The amount of world building and explanations is ridiculous. Delico’s Nursery Episode 2, “Creeping Intrigue and Parenting,” finds some footing between the scenes of the Vamp Agency case being solved and the noble vampire men figuring out how to best raise their children. This episode brings the chaos and confusion of parenting to the forefront, and sprinkles in some hints of mystery and intrigue between Dali Delico and his babysitting team of vampire men.

Delico’s Nursery Episode 2 begins with the children sulking and fooling around at the Delico estate (the mission’s headquarters). When one child cries, the others cry too. Classic toddlers, that’s it. While Gerhard Fra, Henrique Lorca and Dino Classico try to investigate the murder cases that are piling up as the days go by, Dali has a lot of fun studying the children’s behavior.

Dali takes some of the cues left by those noble vampire men from the last episode and is the coolest of the bunch. Gerhard is the father who is extremely strict with his son Angelico, usually telling him to be quiet when he cries or isn’t acting “noble”. Despite his dislike of doing their job and raising their children, he does his best in this episode by trying to outdo Dali and show that he is a good caregiver.

As for the other two fathers, Henrique is as laissez-faire as a parent can be, which is funny later when he has dinner with his wife – who is the strict one in their relationship. He has twins, Elena and Lucia. Dino is quieter, but also enigmatic and calculating. His only son, Theodore, seems to be the eldest of all the children, a quiet boy who likes to read on his own. Theodore also has a walking and talking teddy bear who is scary because he appears out of nowhere.

So far, Dino has done a good job of telling the audience and Henrique some subplots, such as the speculation about how Gerhard supposedly killed Dali’s wife Frieda. He essentially explains how vampires in this world have the ability to compel other people, including other vampires. It’s similar to how almost every vampire in the Vampire Diaries does, except that the vampires have to bite their target for the compulsion to work.

The episode comes to a close by watching the main cast of the Vamp Agency interact with their wives and children before bed. The most interesting interaction is when Dino doesn’t have a wife and explains to his butler that so many women have left him. The butler suggests taking another wife, but Dino says something interesting – he notes that a woman is not an accessory. Kudos to Dino, but then he has a weird laugh that makes him seem like a psychopath.

At the end of the episode and the next day, the Council of Vampire Fathers meets again at Dali’s headquarters to hear some new developments in the case. The group that is searching for and murdering people to find TRUMP, also known as True of Vamp (the original vampire), is called Pendulum. Dali is immediately amused to learn that this splinter group of vampires has reappeared on his radar, as he mentions that he has had encounters with the organization before.

Delico’s Nursery Episode 2 does a fairly smooth job of weaving in exposition and drawing on important details throughout the episode. The latest development shows how the force of compulsion works when a member of the Police of the Blood (vampire police?) warns the Vamp Agency of a threat from Pendulum before committing suicide. Also, the true story behind Frieda’s death could be relevant to TRUMP’s assassination plots, but the show really only provides small snippets to finally reveal this plot point.

I am not sure if having pictures of bloody bodies near children is a good parenting strategy, but Delico’s Nursery Episode 2 shows how fallible these men are in caring for their offspring. All the children are pretty cute in their own way, only a few come close to Anya Forger from Spy x Family. But Delico’s Nursery is not as carefree as Buddy Daddies or Babysitter for schoolespecially because of the murder case.

The animation stays true to the first episode, not much happens, even when the Pendulum members walk through the streets. Two of the only action scenes so far in the last episode and Delico’s Nursery In episode 2, no single frames of the plot were shown. Usually, they only cut to people dying or to the post-battle period. If this is a conscious stylistic choice in the future, it could get a bit boring – especially for viewers who are more interested in the thriller/mystery aspect of this series. Overall, Delico’s Nursery Episode 2 hangs on many loose threads that will likely reveal themselves in shocking ways as the season progresses.

Delico’s Nursery every Wednesday on Crunchyroll.