Ladies vs. Butlers
Studio: Xebec
Premiere Date: 1/5
Genre: Ecchi Comedy

The Story

In the very high class private school, Hakureiryou, there is an upper class of students who are served and a lower class which are trained to serve them. This leads to a life of daily boredom for Selnia Iori Flameheart: just one little thing to make things interesting is all she needs. Luckily the school is about to receive a new transfer student by the name of Akiharu Hino.

After losing his family and gaining their inheritance, Akiharu is transferring in as the newest member of the servant training class. After spending ten minutes listening to Selnia whine audiences will watch Akiharu literally grope his way through a string of introductions to the rest of the female student body.

Every season there’s at least one series which I will watch and then spend hours, sometimes days, trying to figure out what the hell I saw. Guess which series gets that honor this season? In the first episode of Ladies vs. Butlers, a few things are established very early. This is a series for those who enjoy large doses of slapstick comedy with a healthy side of ecchi. For the first half of the episode, the story revolves around Selnia Flameheart and her desperate need for something interesting to happen followed by ten minutes of Akiharu groping girls on accident. And that’s about it.

Twenty minutes of the same three jokes being told over and over, this series is getting off to a terrible start. The one thing that it has going for it in the first episode is very nice animation throughout. Backgrounds and scenery look crisp and bright in most scenes though even this ‘good point’ is sullied by an abundance of shadows being cast over characters. A few characters are introduced in this episode but it’s hard to call any of them interesting this early on. While a couple of supporting characters are showing some early signs of being interesting (the eroge playing female principal made me chuckle a bit), weak leads have already started to weigh this series down.

Music

Matching the very rich nature of the characters and setting, the tone for the background score is mostly string themes. With so many sight gags being thrown in, it was hard to notice the music in this episode all that much leaving an average impression. When it did manage to stand out slightly, it failed to impress leaving me only with the idea that it’s going to be one of the less impressive things about this one.

Overall

Predictable and just not very funny, Ladies vs. Butlers is off to a terrible start. Previews for upcoming episodes promises that this isn’t aiming for high comedic standards and might even seek the lower path of resistance. It’s hard to imagine that even this will make things much worse. This is a pure fluff, ecchi comedy title. If you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll probably find a few laughs but don’t be shocked if these characters turn you off before you even have the chance.