Nadia recaps: School Babysitters, episode 3
In the last episode, we met Inomata, the high-strung straight-A student of the gifted class. This episode introduces us to more gifted students in the context of Valentine’s Day. Spoiler: I don’t like any of them. As a note of interest, the gifted class is Class A, while Ryu and Hayato are in Class C. I think this leads us to a clear conclusion with regards to the boys’ intellectual abilities.
Moving on! We open on the daycare room. For some reason, Usaida was expecting to get presents from the kiddos’ moms for Valentine’s Day. He holds out his hands, but the kids are blank. Adorably, Kotaro thinks he wants to hold hands, so he gives him his tiny fingers. Less adorably, Kotaro is wearing green plaid pants. I hate to do this to a toddler, but: fashion disaster. Those pants need to be burned.
Anyhow, Usaida’s hopes are disappointed. I don’t know why he was expecting to get anything in the first place? Usaida’s a weird guy.
Meanwhile, Valentine’s gossip is taking place, and we are introduced to Yuki, a very nervous and shy girl in Ryu’s class. She has an unrequited crush on him, which I’m sure will provide the basis for many upcoming hijinks. But she is luckier than the poor girl who tried to give Hayato chocolate and was rejected because he doesn’t like chocolate. What is this dude’s problem?!
Whatever, he’s not all that anyway. The main attractions in this school are Yagi and Nezu, who are first and second in the gifted class, respectively. I love that grades figure so highly in Japanese schoolgirls’ rankings. Both boys are showered with gifts of chocolate, even though such gift-giving has been banned on school premises. What can be done about this blatant rule-breaking???
Never fear, Inomata is here! She tells the girls to take their chocolate and shove it! That’s the gist, anyway. They take this poorly.
Before they can throw down, Yagi intervenes and says he’ll accept these generous offerings after class. He’s such a cool dude, stars form around him. What a guy! Then he asks Inomata if she knows anything about the Babysitters Club, because he’d like to join. She gets PISSED. She runs out into the hall to reflect morosely on how unlikable she is. “No matter where I go, I always ruin everybody’s fun,” she thinks in the shadows. Maybe stop yelling at people? Just a thought. We learn that she doesn’t want to return to the daycare room because she’s afraid the children will come to hate her. Sad.
Yagi goes to the daycare room. More stars float around his head. Ryu is SO EXCITED to have someone express interest in the Babysitters Club. There are introductions. Yagi hits it off with the kiddos immediately. Things are going so great, right?
NO! Inomata overhears two boys say that Yagi is always glaring at kids, and she runs to the daycare room to save them! There, the camera angles have become more sinister. Inomata bursts in! There’s blood! What is happening???
Yagi has a nosebleed. That’s what’s happening. But the reason is also sinister, as Nezu follows Inomata into the daycare room and pretty much accuses Yagi of being a pervert. Ryu is HORRIFIED. He grabs the kids to get them out of Yagi’s grasp, but Yagi protests this accusation fervently. He tries to pass off his nosebleed as a result of too much chocolate, but a) chocolate doesn’t give you nosebleeds and b) he never actually ate any of the chocolate, as Nezu points out. This is UPSETTING. Nezu drags him away, and Yagi agrees not to join the club but asks that he be allowed to come by and poke the kids’ cheeks from time to time. “NO! You may not approach these children under any circumstances! Leave them alone!” is what Ryu does not say. Instead, they all just look around awkwardly. Usaida actually agrees to this arrangement! What???
The only thing the kids have learned from this interaction is that someone has chocolate. They ask Inomata, who yells about school rules again. But then she course-corrects by promising chocolate tomorrow.
Ryu, Kotaro, and Inomata walk home together as the day ends. Ryu stops to buy chocolate, then has Kotaro present it to her. Smooth. He tells her that he likes that she’s a stickler for rules. It’s a sweet scene that’s only slightly undermined by the fact that they’re being stalked by Yuki. Meanwhile, Yagi is buying chocolate so he can continue to groom the children. Nezu enables him. This is the absolute worst. What is wrong with the teens on this show??? Why can’t one of them just be normal? And why are they all so chill about Yagi? The kid needs an intervention! The internet tells me that arousal does not cause nosebleeds, but that’s obviously not what the show wants us to infer. This is disturbing. Someone please get this kid some help.
The break allows us to move on to less upsetting things, namely, torturing middle school boys under the guise of PE class. They deserve it. They are outside, and it’s very cold. To emphasize this, the boys are all in t-shirts and shorts, while Usaida appears with kids in tow in a heavy coat, hat, and gloves. He says they’re taking a walk, but as the kids are being dragged around in a little pink cart, I’m not sure how this qualifies. He releases them, and they run to hug Ryu. You’ll notice Taka runs to Ryu even though his own brother is standing right next to him.
