Common Name: Gakuen Babysitters
Alternative Names: School Babysitters
Score: 7/10, 5/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Comedy, Drama, School Life, Slice of Life, Shoujo
Summary: Following the untimely death of his parents in a plane crash, high schooler Kashima Ryuuichi has been left little option but to care for his toddler brother, Kotarou, in his parents' place. Daunting as that task might seem, fate has dealt Ryuuichi a better hand than might be initially expected. Sympathetic to the tragedy these two brothers have suffered, having lost a son and daughter-in-law in the same plane crash, the elderly Morinomiya Youko decides to adopt them and give them a place to live, recover, and prepare for the rest of their lives in the school she manages. The only thing she asks in return is that Ryuuichi must help with the school's understaffed babysitter program that looks after its teachers' children. While he's happy to help these kids grow and have fun each day, he'd likely never be able to guess just how much these kids, with all their quirks and boundless energy, will help him and Kotarou grow and heal from their loss.
Review: Maybe it's because I work with kids on a regular basis. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for cheap emotional drama involving the loss of a parent. Maybe it was both. No matter the case, Gakuen Babysitters was another one of those shows that I went into expecting some dumb, generic garbage. What I ended up with, though, was a show that was undoubtedly generic but had enough heart and consideration put into it to make it a sleeper hit. Were I to describe it in a single word, I'd say this show is nothing if not "precious." It's just a nice, friendly, yet bizarrely resonant title that I could just sit back and let the endorphins in my system go nuts as I watched a couple of brothers heal from an unexpected and devastating loss through the power of friendship and the help of some adorably supportive toddlers.
Crazy and gross as it might sound, never doubt the healing power of cute kids.
While I make it sound like Ryuuichi and Kotaro coming to terms with their loss is the main push of the show, the show actually spends precious little time on this specific aspect of the story--likely as a means of ensuring the few emotional moments that dot the show don't grow too melodramatic or trite. Still, since it is the main thing that got me invested in this show, I'm inclined to give the show's fairly quiet and bottled-up drama it's time in the sun before I move on to how the show usually operates. As the show begins, we learn of the tragic loss the Kashima brothers suffered, losing their parents in a plane crash, just as they are starting to put their lives back together. Ryuuichi, the older of the two, has essentially been forced into a role where he needs to knuckle down and become mother, father, and brother to his toddler brother, Kotarou. As such, he's given little chance to grieve or consider his own feelings, let alone the feelings of others, now that his life is solely dedicated to finding a way to raise his brother as properly as he can. Since this is a happy story, though, Ryuuichi is given the opportunity effectively support his brother and tend to his own future as their new, adoptive mother/grandmother pushes Ryuuichi to consider his own well-being while she picks up the slack these two desperately need.
Just because things have been made easier for them
doesn't magically make their situation OK though.
One of the things I loved about this show, right from the start was that it perfectly, if a bit cheaply, expressed one of the saddest forms of grief: the kind that shatters a person's world and shakes them so deeply that they don't/can't even tell how to feel. How people handle this kind of traumatic grief varies on a case by case basis--usually resulting in things like PTSD, memory repression, or even a total mental break--but in Ryuuichi's case, that grief doesn't and cannot exist in his mind, else he'll risk losing everything. While some people might call his single-minded focus on tending to his younger brother brave, the simple fact of the matter is that his unspoken grief ended up manifesting as a cold and desperate kind of tunnel vision dedicated wholly to protecting the only family he had left. Melodramatic as that might sound, that kind of mentality is just as common in reality as it is unhealthy for both the afflicted person and the target of their single-minded focus. Were it not for the efforts of their adoptive grandmother, who suffered a similar kind of loss in that same plane crash, it's likely that this show would have taken on an entirely different feeling. On top of finding a school for the brothers and a means to both distract Ryuuichi from his grief and give him a reason to keep going, though, the greatest thing Morinomiya Youko does for these two is the manner in which she finds a way to make Ryuuichi break free of his own unhealthy mentality as she shares the nature of her own loss and grief with him. In many ways, her presence throughout the show is akin to a bastion of experienced strength that will see these boys through any hardship.
Praise and glory to this curmudgeonly saint.
