Winter 2010 First Impressions – Ladies versus Butlers

The bad news is the first show of the winter season has arrived and it’s not so hot. The good news is the season can only go up from here.

If you’ve ever seen Azumanga Daoih, there’s a hilarious scene where Osaka dreams of plucking off Chiyo-chan’s twin-tails from her head. That’s the way I felt the whole episode about mega-twin-drills here.

The new harem lead trend seems to be slightly witty guys with a sarcastic, smart mouth, and a penchant for bad luck that involves groping, sitting on girls, getting sat on by girls, and erotic lolisphyxiation. I wonder if this seemingly rare superpower is limited to only anime harem leads, because not once in my life have I: a.) accidentally knocked over a girl b.) ended up sitting on her c.) or looked up her skirt d.) groped her e.) accidentally been knocked over by a girl f.) gotten sat on g.) in the face. I am somewhat athletic with a good sense of balance, so perhaps I just lack the proper genes. But I know clumsier people that I’m pretty sure haven’t had this happen to them either. I think more study needs to be devoted to this phenomenon.

I’m not going to knock the show for its lack of originality, because that’s not what it’s going for obviously. The characters are attractive at face value, but XEBEC’s penchant to draw them without noses is sort of disturbing (not even a pinhole!). The art is really, really simple and clean. I’d typically say is a good thing, but I think is a harbinger for Akikan-esque animation fail later in the season.

Otherwise, the story was your typical character introduction by groping, tripping, stripping, and any other standard fanservice means necessary. The 19-year old lolicon molestation scene and the subsequent chase was pretty funny, but otherwise there wasn’t much to laugh at. My expectations were probably too high, but it certainly falls short of the brilliance of ecchi Hayate no Gotoku or Sora no Otoshimono episodes. But if you’ve got a thing for cliché, ecchi shows, then Ladies versus Butlers will be right up your alley.