Ryu is warmed by the tiny bodies. He asks about the cart and Usaida explains that he uses it to keep the kids from wandering off. He warns the kids they could be grabbed by a horrible stranger who will gobble them up! Hilariously, in the illustration of this hypothetical, all the kids are crying while Kotaro is just standing around blankly.
Meanwhile, the other boys have noticed that Ryu is looking a lot warmer surrounded by all those kiddos, so they decide to each grab one to warm up. DISTURBING. The kids scatter! Kirin hides behind Usaida (who does nothing; “For God’s sake, Usaida, be useful!” I yell (mentally) at my computer); Taka runs for his brother; Kazuma is captured! Takuma, however, having heard Usaida’s terrifying tale warning of scary strangers lurking in bushes, is choosing to crawl through some bushes where a scary stranger is lurking. The stranger grabs him! Ryu yells at the stranger to drop that baby! Hayato takes off his shoe and hurls it at the stranger! It’s a direct hit! I still don’t like Hayato, but that was a baller move. Stranger goes down, taking Takuma, who by the way is having a great time, with him.
It turns out the scary stranger is actually his dad. “Why is he lurking in bushes?” is the question Ryu and I would both like answered. Apparently he is an up-and-coming actor who was recently in an obnoxious toothbrush commercial, and he was worried about being accosted by fans. His name is Kosuke, but as I never bothered to learn the moms’ names, I don’t see why I should bother with this guy, so we’ll just call him Actor Dad. Ryu and Hayato don’t recognize him, and he is so embarrassed about this he cries. He explains that this is the first day off he’s had in six months, so he wanted to spend it with his kids because he’s worried they don’t recognize him anymore. He’s so upset about this he cries. Ryu suggests he spends the day in the daycare room.
This works out poorly, as Kazuma immediately starts crying at this announcement. Actor Dad is so upset about this he cries. Hayato points out that this isn’t really helping his standing in the eyes of his kids, who actually call him Ko-kun instead of Papa. Since “kun” has so far only been used to refer to minor children, I gather this is quite humiliating. “Ko-kun’s a crybaby!” Takuma observes rather astutely, and the other children agree. This makes him cry more! Seriously dude, pull yourself together.
Actor Dad agrees to stick around, but things are not going well. Kazuma seems determined to take everything he does in the absolute worst light, including piggyback rides and playing pretend with the other children.
“I didn’t know Kazuma hated him this much,” Usaida whispers to Ryu as Actor Dad maturely sulks in a corner. Seriously. What did the guy do, shoot his dog? Actor Dad decides to give up and apologizes to his boys for ruining their day. I’d like to just say that if Takuma and Kazuma are between 2 and 3, six months is roughly one-quarter to one-eighths of their lives. That’s a long time for little kids, and it doesn’t surprise me that they are trepidatious around him.
As Actor Dad makes his way across the courtyard, he bumps into a student who, being female, is more in tune with current pop culture. She recognizes him immediately and makes the BEST FACE:
Her screech attracts other girls, who swarm around the actor and shove notebooks and phones in his face. But hark! A call of “Papa!” rings out! It’s Takuma and Kazuma, held aloft by Ryu and Hayato. They want him to come back! Aww! Actor Dad is so happy about this he cries. Yeesh. He tries to push his way through the swarm, but there’s nothing quite as strong as a pack of teenage girls. What can possibly defeat them but a teacher!
Teacher Takuma and Kazuma’s Mom comes out of nowhere and takes control, threatening (nicely) to have them all held back a year if they don’t get their butts back to class. The swarm scatters! Children and parents are reunited, and Takuma and Kazuma’s Mom explains that, in an attempt to make up for his absence, she’s been showing the twins some of his movies. In the last one he played a kidnapper, which explains why Kazuma is so terrified of him. Takuma, on the other hand, loved the movie.
“Why would you show those to our children?” Actor Dad demands. Apparently she’s into bad boys. This is a very poor basis for deciding media exposure for small children. But all’s well that ends well I suppose, except Actor Dad is still crying. Yeesh. Fortunately the show ends with some happy imagery:
We end with some internal reflection by Ryu on the importance of sharing your feelings, and then credits roll. This episode was exhausting. I really hope we don’t see Yagi or Nezu again, but that seems unlikely. I like the show, so let’s hope it doesn’t get weird.