Once all that heartstring-plucking drama has passed, though, the more typical format this show takes--a fairly standard Cute Kids Doing Cute Things comedy--makes itself known. While pretty much every episode has one or two A+ heartfelt moments that focus on the trials and benefits of raising young kids, it remains mostly content to laugh at all the silliness that goes hand and hand with caring for said children. Whether it's needing to get a little physical with an over-excitable brat who hasn't learned what boundaries are yet, let alone how they apply to him, or struggling to keep a little girl's dream of being a witch alive in the face of criticism, this show just gets kids on a fundamental level. Each and every one of the children Ryuuichi helps look after, when he isn't in class, is pretty much the perfect example of what you can expect from a toddler. As the self-appointed leader of the group, Taka is almost solely focused on himself and the things he wants. Unfortunately, since he wants to be a hero character, he spends most of his time claiming he's always right and likes to pick fights since that's all protagonist characters usually do. Kirin, the girl of the group, is similarly self-obsessed but is more outward-looking than the other kids in that she expects the world to operate on her terms, regardless of how unreasonable those expectations might be. The twins, Takuma and Kazuma, are pretty much the polar opposites of the previous two though. As twins, they've grown to be co-dependent but are also more inclined to share and cooperate with others, rather than take the lead since that's just how they were raised. There is also baby Midori, but she's not really enough of a character to speak of in any manner outside of claiming she's a pretty cute baby. So, in the end, there's a pretty decent sample size on how toddlers tend to act and react to the world around them.
Hint: They usually do so in the most depry and adorable way possible.
The Ryuuichi and kids aren't the only focus of the show, however. There are, in fact, a good number of side characters who offer discussion points on everything from growing up impoverished to finding love and getting that paycheck you need to actually function as an adult. Since they are older and are naturally more complex characters, though, the manner in which the show introduces and uses these characters varies widely; some of which being borderline offensive in nature, but more on that later. For the most part, Ryuuichi ends up interacting with three different characters. First, there is Taka's older brother Hayato who has difficulty expressing himself emotionally and tends to let his fists do the talking when it comes to dealing with his brother. Terrible though that might sound, it kinda can't be helped since Taka is, as I mentioned before, kind of an insufferable brat. In spite of their mainly punitive relationship, though, it can't be denied that the two do care a great deal for each other. Secondly, there is Ryuuichi's fellow babysitter, Usaida Yoshihito, who can generally be described as a lazy, self-centered sleaze. Beneath all his adult malaise and complaints that he should get paid more, he is secretly a pretty nice guy, all things considered. Lastly, there is the character of Inomata Maria, one of the school's best, brightest, and hardest to get along with due to her sharp tongue and inability to express her feelings and desires without making an ass of herself. Still, in spite of her social flaws, she is one of the kids' favorite visitors because she's fun to play with, by which I mean they tease her mercilessly for her fairly obvious crush on Ryuuichi.
Kirin, in particular, loves playing matchmaker for Inomata since getting someone
to love you is basically an art for little girls who've grown up on nothing
but straight-forward princess stories and kids' TV romances.
Beyond these few mainstay side characters, though, there really isn't much to talk about. I mean, the kids' parents are cute and quirky in a manner that explains the eccentricities of their children but they don't have much character in of themselves. Similarly, the rest of Ryuuichi's classmates are little more than manifestations of the various levels of being in love with or being jealous of Ryuuichi--I'll let you guess what kinds of characters fall in each category accordingly. Unfortunately, the only ones who stand out apart from those previously mentioned are seen once or twice, at best, and either don't have any actual character or are so offensive that they aren't worth mentioning. I'll just say one member of that latter group is defined entirely by his nose bleed-inducing love for small children and his uncontrollable desire to give them candy.
...Considering the quirky nature of this show, I'm still undecided on whether or not I trust him.
With that said, it should be pretty obvious when I claim that this show definitely isn't perfect. It has some hiccups here and there and there are a few characters I think we could have easily done without, but I'll reiterate that I do love this show to pieces. It's just got that perfect balance of drama and comedy that keeps me engaged and engrossed in the interpersonal relationships and discussions of family and growing up that filled this show's runtime. Even though the drama and comedy were predictable and generic by most standards, it had enough of a heart and skill at expressing its overarching message that I can't help calling this title one of my low-key favorites of the season. Be that as it may, I understand fully that this show definitely isn't for everyone; especially those who aren't predisposed to tolerating the ups and downs of childcare like I am. Still, as a light and fluffy comedy and a heartstring-plucking drama, I feel like this show might be more enjoyable for a good number of people. If, however, you want a show with a little more substance, I can wholeheartedly recommend shows like Sweetness & Lightning, Pocco's Udon World, and Barakamon, which all feature a similar dramatic theme of childish enthusiasm healing all wounds.