AWTY 137 - Baby Parade (Gakuen Babysitters)

Wow. Hello, and welcome to our week. There yet in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, D hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime uncle buck.

Oh, yeah.

Pancake time. Pancake time. Pancake time.

I've never seen it.

It's a good time. John Candy Mccoley.

I know that much.

Yeah.

First, the main thing. Imagine a pancake. Imagine a pancake so big you got flip it with snowshog. Then you got Uncle buff.

That's Uncle buff.

Okay, I'm interested. I love pancake.

That's about as much proficiency as I have with responsibility for others lives.

Okay.

I can cook you something delicious. It'll rot your brain out of your head. Nutrition for kids.

It'll feed you for today, for, like, a week. It won't be good, though, but it'll.

Get you one giant pancake is your allotted meal.

When I was your age, I had three baby bottle pops a day. Oh, no, I won't kill you.

Just a straight sugar.

Oh, God.

But why do we talk about this fun, comedy loving caretaker this week?

Well, I have chosen to watch gaku and babysitters ooh. Yeah. Which I have seen clips of and know the general premise. And it seems really sweet. So I figured after gantz and then the bullshittery that was penguin Drum, we should have something nice.

Yes.

After our last week recording, I was like, I got to get out of here. And I retreated to the mountains. I've had time to reflect. I've had time to grieve my life and my life choices. And we're back and hopefully ready to have some fun.

I'm glad you got out because I have been. I've just been stewing in it.

I went the other way. I dove 140 episodes into Hunter Hunter in, like, two weeks. It was a rough time.

Paul and I watched the first two seasons of Legend of korra again. That's what I've been up to.

There you go.

Fun.

Yeah. But anyway, have either of you heard of this program?

No, not at all. I'm assuming there's babies.

There sure are babies.

Yeah.

My only introduction was last week. You comparing it to sweetness and lightning? theoretically, in the sense that there are cute babies. That's the only thing that's keeping me going.

There are cute babies and it seems nice.

I like how scared we are of everything now. Everything has a caveat, I hope it seems nice. Maybe there's a way.

You never know what will happen.

We did modoka. We know three episodes is enough to just ruin your day.

Oh, no. It's anime rug rats. They actually the babies form a secret student council powerful enough to blow up a sun. And they're plotting ways to destroy the school from the inside.

That sounds good.

You're like, oh, cute babies. And they're like, devious plot. I could fully see number one. Yeah, I could see that in an anime. But number two, that's not what I'm here for. This week.

I need something soft. I don't need seven Projecties from another world baby form. No one wants that.

No.

Why was there so worse?

It's not that. That's the worst. Oh, my God. I can't believe you reminded me of that show.

Like, why is manny the central plot point of that anime?

You know, Brendan, for bringing up that show, I have to put you in time out. We'll be right back. We're going to watch the first three episodes while breaking down.

I need my banking.

You are so close was so close. So close to being what we wanted.

Who could have imagined we'll get into it?

Strap in. There's going to be some cute baby talk. And then a hard turn for episode three.

That's my episode.

So we open on episode one, of course, as is tradition. Yes. We open on a boy and a very little boy, and they're at a school, and the older one is he's about high school aged, and he is walking the little boy, KOTARO, through the school when he stops, and he looks down and he's like, KOTARO, are you tired or can you keep walking? And KOTARO just nods, and he's like, okay, well picks him up. Yeah. So KOTARO seems very nervous. So high school boy tells him not to worry and that the chairwoman is going to take care of them. And this boy, the older boy is ryuichi. There's an extra syllable in there, and he inner monologues about his parents and how they were never home, but then they passed away in a plane crash. So the chairwoman of this school lost her son and daughter in law in the same crash, so she's taking them in right away.

I missed that. It was the same crash as well. So it's like, okay, what a just fine person to be like, you orphans over there.

Come give me an urchant now.

Yeah, same disaster. So they get to her office, and she's just this mean old lady, and Coacharo calls her Shaggy. And she's like, it took you guys long enough. And she's like, you guys aren't a replacement for my son. I don't have sympathy for me. And she's just like, you have you been taking care of your little brother since you were a little kid? Like, your whole life? And he's like, yeah. And she's like, perfect. And she says that when ryuichi isn't in class, he's there to be the school's babysitter. whoa, whoa.

I have to babysit an entire school of kids my age?

Crazy. Could you imagine?

Yes.

So saikawa, her secretary, is showing them to the daycare, and he tries to joke around by telling them to climb on his back, but he's like, incapable of joking. This man is very serious, but also sensitive.

He's very sweet.

Yeah. And as they walk, I started calling ryuichi just Ryu because it's easier. Ryu asks if the chairwoman has any grandchildren, and she doesn't. She just had her son and his wife, and he asks what she meant by babysitter. And they get to the daycare, and Psychawa says that he's there to take care of the teacher's children, and they've been short staffed at the daycare. So he explains that the chairwoman's son and daughter in law tried to form a babysitter club to help, but it didn't work out. None of the students wanted to do that, which is understandable.

Yeah, weird. None of the kids wanted to do free labor for their extracurricular activity, and.

You just want to babysit a bunch of toddlers all day.

I was going to say riui cheese in his last year of middle school, so that would make him like, 13 or 14. So woof. So Ryu is ready to help in any way that he can. He's, like, grateful to be there. And psychoa, like, turns away, and he's, like, tearing up at his determination, and he wishes him luck and goes and then Ryu goes into the daycare, and all of the little babies are there. And they look up at him, and he's like, hey, I'm Ryu, and this is my little brother, cotero. And I was hoping we could be friends. And they just all run away.

