Looking through my archives of Anime and information I wrote about them, I tumbled upon Inu x Boku SS. An Anime I totally forgot about – not anymore though.
Today, we revisit an old favourite of mine, is it worth watching? That is the true question everyone wants to know! Let us begin, shall we?
Ririchiyo Shirakiin is the sheltered daughter of a renowned family. With her petite build and wealthy status, Ririchiyo has been a protected and dependent girl her entire life, but now she has decided to change all that. However, there is just one problem—the young girl has a sharp tongue she can’t control, and terrible communication skills.
With some help from a childhood friend, Ririchiyo takes up residence in Maison de Ayakashi, a secluded high-security apartment complex that, as the unsociable 15-year-old soon discovers, is home to a host of bizarre individuals. Furthermore, their quirky personalities are not the strangest things about them: each inhabitant of the Maison de Ayakashi, including Ririchiyo, is actually half-human, half-youkai.
But Ririchiyo’s troubles have only just begun. As a requirement of staying in her new home, she must be accompanied by a Secret Service agent. Ririchiyo’s new partner, Soushi Miketsukami, is handsome, quiet… but ridiculously clingy and creepily submissive. With Soushi, her new supernatural neighbors, and the beginning of high school, Ririchiyo definitely seems to have a difficult path ahead of her. – MyAnimeList
Art
Soothing and calming visuals are few and far between. The light colors, the soft lighting, the detailed facial expressions of the characters – all these make for great artwork. Throw in some chibi drawings of the characters during the comedic scenes and the varying art styles are sure to impress viewers. Even the sparkles which are popular (and often overused) in shōjo anime/manga were moderated such that they didn’t feel overwhelming. On the shōnen side of things, the handful of battle scenes and transformations were animated smoothly as far as I could tell.
Characters
First off, the supporting characters of the series, though unique and interesting, were a bit underdeveloped. However, the extensive character development of the two main characters made up for this. At first, the female protagonist, Shirakiin Ririchiyo, is your typical, sharp-tongued teenage girl who often unintentionally isolates herself from others. But as the series progresses, she slowly opens the door to her heart, accepting the warmth of those around her while trying to control her tongue. On the other hand, the male protagonist, Miketsukami Sōshi, is a self-despising and deceptive man who knows nothing about emotion and feelings.
But, similar to Ririchiyo, he too changes drastically throughout the series. What’s most heartwarming is that the two, although having totally different personalities, are actually the ones responsible for each other’s development. Ririchiyo shows Sōshi the meaning of emotion and feelings while he proves to her that he will be by her side, no matter what, even if it means being verbally abused. Along with the other characters, the two end up transforming each other for the better, resulting in two solid characters.
Sound
The strong point of this category is the elite cast of seiyūs that were part of the project. All of them did an excellent job in their respective roles, with no character having an unfitting voice. The OP was quite good as well – a fast-paced song with a gradual progression in pitch. The downside of having multiple EDs is that only the good ones will be memorable. However, the ones used in this series were more or less unique so, even though they weren’t exactly excellent material, they were somewhat memorable. BGM did its job well, with some of the pieces successfully standing tall on their own during dialogue-less scenes, while others set the mood well.
Story
To put it bluntly, for the most part, the story was boring. Save for the first and last few episodes, the pace of one manga chapter per episode caused the story to be dragged out longer than necessary. Furthermore, the anime original fillers were fairly poor in terms of entertainment value. The first couple of episodes were tolerable given that they were used to introduce the characters and the plot. In the last couple of episodes is where the plot actually picks up from the first few episodes. Those two episodes alone would make for an easy 9/10 as they were both interesting and content-filled. However, with more bad than good, the story gets a 6/10 from me.
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3 responses to “Inu x Boku SS | Worth Watching?”
I remember really enjoying the series when it first came out (I watched it while it was simulcasting), but I’ve heard that marathoning it instead of watching it weekly takes away a lot of the charm due to its shortcomings. I know that the manga felt like a hot mess for a long time after a certain point and I dropped it. I’ve been wanting to revisit it again, and your review makes me wanna do that sooner so I can see if it holds up. Thanks for sharing!
When I first tried to watch it I didn’t make it through the first episode, but the second time I really liked it and was surprised by my second impressions. It is though a pretty fluffy anime to watch.
I really quite enjoy this show but know it isn’t all that great. I just really connect with Ririchiyo as a character so enjoy watching the series. The short comings of the plot are pretty apparent and the support cast, while entertaining, really don’t get to do all that much, but the romance between the main two is adorable and this is a show I return to over and over again.