Kazurei

"And I thought it'd be nice if these two men took on the roles of father and mother. The two men are bringing up a child without any blood ties to them - that's quite a modern story, reflecting how values are diversifying, and I figured this would work well. "Family with no blood ties" and "two people of the same gender raising a child" - I think both of those are really great themes."

- Buddy Daddies Producer Toba Yosuke's interview about the initial concept for the anime.

Kazurei is the slash ship between Rei Suwa and Kazuki Kurusu from the Buddy Daddies fandom.

Canon
Rei and Kazuki are partners in crime and live together. They are introduced in the series in the middle of a mission, when suddenly Kazuki receives a call. On the phone, a woman informs him that a girl named Miri has a fever and needs him to pick her up. He hangs up the phone and starts yelling at Rei because he was supposed to make sure she was okay before they tackled this mission, resulting in Kazuki yelling at him, reprimanding him for caring more about work than their own daughter. The person they had kidnapped tries butting in, resulting in Rei shooting him. Then, he and Rei flee the scene and plan to visit Miri.

After this, Kazuki starts narrating how Miri got into their lives last Christmas when they were taking a job. He arrives home to Rei, who was in a stereotypically hikikomori state, playing video games. Kazuki notices Rei brought a cat home and tells him to get rid of it. Rei pays him no mind, so Kazuki decides to take the cat out by himself. Then, he returns home and starts doing several chores around the house, from cleaning to cooking, while Rei keeps playing. Later, when they eat lunch together, Kazuki instantly realizes that Rei’s upset about not having the cat around anymore. However, he tells him that their line of work makes it unsafe for the cat or anyone to live or be around them.

The night of Christmas' Eve, they are fully immersed in their mission to assassinate a broker for a human trafficking organization. Rei and Kazuki visit several stores and stock up on equipment for their job. And they infiltrate the hotel where their target and security will be at, in costumes to leave a surprise for him, his wife, and their guests at the Christmas party they will hold there. However, their plans get abruptly changed once a little kid appears in the hotel, looking for her "papa," who happens to be the broker. The little kid wanders around the room, amidst the bullets that are being shot between Rei and the broker's security guards, and as Kazuki tries to protect her as best as he can. The kid's name is revealed to be Miri, as the broker grabs Miri and points a gun to her head.

Kazuki and Rei hide behind a table and try strategizing. Kazuki rushes toward the men as they shoot at him. Rei shoots one of the men, allowing Kazuki to reach out to Miri, as he tells her he’s her father to get Miri to trust him. Miri jumps into Kazuki’s arms as Rei headshots the broker from point-blank range. Rei shoots an escape route for himself and climbs off the building, looking for their car. Kazuki leaves the establishment with Miri in his arms, who is happy to be with "her papa." Rei and Kazuki drive off to their home, and Rei teases him because Kazuki couldn’t allow him to keep a cat, but gets to bring a kid home. Later, as Miri sleeps soundly, the two of them go through their data on their target, and realize that Miri's father is Hayami, the broker for the human trafficking organization, and that they murdered her father.

Now that Miri was alone, they decide to take care of her and to let her live with them for the moment, until they find her mom. But Kazuki is not used to having a kid, so Miri ends up causing issues in their apartment due to her high energy and curiosity. Rei, who was somberly sleeping in the bathroom's tub, wakes up by all the noise Miri and Kazuki were making, and heads into the living room to see what’s happening. Kazuki asks Rei to take care of Miri while he’s cooking. So upon seeing him, Miri asks if Rei is her papa as well, calling him "Rei Papa." Rei replies that he isn't and when Miri asks if he's her uncle instead, he tells Miri that he's "just Rei."

