How many things is Ryu going to give up for his little brother in Gakuen Babysitters (School Babysitters)? Or more likely, how many times is he going to use Kotaro as an excuse to reject girls that confess to him?

Japanese Original Episode Title: その8

Plot

Ryu receives a love letter and everyone is losing their minds. Inomata and Yuki are worried – jealous as to what his answer will be and his classmate Usokawa is just super jealous of his situation. Ryu tries to make up his mind throughout the whole day but ends up looking like he is getting down with a cold, which makes Kotaro really worried. In order to help his niichan to feel better on their way to school, he runs away to get him a lemon without Ryu realizing and thinking that Kotaro got lost. Kamitani finds him, Ryu gives his answer to the girl and all ends up well. Next day, Taka and Kamitani invite Ryu and Kotaro to go to the festival together where crybaby Taka loses his toy sword and everyone tries to find it.

Episode Highlights

The love confession of Kashima: He said that Kotaro is his top priority and used that as an excuse to reject the poor girl, but frankly there was no chance for her since the beginning and you know why? Because she doesn’t have a face and background Faceless-chan never wins, especially when you have girls with beautifully designed faces like Yuki and Inomata.

Kotato is a small sweet potato: Seriously, this kid makes me think that if all babies were as considerate, selfless, and loving as he is, people would want to have more babies in general. He is such a sweetheart, realizing that his brother is not well and trying to comfort him by giving him a blanket or a lemon thinking that he might get sick. I love that boy and his pure heart.

Saikawa’s joke over the phone: He is the funniest character in the show and the best thing is that his jokes really come out of nowhere. When he said that his pantsu are black, I lost it once again. He is kind of a troll… Making red rice because Ryu received a love letter… THIS GUY.

Yagi is bringing all the girls to the yard: Yagi and Nezu were in the lost-and-found section in the festival and there were so many girls around him. I wonder if the girls think his nosebleeds are hot or something. Maybe they think that he is having ecchi thoughts about them and they dig it. Who knows?

Themes & Trivia

Red rice: Saikawa prepared red rice in order to ‘celebrate’ the fact that Ryu got a love letter. The red rice that he made is called Sekihan (赤飯) and it’s a Japanese traditional dish which is basically sticky rice boiled together with adzuki beans, which give a reddish color to the rice, hence its name. Sekihan is often served on special occasions throughout the year in Japan, like birthdays, weddings, and some national holidays. Sekihan is so strongly connected with celebrations that the phrase ‘Let’s have sekihan’ has acquired the meaning ‘Let’s celebrate.’ It is believed that sekihan is used for celebrations because of its red color, symbolic of happiness in Japan.

Host clubs: Kamitani wonders when he sees all the girls next to Yagi if the lost-and-found area is some sort of host club. In Japan, host clubs are part of the night-time entertainment. There are two types of bars: kurabu (クラブ, lit. “club“) and kyabakura (キャバクラ, lit. “cabaret“). The hosts can be either male or female and many of them use professional names called ‘genji name’ (源氏名 genji-na). Hosts light cigarettes, provide beverages for men-women, offer flirtatious conversations, and sing karaoke to entertain customers. Hosts can be seen as some sort of modern geishas, providing entertainment to groups of salarymen after work. Host clubs are distinguished from strip clubs in that there is no dancing, prostitution, or nudity. Host clubs have a strict ‘no touching’ policy and patrons are removed for trying to initiate private or sexual conversation topics.

Comments

Ryu is giving too much of his life for his brother, which is definitely nice, sweet, and touching but as a teenager, he should try to live his life a bit more. It honestly pains me to see him making choices based so much on Kotaro. Also, I like the fact that Inomata and Yuki start to hang out because they kind of unite as the future rejected girls of Ryu (that makes him sound like such a bad bishounen).

Kotaro is just the sweetest thing ever. I think that he held onto the cotton candy and didn’t eat it because it reminded him of the tsudere chairwoman and wanted to give it to her. That’s why he felt bad when they got home and the candy was all shriveled up. So cute.

If you want to know the color of my underwear, it’s black

Gakuen Babysitters will never stop putting me in a good mood. This anime is so sweet, cute, and touching that it really puts your mind at ease. Last thing, you can find Usaida doing all kinds of shit and I strongly believe that he is better doing those than actual babysitting. Cheers!

NEXT TIME: Part 9

Gakuen Babysitters (School Babysitters)

Winter 2018 | Anime Info | Simulcast