is a Japanese
light novel
A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging.
The abbr ...
series written by Tsukasa Kōzuki, with accompanying illustrations by Munyū. The series includes 13 novels released between September 2006 and March 2012, published by
ASCII Media Works
, formerly , is a Japanese Publishing, publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing headquartered in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It originally formed on April 1, 2008, as a result of a Mergers and acquisitions, merger bet ...
under their
Dengeki Bunko
is a publishing imprint (trade name), imprint affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (a division of Kadokawa Future Publishing formerly called MediaWorks (publisher), MediaWorks). It was established in June 1993 with th ...
imprint. A
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
adaptation by the illustrator group Nekoyashiki-Nekomaru was serialized in ASCII Media Works' ''
Dengeki Moeoh
is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) under the ''Dengeki'' brand. Many manga serialized in ''Dengeki Daioh'' were later published in ''tankōbon'' volumes under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Comi ...
'' magazine between the June 2008 and December 2008 issues. A
drama CD
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
based on the novels was released in September 2009. A 12-episode
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
adaptation produced by
Xebec
A xebec ( or ), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that originated in the barbary states (Algeria), it was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a ...
and directed by Atsushi Ōtsuki aired in Japan from January to March 2010. The anime has been licensed by
Media Blasters
Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment company that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American mar ...
for release in North America.
Plot
Akiharu Hino lost his parents and is adopted by his uncle's family. He enters a boarding school, Hakureiryō Academy, because he does not want to burden his relatives. He takes the admission exam and successfully enters the House Management Department, where the school trains servants for high society. He wants to become a butler, but his delinquent appearance frightens the female students, who make up the majority students. Unable to accompany his classmates, Akiharu meets his childhood friend Tomomi Saikyō, a girl with a two-faced character who traumatized him many times when they were kids. Another girl, Selnia Iori Flameheart follows him because of his looks. Akiharu starts finding his feet at the school and his relationship with the girls improves.
Characters
Servant-ed class
;
:
:The main protagonist of the story considered to be a delinquent, because of his red eyes and rough appearance (accented by a scar bisecting his left eyebrow). In contrast to his appearance, he has a caring personality, but he is dense in regard to girls and matters of the heart. Because of everyone's less than friendly perception of him, he is often falsely accused of perverted acts. He was tormented by his childhood friend Tomomi when they were younger. Now reacquainted, Tomomi is often behind the schemes leading to these misunderstandings.
:He is well aware of Tomomi's convincing manipulative nature and devilish personality but is resigned to dealing with her pranks because she knows him so well that she is effectively blackmailing him into keeping quiet about her. On the brighter side, she tells him she will help him through to graduation, perhaps because she subconsciously cares for him, or simply because she enjoys having fun at school often just being around him.
;
:
:Akiharu's roommate and fellow servant-ed student. Kaoru is actually a
cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...
girl (because of a strict father, who told her to graduate from Hakureiryō as a man). She has many fans in the upper-ed section and is easily mistaken to be a boy. She is rather cold to Akiharu at first, but slowly opens up to him. She is always worried her gender will be exposed, especially with sharing a room with Akiharu. She is simultaneously relieved and rather upset when Akiharu sees her naked from the waist up and shows no reaction. She has unconsciously developed feelings for Akiharu, something she realized when responding to a love letter from another female student. She holds a black belt in an unspecified martial art and is implied to be the daughter of a dojo, as shown in a flashback.
;
:
:A clumsy maid at the academy who causes Akiharu much trouble. She has an older sister, Saori, in upper-ed. She used to be in upper-ed herself, but because of her family falling on hard times, she was forced to transfer to servant-ed. She is very inept at the tasks typically required of a maid and usually ends up making a mess of things.
;
:
:A member of the academy's servant-ed class and one of the few boys in the entire school. He is an outright pervert who admits he only came to Hakureiryō because the girls who go to this school are either beautiful maids-in-training or high class ladies from prominent families. His perversion almost always causes him to sexually harass women and therefore invoke the wrath of Mikan.
;
:
:A member of the academy's servant-ed class and one of the few boys in the entire school. He is rather a darling of the ladies in the servant-ed class.
Upper-ed class
;
:
:An upper-ed student at the academy and Akiharu's childhood friend. Her polite and refined attitude serves as a front to hide her true self: a manipulative deceiver. Her surname was Suzuhashi before her mother got remarried. She entertains herself by preying on other students (especially Akiharu and Selnia) by putting them in compromising situations (e.g. groping,
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...
and
nudity
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...
