Anime / Buddy Daddies

"My dads could beat up your dad!"

We're professionals. We do whatever it takes to see our mission through. Target sighted!

— Kazuki regarding giving Miri her forgotten lunch box

Buddy Daddies is a 2023 original anime, produced by P. A. Works and written by Shimokura Vio of nitro+.

Kazuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa are friends, roommates, and assassins, working together to take down high-profile targets at the behest of professional contracts. When working a hit on a human trafficker during a Christmas party, their assignment is nearly derailed by Miri Unasaka, an innocent and fearless four-year-old girl in search of her father, whom she's never met. The duo barely manage to complete the assassination and keep Miri alive, only to discover that not only does she now think Kazuki is her papa, but her real father was the man they successfully killed.

Now, Kazuki and Rei must find a balance between the bloody, dangerous lives they live as criminals and taking care of Miri as her foster parents, no matter how much trouble she unintentionally causes for them and how much danger she gets herself into.

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Buddy Daddies has examples of:

• Adoption Conflict: Miri was abandoned by her mother and is saved by the assassins Kazuki and Rei after they've killed her father in a mission. The two take her in and care for her out of guilt. The trio is engrossed in their happy pretend family until one day Miri's mother visits the duo and demands that they give her her daughter back, especially since she's aware of their dangerous line of work and that she wants to be a better parent to Miri. Kazuki refuses at first, but they reluctantly leave Miri to her by lying to Miri that it's just for a day, but when the Suwa organization Rei works for comes to murder Miri and her mother, the sociopathic Ogino manages to kill Miri's mother before Kazuki arrives and saves Miri. In the end, Kazuki and Rei take Miri back to raise her, and she grows up with the two from this point onwards.
• An Ass-Kicking Christmas:
  • The first episode, "Piece of Cake", has Kazuki and Rei assassinating a human trafficker at a Christmas party.
  • The last episode, "Daughter Daddies", also takes place on Christmas and has Kazuki and Rei taking down the Suwa Family.
• Arab Oil Sheikh: Referenced by Kyu when Miri asks him about Rei's (and Kazuki's but he gives her a different answer for each) job. She's then seen drawing Rei as an Arab oil baron wearing stereotypical "Middle Eastern" white thobe for her homework. When Miri reveals this at her daycare the women there all message each other that they "smell money" and the like.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Miri's mother Misaki refuses to take Miri back, Kazuki argues that she should naturally have maternal instincts towards Miri and want to protect her child. Misaki coldly replies, "It's always the ones with the loftiest ideals who bring the greatest misfortune to their families". This triggers a painful memory from Kazuki’s past and leaves him speechless.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: While it was thankfully not loaded, Rei left a gun somewhere in the house where Miri could easily find it.
• Asshole Victim: The human trafficker that is episode 1's target. Not only because of his job, but he also takes a (as far as he knows) random little girl hostage at gunpoint. That she was his own daughter, even if he was unaware of this fact, makes it all the more karmic. The karma only gets added to later on, when it's revealed that Miri was the result of him having an extramarital affair with another woman and abandoning her after she got pregnant.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Episode 8 takes place on Rei's birthday, with Rei being called back to his family home to carry out a hit for his father while Kazuki and Miri prepare a surprise birthday party for him. Rei himself doesn't even remember it's his birthday until he comes back to the apartment and finds out what Kazuki and Miri were doing.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • Episode 4 has Kazuki taking Miri to "Takahashiya" to shop for her kindergarten supplies.
  • One of the first games Miri asked if Rei has on his PS5 analogue is "Morio Kart", which he apparently does and is "very good at", and would later bond with a little boy from her daycare over their mutual love of said game.
  • The in-universe goods are delivered by "Rakuzon", a portmanteau of Amazon and the Japanese online store Rakuten.
• Blue with Shock:
  • When Kazuki announces that they might go broke and that they won't have money for things like pudding, Miri reacts with shock and her face goes blue.
  • Kazuki himself gets this face when he's scared that Kyu will find out that he and Rei haven't been doing their work well because they have to take care of Miri but when Kyu suggests looking after her Kazuki gets so surprised his face nearly goes black with shock and his jaw almost drops.
