Servant x Service – 04

You don’t want Chihaya angry, do you? Better read this post!

From booze to bunnies, Servant x Service keeps bringing up new situations and expanding on old ones. So what happened this week in this typical office?

The Boss is a (stuffed) Bunny

Kanpai!

The audience, through the OP and the way the show has been presented, was already aware that the section manager of the office was the stuffed bunny, but in this episode all the new people find out about him. He says it’s a robot with cameras and data links and stuff, but that doesn’t really matter, since we’re never going to see the ‘shy’ boss behind the bunny, so let’s just go with referring to the bunny itself as the boss, as everyone else does.

Bunny-kuchou haz a sad…

There are some weird points to the manager (well, besides him interacting with others as a stuffed bunny), in that he says he’s so shy, but he wants to interact with everyone. And you’d think someone so shy would have a harder time dealing with people even through an avatar. But the bunny becomes the life of the party, literally, when he pushes everyone into going out drinking… on Ichimiya’s dime. He also is about the most well-animated robotic bunny I’ve seen (you know what I mean) with quite a lot of articulation and the cutest “I haz a sad” poses ever. And he does bring a circularity to the show, asking Hasebe about his father, as they both started at the same time. It’s also worth noting from their conversation that Hasebe hasn’t talked to his father since he moved out of his house, which seems kind of excessive for a guy who has followed in his father’s footsteps as far as work goes. I wonder what the source of friction between them is, and how it will figure into the show (because I’m a pretty bad son, but even I don’t go THAT long without talking to my dad).

Hasebe x Yamagami

From teasing to asking out, Hasebe turns on the charm

I wasn’t really expecting much in the way of relationship progress in this show, thinking that potential hookups would mostly be something used as a quick joke to come around to, not a serious plot. Given Hasebe’s seemingly-playboyish nature, his almost pathological need to collect girls’ email addresses, and his casual harassment of Yamagami, I really didn’t think they’d move the two of them together so fast or seriously. And indeed when Hasebe just asks Lucy out, and she rejects him, he keeps the same laughing nature about it. But learning that he never asks girls out first, and that he seems to dwell on it, even asking (and getting shot down) a second time. But he manages to turn it around into going out with Lucy to lunch and dinner, because they’re coworkers, and that’s what (gullible) coworkers do!

Lucy tries to figure out Hasebe’s true intentions

Chihaya isn’t particularly fond of Hasebe putting the moves on Lucy, but her motives aren’t exactly pure (nor romantic). And Lucy doesn’t really figure out what Hasebe’s motives are, leading him to dub her “Aho no Yamagami” (Yamagami the Idiot), which the rest of the office picks up as well. But that doesn’t stop him from taking a very drunk Lucy home after their party. Or not even all the way home, because when she starts falling asleep on him, after they’ve missed the train, it might be time to stop in a convenient love hotel. Is Hasebe the type to take advantage of his drunk co-worker? They certainly wake up together… dressed in different clothes.

Taking the drunk girl home

The quick progression of Lucy and Hasebe’s relationship was pretty surprising to me, especially since I wasn’t really expecting it at all. Do you think that they actually did anything? Or did Hasebe just sleep chastely in the same bed? And is he the one who changed Lucy’s clothes? All questions that will hopefully be answered next time.

Hasebe-chan’s a cutie!

Something that’s not a question is the section manager. I thought the cute stuffed bunny worked in the show, and he wasn’t as distractingly odd as Touko. It really helped that he had so many cute moments, and that the cute didn’t match the attitude as he tried to foist drinks on his subordinates. And if it turns out that Lucy and Hasebe did end up with some extra-office relations, how much blame should the manager take for pushing cocktails on someone who’s never drunk anything before?

About Highway

Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!