Buddy Daddies – Season 1 Episode 9 “No Sweet Without Sweat” Recap & Review

No Sweet Without Sweat

Episode 9 of Buddy Daddies begins with Kazuki and Rei helping Miri train for the upcoming field day race in the park. Rei gives Miri over-the-top advice and encourages Miri to practice harder to win the gold medal.

Afterward, they visit Kyutarou to inform him about the event. Miri wants him to attend it, and Kazuki thinks it’s a great idea. Rei arrives home in the morning after investigating Miri’s daycare for great seating spots. Rei offers to help Kazuki make food, and Kazuki’s flabbergasted over Rei’s development. Miri arrives at the table and is delighted to hear that Rei helped make lunch for them all.

Miri, Rei, and Kazuki arrive at the Aozora Daycare Field Day event. Kazuki lets Miri visit her friends while they sit at the spot Rei picked for them. Kazuki and Rei take out highly-priced cameras to show off. Kazuki chats with the other mothers at the event, and they say the other mothers find them extremely popular. The event begins, and Kazuki shows great enthusiasm. Rei’s confused, but the other mothers adore his passion for Miri. The Daycare owner has Miri give a speech to kick things off, but Kazuki interrupts it by cheering for Miri. Afterward, the kids compete in various competitions while their parents exhilarate them.

After some fun banter and activity, Anna informs everyone that it’s lunchtime. Kazuki allows the other children to dine on his food and receives praise from the mothers. However, Miri asks Rei if she and her friends can try his rice balls. The kids love his dish despite Kazuki not being happy that he put sweets in the rice balls. After eating, the afternoon Field Race event begins. Kazuki pumps Miri up and tells her to give it her best shot. When it’s her turn to run, Miri becomes anxious. As she races, Kazuki cheers her on. Miri starts losing steam, so Rei finally cheers for Miri to give it her all.

This catches Miri’s attention, but she trips and comes in last place. Miri apologizes for not getting a gold medal. Although Kazuki says it’s okay, Rei’s depressed because he feels it’s his fault. Anna announces that the parent-child activities are about to start. Kazuki’s thrilled to participate, unlike Rei.

Miri and Kazuki head to the starting line while Rei watches them from his seat. Kazuki and Miri don’t do well, unlike Taiga and his father, who claim victory in each event thus far. During the scavenger hunt event, Miri reads the note and heads to Rei. Kazuki and Rei grab Miri’s hand and rush to the finish line.

After winning the gold medal, Rei asks Miri what the card said. Rei discovers the card wanted Miri to locate her family. Anna asks Kazuki, Rei, and Miri if they’d like to take a family photo. Although Kazuki and Rei don’t want to leave evidence behind, they don’t want to disappoint Miri. Anna takes a photo of them.

Kazuki tells Rei that he and Miri did their best today as they walk into the sunset with Miri on Rei’s shoulders sleeping. Meanwhile, one of Rei’s father’s men tells Kyutarou not to forget the job. The episode concludes with him looking at photos of Rei, Miri, and Kazuki at the field day event.

The Episode Review

Buddy Daddies doesn’t know when to stop hitting home runs. Although this chapter doesn’t contain much drama compared to the previous two episodes, this one features some wholesome fun and and relatable scenarios.

Many parents watching this episode will feel personally attacked with how enthusiastic Kazuki appears in this episode. Kazuki isn’t the only character deserving of praise this week. Rei shows strong resolve in this episode.

He offers to help Kazuki make a fabulous lunch for Miri and encourages Miri during multiple Field Day events. He’s shown incredible growth in the series, but this felt like the cherry on top. Unfortunately, all this wholesomeness must cease based on the cliffhanger we receive this week. It appears Rei’s dad wants Kyutarou to assassinate Kazuki and Miri. Kazuki’s warned viewers that Kyutarou may look like a kind person, but can become as dangerous as he wants to be.

That said, it’ll be intriguing to see what Kyutarou will do in this situation. Will he kill them, hire someone to kill them, or ignore Rei’s father’s request altogether–putting his own career in jeopardy? It’s these questions I’m left as we wait for the next chapter to release. Hopefully, it can deliver on the great content we received from this anime so far.

Overall, this was a great chapter of Buddy Daddies. It had a lot of cheerful, likable, and relatable material that’ll strike audiences at their core.