Review of The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting

So, this was a surprise. This anime was not even on my radar, I had skimmed the synopsis and read the words "Underworld" and "demon" and expected a mediocre fantasy that I would likely watch at a later point, only when I read it properly did I realise I had been wrong with my initial impression, and I decided to give it a try. As soon as the opening credits were over, I knew this was going to be a series that I was going to enjoy, and after just the first episode, I was already thinking, this could very well wind up being my 'anime ofthe season'

This is very much like Barakamon in its core theme, an adult has an obvious personality flaw, and is a volatile incomplete person, and it's with the introduction of a young child, and various others around them, that they start to temper their personality, and become more complete, they learn what it is to live, and to create a family / home for themselves

One thing I like is while the concept of this seems farfetched when reading the synopsis, when you actually watch it, it does fall in place and make some sense.
Kirishima is the First Lieutenant for the family, his job is to keep the rest of the family in line, and to also act responsibly and ensure the Boss's orders are passed on and followed, yet he acts more like an Enforcer, and often takes things too far, even when negotiations are supposed to be peaceful, and this gets him into repeated trouble with the Boss
So, the Boss then orders Kirishima to be the Babysitter (and guardian) for his daughter Yaeka, normally that task would be handled by someone like Sugihara, but the Boss needs Kirishima to learn responsibility, and he also hopes it will smooth off some of the rough edges.

I won't get into the story, mainly because it's mainly the journey of the characters, while many of the events in the story are there to facilitate that.

Where this anime shines though is in the characters themselves, we have a rich diverse cast of characters, they are well developed and several characters are given real growth across the events of the series, this type of anime is all about the characters, it's the most important thing, so for the main cast (and by that I mean the 'Family') to be so well done, so well handled, likable, fleshed out, and to be treated as actual characters where they have actual personalities and flaws, that just makes it so good.

The humour is definitely subjective. I liked it for the first part, but there was one episode that I felt that was definitely too silly and it felt like a filler episode more than anything else, as it didn't really add anything.

Sara and her father are a bit too much of a trope, and a bit of a weaker point in an otherwise strong series

I enjoyed this from start to finish.
Without those two small issues, this could have been a 10/10, I would give it a 9.5 if I could but as it is, it gets a 9/10