This review will contain plenty of spoilers so either go to the last part for the TLDR or if you just want a quick opinion then mine is that this show is worth a watch. Agree to disagree but for me this show is better than Spy x Family. Hell if you did enjoy Spy x Family you more than likely will enjoy this one. I shit on Spy x Family so much that you may even think this is a review for it. I cant apologize so just a heads up. I am going to be comparing them a lot. When watching this show you may have to apply suspension of disbelief towards some of the stuff that happens like: avoiding bullets with a tray or dodging a shit ton of bullets coming from both front and back all while running and carrying both a toddler and a grown ass man. 500https://i.ur.com/fnonMTX.png If someone asks you what the plot of Buddy Daddies is show them this. The sole reason I wanted to watch this is because I knew I hated Spy x Family but I liked the concept it had. I wanted two not so good people to for some reason have to raise a kid on their own and to watch them struggle while doing so. Why? because it is fun to watch people try to do things theyve never done before and Buddy Daddies felt like a second chance to have that after having my fantasies ruined by the boring sitcom that was Spy Family the X is a pain Im gonna remove it from here on out. Before the show even aired there were a lot of people everywhere saying it was just the gay version of Spy Family a cheap copy just another way to make money after something that was successful. Boy were people wrong. I cannot deny Spy Family being an inspiration to this show I am not in the production commitee after all but it is very obvious when a show has been given love. If this was simply a copy made in hopes to rake in the money by following the footsteps of the Forgers you would be able to tell. There was a good amount of love put into this. I can tell they tried to tell their story the best they could with the resources they had. It is a story about two men who either lost love or didnt know it who got a second chance to start over after meeting a tiny girl. The main reasons I enjoyed Buddy Daddies is because the characters feel like real people things actually happen the comedy is pretty good and because the amount of BS was minimum. Spy Family issues for me were many among them: NOTHING ever happening no repercussions for peoples actions hollow and cheap war speeches whilst never showing me how the war was affecting their world the only reason I can think of it sucking is cuz they are in like the late 50s or early 60s mind you not because of the show particularly showing anything for its claims. Want an actual good speech about war and to see how war affects a whole country? Gintama a fucking gag manga written by a Gorilla did it better. It is boring dull and majority of characters are just walking tropes. Not even good ones mind you. That grey haired woman was an even worse Mikasa. How the fuck can you be worse than the worst? and Anya is just a fanservice character fanservice isnt always titties and nippleless sculpted male torsos. I know amazing. All of this added up for a very dissapointing watch after episode 1. Feels good anime doesnt have to equal mediocrity. You cant just slap three people smiling on screen and call it a day. In contrast to this in Buddy Daddies a lot of what I hated in Spy Family was unexistent. Things happened characters were for the most part fleshed out people faced repercussions for their actions and we got to see the consequences of Kazuki and Reis job being hitmen. There are no speeches about war just two dudes trying to take care of a little girl and facing ordinary real life struggles like having your partner not help with chores and dealing with annoying paperwork. I was very happy to get to watch an episode of this every Friday and even looked forward to it. I would love for this show to have more episodes. It feels like they needed either more time or better direction to make the story flow a bit better. I very much enjoyed from episodes 1 to 10 but in episode 11 I think it is when I felt things were being rushed hence my reasoning for why I think more episodes would have helped. Miris mom Misaki is one of the key parts of this story. She is very important. Unlike many people I cannot dislike her. To me she always felt like an abused woman and even after her speech on why she hated Miri I just couldnt hate her I pitied her. She was neither right nor wrong. Did she want to have Miri? Was she assaulted and Miri was the result? did she have her at a time in her life when she was not in a good mindset to raise a child? I dont think it is ever really confirmed but that information would have helped so much to see where she was coming from. Misaki was a character that the staff could have done a lot with and it feels like they honest to god gave up on her. Her coming back for her daughter in episode 10 didnt feel odd what did was her crying about not being a good mom for her and cooking and caring for Miri in episode 11. I dont think a show has to spoon feed you on a characters growth but this is a woman who when we last saw her was dating a jackass and who looked very miserable and heartbroken over being a mother even saying that her dreams were ruined. It would have made more sense if we had seen her at least make a change while on screen way earlier not to just say she had cancer and then kill her off two episodes before the finale. There was so much wasted potential for her character truly a pity. As a result when she passed away I didnt feel much for her. What I did feel was a sort of sadness for Kazuki who once again was seeing a woman dying in front of him and because of him in a way. The cast of characters is not very big which is fine to me but I wish we had more time with side characters like Miris teacher Anna or Kyutaro. They seemed likeable and interesting enough. This is not to say that our main people are bad because honestly the main joy for me in this show were both the dads Kazuki and Rei. On the poster I thought Kazuki would be that good guy with the doormat personality who was a complete airhead and that Rei would be the dominant personality who would solve everything. I didnt completely guess. Kazuki does have some clumsiness but he also seems to be the one in charge while simultaneously being a total drama king and very naughty like when he was flirting with the casino prostitutes early on. Rei surprised me by being a sweaty gamer who had no real life social skills and being the actual airhead of the two. It is a very nice feeling when the cliche you expect turns out to be something completely different. Both of them were able to have character growth and it was done very subtly with each episode. It was fun watching them cry and yell at simple things like sewing or having to play with a baby to then see them slowly but surely catch on to what they needed to do. Small actions like Rei wanting to cook for Miri or finally helping Kazuki out with both Miri or the house brought a smile to my face. Seeing the character change while on screen feels rewarding but so is seeing two people Rei and Kazuki who have probably never known what a family is to be experiencing it for the very first time. Miri saved part of their soul. They did things after meeting her that they would never have done otherwise. Kazuki let go of his grieving to try to achieve normal happiness. He was afraid of change of being fullfilled by something else in this case his newfound family consisting of both Rei and Miri after the heartbreak that he went through of losing his girlfriend and unborn child. In regards to Rei he as he says was like a statue. Not truly living never even trying. It was a very big win in my book to see him be for the first time the one to take charge and say I want to do this. I want to try and we CAN do it. As the saying goes Being deeply loved by someone gives you strenght while loving someone deeply gives you courage. I think this can sum up Miri Kazuki and Reis bond. All I will say in regards to the animation is that the quality of the artwork is nothing to write home about average I guess but sometimes the characters looked a bit too wonky for my taste. The opening and ending theme are both very nice and the music throughout the show isnt bad minus Misakis song. As for Kazuki and Reis past actions AKA being mostly responsible for the deaths of Miris parents I think that their repentance and atonement was raising her. Them dying would have been too easy and would have also left me with a bad taste. It is funny but almost all of the P.A. Works shows Ive tried Ive dropped at the first episode. They feel lacking. This is one of the few that I think I will remember and for good reasons. Despite only having 12 episodes it gave me 3 characters who I love and whose happiness I very much wished for. It made me laugh it made me sad it made me cry and above all it gave me what I wanted and never got from Spy Family. Three people who in many ways saved and helped eachother. No games no stupid bravado no hollow morality choices and no dumb character tropes. Spy x Family could never. You cant pay me to watch another season of the boring Forgers. TLDR Buddy Daddies is a story about two killers killing a girls dad and then raising her as their own daughter and learning how hard parenthood is while also changing their ways and it has a banger song as the opening theme. If you watch it I hope you have a fantastic time just like I did. 5000https://i.ur.com/H7FzUUYd.jpg?maxwidth=520shape=thumbfidelity=high Their smiles survived. I am overjoyed.