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The anime Buddy Daddies, which released as part of the 2023 Winter Anime season, has been compared to Spy x Family. Among others, fans of the latter, who are eagerly awaiting season 2 are also hoping that Buddy Daddies gets a season 2 as well. Both anime have been compared and contrasted to each other a lot and definitely have more than a few similarities.
The problem, however, is that some people have taken the similarities too literally. They have attempted to claim that Buddy Daddies is a derivation or even call it a straight rip-off of Spy x Family. This couldn't be further from the truth, as both anime have many differences to set them apart from each other.
While the premise of both anime revolves around unexpected parents, that's where the similarities end. The two anime are fundamentally different from each other in a lot of ways.
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Disclaimer: Since both of these anime get compared a lot, the following will contain spoilers for both Spy x Family and Buddy Daddies. Any opinions therein belong to both fans and the author.
Buddy Daddies and Spy x Family contrasted and dissected: where these two found family stories diverge
Part 1: Spy x Family
Spy x Family revolves around the efforts of top Westalis spy Twilight to prevent a war between the two nations of Westalis and Ostania. In doing so, Twilight is forced to build a family and enroll their child in the prestigious Eden Academy to get close to a warmongering nationalist.
Naturally, this doesn't go smoothly. The daughter he fosters is an orphan named Anya, who isn't all that smart except for one crucial distinction: she's secretly a government-made telepath.
His "wife" he meets and forges his identity with, Yor Briar, is secretly one of the best Ostanian assassins nicknamed The Thorn Princess. She is second to none in killing people but is also socially awkward.
The crux of Spy x Family is the balancing act the trio put up: Anya tries to hide her telepathy, Loid and Yor hide their lives from each other in a Mr. and Mrs. Smith type of setup. Anya's the only one that knows both secrets, owing to Loid and Yor's thoughts going out of control at the best of times.
Another crux to the anime is the genuine sense of the found family of three, technically four, when Bond, the future-seeing dog, joins them. They all bond together as none of them has ever known true peace in their lives.
Loid/Twilight is a war orphan, Yor had to raise her brother and see him through education by herself. Meanwhile, Anya and Bond were both constantly experimented on without breaks or regard for their well-being.
The lines between their family being just another job for Twilight, a means to an end for Yor, and a real chance at happiness for all three blurs as the series goes on. They all save each other in different ways, and all begin to genuinely love each other.
As the mission of securing world peace between the two nations continues, the love and care that the found family has for each other grows by the day.
Part 2: Buddy Daddies
Professional assassins Kazuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa live together, best friends working as hitmen in Buddy Daddies. Kazuki is an outgoing lover of gambling and women, who is incredibly easy to sway through temptation. He makes incredibly irresponsible choices and is lousy as a stand-up comedian as his cover, but is incredibly empathetic and caring.
Rei, on the other hand, is more insular: never talking too much and always preferring activities like video gaming. Although Kazuki ends up having to clean up their place, the two get along fine. They end up having their dynamic tested when they very suddenly find themselves as parents when out on a job.
As it turns out, the human trafficker they killed had a child, a four-year-old named Miri Unasaka who hadn't met her father. Not only that but now Kazuki is accidentally considered her father and at a Christmas party no less. So, the two are forced to balance their professional hitman lives while also caring for a child.
The crux of Buddy Daddies is basically that - balancing being assassins while raising a kid. A kid they really didn't ask for, but try raising with all the expected hurdles. This includes making sure she doesn't get hurt from all the weapons in the house, getting to daycare even in the rain, making sure she eats well, and other hilarious hijinks.
The other part is that the two realize they really aren't cut out to continue their hitman business considering their growing fondness and attachment to Miri. Additionally, their hitmen jobs come back to bite them as the Suwa Family puts a hit on Miri and Kazuki.
Part 3: The small differences
A complaint some people have made when talking about both shows is the fact that they seem the same due to the premise. They are both about two people in dangerous occupations having to care for a younger child whilst keeping secrets from the said child. The problem with that idea is the small and big differences between both anime.
A good example of a small difference is both the kids involved. Anya Forger and Miri Unasaka may be the same age and are very precious, but that's where the similarities end. For one, they're both vastly different in personality.
Miri is more prone to hyperactivity than Anya is and Anya tries to be a little more careful than Miri. Anya is a telepath who constantly uses it to whatever advantage she can or to help Loid and Yor out. Similarly, Anya doesn't remember her biological mother or father and prefers her newfound family.
Buddy Daddies' Miri is the opposite. She's a completely normal bundle of joy of a four-year-old and is hilariously naive on some things like basic stranger safety.
This isn't Miri's fault, however, as her mother despised her very existence as she was born out of an extramarital affair.
That's another smaller point of comparison: Loid and Yor are much better at childproofing their home than Kazuki and Rei are. Given the circumstances surrounding both pairs, however, this isn't a surprise.
Loid and Yor were able to get an apartment, and both were able to hide their weapons more easily. Likewise, they enrolled Anya into Eden Academy and have Twilight's friend Franklin and Yor's brother Yuri. Kazuki and Rei mostly have to raise Miri on their own.
Part 4: The big differences
The big differences should be obvious. Buddy Daddies was a one-shot anime original with 12 episodes and was small in scope, focusing chiefly on the hilarious hijinks of the main trio.
Spy x Family, on the other hand, currently has an ongoing manga with 78 chapters and an anime with 25 episodes in season 1. It also has a second season and movie expected in Fall 2023 and is much larger in scope.
While Buddy Daddies takes place largely in a single city, Spy x Family takes place in multiple locations across an entire country. Spy x Family is larger in scope, dealing with subjects like the Cold War between nations. Buddy Daddies is a bit more intimate and tighter focused on its characters and their relationships.
Another point of contrast are the main characters, their professions, and their fates.
All three protagonists of Spy x Family are special in their own way, and all have secrets they keep from each other for the sake of world peace and family peace. The trio in Buddy Daddies consists of two assassins and a young girl, and the two parents need to keep the secret.
Basically, the differences in occupation also mean the various threats they face are different. Spies and hitmen aren't the same things, if anything, Kazuki and Rei would compare well to Yor and not Loid. The Spy x Family family faces larger and more threatening threats that could damage world peace and their own lives.
There's also the fact that burrowing from the original point above about the length of each series, Buddy Daddies has a definitive conclusion that it reaches at the end of its run time. Kazuki and Rei retire from the hitman business after completely destroying the organization after them and opening a restaurant business to raise Miri.
Spy x Family meanwhile, is still proceeding with Operation Strix, even in the manga.
In conclusion, Buddy Daddies is not the new Spy x Family for the varied reasons stated above. Both series have vast differences in tone, character dynamics, scope, and length. The theme of found family and hilarious balancing acts are common in both series, but they do vastly different things with the premise.
There are be a lot of series airing with the same premise as "Dangerous Person Travels with/Adopts a Kid." This includes The Mandalorian, The Last of Us, and indeed Buddy Daddies and Spy x Family. However, each of these series offers something that the other one lacks.
In short, no Buddy Daddies is not replacing Spy x Family by any reasonable metric. Should any readers have any opinions on these shows, they are free to air them in the comments.
