Servant X Service ep6: pitiful, most pitiful

Ah! It feels good to finally be caught up with this show! I like Servant X Service too much to try to save up episodes for a marathon viewing.

Things get started normally enough, as we see Lucy speaking to a worrisome (or worry-ful) mother on her mobile phone. Though that convo is cut a little short when she comes across her boss, who is after all… a remote controlled stuffed animal.

Looks like the old man wants to get more involved with his team, so he starts shadowing them for the day, starting first with Hasebe. Ironically, he learned more from the new guy than Hasebe learned from him. Though it’s questionable judgement in my opinion to show your boss all your slack-off spots and habits. I suppose this must be another one of those “only in anime” situations. Though any situation with a robot plushie seems to be an “only in anime” moment to me.

Regardless, the section chief goes on to shadow Lucy for a little bit. And strangely enough, he scolds her! His biggest complaint being her big boobs! The hell man! The hell?! You don’t complain about the boobs! Shut up before you ruin it for everyone else in the work place!

Next up is Saya, though all he gets to see with her is how much she sits around listening to the stories of lonely old ladies. He never even gets around to seeing her work! Saya warns her that they better get going before Toko shows up, but by then it’s too late. She’s in for another lecture, this time by a high school student…

In all, the experience makes the old man reflect on his time in social services. He talks about how strict it used to be around there, though the fact that his job has let him work using that ridiculous bunny the whole time makes everyone think that he’s totally wrong about the lack of freedom workers used to have. On the more pertinent side, he did mention what a hard worker Hasebe’s father was, even though apparent the guy did punch him in the gut…. *sigh*

We’re then moved to the part of the story where we get two either parrellel or eventually perpendicular threads The section chief is worried about not being able to break the ice with the office’s newest employees, and Taishi is once again worried about Toko, who is showing up at the office now more than ever. He’s pretty worried that Toko doesn’t have any friends her own age. This is when a seemingly random high school girl shows up.

Her name’s Kanon, and she’s actually the section chief’s daughter! Though no one at the office can shake the awkward feeling the sight of an old man speaking through plushie, and his daughter give them. Any talk of family resemblance is obviously a mute point. This is when Toko shows up. They’re wearing the same uniform, and they’re friends, too. I knew this show couldn’t pass up an opportunity to tie things together so neatly.

When Toko asks why the hell there’s a stuffed animal in the office, Kanon covers for her dad by saying it’s the office’s new mascot. What a good daughter. It looks like the weirdness of her dad’s habits have not escaped her. Even better, she’s able to shove Toko out of the office for a bit, though that still doesn’t explain why Toko has been showing up more often than ever, even after her warning several episodes ago.

Moving on to the second half of the episode. It seems that all the nagging, lecturing and confiding towards Saya has worn her out. Lucy notices how burnt out she is and initiates a conversation. And Saya starts asking her questions. The reason being that she’s done all the listening as of late and wants to initiate something for once. And through this, we find out that six episodes in, Lucy has yet to even start on her goal of finding the douche who allowed her parents to give her her ridiculous name.

Despite a short bit of fresh air with Lucy, Saya is still worn out, and even mutters that she wants to quit to herself. Hasebe is slacking off nearby when she says this, and another, more intimate conversation starts.

Here we hear about how Saya is having a few regrets about her choices in life. We hear about how she failed her grad school entrance exam once, and her parents deceived her into coming home. It’s a pretty pitiful story. Not sad, just pitiful.

All this is of course initiated by Hasebe’s clever prodding, though it does come back to bite him this time. Somehow, Saya is unwittingly able to cut him down with some absent-minded jabs at his casual, fruitless lifestyle. She may be his kryptonite.

Saya seems to be getting out of her slump when the old lady who loves to blab to her, Ms. Tanaka show up again. And today she seems to have a plan, as she’s heavily trying to get Saya interested in her MARRIED grandson. Heh! This is actually painfully familiar too me. MOVING ON!

When Saya tells everyone of her encounter with Ms. Tanaka, Lucy seems quite impressed and asks if the other people on break with her (Megumi and Hasebe) have experienced the same thing. This is where Taishi and Megumi’s secret relationship comes back to bite her, as Hasebe talks about how he and Taishi get those kinds of offers, but Taishi more so. Megumi appears… dangerously jealous.

The theme of intersecting threads starts to come again. As they continue to talk, Saya wonders what she should do about the proposal. Hasebe had mentioned early how he doesn’t really like the name Tanaka, and the more she talks, the more he seems to be disturbed by it… There’s no way in this show that it’s just a coincidence…

It’s funny how this shouldn’t even be a topic of conversation because the guy is not only a stranger, but because -and I’ll say this again – MARRIED!

The next Saya is unable to escape Ms. Tanaka’s efforts. Despite a firm and clear rejection, it looks like she’ll be meeting the old lady’s grandson soon. Cue the labored water drop on my face for this situation.

End of episode.

Hmph! another fun episode. My fave gag probably being the one where Saya unintentionally insults the people she rejects to the point of tears. It’s good that she gets an episode that focuses so much on her. She’s such a quiet, reserved character that it’s easy to see her get lost in the shuffle. And through this episode we learn a few interesting things to give her characters not just a backstory, but depth as well. The poor girl really is struggling with her life choices at such a young age. It’s easily relatable.

There’s little bits of depth added all over the place in this episode actually. The section chief is also easy to ignore, since most of the characters ignore him themselves. But he’s more than some weird guy interacting with the world through a robotic bunny; he’s a weird guy interacting with a normal family, interacting with the world through a robotic bunny.

Further Reading:

• Episodes 2-5