). Tomomi is perfectly willing to withhold information from everyone (as in the case of the Hino-Khadim scandal when she decided to keep silent despite having found out the Khadim family rules, only revealing what she knew when things were starting to get too complicated). In some cases she involves others in her schemes to achieve certain ends (as when she assigned Hino to stay with Mimina for a day in order to inspire her to draw). According to Akiharu, she is highly intelligent and also dislikes losing to other people. In the anime, a characteristic high-pitched giggle accompanied by a shadow and dark expression on her face signify that she is thinking evil thoughts. While on a date with her, Akiharu reveals that, despite her constant bullying in elementary school, he had in fact had a crush on her and his dream then had been to marry her when they grew up, which surprised and embarrassed Tomomi, perhaps showing that she reciprocates these feelings. This is further corroborated by her becoming jealous after seeing Selnia and Akiharu kiss.
;
:
:As an upper-ed student at the academy, Selnia is extremely proud of her status as scion of the Flameheart family. She is often the unfortunate target of the various misunderstandings involving Akiharu that are purposely caused by fellow student Tomomi Saikyo. While outwardly harsh and condescending towards Hino like assault, she continually expresses concern for him when he finds himself in less-than-desirable situations, though this is usually followed a blunt lecture or unnecessary violence. Her hairstyle is the reason why Akiharu refers to her as "Drill" (which upsets her). In the anime, her hair spins and make sounds similar to a drill whenever she is upset. She is shown to have strong feelings for Akiharu, exemplified in her kissing him and her rivalry with Tomomi for his affection. Even though she outwardly denies feeling anything for Akiharu, she does in fact realize and accept how she feels.
;
:
:The princess of a small country who transferred to Japan largely because of her love of anime. She openly asserts her pride in being an anime
otaku
is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, such as anime, manga, video games, computers or other highly enthusiastic hobbies. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. ...
, and has contempt for Japanese youths who can name any foreign opera or composer, yet do not even know the names of current anime in their own country. She is quite lonely since she has no one to talk to about anime, cosplay, or other otaku hobbies (other than the principal who shares her interests). She speaks in an "archaic dialect", mixing in words like and adding at the end of sentences.
;
:
:A 19 year-old student who appears to be about 10 due to an illness, which has kept her in hospital for most of her life. She developed her talent for drawing to stave off boredom in the hospital and has become quite talented but she hates having to draw for the sake of others, wanting to only draw what she likes. Although she dislikes Akiharu at first, she starts to develop feelings for him when he stands up for her, telling other students that she draws for her own pleasure, not theirs, and to let her draw whatever she wants to.
;
:
:A shy foreign student who hardly talks to anyone but her bodyguard. When Akiharu unintentionally walks in on her while she is changing in a classroom, her bodyguard immediately tries to kill him due to her family's customs that a man who sees a woman's skin must either marry her or be killed. When Ayse stops her bodyguard from killing Akiharu, he is immediately named as Ayse's fiancé. Unknown to everyone else who tries to break the engagement, Ayse is in love with Akiharu and wants to marry him regardless of her family's customs. She confesses to him and has resolved to wait for him to come to love and choose her.
;
:
:One of Selnia's closest friends who was born and raised in China until she enrolled at Hakureiryō. At times she utters
Chinese words and wears the
qipao
''Cheongsam'' (, ), also known as the ''qipao'' () and sometimes referred to as the mandarin gown, is a Chinese dress worn by women which takes inspiration from the , the ethnic clothing of the Manchu people. The cheongsam is most often see ...
on occasion.
;
:
:The elder of the Shikikagami sisters but unlike her younger sister, she is an upper-ed student at the academy, having paid the required fees before their family fell on hard times. She is as ditzy as her younger sister although, unlike Sanae, her misadventures result in her perverted states of undress as she has a habit of taking her clothes off without minding where she is or who is present when she undresses.
;
:
:Ayse's ever-loyal bodyguard who faithfully protects and defends her mistress with a lethal-looking
scimitar
A scimitar ( or ) is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade of about 75 to 90 cm (30 to 36 inches) associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures. A European term, ''scimitar'' does not refer to one specific swor ...
. When Hino accidentally saw Ayse naked, Hedyeh hounded him until Ayse gave up on him. Hedyeh tends to be extremely violent, acting before thinking; while she normally talks in a husky, low tone, her voice becomes quickly high-pitched when she is sufficiently agitated or is thinking of violence. She is always at Ayse's side.
;
:
:The only male member of the academy's upper-ed class. He considers himself as the most beautiful man and as such proclaims that he should be admired by everybody. Ironically, students usually avoid him because of this. His real name is actually Daikiji.