  • Kazuki makes such an expression when Kyu tells him he knows everything about them being Miri's "dads." Complete with Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat.
• Book Ends: The first and last episodes end with An Ass-Kicking Christmas.
• Boom, Headshot!: Rei disposes of Miri's father with a headshot.
• Catch Your Death of Cold: Rei brings Miri out in heavy rain to try and get her to daycare on time, even though it's a weekend. Miri is later shown sneezing and develops a high fever that Rei has no idea how to treat.
• Child Care and Babysitting Stories: The whole premise is this — two inexperienced assassins who live in the same house find themselves with a little girl called Miri, who thinks one of them is her papa. They now have to raise her while finishing their dangerous business at the same time.
• Children Raise You: Before Miri's arrival, Kazuki and Rei lived elaborate, violent lives as bachelor hitmen. The many responsibilities needed to raise Miri pushes them out of the bubbles of their lives. Her possible impact on them is lampshaded by Kyu.
  Kyu: She's a good kid. And she might change you both. Though I don't know yet if it'll be in a good or bad way.
• Class Trip: In episode 6 Miri's daycare class goes to the zoo. Hilarity Ensues when Miri forgets her lunch and Kazuki and Rei try to get it to her even though parents were specifically told not to come.
• Distant Finale: The final episode shows a ten year timeskip where Kazuki and Rei are now running a restaurant together, with Miri preparing to go off to high school.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the final episode, Kazuki manages to kill Ogino, avenging Yuzuko and Misaki’s deaths in the process, while Rei ruins his father’s plans to have him take over his organization by announcing his resignation to his face before intentionally crippling his shooting arm, ensuring he can never be used as an assassin again. Having guaranteed theirs and Miri’s safety, Kazuki and Rei are finally free to leave the contract killing business. An epilogue taking place ten years later shows the three living together as a normal, happy family with Kazuki and Rei managing a restaurant together while Miri prepares to attend high school.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Kazuki is loud and dramatic when talking whereas Rei is quiet and reserved.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: After pulling three straight all-nighters working on their new task, both Rei and Kazuki have purplish eyebags under their eyes, with Kazuki's face being all shrunken.
• Family of Choice: The premise of the show. The main cast consists of three people with no real family: Miri was abandoned, Kazuki lost his wife, and Rei's father never truly sees him as his son, leading them to create a new family of their own.
• Fish out of Water: The secretive, lucrative career of assassination leaves Kazuki and Rei hilariously unprepared for the mundane challenges of raising a four-year-old girl, like government paperwork and budget shopping.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The OP sequence "SHOCK!" has a shot of profiles with their eyes crossed out. Those are the listed targets Kazuki and Rei go after.
  • In the first episode, Kazuki wraps his scarf around a stray cat before sending it away. In episode 10, he wraps his scarf around Miri before sending her to live with her mom.
• Food as Bribe: Kazuki attempts this by giving Miri a ton of snacks to keep Miri from insisting on going with them when they go out, but the second she realizes the food is a distraction while they leave, she runs and starts crying, begging them not to leave her.
• From the Mouths of Babes: Miri tells a daycare worker that her daddies forged documents to get her into preschool and have guns.
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Kazuki is boisterous and has a larger-than-life personality while Rei is calm, witty, and serious. The former has a habit of overreacting and the latter is prone to underreacting.
• Harmful to Minors: A four-year old child living together with two hitmen who murder people for money isn't exactly PG, especially given how the circumstances of her coming into their lives has her being caught in a crossfire between them and a gang of thugs, her being held at gunpoint, and someone being killed right next to her. Thankfully, her two Parental Substitutes do take great pains to avoid exposing her to this kind of lifestyle, and Miri is too innocent to care.
• Hitman with a Heart: Both main characters take in Miri, but Kazuki especially has a soft spot for children. Both also treat a stray cat well after Rei briefly takes it in, with Rei buying a box full of cat food with the intention of taking care of it, and Kazuki, despite taking it back outside, leaves it his scarf and then tries bringing it cat food after.
