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Shortly after the death of her parents, Shinonome Mei is approached by Shibata Rihito, a handsome young man who tells her that her father was an estranged member of the powerful Hongo family, and that she’s now the heiress, which makes him a servant and bodyguard at her beck and call, who will now stay with her 24-7. Mei sensibly goes “OMG NO STALKER!” but soon learns that he’s telling the truth, and she’s forced by her grandfather to transfer to St. Lucia Girl’s Academy, where all the students are incredibly rich young women accompanied by handsome young (young=ranging from what seems to be about 17-30) butlers who are utterly devoted to them.
This is one of those jdramas where you have to accept that you’ve stepped into an alternate reality about 5 minutes in. In this case, the butlers come across more as manservants/bodyguards, and most seem to operate off a system similar to feudal family retainers and bodyguards, applied to a somewhat fantasy version of the modern world. Some seem to fill the role of older male relatives, and others are implied or explicit love interests. (One pair is eventually revealed to plan to marry after she graduates, and the inevitable Mei/Rihito romance is obvious from the first few minutes.)
I feel a need to vehemently defend myself for liking this, probably because I know I’d never touch it if the genders were reversed. But then, if it were reversed, the maids would have short skirts, shirts that barely stayed closed, and there’d be an “accident” every few minutes resulting in accidental displays and/or grabbing. While aspects of the show are a blatant vehicle to display as many JE boys as possible without having to actually do much with most of them, the physical fanservice is kept to a minimum (pretty much limited to a few cases of butlers getting wounded defending their charges) and the fetishization inherent in the premise is rarely exploited, though there are a couple storylines dealing with the idea that the butlers can be “traded” by the girls, permanently, that seem guaranteed to set off “People are not possessions, thank you! alerts.
Plotwise, the series mostly focuses on Mei’s relationship with Rihito, and her relationships with her friends and frenemies in her class. Most of the butlers are in the background outside of their requisite episode focusing on their relationship with their particular young lady. Aside from Mei, the “Straight (Wo)Man” in a cast of spoiled rich eccentrics, the main students are Izumi, the outwardly driven, gentle and proper future head of her family, who is seriously fierce when crossed, Rin, an offbeat psychic, Rika, who lives for haughty detachment, Tami, who may as well live in another world, Miruku, a genius child inventor, Lucia, the sickly and possibly deranged “head girl,” and Fujiki, a mobster’s daughter who likes to scandalize people with her flirty behavior towards her butler. Oh, and the headmistress, who would rather read shounen manga than actually run the place. My favorite characters, incidentally, are Izumi and Rika.
This is a Crack jdrama, and is, for the most part, hilarious, if sometimes skeevy on the subservience front. Characters regularly turn into cartoon cutouts with heads, and cartoon cutout sheep indicate scene changes. Sparkles and roses also come onscreen at appropriate shoujo illusion times.
My only real complaint is that Mei and Rihito, while cute, are a bit on the dull side as a couple, most of their plotline-the driving force of the drama-a given from the start. They also tend to be a bit passive when it comes to their personal lives. Both are quick to rise to the occasion for the people they care about (Rihito and her classmates for Mei, mostly Mei for Rihito) but take way too long to take the initiative in their own lives. There’s also a rather irritating triangle involving Mei’s friend and Rihito’s brother, who follows them and becomes a butler because he’s in love with Mei. I feared that subplot coming to a head the whole time, and it was just as boring as feared when it did.
Incidentally, Hiro Mizushima, who plays Rihito, is the most adorable adult human male this side of Eddie Peng. I spent the whole drama wanting to pinch his cheeks and give him cookies. I also really liked Eikura Nana, who played Mei, though she often came across as older than Mei’s presumed 15 or 16. That said, I’m thrilled that she and Oomasa Aya, who plays Rika (and is Sunako in Perfect Girl Evolution, are actually…sturdy looking? I mean, I’m very fond of a number of the Teeny Delicate Actresses Japan trots out, but I wish more of these young actresses looked like they could withstand a strong gust of wind. (Actually, there’s a scene in the first episode about just that.)
This is one of those jdramas where you have to accept that you’ve stepped into an alternate reality about 5 minutes in. In this case, the butlers come across more as manservants/bodyguards, and most seem to operate off a system similar to feudal family retainers and bodyguards, applied to a somewhat fantasy version of the modern world. Some seem to fill the role of older male relatives, and others are implied or explicit love interests. (One pair is eventually revealed to plan to marry after she graduates, and the inevitable Mei/Rihito romance is obvious from the first few minutes.)
I feel a need to vehemently defend myself for liking this, probably because I know I’d never touch it if the genders were reversed. But then, if it were reversed, the maids would have short skirts, shirts that barely stayed closed, and there’d be an “accident” every few minutes resulting in accidental displays and/or grabbing. While aspects of the show are a blatant vehicle to display as many JE boys as possible without having to actually do much with most of them, the physical fanservice is kept to a minimum (pretty much limited to a few cases of butlers getting wounded defending their charges) and the fetishization inherent in the premise is rarely exploited, though there are a couple storylines dealing with the idea that the butlers can be “traded” by the girls, permanently, that seem guaranteed to set off “People are not possessions, thank you! alerts.
Plotwise, the series mostly focuses on Mei’s relationship with Rihito, and her relationships with her friends and frenemies in her class. Most of the butlers are in the background outside of their requisite episode focusing on their relationship with their particular young lady. Aside from Mei, the “Straight (Wo)Man” in a cast of spoiled rich eccentrics, the main students are Izumi, the outwardly driven, gentle and proper future head of her family, who is seriously fierce when crossed, Rin, an offbeat psychic, Rika, who lives for haughty detachment, Tami, who may as well live in another world, Miruku, a genius child inventor, Lucia, the sickly and possibly deranged “head girl,” and Fujiki, a mobster’s daughter who likes to scandalize people with her flirty behavior towards her butler. Oh, and the headmistress, who would rather read shounen manga than actually run the place. My favorite characters, incidentally, are Izumi and Rika.
This is a Crack jdrama, and is, for the most part, hilarious, if sometimes skeevy on the subservience front. Characters regularly turn into cartoon cutouts with heads, and cartoon cutout sheep indicate scene changes. Sparkles and roses also come onscreen at appropriate shoujo illusion times.
My only real complaint is that Mei and Rihito, while cute, are a bit on the dull side as a couple, most of their plotline-the driving force of the drama-a given from the start. They also tend to be a bit passive when it comes to their personal lives. Both are quick to rise to the occasion for the people they care about (Rihito and her classmates for Mei, mostly Mei for Rihito) but take way too long to take the initiative in their own lives. There’s also a rather irritating triangle involving Mei’s friend and Rihito’s brother, who follows them and becomes a butler because he’s in love with Mei. I feared that subplot coming to a head the whole time, and it was just as boring as feared when it did.
Incidentally, Hiro Mizushima, who plays Rihito, is the most adorable adult human male this side of Eddie Peng. I spent the whole drama wanting to pinch his cheeks and give him cookies. I also really liked Eikura Nana, who played Mei, though she often came across as older than Mei’s presumed 15 or 16. That said, I’m thrilled that she and Oomasa Aya, who plays Rika (and is Sunako in Perfect Girl Evolution, are actually…sturdy looking? I mean, I’m very fond of a number of the Teeny Delicate Actresses Japan trots out, but I wish more of these young actresses looked like they could withstand a strong gust of wind. (Actually, there’s a scene in the first episode about just that.)