Review: Servant X Service Episode 9

This week's Servant X Service had a focus on romantic relationships. The show is about the daily lives of workers in a civil service office and anyone whose ever worked in an office knows relationship tend to happen so it's not out of place. Many shows try to do a relationship-centric episodes but ended making them feel forced or out of place but it's not the case with this one. The episode doesn't lose it's humor or the whimsy that viewers have come to expect from the series.

There are two basic plots that are focused on this episode. While dealing with the events from the last episode Megumi Chihaya notices how her coworker dresses plainly like she once did and this queues up a flash back to when she first started working at the office. A well done flash back is a great device that allows the viewer to see how far a character has come and why they are they way they are now. The stoic Chihaya was shown to be much more plain and much more reserved. The viewer gets to see her early encounters with Ichimiya, her coworker and her now boyfriend. It seems like some kind words from him make Chihaya want to stand out a little more in the office and her developing feeling for him. The viewers get to see more of their interactions and reactions to each others personalities. Chihaya's first reaction to seeing Ichimiya's sister was priceless. At the end of the flashback it is shown that Chihaya has grown more confident and more of and individual to the point were she asks Ichimiya out. Then to contrast the past with the present we see them together, they talk about things and Ichimiya shows her concern over her wearing risque cosplay hopping that she doesn't get cold. Since Chihaya has trouble expressing herself in words she kisses him and then slaps him to get her meaning across and she gets a thank you from her boyfriend. Right after that are moments where Chihaya thinks to herself that she would like Ichimiya to be more accretive and protective of her, though she admits that would still annoy her too. Ichimiya feels bad that he made her angry but he simply would feel worse about complaining about her hobbies when he often puts his sister before her. This whole dilemma shows them off as a realistic couple with problems but trying to work them out, they just happen to have slightly uncommon way to deal with it.

There are some scenes about them shopping and about running into friends and ending up getting dinner and talking about the past. This scenes were fun and kept the episode from feeling far too romantic based or fluffy for a slice of life comedy. Along with this it sets up the last part of the episode and goes more into deep at the history of an overly responsible character that has been a few episodes ago introduced. These scenes helped give this episode a proper pace.

The final part of the episode deals with Hasebe think that the girl he has fallen for is actually getting married because of something a coworker told him. Like in any good comedy Hasebe goes into a spiral of sadness and gloom. His interactions with the others are hilarious and it makes you want to hug him, even if you're not a hugger. In the end Hasebe find out that the one who is getting married is his sister and it was all just his misunderstanding. This whole part of the episode is rather silly but sets it up for a very touching moment between Hasebe and Lucy. 

Now there are some very touching scenes and some great lines in here. The great thing about any type of story is when the writing makes you care about the characters no matter how strange or silly they might be.  This episode did a great job to show exposing the heart of each character and how they care about others.  Overall this episode was fun to watch and well written too. This episode flushed out  the back stories and motivations of many of the characters. Those who enjoy a good fluffy romantic plot will certainly enjoy this episode, and those who don't will just enjoy the funny moments and story. Overall my rating for this episode is 4.5 out of five.