Rewind: Servant x Service

Just finished finals week. I'm excited to blog more again, but, at the moment, I admit I'd rather just veg out and recover my strength. 

I re-watched a couple episodes of Servant x Service near the end of the semester, when the stress started to get to me. I needed to laugh, and this show was one of the best ways to reach that goal. As I wrote back in September, Servant x Service is based on the manga by Takatsu Karino, the same mangaka behind Working!!, another of my favorite comedy anime. Something about her humor makes me laugh throughout every episode. It's probably the ridiculous characters. It's not the annoying type of ridiculous (I'm looking at you, One Piece), just the type that makes me think, "If that character can get a job, even a fictional one, then maybe I can, too!" 

But it's not just the laughter that draws me to Servant x Service. The relationship between Yamagami Lucy (abbreviated name) and Hasabe Yutuka is wonderful to watch. Yes, he teases her a lot, and yes, it counts as sexual harassment, and no man should mimic that part of his character if he wants a girl to like him. But he's also sweet and insightful. 

In episode 3, Hasabe discovers Yamagami is scared of thunder and
lightning. He lends her his MP3 player and headphones so she can't
hear the thunder and directs her to an area out of sight, so other
employees won't notice her fear.

Yamagami is self-conscious about her name, her body, her name, her personality, and her very long name. She doesn't see herself clearly because of it, and she can't accept that her peculiarities might actually endear her to people, rather than make them look down on her. This is one reason it's so hard for her to believe that Hasabe actually likes her and is asking her out for the right reasons... or that it's okay for someone like her to be in a relationship. She's naive, too -- when coworkers caution her to be wary of Hasabe's "true intentions" for taking her out to eat, she asks if he's trying to make her fat, as revenge for turning him down. 

Hasabe doesn't try to make her suddenly gain confidence so he can date her. Instead, he looks out for her and takes her out to eat because "it's normal for coworkers to eat together." He's sensitive to her worries and her naiveté in his own way. He acts nonchalant about it most of the time, especially if Yamagami reacts negatively to his attempts to express serious feelings. Many characters misinterpret his intentions, sure that he's incapable of treating a girl right. But, by the end, there's no hiding it: slacker genious Hasabe-san seriously cares for Yamagami Lucy Kimiko Akie Airi Shiori Rinne Yoshiho Ayano Tomika Chitose Sanae Mikiko Ichika (yes, that's all one girl's name... she became a civil servant to hunt down the civil servant who let her parents put that name on a document).

In episode 9, Hasabe tries to spell out his feelings for Yamagami,
who still doesn't quite get it. 

I have only one significant complaint about Servant x Service: Yamagami's chest is used as a source of comedy. Somehow, they manage not to completely offend me. It doesn't feel too fanservice-y. But I'm a bit conservative about these things, so I'd have liked it if Takatsu could have chosen a different joke.

My lesser complaint: Yoko and her brother complex can be a bit annoying.

Obviously, neither complaint significantly affects my enjoyment of this show. 

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Housekeeping:

I'm home for the summer! Even if I get a job, I should have much more free time and brain energy for the next couple months. So I plan to blog more again. However, I don't want to do a Rewind post every week anymore. I'm going to make it every other week, and start a new series in between... I don't know what that new series will be, but I'm going to make it something more thoughtful. Maybe "Letters to Characters" or a Christian perspective thing. That second idea takes more work, though, and even if I get several posts queued up over the summer, it could be hard to keep up when school starts again. Besides, when I have brain energy, I do those super-thoughtful posts a lot more often, anyway, and don't limit them to one day a week. We'll see what I end up doing.