The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting was a charming comedy anime of the Summer 2022 anime season, telling the wholesome tale of the tough but kind mobster Kirishima Toru working as a babysitter for the boss' young daughter, Sakuragi Yaeka. Toru has never before done anything remotely like this, but he'll give it his best shot and see what happens.
Throughout the Yakuza anime, Toru and his young charge Yaeka had all kinds of fun together as friends and kindred spirits, and they discovered many wonderful new things about each other and themselves along the way. Several key plot twists help deepen these characters and shape their arcs, and after each plot twist, anime fans truly understood Toru and Yaeka on a much deeper level.
When Toru Helped Yaeka Recommect With Her Comatose Mother, Miyuki
Early in the Yakuza anime, fans got to meet Yaeka's gap moe father Kazuhiko, the tough-talking boss of the family, but Yaeka's mother Miyuki was a different matter. For a few years now, Sakuragi Miyuki has been comatose in the hospital after an auto accident, and by now, Yaeka is afraid to visit her. Yaeka fears that her mother now hates her, hence Miyuki's stubborn silence, so Toru took a brave step and made up a story about Miyuki's struggle with God to reconnect with her daughter. Yaeka accepted this at face value, using Toru's kind words to find the courage to visit her mother once again. Now Yaeka is certain that her silent mother still loves her and is merely waiting for a chance to be with her again. That deepened the Yaeka-Toru friendship and helped Yaeka become more confident in her relationship with others.
When Yaeka Made Friends With the Lively Sara
The cast of Yakuza's characters expanded once again when an Italian-American family moved into the neighborhood, close to the Sakuragi household. This was Yaeka's chance to make a new friend in the energetic deredere Sara, a kid Yaeka's age. Sara and Yaeka are like night and day, since Yaeka is a timid dandere, but to her credit, Yaeka chose to embrace this new friend rather than push her away or hide from her. Yaeka reinvented her social life by making her first real friend outside of her family, and not only does Sara make Yaeka's life more fun, but this new friendship also allows her to build on this momentum and make many more friends. Sure enough, Yaeka had a small but solid circle of friends by the anime's end, and she was much happier for it.
When Mashiro Yuuri's Men Reawakened Toru's Demon Side
Things were going well, maybe suspiciously well, for the Toru-Yaeka duo in the Yakuza anime, so when the time was right, the sinister mobster Mashiro Yuuri made his move. For whatever reason, Yuuri vastly prefers to see Toru's "demon" persona than watch Toru become a wholesome babysitter, so Yuuri cruelly provoked Toru's demon side for his own amusement. Things took a dire turn when Yuuri's hired thugs not only attacked Toru but also captured Yaeka and held her hostage. Right on cue, Toru's demon side took over, and Yaeka even suffered a light concussion. Only Kazuhiko's intervention stopped Toru from killing a man, and Kazuhiko sternly told Toru to focus on looking after Yaeka instead, who was in the hospital for a brief stay. Toru cooled his head, but his troubles weren't over yet.
When Kei, Toichiro & Yaeka Appealed to Toru's Good Side
Kirishima Toru is known for having a dual nature, with his enemies fearing his demon side and characters like Kanami and Yaeka seeing his warm, caring side. The question is: which half of Toru's personality is the real him? After the incident with Yuuri's thugs, Toru ran off, convinced that his demon half was his real self and that he was beyond redemption. That was when Yaeka bravely confronted him with Kei and Aoi Toichiro in tow, with all three of them appealing to Toru's good side.
Yaeka boldly but kindly told Toru that he is definitely a good person who is dear to her, and Toru's demon side is not his authentic self. Yaeka doesn't see Toru as a monster, and neither do any of Toru's other friends, for that matter. It felt strange for Toru to get a lecture from Kei and Yaeka instead of the other way around, but in the end, he agreed, and his doubts were gone for good. Toru returned home, more certain than ever that he's a good person who is worth the trust, respect and love of all his friends. This is the real him, now and forever.