Brothers are great, right? Well… 

— Even a show about babysitting kids needs a beach episode. Just anime things, I suppose. I just hope Maria or Yuki don’t show up in bathing suits for no apparent reason.

— The kids’ mothers are also here. Cool, ’cause I was about to say how I’d never let my daycare take a toddler-aged kid to the beach.

— Unfortunately, I spoke too soon, because Maria is here. And of course, there always has to be a character who wears her school’s swimsuit to the beach.

— One of the parents, and also a teacher, goes, “Girls need to try to look pretty at all times!” The mothers were supposed to spend quality time with their children, but they’ve suddenly decided that they need to buy Maria a “proper” swimsuit right here, right now! Somehow, a school swimsuit is too ugly and yet simultaneously perverted (according to Usaida), so Maria’s probably going to wear some two-piece swimsuit that bares too much skin instead. What a joke.

— Ryuichi can’t go and have fun on his own, because Kotaro is scared of the ocean. Again, our hero’s just a saint who never complains about anything. Too bad he also lacks awareness of his surroundings.

— Hayato goes and scares Kotaro by wearing seaweed as a wig. The poor kid ends up dropping his juice on the ground, so Hayato’s mom displays her awesome parenting skills. In the end, Ryuichi gives up his juice to his brother, because who else can be so saintly?

— Then we are all invited by the mothers to ogle Maria in her new bathing suit. Hayato has no reaction, and for some reason, his mother is disappointed. Ryuichi calls it cute because the pattern matches Kirin’s floating tube, but that’s also not good enough for the mothers. This is so mind-numbingly stupid. What? Did they want these two boys to call Maria sexy or some shit? Maria doesn’t even care.

— Eventually, all the kids tire themselves out and nap under the shade. Everyone keeps having to remind Ryuichi that it’s okay for him to enjoy himself. I can’t help but wonder if he will ever let Kotaro become independent. I feel like Ryuichi’s way too protective of his brother.

— Then even when Ryuichi gets to go off on his own with Hayato, the conversation boomerangs right back to Kotaro. Ryuichi can’t help but worry that maybe he’s not good enough at reassuring his brother that the beach is not all that scary. Jesus Christ, this kid needs to get a life. Even parents aren’t this hung up about their own children.

— Hayato solves all his problems with violence.

— Kotaro proceeds to wake up and cry for his brother. This is what happens when you’re so damn attached to your kid brother. He ends up not being able to cope without you. It’s not healthy, man. I don’t care if the kids lost their parents and all they have is each other. Even parents don’t hover around their kids this much. This brotherly love is too suffocating.

— In the second half of the episode, the kids are back at the daycare even though it’s summer vacation. There’s no escaping it.

— Taka also drew on Hayato’s precious autographed baseball, so the former is now in tears probably because the latter hates him (even more). Well, something that valuable should never be in a kid’s reach anyway.

— Ryuichi asks if Hayato hit Taka too hard this time, but the mother just goes, “That would be business as usual.” The kid even braces himself for the hit because he’s expecting it. That’s messed up enough, but oh no, the anime doesn’t stop there. Apparently, the real problem is that this time Hayato didn’t do anything. Yes, you realize what the show’s doing, right? He’s so mad now that he just outright ignores his brother’s existence. That means he no longer cares about his brother. On the flip side, Hayato would hit Taka in the past because he cared. Man, do you think I’m going to buy that? Fuck that noise.

— And somehow, Ryuichi has to go and play peacekeeper between the two brothers, because their mother can’t do it. After all, her idea of parenting is hitting her children.

— To free Ryuichi from watching the children, the chairwoman conveniently decides to show up.

— Ryuichi tries to empathize because Kotaro has apparently destroyed a bunch of his stuff too. The kid even destroyed a cellphone full of emails from their parents. See? Kotaro’s just trying to help his brother move on from the past. Those emails won’t do them any good. On a more serious note, I’m sure the cellphone company would still have those emails on their servers…

— Ryuichi reasons that since Kotaro didn’t mean any harm in what he did, he would always forgive his kid brother. Ah, but Taka did mean harm. He’s a bit rotten, and it can’t be helped; his family is kinda rotten too.

— Back in the daycare room, the chairwoman teaches Taka a lesson by pretending to smash the kid’s precious toy sword. This is apparently what the kid’s own mother can’t do.

— So at the end of the day, the kid goes and apologizes to his big brother. Hayato responds by smacking the kid because he cares. This brotherly love is too abusive, but as always, Gakuen Babysitters wants to pretend that all is well.