This review contains major spoilers for the show, don't read it if you haven't watched it or proceed with the awareness that you're going to get spoiled!

The introduction — SpyxFamily references and the confusing

I actually have a lot of things i want to say about this. At first, when I heard people calling Buddy Daddies a weaker version of SpyxFamily that tries to give people something they can choke themselves up with, while waiting for another SxF season, I felt like they're just being too harsh, but I just watched the last episode and understood this mindset, I may even share the sentiment with them at some point.

Buddy Daddies isn't a bad anime, not at all. I had a lot of fun while watching it, but now that I'm finished, I feel so underwhelmed and it's the first time in forever I was actually reminded that an anime I just watched doesn't have manga behind it, what explains a lot of things. First of all, I need to get it out of my chest, the storywriters' decisions made me believe that they were expecting to get more episodes than they were given to, while also getting too many episodes to make this anime stay as good as it was at the beginning. Sounds like I'm contradicting myself? We're just getting started.

Wasted potential

There's the rub, the lack of decision whether the storywriters want to go with the funny skits from daily life of two dudes taking care of the kid when they're both horrible at managing their own lives, or some psychological drama about two adults with still fresh wounds from their past, trying to overcome their issues to give an idea of home to a kid that is yet to learn what being a family actually means. I'm pretty sure they could've managed to do both, but the storywriters are just extremely (and unreasonably so) dramatic and they are either going to get on with the most wholesome comedy based on the skits that will make most people laugh purely out of the cuteness of the kid that is a part of them, or make people die the most heartwrenching way you can imagine. I've enjoyed how the first episodes were still funny skits despite the gun violence and I have a feeling that they just shouldn't have gone with the serious. A crossover between happy and grim makes things inconsistent and hard to get into.

Rei's case

Whole Rei's backstory still feels extremely wasteful to me. We got that one little scene with him being forced to kill a dog and I guess it was their way of showing how he was the victim of a child abuse. You can see that he's genuinely terrified by this whole situation, you can see that his dad orders him to regard him as a "boss", which is such a clear trauma enabler, I'd say even a symbol of Rei losing the grasp of what family looks like. I'd expect him to be more tense to meet his father again at some point..? If that one scene was just an example of the abuse he went through, you'd expect him to be so stiff that he's unable to speak a word in his presence. It's extremely implied that Rei's current state, which reminds depression is an aftermath of him being trained purely to assassinate and his coping with games only shows how he does the bare minimum to keep himself alive. How he's just so caught up on getting himself busy with games that he neglects everything else. To see him being so chill about meeting his father, without even trying to potray some kind of fear while facing his abuser feels so unnatural and just shallow. Even if they wanted to show how Rei's so tired and ripped out of life that he's being indifferent, they failed at that too. Rei's emotionally repressed mess, but there's no attempt at showing how exactly that mess looks like.

Kazuki's case

On the other hand, Kazuki's backstory feels shallow, merely because of the fact how it was written, his character is so one-dimensional that the peak of his personality is the fact that he had a wife once, but they attempted at exploring it, so I stayed silent until Karin was in a picture. Kazuki feels responsible for his wife's death, he's still mourning, but instead of exploring that grief of his, he literally sets aside all his feelings very fast, just because of his dead wife's sister telling him to "live on". I may surprise you, but it's not that easy and sure, Karin's words may've been enabler for Kazuki to stop dwelling in his past, but it shouldn't have been this easy! In addition of his backstory being lack of memories..? It's almost ridiculous for his issues to be solved that conveniently. I liked him wondering if he deserves the life he's living on currently and how Miri's appearance in both his and Rei's lives made them both reconcile with their pasts, but I still think it could've been executed with much more emotional depth than the actual thing.

Addressing the queerbait — what irked me up

The last thing I'm upset about is that one scene after the timeskip. I was sure they won't make the main duo a canonical relationship from the beginning and felt a little bad for people who started watching the show in hopes for queerbait getting canon, because it was clear for me that it's not happening. I could understand how they stated that Kazuki uses the service of sex workers in the first episode, it built up the image of him being just some guy who's by no means ready to become a parent. His wife was also a relevant plot point since it's the only thing making him have some kind of personality, so no ill feelings towards this as well. The timeskip teenage Miri's comment "I heard you were with a girl last night" though, irked me up a lot. There was no reason for them to bring this theme up, which made me feel like they just viciously wanted to "make it clear" that these guys are just friends like it wasn't something clear from the beginning. Being so desperate at denying any "gay allegations" when your show got any attention, because of the queerbait to begin with is such a trashy thing to do, like, who do you think is your target audience? And you won't bullshit me into thinking that it was a needed addition, especially since it was a high school girl bringing this theme up and I can assure you that high school girls aren't really interested in sexual escapades of their parents at all.

The summary — the okayish show

All these things brought me to 7. It may be surprising to see it after me counting up so many things I'm upset about, but ultimately, I think what counts is the fun you're experiencing during watching. I'm not some kind of professional critique and I may have my own issues with this anime, but I won't deny the amount of joy I felt during watching. The skits were funny, Miri's the sweetest girl in the world and I'd do absolutely anything to protect her happiness, Kazuki may've made me upset at some point, but he got redeemed in my eyes as watching just Rei taking care of Miri would've been horrifying. Rei got my untlimited affection and despite feeling a little bitter towards the fact that him being a child abuse victim was tossed aside so easily, I still find him the babygirl of the babygirlest babygirls. Honestly? The only reliable thing that can be said about Buddy Daddies that compares it to SpyxFamily is that it's a good "choke up". If you like father-daughter relationships, have daddy issues, like mentally ill men or you're just missing SpyxFamily, I'd say Buddy Daddies is a great choice for you, but remember to take everything with a grain of salt as you may end up a little battered like yours truly.