Highlights
- Good babysitting anime focus on platonic and nurturing relationships, with caregivers and children growing together with love and affection. Some even adopt the kids permanently.
- Aishiteruze Baby★★ follows teen heartthrob Kippei as he learns to care for his five-year-old cousin Yuzuyu and forms a friendship with a classmate.
- School Babysitters is a unique anime exclusively focused on babysitting, where Ryuichi and his fellow babysitters learn empathy and childcare skills while taking care of babies.
Finding an anime about babysitting that are good can be a challenge, but the best babysitting anime are able to deliver on themes of familial love and warmth. The reason it can be challenging to find a good anime is because many series have romantic undertones or conclusions between caregivers and their charges.
Infamously, Usagi Drop took a shocking turn between the titular child and her caregiver in the manga after the anime’s stopping point. Other titles have taken the same track. However, there are still good babysitting anime that have 100% platonic and nurturing relationships. Children and caregivers grow up together with a sense of familial affection and better outcomes than before they met. Some babysitters even adopt the kids permanently.
9 Aishiteruze Baby★★
7.44 MAL Score (53,329 Users)
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Episodes |
26 |
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Aishiteruze Baby★★ is an anime about babysitting that is surprisingly good despite its initial appearance. It follows teen heartthrob Kippei, who has nothing to do but flirt with girls. That is until his aunt dumps his five-year-old cousin Yuzuyu for him to raise.
Surprisingly, Kippei chooses to care for Yuzuyu instead of passing her on to his parents or sister. He slowly learns how to babysit his charge, unwilling to leave Yuzuyu unhappy, and through Yuzuyu, Kippei also becomes friends with Kokoro, a classmate he thought hated him.
8 Daa! Daa! Daa!
7.67 MAL Score (11,484 Users)
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Episodes |
78 |
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Where To Watch |
Crunchyroll |
A classic shojo series, Daa! Daa! Daa! or UFO Baby starts with Miyu Kozuki moving in with her parents’ Buddhist monk friend, Hosho Saionji. Miyu and his son Kanata don’t get along perfectly, but it’s good enough for Saionji, who goes off to India for a pilgrimage.
Further complicating Miyu and Kanata’s living situation is a UFO crash-landing on the grounds of the Saoinji Shrine. Cat-dog babysitter pet Wannya pops out, along with alien baby Ruu, who Miyu and Kanata must take care of while waiting for rescue.
7 Poco’s Udon World
7.75 MAL Score (52,705 Users)
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Episodes |
12 |
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Souta Tawara is estranged from his father, an udon restaurant owner. However, upon his father’s death, Souta comes home to Kagawa. He’s disappointed to learn that his father’s restaurant has shut down, despite firmly refusing to inherit it prior to leaving for Tokyo.
While touring the closed-down restaurant, he finds a disheveled boy inside a basket. He eventually discovers the kid is actually a tanuki, or raccoon dog. Though initially reluctant, Souta eventually takes the kid in. He names him Poco and learns how to babysit while reflecting on his own childhood.
6 The Yakuza’s Guide To Babysitting
7.76 MAL Score (86,100 Users)
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Episodes |
12 |
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Toru Kirishima was an average made man working for the relatively nice Sakuragi family. However, as a consequence of a rampage as the Demon of Sakuragi, he gets assigned a strange, but important job. Save for some organized crime, Kirishima is now the designated babysitter of his boss’ daughter, Saeka.
The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting is goofy at times, but, overall, the tone is fairly grounded and focused on Saeka’s feelings about her caring but absent father and comatose mother. She and Kirishima’s growing trust in each other is also heartwarming and key to their growth.
5 Beelzebub
7.85 MAL Score (278,018 Users)
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Japanese Name |
べるぜバブ Beelzebub |
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Episodes |
60 |
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Beelzebub is admittedly more gag anime than babysitting, but main bad boy, Tatsumi Oga, does learn a lot about childrearing. Oga has no choice, as he’s chosen by the Demon King to babysit his foster son, Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV, or Baby Beel.
Over time, Oga actually does learn childcare from Beel’s wet nurse, Hilda. Beelzebub also has plenty of sweet scenes between the babysitter and his charge, but the anime never forgets its roots as a gag manga, and definitely offers more jokes than coddling.
4 School Babysitters
7.90 MAL Score (167,170 Users)
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Episodes |
12 |
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The ur-example of babysitting anime, School Babysitters is almost unique for being exclusively focused on babysitting. Ryuichi actively learns what babies, including his brother Kotaro, need. His fellow babysitters Hayato and Maria also improve in their childcare and empathy skills.
Every baby has a one-track mind, and they are quick to change moods, just like real babies. Taking care of their basic needs and teaching them proper behavior becomes important to Ryuichi, Hayato, and Maria. The three teens also change, though some more markedly than others.
3 Hina Festival
8.13 MAL Score (247,613 Users)
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Episodes |
12 |
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Hina Festival or Hinamatsuri popularized the “yakuza babysitter” concept before The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting. It’s also much sillier, as it follows stereotypical yankee-style gangster Yoshifumi Nitta and psychic weird child Hina. Nitta and Hina are plenty quirky and, either due to Nitta’s gangster background or Hina’s esper abilities, the two get into a lot of hijinks.
Nitta is forced into his new babysitting gig, and even well into the series, he finds a temporary return to bachelorhood genuine relief. Fortunately for him and Hina, they do end up more than tolerating each other.
2 Buddy Daddies
8.14 MAL Score (105,357 Users)
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Japanese Name |
Buddy Daddies |
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Episodes |
12 |
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Although Buddy Daddies is an action anime, Kazuki and Rei’s care of Miri is truly its heart. Miri is a wonderfully realistic four-year-old, which means Kazuki and Rei have to deal with her childish behavior. Tantrums, unexplainable child-minded choices, and frustrating behaviors trouble the two bachelors until they eventually get used to it.
It’s these shared growing pains that make their dynamic great. Viewers cheer Kazuki and Rei’s transition from babysitters to parents because they watched them bond with Miri. Their relationship with Miri, and their active choice to love her, sets the tone for the anime.
1 Kotaro Lives Alone
8.20 MAL Score (82,967 Users)
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Episodes |
10 |
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Where To Watch |
Netflix |
Shin Karino was just an average manga artist struggling to work, much less live. That is until his new next-door neighbor asks him for a favor. The new neighbor is the four-year-old Kotaro, who is far more orderly and mature than Karino.
His encounters with Kotaro, and subsequent decision to babysit him, change Karino. The same goes for Mizuki Akitomo, Isamu Tamaru, and other adults who encounter the child. Caring for the precocious toddler slowly pushes them to make choices that ultimately better their lives, as well as that of Kotaro.
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