Later, Kazuki and Rei leave Miri alone in their apartment to visit Kyutarou at his hideout. Kyutarou is disappointed with their performance during the Hayami assassination mission. He gives them their payment and informs them about a new job he wants them to tackle. Kazuki and Rei accept the task and leave. When they return home, they realize their place’s been ransacked. They hear a noise upstairs and instantly worry about Miri. They find Miri hiding under a table, revealing she has a gun in her hand, and was playing hide and seek. Kazuki instantly gets nervous, but Rei tells him it’s not loaded. During dinner, as they research information about their next target, Miri approaches Kazuki and says her mom makes better Hamburg steak than him, crushing his spirit. She taunts Kazuki and asks him to play hide-and-seek with him again. Although Miri annoys Kazuki, her scheme helps him develop a strategy for their mission. Kazuki and Rei gather their materials and plan to head for their mission. Kazuki tries bribing Miri with snacks to let them attend it alone. However, she starts causing a scene, forcing them to bring her along.

On their mission, Kazuki plans to infiltrate the building, as Rei annihilates the target and his minions. But their mission gets interrupted once again by Miri, who enters the mansion because she wanted to pee, and starts calling Kazuki "papa," which alerts the guards who start chasing the two of them, while Miri thinks it's all a game. Kazuki catches Miri in his arms, in front of the kingpin, the boss of the place, enticing his guards to point guns at him and Miri. Before they could shoot, Rei fires at them from afar with his sniper rifle. As he starts shooting the guards, Kazuki panics saying they should flee, so he runs to Rei, grabbing him by the waist with one arm, while holding Miri with his other arm and escaping from the place.They arrive home at night by boat, and both are concerned that they would not be able to carry out their work with a kid around. Kazuki wonders about an idea to do something with her, when they are called by Kyutaro for the information gathered from Miri's mother. Now they knew that they would finally over by getting [her] off their backs.

The next day, the three eat something different (cereal) for breakfast as Miri's request, who wanted to eat with "Rei-kun", and the latter ends up liking it as well as Miri, dismaying Kazuki about this. Kazuki comments on meeting with Kyutaro about the information about Miri's mother. However, when Rei sees Kazuki happy together with Miri, he asks him in order to make sure if he really wanted to return her, to which Kazuki's expression changes to one of hesitation, responding in affirmation of his inability to care a kid, both being part of a world of darkness. In the park, they are both seen supervising Miri playing in the sand, Kazuki having the report on Miri's mother's location. However, despite having been the one who proposed to give her to her mother, he is down with the fact, having gotten used to her presence. He comments to Rei about not having many memories of laughing the way Miri did at her age, making it two for Rei's part. Kazuki responds in agreement saying that Rei's family sounded like a pain in the ass even if he didn't know them. They agree not to push the issue any further. In the distance, Miri asks both of them if she could have a sweet potato, to which the two reluctantly compete via rock-paper-scissors to buy Miri the coveted food, with Rei being the loser and the one responsible for the task. Rei doesn't buy Kazuki food, but Miri shares half of hers, moving Kazuki to tears, receiving Rei's response from him being a lousy actor. They hurriedly leave the park later after Miri refused to call the Kazuki her father to the park caretaker, sticking to her warning not to call him that in public. He also blames Rei for not saying that he was Miri's father as well, and Rei asks why. Kazuki replies that otherwise they'll get up on their asses. Miri curiously asks if Rei was also her dad, and he denies in response. However, Miri seems to turn a deaf ear as she repeatedly calls him "Papa Rei", Kazuki joining in mocking the new imposed nickname, Rei asking them to cut it out.

The next day, the search for Miri's mother begins, Kazuki taking both of them and making them wait together while he goes to see her (excusing Miri that he was going to see her mom's burger steak). The mission partly fails to convince Miri's mother to have her daughter back, however the three manage to meet and on the part of Miri and Rei, the latter accepted being her father. Kazuki teases the title "Papa Rei" again like before, and Rei tells him that he smiled about it too, and Kazuki lies in denial. On her way home, Rei asks about the wound on Kazuki's face, the latter responding that he has no luck with women. Dinner ends up being a hamburger cooked by Kazuki, just like the one Miri's mother "made", which was actually packaged from the supermarket, though Rei ends up liking it just as Miri. At bedtime, at Miri's insistence, the three of them end up sleeping together as her request. Kazuki, uncomfortable with Miri interrupting his sleep, asks Rei to move her to his side more, however there was no response, since he had already fallen asleep.

