Inu x Boku SS (Inu X Boku Secret Service) Review In Few Words (Mini Review).
A girl has social problems dealing with people, thanks to her poor social skills & her sharp tongue. So she moves to a special dormitory where she hope to live a quiet & peaceful life. And just like all the other residences in the dormitory. She get a secret service agent to her, whose name is Sōshi Miketsukami. At first, Ririchiyou rejects the company of her secret service agent, but things develop between them as time goes.
Since Inu x Boku SS’s story barely cover everything in the manga, just the first 4 volumes of it or so, you may not appreciate the story much. So all there for you is to focus on the characters, some of them are pretty good.
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Good things about Inu X Boku Secret Service
- Has an interesting set of characters.
- The anime is full of fun moments & remarks, including a lot of chibi scenes.
- The scenes where Soushi shows his loyalty to Ririchiyo are cute.
- Ririchiyo & Karuta are particularly cute.
Possibly bad things about Inu X Boku Secret Service
- The anime is too short to cover anything of the manga story.
- The story is ambiguous to be fully understood easily.
Story
Shirakiin Ririchiyo, a girl with many social problems, people stay away from her thanks to her sharp tongue, and so she san’t live dependently. So she ends up living in a dorm called Maison de Ayakashi, which is a dormitory people can only live in after undergoing strict examination, and each person living there is assigned an agent from the Secret Service.
Ririchiyou move there hoping to live in peace, yet she is assigned the secret service agent, Sōshi Miketsukami, whom she tries to make him go away, but she fails, as he is so dedicated on serving her for some reason.
Don’t worry if the explanation of the story above did not make sense, many of the things in the story are kinda ambiguous, but to clear some thing up for you. The Maison de Ayakashi is made specifically for those with demon ancestors. The anime doesn’t explain why such dormitory was founded from what I remember, but there is a chance that was explained in the manga, which has 11 volumes by the time of this review.
The main things you need to understand to enjoy the anime is that:- Ririchiyou can’t live on her own, she has a Youkai ancestor, so she is qualified to live in the dormitory, and Soushi is the assigned secret service to protect her.
The ambiguous story of Inu x Boku SS makes me take few points from it, it won’t stop you from understanding many of the events that happen in the anime. In addition to that, many of the characters are interesting, so there is still a good chance to like Inu x Boku SS at the end.
The Art
Inu x Boku SS art is shiny and very good. Especially when it comes to the characters hair, which is particularly shiny. I quite like the deep colouring in the art, something I hope to see in more & more anime in the future.
Characters
Characters of Inu x Boku SS Review / Inu X Boku Secret Service)
Despite having a story, Inu x Boku SS is one of these anime that is mostly about the characters rather than the story. I am not saying that the story is bad, but in case of the anime, the story is not the strongest point of it.
Since many of the characters are actually Youkai, each of the characters have their own original form, which I won’t mention here to avoid needlessly spoiling things on you.
Shirakiin Ririchiyo
The main female protagonist in Inu x Boku SS. And the master of Soushi. She has Ojou-smaa aura.
Despite her cute looks, she is sharp tongued, which drove people away from her.
Ririchiyo was classified as a tsunshun character rather than trundere. Since she get depressed rather than lovestruck after being dishonest with her feelings. She is the first anime character to be classified that way.
Shirakiin Ririchiyo is voiced by Hidaka Rina.
Miketsukami Soushi
The male protagonist of Inu x Boku SS. He is very dedicated to Ririchiyo for some reason, just like an anime butler would be. He is the most popular character in Inu x Boku SS according to many polls.
Miketsukami Soushi is voiced by Nakamura Yuuichi.
Roromiya Karuta
A pink-haired girl who likes sweet, and is often seen eating things. She attends the same school as Ririchiyou. Despite sounding like she is spacing out most of the time, she is a very clever girl.
Karuta is named after the Karuta Japanese card game.
Roromiya Karuta is voiced by Hanazawa Kana. <3
Banri Watanuki
A guy with strong feelings for Karuta, he calls himself a delinquent, and attends the same school as Ririchiyo & Karuta.