Get out.

They're smart. So we see the caregiver is sleeping on the floor with a little tiny baby. These are like, probably like, two or three year olds. And then he's on the floor with, like, not even year old, and they hide behind him and then wake him up. And riu introduces himself, and the guy already knows who they are, but he gets their names wrong. He's like, oh, yeah, of course I know you. You're this person. And this person and rie is just.

Like, no, I feel that. I feel that in my bones.

And his name is yoshihito. I just called him yoshi. And he explains that he pays most attention to the little baby, so it's hard to take care of all of the kids. But he was just asleep, so obviously he's kind of lazy. Kind of a bum? I was going to say doing his best, but that's not yeah. So it's time for the kids to introduce themselves. So it's time for the name train.

Choo. chu.

Chu. chu. So they all line up and they say their names, and we've got taka, kirin, takuma, Kazuma, and Me dory. And they're all doing great. yay. This is so cute. I was like, oh, I love them all.

Each baby is designed to be as chubby as possible, so they're all just squishy little orbs running around with tiny limbs. And it is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

I showed them to Paul and he was like, look at their fat heads, because they're all very, like it's exaggerated and it's like, very sweet.

Yeah.

So Ryu puts KOTARO down, and taka immediately is like, okay, you're ready to play? You're going to be the monster. But Ryu doesn't want KOTARO to get hurt, so he offers to be the monster. And then all of the kids pile on him. And KOTARO is just like, oh, no, they're attacking him. What do I do?

I must save him.

Defense brother.

Yeah. He kind of tries to get in there, but it doesn't work out. So he just goes and grabs a book and sits down. And then Yoshi is like, do you want me to get your brother? And he shakes his head, and he's like, okay. Do you want me to read to you? And he shakes his head again. So Yoshi calls over to riu and he's like, hey, just so you know, it's the end of my shift. The teachers should be coming to get their kids soon. I can stay if you need me to. And ri was like, no, I can handle it.

I cannot bother a single human being ever.

Absolutely not. So yoshi leaves. And as he's leaving, he's like, wow, those two are very similar, being that neither of them will ask for help. So it's proving to be difficult. All of the kids want reuse attention. Oh, kazuma trips over this play food that kieran set out, and he starts to cry. And then takuma passes head and he says, pain, pain, fly away. And he's like, Are you okay? And they're twins. cozumel and takuma are twins. He's like, Are you okay, cozumel? And he's like, yes. The paid fool way. They're so cute.

Cosma on the verge of tears constantly.

He's ready to break.

Honestly, I was like, that was me as a kid. I'm like, that on that one.

And so to cheer up kieran, ryu asked her to make the meal again. And then the little baby, mihi, starts crying. taka is climbing on him, and he's just not used to kids with this much energy because KOTARO has zero energy. And we see KOTARO just sitting there looking at a book. And the more I thought about it, the more I was like, that's. So he can't read. He's just sitting there looking at this book, and he sneezes foreshadowing. And then the teachers all come get their babies. They all introduce themselves, and then they leave. Goodbye. And then taka, his older brother, comes, kami tani. And he is the same age as ru. And his mom works at the school, but she's running late. And then taka starts throwing a fit because he wants to stay. So his brother smacks him, which is a recurring thing. And I'm always like, Come on, you cannot please stop smacking your little baby brother.

I wonder why he's so angry.

Weird. So kamitani tells riu that KOTARO looks lonely because he sees him sitting on the floor looking at a book. And then they leave, and he goes over to KOTARO and he taps his head, and he just falls into his lap. And he's got a favor, but he didn't tell rio.

He suffered in silence.

So he runs out and he catches Kami tani and he's like, Take me to the hospital. And then he goes and, like, asks his mom where it is. It was confusing for me. But they run. They go he goes to drop off.

His little brother so he didn't have to also deal with him.

Got you. That makes sense. So riu is upset with himself because he knows that KOTARO won't say anything if he's not feeling well and he should have paid more attention to him. And they get to the hospital, and the doctor says it's probably the stress from the change of environment. Just let him rest and his fever should go down. So he's sleeping. And then Rio goes outside and he pulls his phone out and he says, I should call mom and dad. But he can't because this really hurt. I wasn't expecting this. Like, the sincerity of him, like, pulling out his phone and having that realization. And then he starts crying. And he's like, I'm the only one who could protect KOTARO now. And he imagines what they would say, like, if he could call them. And then the chairwoman comes, and she puts a hand on his head and she says, you're finally crying. And I guess she saw him at a memorial service for the people who died in the plane crash. And they were the only two people not crying. And she says that just because they've suffered a loss doesn't mean that they're alone and he doesn't have to be strong by himself. He can get help. And he just guesses that his brain didn't want to accept that they were gone and that maybe they'd still come home. And then he goes back inside and the nurse comes out with KOTARO and he's crying. And he reaches for riu and he wonders if he had the same realization that their parents are gone. But he's a very tiny little baby, so probably not yet. He's just sad because he's alone in a hospital.

He's gone through a lot.

Yes, he sure has. So the chairwoman tucks them into bed at home and no one is really alone. And then the next day, the chairwoman has a vase of little flowers on her desk. And she's like, what are they doing here? And saikawa is like, oh, they're from Rio and KOTARO. They picked them themselves. And he's like, But I'll get rid of them for you. And she's like, no, I like them.