Having made their decision to keep Miri, they eventually acknowledge that it was actually difficult, Miri constantly causing disasters everywhere mainly at home. They have the idea of ​​putting her in a daycare, but as before, it was not easy, having to falsify the papers at the government office to be able to enter a daycare. Luckily, these were approved without them noticing. Now it was their turn to visit the various daycare centers to assign Miri, Kazuki dragging Rei with them before he slipped away, the former telling him he was his partner while the latter refused to go as he was forced to be taken with them. In their first attempt they were unable to assign her, even after they both reluctantly admitted to being Miri's parents to the interviewer, Miri even supporting this fact by speaking out about various things such as the forgery and Rei's dexterity when handling a [real] gun. They cross that place off their list, Miri promising Kazuki to say "Just as Papa said!" when being asked something. They have more luck with the second attempt, in which the procedure is the same at the beginning, but having rehearsed with Miri beforehand so that she did not say anything else and taking into account what Kazuki has told her before. The caretaker was very nice to them, even asking Miri if she was happy to have two papas (Rei and Kazuki), to which she excitedly agreed saying that the two of them are always together and friends, the caretaker sweetly commenting that it sounds like if she loved them a lot. Luckily they manage to assign her to the daycare, the three giving a high five.

Arriving home, Kazuki is horrified by the list of materials they needed to buy for Miri, and they go shopping at name-brand stores, claiming that common people take style into account as well. The next day they attend with an impression of being mobsters according to Anna (the caretaker), and are relieved to have a quiet moment at Kyutaro's bar without Miri around. However, as the days go by, Miri does not have a good experience in the place due to not being able to socialize with the other children, since they distanced themselves from her. The reason for this was their outfits, as they stood out a lot from others, and Anna advises Kazuki to buy something more ordinary. When Rei and Kazuki along with Miri arrive at a store recommended by Anna, they are surprised and happy to learn that everything was much cheaper than the previous stores, Kazuki also allowing Miri to buy more things since everything was worth less than brand name clothes. On the day after, Miri manages to attend with more casual clothes together with her father, who thanks to him, was able to obtain a more social life with others after demonstrating skills with the ball, receiving compliments from the children to Miri for her father. This time, Miri is doing much better in her daycare days. Miri also receives a gift from Kazuki; a new bedroom designed only for her, with extremely attractive designs and various toys inside. In gratitude she hugs his and Rei's leg (who had also accompanied them), and thanks her papa.

Due to spending too much on buying Miri's supplies and decorations for her room, the two are left in over 500,000 yen in debt, which meant that they had to continue working for the various tasks assigned by Kyutaro. Unfortunately, Miri's daycare is temporarily suspended due to the transmission of a certain virus by the facility and to prevent this, the children had to stay home. They both had even more trouble knowing this, so they decide to try to make Miri stay home, Kazuki leaving Rei in her care. However, she sneaks out to follow Kazuki to find out about his work, it being part of the schoolwork from the daycare to find out about her parents' work. She gets lost when misses the sight of Kazuki's trail, having to search everywhere while he was with Kyutaro when he receives a call from Rei who asks if Miri was with him. Upon learning of the situation, both set out to look for her in the city, to no avail. They end up meeting outside Kyutaro's bar, giving up, and Kazuki proposes to inform the police about the situation, terrified that she may have been kidnapped. They enter the place after Rei got thirsty, and find Miri safe and sound drinking juice, Kazuki hugging her as soon as he sees her expressing his relief at finding her. They however forget that Kyutaro did not "know" about the relationship between them and Miri, to which Kazuki tries to hide the bond between the three of them, believing that this would convince Kyutaro. This latter offers looking out for Miri so they could continue their work to Kazuki and Rei's surprise. At home the next morning, Kazuki tells Miri not to breath a word out to [Kyutaro] about her papas, and Miri agrees to this.