Banri Watanuki is voiced by Eguchi Takuya.
Natsume Zange
Watanuki’s secret service agent, he wears rabbit ears. He
likes Soushi so much.
Natsume Zange is voiced by Miyano Mamoru.
Other characters
Some of the other characters in Inu x Boku SS are Kotomura Chino, A maid in Maison de Ayakashi, who is often cheerful, Renshou Sorinozuka, laid-back person, and someone who knew Ririchiyo since their childhood and Nobara Yukinokouji, Renshou’s secret service agent.
Pacing & Enjoyment
Despite the not so-well explained story, Inu x Boku SS can still be enjoyed for both the story & the characters, but mostly for the characters. The enjoyment is good, as it was one of the anime I look forward to while it was airing back in 2012. The scenes where the characters turn chibi adds to the enjoyment to watching it.
Inu x Boku SS pacing is normal, it is neither fast nor slow.
Extra Few Things
The opening song
Inu x Boku SS opening song, Nirvana, is not bad at all, with a focus on Ririchiyou on most of it. At the beginning of the opening, Souchi throws a paper plane that is watching over ririchiyou since she was a child, and she find it at the end & seems like it changes her life. The opening also shows you the other characters in the anime in part of it.
The opening song itself is good, it goes well for what it is intended to, I remember watching the first half of it many times while I was watching Inu x Boku SS.
The ending songs
If you included the opening, which is used as an ending of the first episode, Inu x Boku SS has 7 ending songs, one dedicated for each character, which is done to satisfy the fans of each of these character I guess. I personally liked Karuta’s song the most, Sweet Parade. :D
Here are Inu x Boku SS ending songs in the order they appear in:-
- Nirvana – which is the opening of all the other episodes.
- Rakuen no Photograph – Soushi’s ending.
- Kimi Wa– Ririchiyo.
- One Way – Zange & Watanuki.
- SM Hantei Forum – Kagerou.
- Sweet Parade – Karuta.
- Taiyou to Tsuki– Renshou & Nobara.
The school uniform
The school uniform in Inu x Boku SS deserves a word, it feels noble & cute at the same time. I consider it one of the best school uniforms out there.
The frills on the back & fronts adds to the cuteness of it it, and the one peace dress makes the girl who wears it looks smaller & younger than she really is.^^
Inu x Boku SS Bluray & DVD
Bluray
Inu x Boku SS bluray comes in 2 discs, which contains both the original Japanese voices and English dub. The blurry also contains English subtitles as well.
DVD
Inu x Boku SS DVD comes in 3 discs, which contains both the original Japanese voices and English dub. Just like the case with the blurry, the DVD also contains English subtitles as well.
Anime to watch if you liked Inu x Boku SS
Since Inu x Boku SS is kind of unique anime, I could find an anime that is very similar to it, but Kamisama Kiss fits the most.
Kamisama Kiss.
A girl gets kicked out of her home, just to find herself becoming the land god. Kamisama Kiss tells you how that girl faces the challenges imposed on her because of that. In a way that mixes supernatural, comedy, romance & a few good shoujo elements in one lovely package. I recommend any shoujo fan to watch it. People who are into romance-comedy are likely to like it as well.
And Finally
I recommend Inu x Boku SS to anyone who likes cute characters, and to anyone who watches anime mainly for the characters, the anime doesn’t cover that much of the story, which is why I would recommend the manga if you are interested in it, but bear in mind that they manga is sad compared to the anime.
At the end, I really hope you liked my Inu x Boku SS review, and I hope to see you soon in another review. :)
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Quotes from Inu X Boku Secret Service
- “The elevator sure is making us wait.. It’s a sadist!” – Kagerou Shoukiin.
- “This carpet is so soft, it feels quite good to step upon. It’s a masochist!” – Kagerou Shoukiin.
- “A kiss on the tip of the nail is a sign of loyalty” – Sōshi Miketsukami.
Review Credits & Sources
- Some of the character’s information were taken from Inu x Boku SS’s Wikipedia page.
