Promotional Art. © Karino Takatsu/SQUARE ENIX, SERVANTxSERVICE Project
Servant x Service is a slice of life comedy that takes place in a civil servant's office. Yeah, doesn't sound great when it's described like that but in fact the show is pretty great. The show comes from the same mind that made the manga "Working." The show provides a number of laughs and gives the viewers a number of unique characters. Now that the season has wrapped up we can look back at is as a whole. Let's start with a run down of all the major characters. As always, be weary of reading a head if you are afraid of spoilers.
Th series focuses on three new employs starting at a civil service office. The first one is the large breasted glasses wearing young woman that will be referred to as Lucy Yamagami. She's tends to be a hard worker, more than a bit naive and has an unquenchable love for books. Lucy is an odd name in Japan but her whole name is actually composed of several names that would take an entire two lines to write out. The sole reason she has become a civil servant is to find the civil servant that allowed such a ridicules name like hers onto a birth certificate and tell them off. Her entire reason for being there is simply revenge as she puts it. Through the season we find out a lot about her and her past. Though it seems petty to go after someone for such a thing as a name the story tells how boys used to make fun of her name in school and how she was often isolated to the library where she developed a love of reading. There is also an arc about her dealing with her fellow employs and what feelings develop from that. Overall her character arc flushes out this naive girl and really makes her a realistic character and a large part of this world.
Hasebe is another new employee and is a slacker. He openly asks his supervisor on the first day where would be a good place to slack off. Despite his lackluster behavior Hasebe knows what he's doing on the job. He's even called a gifted genius by a few people. It is said he could have done anything but he has no motivation to do anything. He starts off playfully teasing Lucy but starts to develop real feelings for her. His usual confident persona develops cracks when he starts to fall for her, it is actually rather endearing especially when the viewers find out Lucy is the only girl he has even asked out. Despite his confident exterior he worries about people around him and tries to be a help to his friends when they might be in trouble. Overall Hasebe is a fun and playful character with some surprising depth.
The final new employee is Miyoshi, she's rather quiet and timid woman. She's only there because she was tricked into leaving school after she took an extra year to get admitted. She's very nice but the viewer finds out that the reason she stays quiet is that whenever she talks too much she inadvertently breaks people's spirits. In fact during the course of the show she breaks the spirit of the most light hearted character by accident that it takes them several minutes to recover. She actually breaks a few people during the course of the show and never once on purpose. Her brutal honesty might break people but objectively sometimes it just needs to be said. One time her words actually affected me and I needed to take a break to recover. It is super effective. It goes to show how honest the writing is for this character when works on the viewer too. Still over the course of the season we find out more about her and her reactions are one of the highlights of the show. Miyoshi easily becomes one of the more endearing character because she tries to be nice and often hurt people with her words.
Megumi is another civil servant who has worked as the office for sometime as a temp employee and if often the more experienced employee the other turn too. She's a rather stoic character which makes the times she expresses emotions so wonderful. She's a truly funny character and an otaku cosplayer. Many of fans of anime get hints and nods to other animes through her. In fact many fans went wild when they saw her collection of cosplay in one of the later episodes. The fact that she's such a big anime fan has caused many viewers of the series to easily relate to her or just simply adore her. She is given a extended flash back which shows how she was when she started in the office and how she developed to the women she is now. Despite being so stoic she is probably one of the more emotionally aware character of the show. She is very aware of her own feeling as well as how most of the other characters feel about issues that come up.
Ichimiya is the supervisor of the main three. He is a nice guy, the typical nice guy so much so that he is doormat and will apologize for anything and everything. This has also caused him to develop a certain poor outlook of himself. Still he seems like one of the more competent employee who works truly hard to raise and care for his sister. He has a very kind heart and and is a honestly nice guy, this trait is what his girlfriends loves about him and is irrupted by. His girlfriend is Megumi and they keep their relationship a secret, but most of the characters find out at some point. The reason they keep it secret is mostly not to disrupt their work life or upset his little sister. One of the biggest problems is that he is so nice, so nice that when his girlfriend gives him certain signals he often misreads them. Still he works hard on being a good boyfriend and whenever he gets a signal from Megumi he ends up worrying about her, which she finds it endearing but it also makes her angry. Still by the end of the season he and Megumi have grown somewhat closer and are more open about their relationship to the point they agree to tell his sister.
Toko is is Ichimiya's little sister. She deeply cares about her brother but can't finds herself unable to express those feelings. To get around that problem this high school girl has become an expert in civil servant matters to the point that many employees at the office consider her more knowledgeable than themselves. She can be a rather angry person and often scares other characters. She is one of the few people not to know that her brother is dating Megumi. She has become friends with Megumi since she comes over to their apartment so often but fails to realize they are dating. Both her brother and Megumi care about her a great deal but neither can find the right time to tell her, or in her brother's case the courage to tell her. Still she admits to Megumi that she would be fine if her brother had a girlfriend because she wants him to be happy. Though she might come off as a clingy sister at the start she developed quiet nicely through the season. A great deal of her character development involves her trying to become an adult and stand on her own so not to burden her brother. She is a very human character who truly wants the person she cares about to be happy.
The show is rather light hearted and luckily doesn't focus on the on boring office politics. Instead this series focuses on the people and their interactions. In many ways this is the Office as an anime, in fact this has been how many fans describe the series. The overall story is pretty good and easy to follow even through several episodes. Each episode tends to follow about 2 short stories in the lives of the civil servants that help build up the overall story told in the season. The shows true charm is the characters and how they interact with one another and how they grow. The characters are endearing, unique and easy to related to. A good portion of the story is about the romance that blooms with some of the characters, still it is handled well and it serves more of a subplot to the overall comedic story going on. The overall humor is lighted hearted and wonderful if not plain wacky.
Overall this is wonderful gem of a series. It's not too flashy and not truly complex but the series will bring a smile to the face of the viewer. The first season ended with a few opened thread but that's the thing about life, there is always more to come and plenty promise. If there is no second season the series will tell a rather complete story and a satisfying ending. The First Season of Servant X Service gets a 4.7 out of 5.
If you are interested in checking out the show it is currently available on crunchyroll.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment