You are Ms. Servant

Episode 3

The singular fangs. The sailor uniforms. The chalkboard. When I called this series really Y2K in the first two episodes, I was referring mostly to its vibes and concept. But now, I think it's actually meant to be taking place in the 2000s. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've seen any smartphones yet—although Hitoyoshi's little sister (who we'll talk more about momentarily) mentions texting her brother at one point. Either way, my point is that in this episode, we've gone beyond the point of the turn-of-the-millennium-ness of it all feeling like it was just an atmospheric thing. Or perhaps more specifically, I feel reasonably confident that this anime feels really 2000s because although it hasn't said it plainly, there's mounting evidence suggesting that's around the time it's supposed to be taking place.

In any case, this was a pretty solid—and certainly eventful—episode. The bit in the intro where Hitoyoshi wanted Yuki to try to pierce his ears gave me flashbacks to the days where you couldn't enter a mall without hearing a cacophony of kids at Claire's, all screaming from having just got their ears pierced. But of course, funny as that was, the first of the three main things this episode brings to the table is Hitoyoshi's younger sister, who in turn also gives us a glimpse into her and Hitoyoshi's familial situation.

In this episode, we learn that Hitoyoshi and his little sister live in different houses. Hitoyoshi mentions that he didn't tell his sister about Yuki because he didn't want to worry their mom. He also mentions asking his dad if he could hire a new housekeeper, which his dad approved of. Although it's never stated outright, the obvious conclusion to draw from all this is that their parents are separated, and that Hitoyoshi lives with their dad, while his little sister lives with their mom. I go back and forth about whether or not I think the anime will put any meaningful attention on this detail. On one hand, it seems like an obvious thing to do if you're going to give the audience enough of a breadcrumb trail to figure it out this early on. But on the other, we don't usually see anime that utilize the “high schooler whose parents are never home so they basically live alone” trope ruminate on the parents whatsoever, and I'm not sure this anime will be particularly interested in bucking the trend. I guess time will tell.

The second of this episode's main offerings is the festival scene, which was nice. Given her background, I expected Yuki to be really great at the carnival-style games—I thought it was really cute that she's actually not, whether it's by her own faults or (more likely) the games themselves. We learn that Yuki's been to festivals before for what we'll call her previous job, but she's never been to one as an ordinary attendee. And she definitely seems to be living it up the way she put all that sauce away. Combined with the “divine punishment” bit at the end where she destroys a purse snatcher's tires but doesn't kill him (instead she just bops him on the head), I thought the whole thing didn't just endear Yuki to me. I know I mentioned last week that if Yuki's going to talk a lot about wanting to be normal, I'd like to see her act on that more, and this was very much that—finally walking the walk after two episodes of talking the talk.

And finally, the ending. Wow, what a way to end the episode. Surely I'm not alone in having thought that we weren't going to see much—if any—school life, right? I mean, the show is about Yuki first and foremost, to say nothing of the fact that we don't even know how old she is. The idea that Yuki has found a way to transfer into Hitoyoshi's class—to Hitoyoshi's complete surprise, no less—feels so contrived, so completely unoriginal in a way that's really hilarious and charming. Similar to what I mentioned a little bit ago, I also mentioned last week that I wish this anime would take advantage of its goofy premise more, and this feels like it's accomplishing exactly that. I guess between those two things, I can honestly say at this point that I already see this anime addressing some of my criticisms of the first two episodes, and I hope it continues to build on that. While there's still some room for improvement, this was definitely a stronger episode than the previous two, and I really hope that it keeps this up. I'm actually looking forward to seeing what kind of shenanigans we're in for next.

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You are Ms. Servant is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.