Don't touch them, please.

They're mine now.

Who told you to take these away? I don't have feelings.

And then Rio was in class, and he introduces himself, and he says he's in the babysitter club. And everyone's like, what is that? What?

Oh, mine.

And then he goes to the daycare and he tells Yoshi what happened. And Kami tani is there too. So he's already got a friend. And he says he's glad it wasn't serious. And then taka is he goes up to KOTARO and he's like, look, today I brought my best book. Do you want to read it together? And he nods, and all of the kids are so excited, and the babysitter club is formed. yay. That's episode one. The ending is really cute too, because the baby is doing a little dance.

Adorable. Great. Good stuff. So pure.

What could go wrong?

Okay, what could go wrong?

Well, let's elaborate on the first thing that could go wrong, which is the child abuse that keeps happening casual smacking.

Around his little brother.

Yeah, so let's explore that a little bit, shall we? We see. Rio wakes up. It's early in the morning, and KOTARO has crawled up on them, and they're in their new apartment. And suddenly the headmistress barges through the front door and is like, all right, it's already past 05:00. A.m., you're floating around. Get up, make breakfast, get to work. And then her assistant comes in and made their, like, breakfast and lunch. And he's like, oh, okay, I have my old uniform. I hope that's okay. It's like the last half of the year, so I'm not going to waste money on a new uniform, if that's cool. And she's like, you fucking idiot. Of course I got you a uniform. Here you go. And here's a headkiss.

She's a sundarie old woman.

Woman.

My mouth didn't want to say it.

She's a collective of women.

Hey, mama. But yeah. So he's like, oh, guess this is starting to feel like home, because have people looking out for us. Okay, holding it in. So here in the daycare room, he drops off KOTARO and goes to class. And as he's walking down the hallway, he's wearing his new uniform, and all the kids around him seem to be laughing at him. So he's like, oh, did I do something wrong? And he sees Kami. tani kamitani. I was like, it's in my notes somewhere.

I lost it.

Where'S waldo? Okay. He sees kamitani and he's like, hey, what's going on? Why is everyone laughing at me? He's like, hey, he has some shadows. And he looks down, and all the kids have followed him and are just walking through the school hallways.

He's the grand master of the baby parade.

Yeah, baby parade. Who can be mad at this? Well, turns out the number one student in the school, Enomata, she's got green hair, so, you know, she's going to be important. She's like, hey, I'm the valedictorian here, and you can't desecrate my school with these baby antics. Get these kids out of here.

We see more about her. But I was wondering, like, does she realize they're the teachers babies? They're not like, random babies off the street. Like, yeah, so even if she was mad, it's like, yeah, the teachers know that. Like, it's still technically part of the it just it kind of threw me off of how accurate she was against babies so fast.

Yes. So immediately, she's just like, Fuck these kids.

Get them out of here. Fuck them kids.

Rio is like, okay, sorry. Goodbye. You're very scary and intimidating. I hope to never talk to you again. And takes the kids away. And as Inomata is walking through the hallways, she meets up with one of the mom teachers, and the mom's like, oh, yeah, that's the new student. He's looking after the kids. Hey, you're the top of the class. You're probably stressing out and not relaxing at all. She's like, why would I relax? I need to be diligent in my duties and follow the rules and be the ultimate student. And she's like, interesting.

So what I was thinking there so we see.

Ryu takes the kids back to daycare, and Yoshi is there. Excuse me. I had some name inconsistency in my notes, so I'm trying to catch up. But I take the kids back to daycare, and Inomata comes in and is like, hey, mom teacher asked me to bring her kids lunch, so I'm here. I would never hang out with kids otherwise. Gross.

Disgusting.

But as she walks in, Yoshi is like, oh, all of a sudden, I got food poisoning. I have to leave to go to the nurse right now. Hey, you know how to hang out and watch the kids. Okay, bye.

See you.

But she's such a rule follower, a direct order from school faculty. She's like, okay, it's my honor bound duty to protect these children.

Now she's taking middle school way too seriously. Yes.

So she's super aggro, as usual. She doesn't want to be there, but can't disobey a direct order. So she accidentally wakes up a baby trying to nap. The kids want to play and are like, hey, you're the monster. Remember last episode? And she's like, I wasn't here for that. And just terrifies the kids. They go hide under a bench, and they're freaking out about her being so mean. And she's internally freaking out. Like, why do all these kids like Everyone but me, I'm likable what am I doing wrong? The kids apologize for calling her a villain and being mean, and she starts learning to relax, because the kids, they don't care about your gpa. They just want to fuck around and play like kids. So she falls asleep, goes through nap time. It turns out it was the mom teacher's plot. She's like, all right, this also child, just older, needs to learn how to fucking relax. Go have kindergarten time real quick. Remember what it's like to relax and have fun and not go hang out with some babies. And of course, Yoshi was also in on it and was like, you have to stay here. That's a direct order. Relax and play. But yeah. So she fell asleep, slept through a class, and wakes up at lunchtime. So she's like me. I skipped a class. I'm the terrible student. But yeah. So we get a little split segment we get next part of this episode. I forget, what is Tantrum child's name? taka. taka. Thank you. Another day in class. taka is making fun of Kotaru's tiger shirt because his name translates to tiger. And he's like, but you've never seen a tiger you can't wear that fake gamer.

