Buddy Daddies is an underrated twist on SpyXFamily's formula

Sure, Buddy Daddies doesn’t exist without SpyXFamily. As much as Demon Slayer doesn’t exist without Dragon Ball, or The Witch From Mercury doesn’t exist without Utena. Taking inspiration— even inspiration from something really popular— isn’t disqualifying, and anybody who dismisses Buddy Daddies on the basis of that inspiration is missing out on a darkly funny, satisfying and surprisingly thoughtful action/comedy.1

The titular dads are an extrovert/introvert assassin team pulling off merciless, glossy Hollywood action movie kills for work. In the middle of one such job the boys wind up bumping into an abandoned little girl of about four: loud, lovable Miri. In the middle of a shootout, Miri’s (unaware) biological father uses her as a human shield, and the dads shoot him in the head and take the girl in. Hijinks, as well as underworld consequences, ensue.

And Buddy Daddies is definitely more of a sitcom than it is an action series. The main characters are killers, but the show is about killers trying to start a family in an impossible situation. One of the things I really like about this show is that even though it takes place in a world of action-movie fantasy, it’s real about exactly one thing: You can’t just add full-time childcare to your cool assassin gig one day and act as though that’s not going to make your life completely impossible.

Miri’s a pre-schooler; that is to say, a force of nature. She runs, she yells, she whines, she gets herself in trouble. She is as annoying and difficult as an actual pre-schooler, which is very much the point. Most of the fun sitcom episodes of this show are about the boys applying their existing skills to taking care of a kid and finding themselves in hopelessly over their heads. Past that guns-blazing first episode, the always-slick action scenes2 provide a visual demonstration that though they are John Wickian supermen, the guys simply can’t do their work effectively while raising a kid.

The more responsible, planned-out and put-together Kazuki becomes the panicky, overworked head of the household. Even before Miri enters the picture, he’s clearly been playing the mom role for gloomy shut-in Rei, and he’s also got a complex from the family he already lost to violence. Rei, a guy who sleeps in a damn bathtub, ironically becomes the “fun dad”, by virtue of his video game collection. Despite first impressions and likely the will of the entire fanbase of this show, the dads don’t appear to have a romantic relationship, nor is it even teased3.

Of course Miri melts these guys’ hearts, and of course they become a family with real bonds… but one of the other things I really like about this show is that those bonds are tested with actual consequences. As the situation gets more and more dire and the walls start to close in on them, the dads are forced to really examine their actions and ask themselves if what they’ve constructed is genuine or not, if they’re living the lives they want to live, and if it’s okay for people like them to change.

Buddy Daddies’ short single season arrives at a full, definitive resolution that I won’t ruin for you4: I’ll only say that it follows its heart. This doesn’t seem to have been an extremely popular series this season, but I liked it a lot! But of course, I’m a follow-your-heart kind of guy.