Servant X Service Episode 8
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)
Life in the ward office continues to be amusing, especially after the material we got in the previous episode that let some of the more long term staff get involved and have fun with each other. Miyashi and Toko are just a lot of fun with how they interact in general, but adding in Chihaya to the mix just adds so much more chaos that makes for a lot of fun. With this episode, we get some more edges of that, but it also delves easily into the ongoing things slowly brewing between Hasebe and Yamagami. It’s still a difficult situation for Yamagami since she’s having enough work issues of her own and spending time with Hasebe, even as a coworker outside of the office, just drains on her in several ways.
But that’s nothing a little booze won’t help soften. The two are rather adorable to watch in general and seeing them at the restaurant once she loosens up a bit is simply enjoyable. Of course, having known what Yamagami is like, it’s also cute that he gets concerned about her ability to get home, but also realizes that the more he gets to know her, the harder it is for him to bring himself to hit on her. The relationship between the two takes on an even more hilarious angle when she ends up taking some time at the restaurant with his brother, Tanaka, who has so many issues with Hasebe that every little thought about it just makes him intense and over the top with emotions. What makes their time together even more amusing is that as it goes on, we see just how many wine bottles are on the table, which is an embarrassing amount.
Hasebe and Yamagami continue to really be a good draw here, but as the episode goes on and more of it takes place out of the office, it does lose a bit of its charm. A lot of what makes the show work for me is the work antics and problems, so keeping it out of the show for most of an episode is problematic. That said, we do get to know a lot more about Hasebe as it progresses and he does become a bit more of an interesting character overall. And the revelations help to drawn Yamagami in more, and a little more wine makes her lips a bit more loose than they would be otherwise with her words. The change in their relationship as time moves forward as well is interesting, since they both act just a touch different at work and we do see that Hasebe is getting even more relaxed, which is hard to believe but just simply fun to watch.
In Summary:
With a strong focus on Hasebe and Yamagami, Servant x Service has a pretty fun episode overall here as it works through the odd but rather natural and relationship that is building between them. People who work together can often find different things about others that interest them and hang out, even people like Hasebe, and seeing how these two interact outside of the office is a lot of fun. And with Tanaka showing up we get a bit more on Hasebe that helps to flesh him out a bit more as well. I do wish the show was a bit more focused on the work side of the series as that’s the bigger appeal for me, and we do get a few good bits of it here, but overall it’s just like the previous episode in some ways where it’s more character focused at the expense of what made the show enjoyable, just with better characters to deal with.
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.