He's gatekeeping animals.

I started paying attention to everyone else's shirts because I'm like, is he giving everyone else shit or just guitar? Because I'm like, it's a weird rule.

So kamitani comes in and natria is like, hey, you're being a little shit smack and hits him. And Rio was like, hey, you should stop because that's teaching your little brother that you hate him. And he's like, well, yeah.

I don't know. I don't hate him, but I also don't really like him yet.

He is definitely the I'm just being honest. bending over backwards to make friends. I'm cool. Toxic masculinity. He says, like, yeah, I don't like him, but I don't hate him. Sort of like, yeah, I don't really care about my brother in front of his brother. So naturally taka starts crying and throwing a tantrum because yeah, fair.

He's a toddler.

He just said he doesn't like him in front of him.

Yeah.

So he takes him away. He's like, all right, you're overreacting. I have to take you out of this class. Ridiculous kicking and screaming away. But the tiger discussion sparked an interest in animals and riya's like, hey, go to row. You've had a rough fucking time lately. What if I take you to the zoo this weekend but says it in front of all the other kids? So they're all like, yep, we're all going to the zoo this weekend. Awesome.

Hell yeah.

But yoshi, listening in is like, hey, that's honestly not a bad idea. I get paid overtime for working on weekends, so that sounds great to me.

Yeah.

His only motivations in the show are more money for overtime and getting affection from the milk of the class.

Hey, you know what? This guy ain't so bad.

Not a bad guy. You still but yeah. So they're like, okay, let's make this a little field trip. I'll go get permission from the headmaster. So they go see her and Rio is like, hey, is it cool if we do this? Parents are going to be chaperoning, so it's fine. Can we get Pink some money to go to? And she's like, no, if you have chaperones, he can go if he wants, but fuck it, we're not paying him extra. And she's like, okay. But as they go and get ready for the zoo trip, the assistant brings him a bunch of lunches for all the kids and some spending money. So they do actually have some funding because again, she wants to be seen as a hard ass but has a heart of gold. Yeah, but yeah, they go they meet up ready to go into the zoo. Pink is there. And from the spending money, Rio was like, hey, you can pay yourself. It's fine.

I like that you've transitioned into calling him Pink.

Yeah, that was part of it. I just wrote down Pink because I missed his name until the end of the third episode.

Sure, yeah, I know who he is. I just thought it was funny.

I was like, okay, yeah, it's Lord.

Cherry, pink hair and ponytail, yoshi. He's like, no, it's fine. You don't need to pay me. I have a new scheme. I'm going to take photos and make their dads pay for them because they couldn't make it. Perfect schemer. Awesome. Love it. And we also see kamitani dropping off taka, and he's like, yeah, I have to go to my baseball club, so I can't stay. Do you mind just taking them? He was like, oh, yeah, that's fine. And they're still fighting from saying he hates his little brother yesterday. So, yeah, the stand off. He's like, all right, get out of here, big brother. You suck. I hate you. I'm just a little kid.

It's almost like they still have feelings even though they're children.

No, that's not right. They fully understand nuance and subtlety, despite not fully grasping the language.

But yeah. So we get a little montage. They go through the exhibits. They're freaking out, seeing an elephant for the first time. It's just very cute. Just animals like seeing things and being like, oh, you're real.

Okay, cool.

Giraffes are that big.

All right.

It's not just drawings.

Okay, give me a zoo episode any Day over a beach episode.

Yes, please. We need it. Just what do you think about this cute animal? What do you think about that cute animal?

Because everyone's staring at cavity bars. Oh, my God.

They're real. But they go to the tiger exhibit and the tiger roars at them and all the kids run away, except KOTARO, who doesn't really react because, again, just learns to hide his feelings. Great. Good stuff.

Good stuff. In a small child, he's like, paralyzed with fear.

Yeah, paralyzed with fear, but doesn't show it. But then they go look at all the tiger cubs, and they're much cuter. Good.

Thank goodness.

And then they go and see some birds. Everyone's, I guess, name translates to an animal. So they're in, like, the hawk and falcon exhibit, and I guess that's the translation of taka. And I need to write this elsewhere. I just keep going looking for it in my notes. kamitani, it's right there in front of me. So I guess Kamentani and taka translate to, like, hawk and falcon or whatever the actual thing is. And they try to point this out to taka, and he's like, no, fuck. That guy my big brother.

He's dead to me.

They also see a sheep, and because everyone loves the shaggy big hair of the headmistress, they're like, yes, it's her, it's her. We must get a photo and bring her a souvenir to be like, hey, you're a sheep.

Her name also translates to sheep one of the teachers setting that fee, but.

Yeah, so they're at the souvenir shop later on and takai is continuing to be all grumpy and mad about his brother but he sees out there in the distance someone with a baseball hat that resembles kamitani he's here, he followed, he cares. So he goes and runs off and tries to chase him down. But naturally a child running away from a group of adults bad. So everyone starts freaking out. They're like, ah, missing child serious. But the zoo is starting to close, the crowd is thinning. taka follows this guy in the baseball hat but sees him turn and he's an older man with a mustache so he's like, oh, it's not my brother also, I'm lost and alone. Oh, no, little kid mode. Time to start crying. But just as he does that, who's that that comes walking up behind him? kamitani big brother is here to save the day. Smack. Why are you crying, little kid? Smack. Hit. Don't show emotions. Be stoic like me, I'm a healthy adult.

