If I recall correctly, I think I found Baby Assassins mostly by accident. I remember reading the description and going "wait, that's exactly the kind of thing I'd like!" I actually funnily enough watched the first episode of the TV show (Baby Assassins Everyday) first, because it was what I saw on streaming services at the time (since I was in Japan at the time). My Japanese at the time wasn't exactly good enough to understand it well (though I caught bits and pieces) and figured okay, I'll look into the series more. I saw that it was a franchise of three movies and a TV show and decided I'd watch them all, and I'm really glad I did!
It's funny because looking at it, and having been an anime watcher, you'd think "hey, a short blonde hair assassin and a long black haired assassin, isn't this just Lycoris Recoil?" More than that, one of the girls was named Chisato (though it was the long black haired one in Baby Assassins). They also have "quirky" personalities, with one being rather anti social and the other one being more talkative and outgoing.
I think at first glance, the series is basically like a dark humor/drama movie with action scenes sprinkled throughout. The action scenes aren't realistic at all and for the kind of movie it is I think it's perfectly fine. There's a lot of ridiculous gun-fu moments and sequences but honestly, I thought it was pretty well choreographed. They're fun to watch, dynamic, and there's some really fun scenes in them too. But yeah, if you're the type of person to go "well that'd NEVER happen in real life", there's a lot of that in this too lol.
Though to me, what really sold the series to me was the relationship between Chisato and Mahiro. I honestly much prefer the dynamic here over the one in Lycoris Recoil, and the actors do a really good job of selling the characters. They're fun, have great banter, and overall just a great relationship.
The most surprising thing to me, and honestly the main reason why I did this write up is that the TV show was surprisingly touching to me. The movies leaned more towards fun, but the TV show was (in my opinion) more drama focused. Part of it is just the lack of long fight scenes like the movies, but the other part is I was surprised by how… almost social commentary it was.
It was pretty amusing to me to see how they used the industry of being an assassin and applied real world concepts to it. (spoilers ahead) Whether it be even just the talk of AI replacing assassins through drones, and how heartless it is too. There's a scene where a character talks about how unfair it is that despite working and supporting another character for years, they just ended up being replaced by an AI. In fact, that entire arc had a lot of scenes that were relatable I think to people who just work at a company. Being abused by superiors, being yelled at for things not your fault, I think they did a good job at while showing it as a "comedy", still portraying rather sad things that the characters had to go through. I also confess that I felt great satisfaction in watching the old guy who was clearly beyond his prime but basically carried himself on reputation and ended up just taking an easy way out get what he deserved.
The next little arc/episode with Chisato's family home was also quite relatable. In fact, while I wouldn't normally consider myself like Mahiro (I'm not that physically fit for one), I heavily heavily heavily heavily related to her talking to Chisato's family. Everything from being hesitant and not knowing how to greet people to thinking "survived one conversation", everything felt incredibly relatable. And plus, talking to their parents about their job was also funny. When her dad brought up AI and replacing them, it was a bit more "relieving" in their sense because of you know, AI replacing a dangerous job, but I've been in that position more than once talking to someone about AI replacing jobs.
And the last arc was probably my favourite arc for a multitude of reasons. There's a lot of commentary about well, working culture as a whole. Whether it's from Mahiro's side and showing how the Guild (company) doesn't care about workers and won't hesitate to cut them once they're a liability, or Chisato's side showing how the "friends" you make at the office can be just as toxic the next second. There's a lot of relatable scenes that despite being a movie about assassins, it's surprisingly applicable.
What's great about the series is that in combination with these serious scenes, they also use comedy to keep things light. It's a delicate balance and in my opinion at least I think they do a good job with it. Light enough to keep the series the same kind of series it was, but serious enough to still show these situations, even as over exaggerated as it is.
But of course, the star of the entire franchise for me is the relationship between the main two characters. I love the banter between the two. They have a lot of minor dialogue and random conversations that would probably be considered fluff, but I really think it adds a lot to their relationship as a whole. Simple callbacks as well in the TV show brought a smile to my face, whether its the way Mahiro asking Chisato to pick her up, the cake they ate, or even in the TV show itself doing callbacks to earlier conversations… it's all good! And yes, as a yuri enjoyer I do especially love their relationship.
This was definitely a series I was more than happy to stumble upon and watch in its entirety. I've actually seen the movies twice, once by myself and once again with friends, and honestly I'll probably watch the tv show again with my friends. Don't tell them that I watched it without them.
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