Servant X Service Episode 10
What They Say:
In a certain ward of a certain city in Hokkaido…The ward office where Yamagami Lucy has been hired employs many unique characters on its staff. Yamagami and her colleagues are full of energy and secrets as they’re hard at work (?!) in this workplace comedy!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a heavy focus on Hasebe and Yamagami recently, which has largely worked well even if it’s been outside of the workplace more than I care for, Servant X Service hasn’t forgotten about the rest of the cast. They’ve had their own curious moments of coming into that storyline and affecting things, but we also get some time away from that growing and awkward relationship. Such is what we get early on here as we see Chihaya and Toko together where Toko is going on about how her brother doesn’t deserve to be alone, which is why she’s taking the civil service exam so she can join him when she gets out of school and make sure he’s not alone. That just gets to Chihaya in a good way as it does show that Toko loves her brother, but she’s also trying to get through to Toko that she actually is dating Ichimaya and that he’s really not alone.
There’s a good bit of fun as this unfolds and some of it comes up during the work day as we see how Chihaya has tried to handle things. Of course, she’s polite and considerate to everyone that talks about it, but the section chief gets himself stomped out. Which is appropriate for the tiny pink rabbit as I don’t think he deserves much more. Amusingly, it’s Yamagami that provides some interesting ways to deal with things as she goes on about how to cope with potentially becoming a wedge between Toko and Ichimaya, something that really does bother her a lot. She cares about both of them and wants to be closer to Ichimaya, but there’s such a concern over the relationship the brother and sister have that it can stymie her more than she realizes sometimes.
There’s a lot of rolling subplots moving along here as various characters come in and out of view while still dealing with the main story arc here. Especially since Toko does arrive at the ward office again, complete in school girl uniform and all, but so does another girl named Kanon who came with her, who gets involved in things a little bit as well. Toko gets some amusing time here as well as she comes across the section chief who she believes to be just a stuffed animal, and he plays the part. Which is a mistake since she totally abuses him. Toko and Kanon definitely have their moments here while visiting the ward office, and I’ve seen that in my own workplace environments in the past, but as much fun as it is here, it does feel like a significant distraction from the core cast.
In Summary:
Servant X Service continues to be a good bit of fun overall and I like some of the subplots that are going on with it. Chihaya and Toko are fun to watch and the kinds of interactions that each of the girls have with Ichimaya definitely makes for a lot of fun since he’s so easily flustered. But similar to the recent story material with Hasebe and Yamagami, it’s been less about the workplace comedy and the interactions there – which was hugely appealing early on – and more about the romantic fizzle and drizzle that we’re getting. It has its place and I do like what they’re doing with aspects of it, but it’s dominating too much for my tastes in the last couple of episodes, even with the good points that it does have. It’s only helped in this episode by seeing how Toko completely mutilates the section chief for a minute or two.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.