Rei and Kazuki find them bewildered and distracted while doing their duty leaving Miri in Kyutaro's care knowing about his cold personality (and also seducing women), enraging Kazuki with the latter thought. At the same time, Miri questions Kyutaro about Rei and Kazuki's work, trying to be careful not to call them her parents. Kyutaro agrees to tell her but in the form of a lie, claiming that Kazuki was a stand-up comedian while Rei was a Middle Eastern oil baron, confusing Miri more than she was. Going back to Kazuki and Rei, the former is anxious when he thinks that Miri might have already told Kyutaro about her relationship with them, and that both of them were doomed while complaining/crying in despair at the thought, getting a "shut up" for Rei's part over the earpiece. Returning to Miri and Kyutaro, the girl graphs her parents and their supposed profession as Kyutaro had dictated, because it was part of the daycare's homework. She indirectly communicates to Kyutaro about the relationship between the three and her great love for them after being asked by him if she was not worried about staying with unknown people. Moved to her words, Kyutaro smiles and responds with an "I see" as he looks at Miri's finished drawing. Rei and Kazuki later arrive at the hideout to pick up Miri, who was asleep, but before leaving, Kazuki trying to excuse Miri's sleepy calls to both of them as her papas respectively, but then Kyutaro reveals that he already knew everything, leaving them flabbergasted. Miri makes her presentation to her classmates and Anna about her fathers' profession through her drawing (Kazuki as a stand-up comedian and Rei as an oil baron), expressing her gratitude and love for both of them while asking them both to take care and work hard at their jobs. When she's done, she runs to her fathers as Kazuki thanks her for the pictures, while Rei congratulates her. Upon receiving their well-deserved payment, Kazuki is relieved that the two of them could finally take a break; however, Kyutaro warns about him having intended to spring into action if [Miri's] presence ever interfered with their jobs again, as well as the consequences of betraying the organization by that task. It goes without saying that they were also responsible for killing Miri's real father. However he understands how Rei and Kazuki felt spending time with Miri, also saying that maybe she could change them both, uncertain if it was in a good or bad way. Lastly, Kyutaro asks them if they were prepared to take the consequences of risking their lives in such duty, receiving a silent affirmation from Rei and Kazuki, Kyutaro concluding telling them not to regret it.

On the day of Miri's school trip to the zoo, Kazuki completely forgets to run off her lunch after having an argument with her after he tried to reason with her for "hitting" one of her classmates despite her insisting not doing anything wrong, due to his worriness over that by spoiling her too much she might break bad in the future after watching a case of an actor's eldest being arrested because of parental inattention, angering Miri and saying she hated him. Along with Rei (reluctantly), they plan to give her lunch back without her seeing them. Being undercover, they keep an eye on Miri from a distance, but nevertheless they have some problems since she was able to sense the presence of both of them for a few occasions, however, both of them were able to manage not to be discovered. Kazuki proudly comments about her instincts being their genes at work, to which Rei questions about the last thing said.They interfere when Miri and her group of friends are mugged by a wanted robber and having taken one of them hostage, disguised in stolen zoo mascot costumes (a bunny and an alpaca) and taking him down. Kazuki eventually learns that he had to trust his kid more after commenting how Miri was more attentive than he thought, and in a reassuring mode, Rei says he just has to do his best. Miri returns home cheerfully and hugs Kazuki telling him about her encounter with the rabbit (which was actually himself), and Rei tries to intervene to ask if she had seen an alpaca too, but Kazuki cuts him out while telling Miri to leave her things and go wash her hands, Miri agreeing to the command. Rei gives him the diary because Anna had left a note there, and Kazuki learns that Miri hadn't actually had a fight with her classmate, but was trying to stop him from being mean but accidentally hit him.

