Inu X Boku Secret Service

Jeffrey-sama★ 7

A teenage girl struggling with her interpersonal skills; a loyal man struggling with his intrapersonal skills. Inu x Boku SS tells of the tale involving these two troubled persons. Over time, it is inevitable that one will change depending on his/her surroundings. The influences that come from peers and others are undoubtedly strong. To be able to thrive in such environments, one must be able to filter these influences and only be changed by those which they feel will benefit them. In the end, it is always others that do the shaping; one cannot merely wish to be transformed and have it happen. Whether thesechanges are good or bad is a whole different story. Art (8/10) Soothing and calming visuals are few and far between. The light colors, the soft lighting, the detailed facial expressions of the characters - all these make for great artwork. Throw in some chibi drawings of the characters during the comedic scenes and the varying art styles are sure to impress viewers. Even the sparkles which are popular (and often overused) in shōjo anime/manga were moderated such that they didn't feel overwhelming. On the shōnen side of things, the handful of battle scenes and transformations were animated smoothly as far as I could tell. Characters (8/10) First off, the supporting characters of the series, though unique and interesting, were a bit underdeveloped. However, the extensive character development of the two main characters made up for this. At first, the female protagonist, Shirakiin Ririchiyo, is your typical, sharp-tongued teenage girl who often unintentionally isolates herself from others. But as the series progresses, she slowly opens the door to her heart, accepting the warmth of those around her while trying to control her tongue. On the other hand, the male protagonist, Miketsukami Sōshi, is a self-despising and deceptive man who knows nothing about emotion and feelings. But, similar to Ririchiyo, he too changes drastically throughout the series. What's most heartwarming is that the two, although having totally different personalities, are actually the ones responsible for each other's development. Ririchiyo shows Sōshi the meaning of emotion and feelings while he proves to her that he will be by her side, no matter what, even if it means being verbally abused. Along with the other characters, the two end up transforming each other for the better, resulting in two solid characters. Sound (8/10) The strong point of this category is the elite cast of seiyūs that were part of the project. All of them did an excellent job in their respective roles, with no character having an unfitting voice. The OP was quite good as well - a fast-paced song with gradual progression in pitch. The downside of having multiple EDs is that only the good ones will be memorable. However, the ones used in this series were more or less unique so, even though they weren't exactly excellent material, they were somewhat memorable. BGM did its job well, with some of the pieces successfully standing tall on their own during dialogue-less scenes, while others set the mood well. Story (6/10) To put it bluntly, for the most part, the story was boring. Save for the first and last few episodes, the pace of one manga chapter per episode caused the story to be dragged out longer than necessary. Furthermore, the anime original fillers were fairly poor in terms of entertainment value. The first couple of episodes were tolerable given that they were used to introduce the characters and the plot. In the last couple of episodes is where the plot actually picks up from the first few episodes. Those two episodes alone would make for an easy 9/10 as they were both interesting and content-filled. However, with more bad than good, the story gets a 6/10 from me. Overall (7/10) Having read the manga prior to watching the anime, I can say that this was a faithful adaption with a couple of original episodes added in. I indulged more in the characters than in the story for the most part which, although not necessarily a bad thing, is slightly disappointing. To be honest, I wasn't quite satisfied with Inu x Boku SS. I felt like it could've been better if more chapters were to have been adapted. With that being said, the possibility of a season two, which I will anxiously wait for, is moderately high given the decent popularity of the show and the remaining non-animated source material. The good thing about Inu x Boku SS is that it has both shōjo and shōnen elements so I would recommend it to virtually anyone looking for a light-hearted romantic comedy with interesting characters.

Stellio★ 6

- This review may contain spoilers - When this anime first started airing recently I was unsure what it was going to be about. At the end of finishing this series, I still am unsure what this series qualify as. Inu x boku was supposedly a comedy story incorporating some supernatural and mysterious themes. However, it seems like the director changed their mind during the middle of the series. The main plot follows around a young woman named Ririchiyo. Basically, she's a very delicate person, so delicate and shy that she can barely express herself. In fact, to the point where she almost expresses the opposite ofwhat she means every time. Thus, she has no friends at school. But then one day she moves to a new environment where her lifestyle is replaced by supernatural beings. But that's all there really is "supernatural" about this series. Besides just the characters, nothing is distinctively different about inu x boku, than if you compare it to a cheesy school drama. Also, it can barely qualify as a mystery because no suspense was really built throughout the series. This series was very slow paced in this aspect. The characters were the only unique part of this series. Ririchiyo along with some supporting characters have some very interesting conversations. And, with Ririchiyo's personality, it just makes it so much more fun to watch. The comedy included in the show was based mostly on the stupid conversations, thoughts, fantasies, or actions some character started. It will fit the taste of basically anyone with a sense of humor. But don't be fooled! There really is only one character development in this series. His name is soushi, and a servant of Ririchyo"sama."Not very much is known about soushi except that he has a strange attraction to his master until the very last few episodes, and that is why I think the characters turned out a lot worse than they could of. This goes back to my point about the series being seriously paced; therefore making it an anime not everyone will like. But this anime is 12 episodes so it's not a big deal. The artistic aspect of this series was probably the strongest. The producer made the characters with very cute designs, thus making the audience more connected to the characters. The delicacy put into Ririchiyo almost made it express her personality better. The music put into this anime was worth some efforts, and could be very favorable. But what I liked most about it was that they played it during some of the most appropriate scenes and it complemented very well. The results of inu x boku was definitely unexpected than what it seems to be on the surface. Although not what I expected, which was a mysterious drama about the supernatural of some sort. This series still impressed me in the end concluding with a relationship I did not think would blossom in just one season. However, it was still very slow paced for that one season. So if you're looking for an anime with character developments, you may or may not like it. I will end it in this paragraph and keep this review short and clean. Because that's what this anime really was, a short and innocent story about our kind Ririchiyo and her adventure with her air-headed friends in the Ayakashi mansion. To be precise, that's exactly how this anime played out until the last few episodes, then it's all out surprises. If you're going to watch this series, do keep in mind the old cliched saying "never judge a book until you're done reading the whole thing." But if inu x boku really was a book then I'm pretty sure it could be described as one of those trending books that becomes famous after its first publish, soon to be forgotten as the decade carries on.