This is probably the scariest moment of your life. Stop crying.

Get over it.

So he starts crying and picks him up and when Rio and the group find him, they're like, yeah, my mom found out I just dropped him off and went to baseball practice and told me to go get them and was a dick for abandoning him. Fair. Yeah.

She also hit him in the head as we see in the flashback.

Weird. But as they're walking out, taka finally tells him that he loves them because he missed them so much and what's his response? Continuing indifference. Great. Healthy child. This kid will be well adjusted when he grows up.

I can't wait for this kid to decide to have children, but yeah, that's episode two.

Yeah, and then we start off episode three with kids at daycare. They're all running around playing and we see Yoshi remembering like, ah, it's today. And he bends down and gathers all the kids around and he holds out his hands and Qatar just goes off and like, puts his hand and he's like, no, not that. No. Give me what your parents gave me. And ryuchi, they gave you gifts to give to us? And my kids were like, nah, man, what? No, we don't have anything. What are you talking about? He's like it's valentine's Day. I thought they'd give you chocolate to give to me. Boy, do you really think they would have given a toddler chocolate? And they thought it would have lasted until it got to you? Like, no way. Yeah, get out of your mind.

Here's a secret gift I'm giving to my outside marriage lover I'm interested in dear Toddler, I'm sure you can keep your secret safe with me.

And then we get the opening and then we see in class. All the students are in class talking about valentine's Day, and it's like, who are you going to give your chocolate to? Oh, it's against the school rules to give your chocolate to somebody. But it's not like they search us. So we still all have it and we still do it even though it's against school rules. And we see a couple of girls talking about like, oh, are you going to give them to the hot guy in Class A? It's like, oh, what about the other hot guy? I in class A. That's the preppy, like, dreamboat class with all smart hotties in it. Not this C class. Not the C class with all these fucking losers. And then it pans over to all the guys in that class of like, man, we are fucking losers.

Aren't that's fair? No one should love us.

We wouldn't be getting chocolate anyway because it's against school rule. But I'd appreciate if they lowered their standards and just gave it some scraps to us. They were really low bar with these.

Guys, or at the very least, not talk about it in front of us.

They have rollo standards, and they're like, oh, richie like, did you get any Target? He's like, no, I'm new here. I got babies sitting. I'm busy. I don't really care. Fair enough. And then we see. Cut over to the get to class. Class A. See Inomata berating everyone for breaking the rules and bringing everyone chocolate, especially the hot guys in her class. She's like, this is against school rules. This is my only defining characteristic. I need to obey the rules. So she's upset about that. And then I didn't write down their names. There's dreamboat one and dreamboat two. One of them is like a little more Goth preppy Dreamboat and Goth Dreamboat, pretty much. So preppy one is like, oh, my. There's so many gifts every girl is trying to give me. Oh, my, what do I do? And I get to see all that by Imamata. She's like, all right, we'll do this after school off campus. That way it's not against the rules. Hey, Imamata. And he whips over to her and it's like, I heard you went to the Babysitter Club. What the fuck's that about? I want in.

I want in on the babysitter club.

And everyone hears, what a way to.

Introduce himself to the audience, basically.

And it's just like, oh, why is he interested in that? And everyone's overhears him because it's very loud about it. And she's like, you know what? fuck this. And then just, like, runs off. I think I forget exactly what happened. I think she gets embarrassed and is just like, no, you're breaking the rules by getting chocolate in class. I don't want to be associated with a rule breaker. And runs off. And then once she's on her own, she starts worrying. She's like she's worried about ever going back to the Babysitter Club and not joining it because she can't join because the kids might hate her like everyone else in her life hates her. So she never will talk to those kids ever again. So she's distancing herself. And then we cut to Preppy Dreamboat joining the Babysitter Club, where he's finding it and walks in and he introduces himself to Ryucci. And it's like, Hi, I want to join. Well, we got all these kids. And he's like, oh, great. He starts, like, talking to him, playing with him a little bit, and kind of wins him over. It's like oh, wow. I like that stuffed giraffe you have. And she's like, oh, thanks. They aren't as scared of him as they are with Imamata. So he's talking to them. And it would cut to Imamata in the library studying because it's all she's good at. And she overs. Here two other guys in the library talking about the Dreamboat guy being like, yeah, he fucking hates kids. He just, like, stares at him all day and gives them those weird glares. And she's like, he's probably joining so he can, like, torture those kids or something because he hates them so much. I got to do something about this. So she goes running down the hallway and runs out of the Baby Street Club and throws open the door. She's like, stop. And we see blood tripling dropping on the floor mat. And she's like, what happened? And it zooms out, and we see he got a nosebleed because he poked Qataru's cheek. And he got a nosebleed from that.

The worst thing they could have done. I don't know why.

There's a lot of things they could have done to have a visual, over to the top, exaggerated comedic effect of how much he loves just playing with kids. But it's kind of a universal thing, even to the point of people outside of who regularly watch anime know that nosebleed in anime are pretty much a substitute for boners. So it's kind of like, that's not great.

He could have just been poking his face a lot, just not stopping.

Just a real dumb face.

Poking.

Yeah, dumb. Like happy. Like, this is fun, and that's it. But the nosebleed is like but no, that's kind of a coded thing for something else.

My thing is I think they knew what that meant, and that's what they were going for. Which I got worse. Yes. I mean, the reaction of the friend makes me think that I'm fairly certain they are saying, we're dancing around it. This kid loves kids. So literally, they should not let him join this club.