In the next episode, Kazuki gets momentarily fed up with the life he leads as a househusband, due to both Rei and Miri not helping him with basic household chores, instead leaving messes everywhere forcing Kazuki to take care of it by himself. He eventually leaves a note on the table about his absence for a time, which leaves Rei in charge of Miri so that they can partly learn to take care of themselves without Kazuki's help (with also Rei having to look after Miri), and also contributing to the chores. Kurusu, on the other hand, shows his anger and complaints about this while outside his home, but is eventually convinced to try once more and carry on his life by his sister-in-law Karin. When he comes back home with a clearer mind, he realizes that Miri had caught a fever, but Rei had stayed by her side, Kazuki fondly smiling when he sees him holding Miri's hand in his. The ensuing day Rei and Miri demonstrate their efforts by making french toasts without Kazuki's help (which was their last insistence before Kazuki snapped out), and Kurusu yells at them that he would teach them both how to make real ones while they two others are horrified knowing that Rei was actually the one who supposedly knew how to do them. Kazuki is shown happy and changed accepting the life he has.

Children
Miri Unasaka Miri is Rei and Kazuki's adoptive daughter. She was sent to go live with her father by her mother, but ended up in the middle of hit job that Rei and Kazuki were on. She ends up being held hostage, but Kazuki is able to save her, by convincing her to come to him by claiming to be her dad. Rei then kills their target and Kazuki bring her home with them. They try to find her parents, only to find that her father was their target and her mother doesn't want her anymore. Rei and Kazuki then decide to take her in and both be her fathers while also continuing their jobs as Hitman, which they have to keep secret from Miri. She is a very kind four year old with a lot of energy and personality. She loves both of her fathers, but still misses her mother from time to time.

Interviews
Buddy Daddies' Producer Interview

Buddy Daddies Director Interview

Fanon
is the most popular ship in the Buddy Daddies fandom ever since the anime's trailer had aired out, due to the fact that they are the main couple of the series and the story revolves around their relationship's development, alongside Miri, their child. Fans were very expectating since the very beginning that the main characters were going to be paired-up together due to their bond and interactions during the first episode, fueling the fact they, as mentioned, raise a kid together.

At the beginning, the ship had been involved in controversy and gotten backlash when the anime was released, because of the main characters' peculiar association, and criticized about how "no male friendship could be appreciated on anime" plus the "queerbaiting" just as in other series, referring to Kazuki and Rei's relationship fathering Miri, and how the anime itself was only a "rip-off" of the anime Spy x Family (with a similar plot). But with the time as the episodes are airing, they'd become more appreciative with the similarities and also became to compare Buddy Daddies with the former mentioned classic anime, Spy x Family. There's still debating about whether they'd end up as a legitimate couple or just as platonic life partners.

In most part, Kazuki parallels Loid Forger and Rei as Yor Briar, with the addition of Miri as Anya, but both are in actual hitmen raising a female child, keeping their real jobs as a secret from her. Fans would call the anime "SxF but gay", since the main characters (both guys) raise a kid together (Miri), which'd complement with Loid and Yor's relationship with Anya as a family. Also Kazuki's cooking skills is one other trait that makes him similar to Loid, as both know how to cook while their partners -Rei and Loid respectively-, don't. In fanon, Rei is a “man who has never known love,” and Kazuki is a “man running away from love”, confirmed by Toba with the next quote: "(Kurusu) Kazuki has experienced lost love, and (Suwa) Rei is a character with no idea what love is, and all this changes through living with the child (Unasaka) Miri. So portraying the changes the two of them undergo is a big part of it.” A common trope of the pairing is, the parental roles being down-played, Kazuki being the hard-working housewife while Rei is the "lazy husband" taking care of a happy, rebellious and energetic girl. They also often argue on who had to take care of Miri, putting the job to the other, taking turns in occasions.

On AO3, the ship has 126+ works created as romantic, and as gen, 40. They have a massive following in sites like Twitter or Tumblr, their tag being on main "Kazurei" or just Miri's fathers.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TIK TOK

TUMBLR

TWITTER