Tooru Kirishima is known as the Demon of the Sakuragi crime family due to his overly violent tendencies. Because of his skill and loyalty, he has been selected by the boss of the family for an important job – the job of babysitting the boss’ daughter.
Cute childcare anime series are always welcome, but the occasionally sad element in this one really twists the knife sometimes. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting, head on down below.
Anime Like The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting
For Fans of Childcare
Spy x Family
There is no order too big for master spy Twilight. He uses his numerous skills as a spy to keep the peace between his country and aggressive neighbors, but his recent mission demands he investigate a reclusive politician that only attends school events for his child. Dictating that he must now have a child and wife of his own to pull off the mission, Twilight manages to recruit a small orphan girl and an office lady to play the roles. However, what he doesn’t know is that his new daughter is an esper capable of reading minds and his new wife is actually an assassin using him as a cover to maintain a guise of normalcy.
While Spy X Family is much different in plot, at its core it has a lot of similar elements. Both series follow incredibly skilled fighters who are used to lives of action and violence. However, suddenly their job demands them to act like a caretaker for a kid, and it turns out they are really good at it. While The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting is rather wholesome and comedic, Spy X Family has more action to it at times.
Kurenai
After losing his parents to a terrorist attack, Shinkurou Kurenai swore to stay strong. Now a high school student, he lives with the Houzuki family, mastering their style of martial arts. One day, a member of the family brings home a young child from a wealthy family and asks Kurenai to guard her.
While the main character in Kurenai is not yakuza, he is still a tough guy. So like Kirishima acts as a bodyguard to Yaeka, so, too, does the titular Kurenai. While doing so they bond and grow closer. However, Kurenai has less caretaker moments to it. He is mostly just a guard dog.
School Babysitters
After the death of his parents, teenage Ryuuchi becomes the caretaker of his younger brother Kotarou. After meeting a chairman of an elite academy at his parent’s funeral, they are given room and board in exchange for him becoming the school’s babysitter – a role established to support the female teachers.
Both series follow men who are babysitting children due to circumstances that force them to. However, the age of the children in Gakuen Babysitters is much younger, so they are much cuter, but they are not without their occasionally sad circumstances.
For Fans of Organized Crime Families
Hinamatsuri
One night, an object falls through space and time into the living room of dignified yakuza member Nitta. The object turns out to be a strange girl with psychic powers, but Nitta is reluctant to both take her in and to accept her offer to make use of those powers. Respecting his decision to not use her as a tool, this girl, named Hina, decides to help him anyway as they begin their life together.
Hinamatsuri, as a comedy anime, undercuts everything with a joke, always. The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting is like if Hinamatsuri played everything straight and wholesome. Both shows have yakuza guys suddenly caring for a little girl. However, Hinamatsuri has an extra supernatural element that, again, it mostly uses for comedy.
The Way of the House Husband
The Immortal Tatsu is an legendary yakuza name, but after taking down a rival gang single-handedly, he disappears. Now he has reappeared as an apron-wearing, laundry-doing, bento-lunch-making househusband for his office-working wife.
While there are no children in The Way of the House Husband, both shows build interest by having tough yakuza type characters doing very untough things. Watching kids, doing hair, making bentos – it is not manly work, but it is made fun and adorable.
Beelzebub
Ishiyama High is a school full of delinquents, but they have one rule: Don’t cross Tatsumi Oga, the strongest fighter in school. One day, Oga is sitting by a riverbank when he encounters a floating man that splits down the middle to reveal a baby inside. This baby turns out to be Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV, the son of the Demon Lord. It turns out raising the future lord of the underworld is more trouble than you’d think.
Both shows follow very tough delinquents who are suddenly saddled with childcare. However, while that tempers things in The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting, Beelzebub is more a shounen anime, so the fights still continue.
For Fans of Comedy With a Side of Melancholy
Kotaro Lives Alone
Unsuccessful manga artist Shin Karino has his daily routine interrupted one day with the introduction to his new neighbor – a four-year-old boy who moved in next door, lives by himself, and talks like a samurai. While this boy is more put together than most of his neighbors, living alone has its difficulties at any age.
While initially different in that Kotaro Lives Alone is about a kid that lives alone with an increasingly found family-esque group of neighbors, what the series has in common with The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting is its potential to wound you. Yaeka’s situation with her mother is sad, and so is, as you will discover, is the reason Kotaro lives alone.
Usagi Drop
Daikichi Kawachi is a 30-year-old bachelor that works long hours at a respectable job. However, upon hearing the news of his grandfather’s death, he returns home for the funeral only to find out that his grandfather had an illegitimate daughter named Rin. Shy and unapproachable, this young child is shunned by the other members of the family. In his anger that no one will take her in, Daikichi steps up himself and begins his days anew as a single father with no prior childcare experience.
Both series follow bachelors who suddenly wind up watching a kid. Furthermore, they also have kids who suffered a death of someone they loved and are having to deal with the grief and abandonment. When things get too happy, there is always some sadness to balance it out.
Somali and the Forest Spirit
With humanity all but extinct after severe prosecution, the world is ruled over by spirits and all manner of strange creatures. One day, a golem that serves as guardian of the forest meets a young human girl. She has no memory of her parents, but the golem decides to at least seek out other humans to return her.
While The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting focuses in on Yakuza, Somali and the Forest Spirit puts a fantasy spin on it. Regardless, both are about people that aren’t used to watching children being forced to watch one and doing a pretty good job at it. However, while there are many nice moments, both shows have looming sadness that punches its way in at times.
Do you have more anime recommendations like The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting? Let fans know in the comments section below.