• How Is That Even Possible?: Rei responds with appropriate incredulity when Kazuki attributes Miri's instincts to him and Rei's genes, even though both of them are men and Miri is adopted.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: It seems like Rei is the only character capable of hitting his target, as gunfights with multiple Mooks frequently have Rei and Kazuki dashing through hails of gunfire without getting a scratch.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: A later plot twist is that Kazuki's wife Yuzuko, who is hinted to be alive but separated from him because of his job at the beginning of the series, died while pregnant.
• In Medias Res: The series opens with Kazuki and Rei on a job, only to be interrupted when they're called about Miri being sick. We then learn how the two hitmen became dads.
• Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: The story centers on Kazuki and Rei, two friends and assassins, taking in a four year old girl named Miri after she wanders into one of their assassinations — and their target happens to be her father. Having been raised solely by her mother before being sent away, Miri mistakes Kazuki for her dad and doesn't realize that he and Rei killed her biological father. After Miri's mother refuses to take her back, Kazuki and Rei decide to raise her themselves while also continuing their bloody line of work.
• Motifs: Ferris wheels. In episode 10, the Ferris wheel ride is used to represent how Kazuki and Rei were at a high point in their life for a brief period of time, but now that they have to give up Miri, they're back at the bottom where they started.
• Ms. Fanservice: Carol and Dorothy, two girls that Kazuki knows who work at a casino. We're introduced to them wearing skimpy Christmas outfits, and their job is to get men to gamble at their establishment - Kazuki seems to have a habit of falling for it.
• Not The Illness That Killed Them: In episode 10, Misaki returns and reveals she has terminal cancer, which gave her a change of heart and a genuine desire to raise Miri during the short time she has left. Unfortunately, in the next episode she ends up getting killed by Ogino.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: No parent is allowed to come with their child to the daycare's zoo field trip, but Rei and Kazuki still go to give Miri her lunch box while trying not to get caught. When Miri and her friends get lost, she feels the presence of someone behind her to which Rei immediately covers his face with a newspaper and Kazuki hides behind a tree. Twice.
  Kazuki: She sensed our unseen presence. Great instincts, my girl!
• Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death: Kazuki's pregnant wife was killed by an explosion in front of his eyes during a rainstorm.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In the first episode, Rei tries to adopt a stray cat he finds on the street, even buying several boxes of cat food for it before Kazuki points out to him that caring for another being like that takes more than feeding it, the kind of care a shut-in like Rei can't provide. Despite putting it back on the street, Kazuki checks up on the cat later on with tinned cat food to make sure it's ok, looking pleased when it's apparently been picked up since then.
  • A random goon guarding one of Kazuki and Rei's targets helps Miri to the bathroom after she rings the compound's doorbell begging to use the toilet.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: The entire premise is Kazuki and Rei raising a daughter together, but there is no hint of romantic attraction between the two of them throughout the series.
• Potty Emergency: Miri goes through this multiple times in Episode 2. This even jeopardizes one of Kazuki's plans as she ends up revealing his location after she is let into the house to use the bathroom.
• Pretty Little Headshots: Basically Rei's signature style due to how often he invokes this. Headshot kills in the show always seem to just punch neat little holes in the forehead of the victim followed by a small spurt of blood and not much else.
• Running Gag: Typically Once per Episode, Kazuki will be up to some shenanigan so he can dote on Miri, and Rei will try to slink away in the background, wanting nothing to do with it, only for the former to snatch him by the neck and forcefully drag him along despite his protests.
• Skewed Priorities: The human trafficker's wife, when her husband is being targeted for assassination, instead uses some colourful language to complain about her party being ruined.
• Storming the Castle: The final episode sees Kazuki and Rei raid the Suwa Family mansion in order to force Shigeki to cancel the assassination contract on Kazuki and Miri.
• Tongue-Out Insult: Miri sticks out her tongue at Kazuki as she tells him she hates him twice because he's scaring her.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • In the first episode, before adopting her, Rei tells Kazuki that he can shoot through Miri to kill their target. Kazuki, however, does not hold this view.
  • Miri's own father (though he doesn't seem to be aware of this fact) holds her at gunpoint.

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