You are Ms. Servant

Episode 6

After some more story-centric stuff in the last episode, this week Ms. Servant sort of returns to form with more light-hearted maid/school shenanigans. Come to think of it, between Hitoyoshi's kidnapping and Yuki enrolling in Hitoyoshi's school, we haven't really had any maid-centric segments in a few episodes. And that's kind of weird seeing as how that's more or less what this show is, in theory, supposed to revolve around. All the same, I had a good, hearty chuckle at Yuki celebrating the warm, fluffy towels, fresh out of the dryer—her trophy for conquering the trials and tribulations that come with learning how to do laundry for the first time. Let's be honest: who amongst us hasn't yearned to bury ourselves in the inviting warmth and softness of freshly dried towels?

But as much as I loved that segment, I think my favorite of the episode was Yuki and Hitoyoshi's visit to the food stall where Yuki told the owner about how much she loves the sauce and how much it means to her—how to her, the sauce isn't just delicious, but also an emblem of her new life. And there was something really earnest and heartwarming about this segment; in addition to being delicious, food has the power to be deeply powerful and meaningful, and I'm a firm believer in that. And it turns out this anime agrees. Up until now, Yuki's love of sauce has been played for laughs—as the trope of a character who has a particular affinity to a specific food (or in this case, condiment) almost always is. I, at least, am so used to seeing this trope as nothing more than a flavored punchline that it's really refreshing to see an anime instead using it in a way that's so overtly sincere. It's incredibly endearing, probably more than anything else I've seen in the series up until this point.

But of course, there's way more to this week's episode than sauce and warm towels. For one, after leaving us a breadcrumb trail leading here, we now have full confirmation that Hitoyoshi's parents are divorced, and that he lives with his dad while his little sister lives with his mom. We rarely see divorce talked about in anime, but I'm not sure this silly anime about a sauce-loving assassin-turned-maid, who only a few episodes ago jumped across school roofs in the name of getting the bread she wanted to try, has it in itself to tackle a serious, grounded topic in a serious, grounded way. On one hand, it just doesn't seem like it would fit the tone and overall vibes of this show. But on the other, this happened right after a really heartfelt segment about Yuki's love of sauce, and I certainly didn't expect that from a show like this either. It's too early to say confidently whether or not it looks like this anime is going to take this route, let alone whether or not it'll be able to stick the landing, but still, I'll be curious to see what happens moving forward.

And speaking of pasts, egg on my face—here I assumed Yuki hadn't been telling Hitoyoshi about her past on purpose, presumably due to trauma, not wanting him to view her in a different light, to prove to herself that it's behind her, or perhaps some combination of all of the above. But as it turns out, she didn't talk about her past because she herself was pretty disconnected from the world of the Dragon's Nine. An interesting writing choice, and I'm curious to see if this series is able to put that to use. But at this point, we're about halfway through the anime. I'm not sure how much time it has left to effectively utilize this potential opportunity it's given itself without at least one additional season.

And finally, we learn that Grace is still going to be hanging around undercover (in other words: she's almost certainly going to become a recurring side character now) but now as a blonde gym teacher. I don't really have a strong opinion on this one way or the other, but what I do have an opinion on is Lynn's (Grace's Japanese voice) voice acting. We got to see (or rather, hear) a lot of her in last week's episode too, but this week—even in spite of how comparatively little screen time she had—she still ended up being quite a scene stealer. Whereas last week she was flirty, cold, and calculating, at the drop of a hat she's become silly, lax, and a bit whiny, and the whole thing is just adorable. It made me excited to see this episode's dub counterpart once it's out, which in turn made me realize something: is there any information available on who voices Grace in English? I'll be the first to admit: I don't usually watch a ton of simul-dubs while they're currently airing, much less have a need to look up casting information that's so recent. So I'm not sure how typical this is for Crunchyroll. All the same, typical or not, this shouldn't be this way.

The dub of the episode where Grace makes her debut is out. Someone out there has been cast as Grace, and we've heard them voice Grace. Anyone can go and watch it, right now. And my personal speculations about who it is aside, as of time of writing I can't fully confirm who it is. The dub cast isn't listed in the episode's credits on Crunchyroll, nor has their post with the dub cast and crew information been updated to include the voice for Grace. Has the voice actor in question made a social media post announcing their casting? I haven't seen one, but that's possible. But even if that's the case, a social media post—easily buried by any number of algorithms, and not always accessible/searchable depending on the platform—shouldn't be the only way to find out. I would think including the voice cast of a given episode in its credits would be the obvious thing to do—or at least an update to the cast and crew post (if not a new one all together that includes other characters who also aren't in the initial post; in particular, Hitoyoshi's little sister. Speaking of which, for that matter, who voices her? Like with Grace, I have no idea). Dear Crunchyroll: If you're reading this, I'd like to know who voices Grace in the dub, and I'd like to know why I can't just check the episode's credits or a post with the cast list to find out.

Rating:

You are Ms. Servant is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.