You Are Ms. Servant starts with some gorgeous visuals and sounds as Ms. Servant calmly walks to the house of Hitoyoshi, a high school boy living by himself over summer vacation, who is a bit of a slob. We see the town and hear the light sound of the bell earrings Ms. Servant wears as humidity slightly distorts the house on the screen, creating an uncertain sense of what is coming. She rings the bell and calmly asks the confused teenager if he is in need of a servant.
From this intriguing slow build we get to more basic aspects of the show: Hitoyoshi questioning why she came to him to ask about being a servant. She replies her master suggested him, due to a convoluted connection to Hitoyoshi’s mother. Still confused, he asks what her previous job was since she is now asking to be a servant. When she calmly says she was her master’s assassin he freaks out and politely declines her services. But due to her later actions he decides to give her a chance, and we have a set-up for a fun but potentially deeper slice of life anime.
In anime, the nice normal boy helping out the attractive but socially awkward woman is a very common trope to get the wish fulfillment of the average guy getting the hot girl. Servant seems to be fitting the trope nicely, while being an expert cutting lettuce with her knives due to her killing skills, but being so uncoordinated with cleaning supplies that the water bucket keeps ending on her head. Then we get Hitoyoshi trying to comprehend and navigate her lack of understanding of certain basic tasks which, while normal in this genre, lead to some funny and feel-good moments of seeing someone helping and appreciating another human being.
Hitoyoshi begins as a pretty basic character, seemingly an average teen just enjoying his break, but overly nice. However, there is a hint of something more to his personality as we see parts of a dream that he apparently has off and on, which causes him to cry. And it shows that there might be some deeper levels to him than just being a nice guy. A subtle touch is that he doesn’t seem to be attracted to her beyond him thinking of her in a bath, but more as having just a teenage boy’s normal thoughts. I am certain a romance will develop but I like that for now it is more of dealing with a strange circumstance for him.
Servant, on the other hand, is a lot more than just the socially awkward girl. She has no name (though I read online that Hitoyoshi will later give her one) and has never cared about having one due to it being unnecessary in her previous life. Given a glimpse of her backstory, we see she has had little in her life beyond killing and avoiding being killed, with her master claiming she is cold and unfeeling and perfect for killing. This is something she now desperately doesn’t want, even asking Hitoyoshi to give her a name but overwhelmed with fear that he will name her something cold and dark.
What has me most intrigued about the show going forward is finding out Servant’s history. How did she fall into her master’s control? Why was he having her be an assassin, and why has he now seemingly let her go to try to be a normal person? What was behind her choice to go? She appears still willing to kill, and seems to have no regrets generally for her past, though that could be explored later on as well. Also, what is behind the bells she is wearing? They appear to have some significance to her but it is unclear what it is.
This is a slice-of-life show and focused on its comedic bits, but when we see inside her there is some real darkness and pain. Her background of killing is taken seriously, at least as to what it makes her feel about herself that she was willing to commit these crimes with no problem.
I do not think this will completely change the slice-of-life genre. For the most part it seems light and fun with a few chuckles at moments with the bucket and later with a funny dinner discovery for Servant. But it is the hinting at some real pain and darkness that has me most intrigued with how deep we will get into both of these characters’ mental scars. It could end up being something really interesting as the season progresses, depending how they handle the balance of tone going forward.
You Are Ms. Servant airs on Crunchyroll beginning October 5 with episodes dropping every Saturday through anime season.
