3 out of 5

Directed by: Naokatsu Tsuda

Frequently hilarious, and significantly enlivened by David Productions’ fantastic animation sensibilities, Inu x Boku SS is an interesting fantasy romcom for the way it dances around what might be its more ‘traditional’ focuses – the yokai-enhanced legacy of the teens living under Secret Service protection in Ayakashi Hall; the anime-icky romance between 15 year old Ririchiyo Shirakiin and the 20something Sōshi Miketsukami – and spends its 12 episodes, instead, bumping the quirky character types in the Hall into one another for various episode-filling antics, and occasionally tip-toeing into richer emotional fare.  While the former bit allows for some fun and unique setups, and also helps to inform the latter bit, as Ririchiyo’s treatment by her parents as an object instead of a person is the basis for her cold personality, which she learns to shed in bits as the season goes on, it’s also very distracting: there’s some strong character work accomplished that doesn’t need this background, and the hot flashes of action the show indulges in just feels like a shoulder-shrug insertion; like, I have yokai, I might as well use them.

The romance falls into a slightly different category, as its more personal preference that it would’ve been avoided.  To be fair, the show doesn’t indulge: this teen/adult pairing (between Ririchiyo and Miketsukami) is reliant more on SS agent Miketsukami’s comedically over the top worship of Ririchiyo, and her harumphing refusal to acknowledge it; it can be read as flirtation, but it doesn’t have to be, and it’s not really spoken of as such until after the midway point, when we’ve probably come to like the characters on their own terms.  And it’s equally possible there’s some purposeful subversion at work: fan service comes in the form of the very meme-aware female SS agent Nobara Yukinokōji, who voices all her cute girl obsessions constantly (nosebleeds and all), namechecking tropes left and right; the Inu x Boku SS manga was written by a female (which I will be checking out…), and Miketsukami is constantly prostrating himself completely to Ririchiyo…  So there’s a question of gender roles tossed into the mix.  Because the anime series ended before delving into things too deeply, and because the tone erred very much more toward comedy, it’s hard to tell how purposeful the setup was, or if director Naokatsu Tsuda and writer Toshizo Nemoto just couldn’t figure out the best approach and so just went with a sort of middle-ground, catch-all style.

Whatever the case, it’s what prevents the series from either being a lot more affecting, or, at the same time, a lot trashier.  And what’s probably more important is how often I laughed out loud, and how on point all the voice acting and animation was; the characters are all warm and lively – even the obnoxious, S&M obsessed Kagerō Shōkiin, even the background maid / serving staff at the Hall – and David Productions’ willfulness to play around with the medium offers up excellent use of Chibi characters and alternate end sequences.

So while none of the potentially richer elements of the series end up amounting to much, Inu x Boku SS is still wonderfully entertaining, replacing those possible complexities (and questionable elements) with frequently inventive and hilarious character interactions and hijinks.