Others
;
:
:Hakureiryō Academy's principal whose hobbies include playing
eroge
An ''eroge'' (, ''eroge'', or , ''erogē'', ), also called an H-game, is a Japanese genre of erotic video game. The term encompasses a wide variety of Japanese games containing erotic content across multiple genres. The first ''eroge'' were crea ...
even at work. Her otaku tendencies tend to get in the way of her work, and cause her react to situations like characters in her games do which usually leads to more misunderstandings. She is often reprimanded by Mikan, whom she is afraid of, and who strives to keep her focused on more serious matters. Kaede also sponsors the anime "Magical Diva" and as such has a large collection of items related to the anime including the original manuscript. She would like to discuss anime with Pina more than she already does, but is unable to do so easily because of Mikan, who keeps a close eye on her.
;
:
:The academy's head instructor who oversees almost all matters related to the school. She is known for her mastery of all subjects related to becoming a maid or butler. She has a strict and cold demeanor, particularly towards anyone who slacks off and as such, the students, and even the principal herself, avoid provoking her wrath. She throws fountain pens with deadly accuracy much as a ninja uses throwing knives.
;
:
:The head maid of the Flameheart family household. She is very close to Selnia and has watched over her since birth.
;
:Akiharu's cousin.
;
Tomomi's mother.
Media
Light novels
''Ladies versus Butlers!'' began as a series of
light novel
A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging.
The abbr ...
s written by Tsukasa Kōzuki, with accompanying illustrations by Munyū. ASCII Media Works published 13 novels under their
Dengeki Bunko
is a publishing imprint (trade name), imprint affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (a division of Kadokawa Future Publishing formerly called MediaWorks (publisher), MediaWorks). It was established in June 1993 with th ...
imprint between September 10, 2006 and March 10, 2012.
Manga
A
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
adaptation by the illustrator group Nekoyashiki-Nekomaru was serialized in ASCII Media Works' ''
Dengeki Moeoh
is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) under the ''Dengeki'' brand. Many manga serialized in ''Dengeki Daioh'' were later published in ''tankōbon'' volumes under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Comi ...
''
seinen manga
is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word means "youth", but the term " manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like '' Weekly Manga Times'' and '' Weekly Man ...
magazine between the June 2008 and December 2008 issues. A single ''
tankōbon
A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...
'' volume was released on December 18, 2009 under ASCII Media Works'
Dengeki Comics
is a manga publishing label affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks (publisher), MediaWorks) and is aimed at a male audience. Aside from the main Dengeki Comics label, there is the related Dengeki Co ...
imprint.
Drama CD
An hour-long
drama CD
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
based on the novels was released by ASCII Media Works on September 8, 2009. The drama CD was bundled with a booklet featuring material written by Tsukasa Kōzuki and illustrated by Munyū, a leaflet describing the characters, a small collection of rough
sketches, and a set of
postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare.
In some places, one can send a postcard f ...
s. The CD features three episodes, the second of which is an original story for the drama CD. The voice cast of the drama CD is the same as with the anime adaptation.
Internet radio show
An
Internet radio
Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...
show to promote the
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
series and other ''Ladies versus Butlers!'' media called aired 31 episodes between September 28, 2009 and May 31, 2010 hosted on the anime's official website. The show was streamed online every other Monday, and was hosted by
Mai Goto and Mariya Ise who voice Pina Sufolmuclan Estoh and Kaede Tenjōji in the anime, respectively. The show's theme song is sung by Goto and Ise.
Anime
A 12-episode
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
television series
A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...
produced by
Xebec
A xebec ( or ), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that originated in the barbary states (Algeria), it was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a ...
and directed by Atsushi Ōtsuki aired in Japan between January 5 and March 23, 2010 on
AT-X. The first episode was given a special early broadcast on December 29, 2009 on AT-X. Six short bonus specials are included with the
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
s. The anime was licensed by
Media Blasters
Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment company that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American mar ...
in North America, who released it on Blu-ray and DVD on November 3, 2015.
The series premiered on
Toku in the United States in January 2016.
Episode list
References
External links
''Ladies versus Butlers!''at
ASCII Media Works
, formerly , is a Japanese Publishing, publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing headquartered in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It originally formed on April 1, 2008, as a result of a Mergers and acquisitions, merger bet ...
Anime official website''Ladies versus Butlers!''at
Xebec
A xebec ( or ), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that originated in the barbary states (Algeria), it was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a ...
*
{{Xebec
2006 Japanese novels
2008 manga
2010 anime television series debuts
Anime and manga based on light novels
Anime and manga set in schools
Anime Works
Cross-dressing in anime and manga
Dengeki Bunko
Dengeki Comics
Harem anime and manga
IG Port franchises
Light novels
NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
Romantic comedy anime and manga
Seinen manga
Television shows based on light novels
Xebec (studio)