting Yaeka. Yaeka, on the other hand, was able to express herself more openly, learned to overcome her mother’s traumatic accident, and made friends with people her age, which makes you as a viewer just cheer and be happy for her growth. But character development isn’t the only thing the show has to offer; we also got to learn about their background, backstory, happy and sad moments, and feel for them. The show give a high level of emotional investment to its viewers.
We also saw supporting characters from the Yazuka gang and the Sakuragi family play a role in the overall story and plot execution. We learned more about the past and background of some of the supporting characters, which obviously aided our investment in them. We don’t get the impression that they were thrown together for the sake of progressing the story, but rather that they played an actual role in the story’s progression, as well as the Tooru and Yaeka tandem’s growth and becoming closer.
Family. It’s the essence of most of my emotion nowadays, and in modern media, any type of familial bonding just hits me in the feels, every time. We saw little tidbits of that in this show, and I only wish they executed the importance of family even better, but it’s alright, because Kirishima and Yaeka’s relationship is pure sweetness and wholesomeness to the extreme.
Babysitting shows always remind me of Hinamatsuri, a wonderful show that was wholesome, emotional, and extremely funny, and it’s hard not to compare the two shows. What this show lacked was a more creative approach to humour, and while it’s very wholesome, it felt unfocused and the story didn’t flow very smoothly, but I enjoyed what we got.
Story
It’s very sweet, and I can’t emphasize that enough. The relationships are sweet, the dialogue is sweet, the personalities of the characters are sweet. It didn’t have much else to tell though, and while it tried to go in a darker route at times with all the yakuza shenanigans, the tonal shifts felt awkward, because we’d have a set up for darker times ahead, and then proceed back to playing in a playground in the next episode instead of following the dark storyline. It just felt disorganized and unfocused. It felt like a lot of set up at times with no clear conclusion. The villains were kind of just all over the place, and they felt underwhelming as well.
Overall, there isn’t much to write home about the plot, there are just many cute moments and honestly, I’m ok with the simplicity, but I wish the darker moments were executed in a more clear fashion.
Art
Not the biggest fan of the character designs, but they’re alright. Nothing special in terms of animation, it just works.
Music
The soundtrack is pretty simple, and fits the tone of the show well. While I didn’t enjoy the OP and ED very much, it still works for the show. Nothing too special.
Characters
There was a lot of potential with the characters, but in my opinion, just not enough time to flesh them out. If we get a season 2, I’m sure that they’ll be better developed. The cast of characters are fun to watch, and wholesome to the max. Kirishima, the babysitter of Yaeka, probably had the biggest change within himself. He was a cold, and rather brutal yakuza member, and after being tasked with taking care of his boss’s daughter, he became nicer, and learned how to be more responsible. Sugihara existed for decent comedic relief, though his bits did get a bit repetitive as the show progressed.
There were some emotional moments too, and a few backstories that were engaging to watch. Each character had their own pasts and some of them had a rather dark one. With more time, I’m sure the characters will keep gaining depth to them and feel more interesting.
Enjoyment
I loved the wholesome moments and the family moments, they always get me in the feels.
They were going for wholesomeness, and they did that very nicely, the theme of babysitting was really hammered home. The darker moments felt a bit short at times, but some of the moments hit pretty hard, and it would have been better if the more dark moments were in consecutive episodes rather than sprinkled in every once in a while.
Overall
Overall, this show is a must-see if you want to take a trip down memory lane and enjoy a heartfelt and wholesome moment. Just by looking at the trailer, you can tell that the art and sound are above average, and you should know what to expect from the show based on the synopsis and trailer. The only flaw in the story for me are the antagonists, who don’t leave much of an impression aside from the fact that they’re there and they have a grudge against the Sakuragi Group, particularly Tooru. Apart from that, the rest of the show, in my opinion, is flawlessly executed.
If you like wholesome shows, I’d gladly recommend this. While it definitely wasn’t my favourite show of this nature, it achieved what it was trying to convey decently, it just lacked focus. That said, I enjoyed my time watching this, and I’d love to see more of Kirishima and Yaeka having the time of their lives together.
