English Dub Review: The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting “Why Don’t We Start Streaming?”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Kirishima and his buddies become streamers, and things get a little weird.

Our Take:  

It’s no secret that anyone can be a streamer when they put their creative minds into it. It takes a lot of dedication and planning to make this career work, leading to some satisfying rewards. However, when the Yakuza takes a shot at making online videos, it can lead to some awkward or even troubling situations.

Many shows and movies showcase a character’s attempt to become an internet celebrity, which later results in them being fame-obsessed assholes. It’s an old-fashioned tale for the modern technological age representing the consequences of letting popularity determine one’s actions. As a result, they can lose sight of their loved ones and even themselves. Even though we’re probably sick of the storyline already, it’s easy to admit that it’s an essential lesson for us to learn while creating videos, whether the execution is good or not.

The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting marks another addition to this list with its fourth episode, “Why Don’t We Start Streaming?”. The plot sees Kirishima and Sugihara making online videos to earn money and make the Yakuza popular due to changes in society. They create numerous videos under the name “Team Cherry”, portraying Yakuza activities as humorous pastimes. Unfortunately, this resulted in them noticing that the followers might be catching on to their true identities.  

So Kirishima and Sugihara explain to their viewers that they’re fake Yakuza and stop making videos. However, this backfired when their “honesty” made them even more popular. Even worse, Kazuhiko wants them to record their song for their next video, resulting in them going global.

Instead of trekking through familiar waters, the episode represents Kirishima and Sugihara dealing with internet fame and struggling to get out of it. It emphasizes the likable characters without relying too much on its tropes and delivers the usual slice-of-life humor I expect from the show, including Kirishima bullying Sugihara. I swear Kirishima really loves to pick on the poor guy. Even though everything that happened to Kirishima was actually a dream, it doesn’t overshadow the true price of online fame, which is crucial for those looking to start their career making online videos.