Yeah. His friend calls him a child loving deviant, I think is the words he uses. And it's like I just keep asking why, because in a sweet show about babysitting children, I don't know why they felt they were like, yeah, let's have just a fucking pedophile in the show. that'll be fun and cool. Right?

Cool. Especially because it is treated like, oh, no, this guy shouldn't be around kids anyway. He's continuing to go to this school and not addressing like, no, send him to prison. Teachers kids in school, on school grounds. And they're like, no, naughty, naughty getting no.

This kid should be in jail. Arrest him. Restraining order something expel him. There are so many options.

So, yeah, this paired with the constant hitting in the last episode and just kamitani's whole attitude of like, no, it's fine. He's my little brother. I'm going to hit him. Makes me a little trepidatious with the show being like, hey, what do you really want going on here?

What's the point?

Yeah, hard left turn.

Hard twist in episode three is also just reminded me we did have a babysitter club in my high school. Not on thinking about it. It wasn't a club. It was like, a class he took for school credits. And yeah, I remember just looking out in my Spanish class in the center of the school, and there was just a bunch of kids running around with high schoolers watching them. And I was like, I forgot we had that. I guess it's not that uncommon as I thought. But yeah. So the goth friend shows up and drags him out, and he's like, yeah, I knew you'd be here, so I'm pulling you away. He's like, no, I just want to have fun with the kids. It's like, your nose is still bleeding.

Dad'S messed up.

I'm taking you out of here. And it's like, thank you, goth friend. Thank you, saske.

Why are you still hanging out with this guy? But.

And yeah, rightfully so, after restraining him, after he calls him a child loving deviate, rightfully so, richie gathers up all the kids and puts them in a corner to shield them from this pervert. It's like, thank you, richie. Thank God you're the main character. And it wasn't this guy of like, look at this. Look at our crazy character. Main character with this dumb quirk. Thank God. The responsible one's the main character. And he says he's like, no. I just, like, poke in the kids faces because they're so chubby and round. It's like, great. Go away. He's like, all right. I won't join the club. He's like, you're not allowed to. And he says, like, oh, I got a nosebleed because of all the chocolate I got from the girls earlier today. And the golfer points out, he's like, you didn't have any of the chocolate. You turned it down. He's like and the kids are like, Chocolate? Can we have some? And then the kids just are going feral because someone mentioned chocolate around them.

And Imamata says we've been traumatized. Please give us chocolate candy.

It's the least we should deserve.

And imada says, like, no, giving chocolate is still against school rules, so you can't have any. And they're just come on, tearing up, about to cry. I'm like and she's like, but if you're good, I'll bring you chocolate tomorrow. And they're just like, Hell, yeah, because you can't do it for valentine's Day, but he can do it for any other day.

All right, sure. We don't want the kids being too horny on campus.

And we see Imamata after school. Imamata walks home with the boys, with ryuchi and kataro. I think this is the longest I've gone with actually saying the name is correct. I'm drinking to myself now. We still got half the episode to go. And as they're walking home, they're like, oh, thanks for helping out with the kids today. And she's like, I was worried about the pervert. And it's like, we'll take it. And as they're walking, they run by a 711. She's like, oh, 1 second, and runs inside. And it runs back out with a little box of chocolate. And Guitar gives him over to Imamata. He's like, thanks for the help. Figured I'd give you some now that we're off school property and it's not against the rules. And she's like, But I'm a stick in the mud, and everybody hates me. He's like, yeah, that's what I like about you.

It's.

Like what? What?

Okay.

And she gets all flustered when she receives a chocolate. Meanwhile, the camera pans over, and we see across the street there was a girl from earlier in the episode and the group of girls talking about giving chocolate to boys. She had some chocolate that she was going to give to Riyucci, and now she thinks they're together. Now, I don't know if this girl will ever exist outside of this episode, but so the boys get back home, and they see the eda. The butler made up some chocolate for them, and it's this beautiful array of artists and chocolate, and it's just like, God, this man.

What a man.

Can the show be about him dating.

SIM, where you date psychia.

You only have one option. It's him. He's the best choice. I do enjoy that he's like, jokey and has fun with the character, but he's the stiff robot and doesn't show emotions. But even when he made them a lunch for the zoo field trip, it was this gigantic box, like, share with others. It's like, God, sorry you went hard. They're dedicated. So they have chocolate back home with the head mistress in him. And it's a nice time. Next day, they're in gym class, and it's still February, so they're outside, and it's freezing cold, and I do not miss those days. And while they're goof around the gym class, they see pink ponytail. I didn't write his name. Yoshi tells it, shows up with the kids, and they're on, like, this little cart. She's like, oh, what's this? He's like, oh, it's a cart to keep control of these wild animals that are children. And he's like, It's easy to keep them all wrangled in here so they don't go wander off and run into a stranger. She's like, yes, good reminder. Don't talk to strangers. Kids like, stay away, stranger danger. And he teaches them about that. And they're like, oh, we don't have to worry about that, even though we got stupid yoshi here. And he's like, stupid. If I'm so stupid, maybe I'll let you one of your kids wander off and get kidnapped by a stranger, and he'll put you in a cage and then store you all there. And then he'll eat you one day and tries to put the fear of Christ into these kids unnecessarily. And after that, the other kids in the gym class with richie sees them all huddled around. richie, like, hogging them. And they're all in there like, wet your clothes. And they're like, he's warmed up because he's got a bunch of little portable heat warmers. There, like, hugging them. And it's like, we need those. So they all start chasing the kids. Like playing tag with them and stuff. Trying to pick them up and warm themselves up.

