Servant x Service - 6

"Make Sure, An Unexpected Problem, Hide and Seek"

Saya!

The amusing surprises continue this week as we get a Saya and Momoi-centric episode, as well as some genuinely hilarious moments on their behalf.

Chief Momoi and His Circumstances

As utterly bizarre as Momoi and his stuffed animal body are, I can’t bring myself to dislike his character in this otherwise down-to-earth show. His presence is completely fantastical, in that I can’t decide if this is a robot or a spiritual thing we’re talking about, but it’s not at all detrimental to the quality of the comedy. In fact, he rather rounds things out nicely with his quirkiness, and it’s obvious that his staff isn’t quite sure how to deal with him either. There are moments where they grudgingly accept his presence (such as when they allow him to observe their work or tie his necktie), and there are others where they clearly can’t quite come to terms with working under a rabbit, stuffed though he may be. Then there’s the humor in the fact that no one wonders how the heck he ended up in such a body, or the fact that his very normal human daughter, Kanon, is around, even though Momoi remembers working years ago with Hasebe’s father (just how long has he been in this body anyway?). Whatever weirdness this is, I don’t think we’ll get an answer soon, if ever, but it is amusing to think about nonetheless.

Saya and Her Circumstances

My favorite part this episode, however, comes courtesy of Saya, a character we haven’t really had too much time to get to know yet. We’ve known that she feels inadequate for her job and that she’s the type people trust with their problems, but until now we’ve had precious little time to get in her head somewhat. I personally relate a bit to Saya, in a way differently than I do to Lucy, in that she’s a bit insecure about herself and that she tends to regret things. It’s clear that Saya wanted to go to grad school and regrets losing that opportunity, and it’s also clear that she tries to avoid telling people what she thinks because she’s not very good at getting her thoughts across. While for her, it’s a matter of insecurity and poorly worded kindness, it ends up hurting others, and as hilarious as that is, it can also be a little sad. She doesn’t mean any harm after all, but her propensity to do so regardless makes her even more insecure, and thus makes addressing others difficult for her. Refusing Tanaka’s proposal turns into a headache, for one thing, though she clearly isn’t at all ready for such a thing (unless it’s to go back to school, ha!). However, it seems like this might be an even bigger thread in a larger story, if Hasebe’s reaction is anything to go by.

(Props if you get the very old title references.)

N.B.: Instead of writing this the usual way, I’m going to go ahead and institute a new format for my future SxS posts; it’s inspired a bit by Stilts-senpai’s style, but instead I’m going to be splitting the post into the mini-episode contents and analyzing them all separately, with some larger context at the beginning and end; somehow I find that blogging a series like this one in portions is a lot more efficient.