Anime Review: Servant X Service
Like America, Japan has had its economic woes in the last few years, with unemployment a serious problem for many people. One of the jobs considered “safe” and steady if not spectacular work, is being a civil servant. So it is that a certain city Health and Welfare Office comes to have three new employees starting on the same day.The competent slacker Hasebe, the shy but brutally honest Miyoshi and Yamagami, a young woman on a mission.
It seems that years ago, Yamagami’s parents couldn’t decide what to name her, so wrote down all the suggestions and passed the list to a civil servant–who approved the entire name as was! (In Japan, there are name laws that are supposed to protect kids from unfortunate monikers and ones that won’t work properly with the record keeping.) Lucy (abbr.) Yamagami is determined to track down that civil servant and give them a good talking to.
But of course, there’s work to be done, and citizens coming in to demand their paperwork be handled swiftly and without error. So the employees go ahead and do their jobs…mostly. Other characters expand the cast and add to the sitcom flavor. Servant X Service is a 13 episode anime series based on a manga by Karino Takatsu.
It’s nice to see an anime that’s about adults in the working world, even if most of them are very young adults. That said, by episode four, it’s clear that this show was animated for a reason, and people get away with things they never would in a real office. See if you can spot all the human resources issues in the first episode alone!
I found the series mildly funny to quite funny, especially when Hasebe’s old “friend” Tanaka shows up. On the other hand, Yamagami’s large breasts are a frequent point of attention, and one episode’s subplot is that her bra clasps have snapped from overwork. If you find that sort of (fully clothed) fanservice annoying, you may want to give this a miss.
It’s light comedy with romantic overtones, and college-age people will probably get the most out of it.