Keep these kids in the classroom. Yeah, because these other people don't know how to fucking act around children. Obviously. These guys, they're a lot less creepy than preppy Dreamboat. They just want to hug them to get warm, but they're still chasing them around.

Yeah, not malicious, but, like, weird. Not great.

Meanwhile, while they're running around and benny Hills playing in the background, we see a stranger hat and sunglasses and a mask lurking in the trees.

No.

And we see while they run around getting chased around, one of the twins runs off and dives into a bush to hide from the upper classmen. And he finds the stranger. And ryuchi sees him, goes off. He's like, I got to go wrangle that child. And as he's running over, he sees the stranger pick up the toddler. He's like, oh, no. And then we got stoic abuse of jock asshole sees it. He goes, I got this. And takes off his shoe and just hurls it at the stranger and pelts him in the head and knocks him out. And it turns out the creepy stranger in the trees was the kid's dad. It was one of the twins'father says, like, oh, okay. I probably should have learned about the other parents besides just the moms that pick them up.

Well, also, sir, he's a lurk on a middle school campus.

Yeah. So they bring it back to the daycare, and they get all the toddlers, and they skip out of gym class, and they'll go back to it later. But they're like, why were you all disguised and bundled up? He's like, oh, well, I'm up and coming actor, and I didn't want to call the scene if anyone recognized me, so I went to hide my face. It's like, okay, I get that. But once you're at the school, you could probably have either taken them off or not lurked into the trees like a pervert. Like, there's all these options, you could have avoided this.

He could have gone to see your wife and said, hey, where are the children?

Yeah. And he says it's the first time he's had a day off in six months because of his acting schedule. And he just wanted to spend some time with his boys, but they just wanted to come to daycare and hang out with their friends because they see them every day and they want to play with them instead. And reach is like, oh, well, you could just stay here with them at the daycare. That way you can spend time with them, but then they can also do what they want. And we see, like, a little montage of the dad keeps trying to play with all the kids and do different fun games. And the crybaby twin ain't having it. He's just crying a lot, but, like, more than usual. And he's very protective of his brother. So anytime his dad gets near his brother, he defends his brother from his dad. And his dad keeps sees this keep happening. He's like, you know what? It's not working out. I'm just going to go home. I'll spend time with them after they're done a daycare, and their wife and.

My wife spend time with them when they're ten, basically.

And as he's leaving, he bumps into a girl on the school campus, and she recognizes him. It's like, oh, you're that actor. And freaks out and causes, like, a giant hysterical scene. And he gets sworn by a bunch of girls in the school. And it's exactly what he was trying to avoid. And as he's being sworn by a bunch of fans, you see richie and Yoshi running out with the twins, who are crying because they want to hang out with their dad still. And now that he's gone, they're sad. So they're running out to meet with him. And then the dad is trying to get through the swarm of fans trying to get to those boys, and they're struggling. And we hear a big whistle blow, and his wife's there with, like, a megaphone saying, like, hey, had mistress just called and said, anyone who's not in class right now is getting expelled immediately. And it just scatters the group of girls and frees up the area for them. It's like family's back together. Got mom, dad got the boys, the twins.

Very cute family, very attractive family.

They're like, what the hell is happening? It's like, well, I tried spending the day with the boys, but they're like, scared me. I don't know what the fuck's happening. It's like, I've been away for a bit, but I'm still the dad. They just don't know who I am. And the mom's like, oh, yeah, that might have been my fault. While you're gone, I've been showing them stuff you're in, and the last movie we watched, you were like a villain and like a kidnapper. So the crybaby might be associating you in that movie with you in real life. And he's like, why are you showing up my movies? You don't need to show them that. They want to watch. And they like seeing you, but you're not around, so it's the only way they can see you. Like, well, now we're together. Now we can be happy family.

Yay.

Cute.

And that's episode three.

Excellent. Well, it was good until it wasn't.

I feel like that's close.

Every episode of Close, we almost had a sweet, pleasant time on this podcast. Such a rare occurrence.

And it's like.

I don't know.

How would you even know?

Yeah, because it's not even the full episode. It's like part of the episode. So while we were watching it, you guys like, oh, some discourse in episode three. I was like, what with an acting father? I mean, he seems like a good dad. I don't really know what a discourse. I already forgot about the first half of that episode of like oh, right, that guy.

Right. I'm pretty sure he and the goth friend are in the opening, so it's like going to be like he's going to keep trying and come back and.

It'S like, yeah, like a reoccurring character.

It's not a funny bit.

Don't need it.

It's not the fun offbeat thing that you want it to be. No, sorry. Got to put on my discourse hat.

Excuse me. Here's a fun twist you can do on it by keeping the character. He always wanted a younger sibling, but he's an only child. But since he has no experience with him, he treats them like pets. So he picks up one of the kids like a dog and he just doesn't know how to interact with the child. But he wants to.

There you go.

There's a fun twist where he's not a pedophile.

Yeah, great. Just like overly intense, vaguely creepy is what they're going for. Okay, let's not introduce pedophilia. How about that? I know in anime in general, the sorry discourse, talking about age of consent and all the creepy people online being like, no, things are different over there. You can't judge it based on your culture. This is kind of an indicator of like, oh, yeah, having a pedophile in the classroom interacting with students is a funny bit. That's not a great sign for everything on your attitude in general, for the regard of the safety of your kids and how to depict it. So let's not icky. Excellent. Yeah.

