Servant x Service

Servant x Service is a 13 episode slice of life comedy that aired in Japan during the summer season of 2013 and is based on the manga by the same name.

   The story follows 3 new hires to the ward office of a fictional town in Japan.  Lucy Yamagami, a short, buxom, bespectacled book worm is the main focus of the story.  She has taken the job at the ward office in order to find out who had worked there when she was born and allowed her parents to give her the ridiculous name of; Lucy Kimiko Akie Airi Shiori Rinne Yoshiho Ayano Tomika Chitose Sanae Mikiko Ichika (to many more to list) Yamagami.  Yutaka Hasebe is a bored, slacker, genius following in his father’s footsteps of public service and only wants to apply himself as little as possible in life.  Saya Miyoshi is dimwitted, lacking in confidence and unsure why she is even really in a public service career to begin with, more looking to find a man to marry and retire to become a house wife.  Unfortunately for them their coworkers are odd in their own ways.  The sempai responsible for them, Taishi Ichimiya, is easily intimidated and questions his abilities to lead the new recruits, let alone to continue working at the office.  Megumi Chihaya is the department’s serious and quiet temp employee whose life’s passion is cosplay and costume design.  Rounding out the odd co-workers is the section chief, Kenso Momoi, a hikikomori who interacts with his staff via a robotic stuffed bear.  The series follows the characters as they adjust to their career and get to know each other in humorous fashion.  At some point the story begins to shift to a romantic tinge as Hasebe continues to try and court Lucy, who has a hard time dealing with other people and would rather be left to her books.

    This is a fun and enjoyable series.  The characters are fun and the comedy is goofy and light hearted.  It’s a nice slice of life series dealing with people in mundane circumstances, kind of a rare thing these days in anime.  My only real complaint would be the continued plot lines involving Lucy’s bust, but about half way through that really gets pushed to the background.  I was surprised though, I wasn’t first sure what the series was going to be like and the strong emphasis on Lucy’s bust in the beginning was really turning me off…it just seemed unnecessary.  All in all, I was glad I watched the series and may have to check out the manga at some point, hopefully it has more to it than the anime, which ended with out any real resolution to the plot lines.  This was a great breath of fresh air in the world of slice of life stories.  It's hard to find slice of life that deal with adults and the real world instead of the insular world of children. 

    The anime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll; the manga has not been picked up any licensing company outside of Japan though.