Don't understand why I can't it's just why?

Could have very easily done without it. There's really no reason for this character to exist.

Yeah. Like, I get if you're trying to be like, hey, we're going to show what it's like to be a child caretaker, you do have to watch out for this stuff. Okay? Don't make them a recurring fun character that people are going to like cosplay and have actual community around. You don't need to do that you can do, like a one and done. Hey, stranger danger. No.

A very special episode of it doesn't.

Have to be a student at the high school who has access to the children.

Rough time.

So that was a bad choice. The first episode and the second episode were pretty sweet other than smacking his brother all the time. But it was mostly sweet. And then it was bad and I was sad, frankly, taking off the most sad.

See, this is why I chose stuff I knew we wouldn't like.

Sometime.

I guess we aren't there yet.

This is fun. This is adorable. It was heartwarming. But just the yuck factor of that being introduced makes me extremely cautious to keep watching because I know just lingering in the back of my brain, this character can pop up at any point and be like, comic relief. And I'll have to be like, no, incorrect.

Because it even feels with his friend character, it's the trope of like, here's the horny character and then someone's like the wet blanket who, like, pulls him away and drags him away from the girls he's horny for, except it's babies and it's like, why not good? Yeah, it's got to be a no from Us dog.

Yeah.

Good effort, though.

So close. This is like yeah, just like the closest no of we enjoyed 95% of the show, but it's ultimately a no because of this one thing. And it's like, oh, you just had to ruin it for yourself, didn't you?

That 5% is real bad.

And it's that thing of like the clips I had seen of it were, like, the name Train and the Pain Pain flyaway. Saying that shit's adorable, of course. But it's like people I feel like people online tend to focus on the things that they really love about something. And I've talked about before how if there is any inkling of a canon gay relationship, no matter what the depiction is, people, like, love it. And I feel like, yeah, they tend to ignore other things. And I mean, granted, like we said, this is only a very small portion of what we saw, but it's just such a big, terrible thing that it's like it's a real stopper.

It's like sweetness and lightning. But then you find out the dad who you really I don't know. He was a teacher. Yeah, we did find out. A shop. it'd be like sweetness and lightning, though. Instead of the dad being a teacher, we found out he was a human trafficker. It's like, does that really play a part of the show that much? No, but holy Christ, is that a stopper?

Yeah. The implications around it are so terrible, it's hard to keep going.

Yeah. Or like, if he I feel like it would be more like if he was attracted to his student.

Yeah.

The one like, if that did happen, I feel like that would be like no, never mind.

Yeah, that's a no. God damn it. I needed this, but you let me down. Once again. Anime chat.

F I flame anime.

So what do we have going on next week?

Next week? It's my pick again. Yeah.

Already we swapped around some stuff.

The schedule's a little funky these last two months. It'll go back to normal soon, but I figured I'd put you two through enough. So I'm picking a show that I don't know a ton about, but I also hope it's chill and good and fingers crossed. But I'm not gonna no promises. I'm not gonna fall my name's on this week.

No promises.

Can't be certain anymore.

Can never trust again.

Been burnt too many times. Next week, we're going to watch a restaurant to Another world.

We do like food here.

Yeah.

If there's a show you would like us to watch, that is not problematic, not even a little bit. 100% good. We'll never get we just stopped. I have a Google filter set up on this email that will automatically send you a rejection if you send us fill.

I mean, I guess on the Fred side, I already picked all the problematic ones. We already did this. Yeah.

You can send those recommendations to our email arwibaria@gmail.com, or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at arwibariat on both. And real quick, we don't mention it a lot. Number one, if you like the show. Thank you. If you're able to leave us any reviews, they are very helpful. Speaking in very vague terms. We had a slight opportunity to maybe do advertising on this show, but they said we're, like, just under the cusp of the limit of, you know, advertising listeners. So we frequently flirt with being in the top hundred animation and manga podcast.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah, we're frequently in the top 200, but, yeah, sometimes that fluctuates. Sometimes we're up at like 30 and I feel good about myself. But, yeah, things are we're very close to things happening, so if we need.

A win, give us, like we need a win. Damn.

They are very much appreciated. But you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan and listen to my fiction podcast, echoed locations. And also, real quick, by the time this episode comes out, I'll have another podcast out. My friend Jamie coletta, who I did the no earbuds podcast for, has another project called Besides Now, which is interviews with people in the music industry in different regards. First episode up is going to be by the time this one is out is going to be about concert archiving, and then they have booking agents and lead singers of hardcore bands and other bands you may know. So it's going to be a good time. You should go subscribe. And it's also on YouTube, so there's a video version as well. Sorry, that was just a whole lot of rambling for me.

For me.

Leave a review justify Duke and burning himself out on all these projects.

Dying.

You can find me on Instagram at honey d, on Twitter at honey d eight and Honey d art, or on twitch at honeycore d. And Honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You can find me on.

Twitter at a bts. Brandon. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I also do. And my side project is trying to unravel the goddamn mystery that is the hellboy ttrpg. Why would you add more mechanics to the system?

It's a personal project.

Just so complicated.

Quick, before he can elaborate. Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. Thank you to Louis zong for themesong, stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

I'm so tired that we need a win.

Keep those kids aloud.