Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Lately, I’ve been reviewing a lot of recent animes these past months. Well it’s time to change that. It’s time to turn back the clock and look at some anime from the early 2000s. That’s why today I’m taking a look at They Are My Noble Masters. Based off an adult visual novel developed and published by Minato Soft (no doubt the Japanese cousin of Microsoft) in 2007 with a PS2 port coming out in 2008 and PSP port in 2009. The game pretty much follows the formula of all visual novels. You play as a guy who becomes surrounded by beautiful girls who all have a crush on you and your choices will affect your relationship with them. As always there’s a lot of text and good visuals to go along with the game. The game got a good amount of praise for being fun, romantic, funny, and touching at times. This resulted in a light novel, manga, and of course an anime being made based off the game. In 2008 the anime studio A.C.G.T (Kino’s Journey and Freezing) produced the anime based off the game making it one of the studio’s most well-known and liked animes. Let’s get ready to serve are masters and take a look at They Are My Noble Masters.
Opening and Ending Theme
Our opening for this anime is “Hizamazuku Made 5 Byo Dake!” by Miyuki Hashimoto. I really like this song. It’s upbeat, the melody is good, and Miyuki is a very good singer. This is one of the very few openings that I actually don’t mind sitting through. I would always listen to this opening whenever I watched an episode. The ending is “Butler Switch On!” by Yuko Goto. Didn’t really care for this ending. The song is pretty plain and uninteresting. It almost feels as if the song is out of place here.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts off with our main character Ren voiced by Tomokazu Seki (Haru from Rave Master) and his older sister Mihato voiced by Hitomi, who has a brother complex and doesn’t hide her incest crush for Ren (well we know she won’t be in the harem. Oh wait this anime was based off an adult visual novel. Everything is game). We also find out later that the girl practices Snake’s style of carrying objects as she has like 49 items hidden in different places on her body (I’m pretty sure a majority of them are hidden in that chest of hers). Due to various circumstances (that being a very violent and drunk father who abused Ren everyday) the two have run away from home to the city of Nanahama a port city filled with young people (and apparently cut outs of red and green people. Clearly the budget for this anime wasn’t high. That or the animators are cheap and lazy). Once they arrive in the city they split up to look for work and a place to live. Ren goes to various restaurants in the Chinatown district but they each turn him down (one of them even tried to get Ren to suck his dick. No thank you). He reunites with his sister that night where she had no luck either so they’re forced to camp out in the park (which last time I checked is illegal). The next day Ren continues to search for a job where he spots one of our heroines Miyu collapse from the heat. Ren and Mihato help and carry her all the way back to her mansion (alright we hit the potjack. (Seras): That’s jackpot). So yeah Miyu is filthy bitch (Seras: Filthy rich. I do hope you’re doing that deliberately) and as thanks for saving her the servants make them a meal where one of the maids Benisu insults Mihato so Ren tries to fight her (avenge your totally hot sister who wants to bang you) but instead he fights against Colonel the head butler of the mansion, former mercenary, and probably the best character in this anime. Naturally Ren doesn’t stand a chance against him but continues to fight him where he gets hit with the Hadoukan and blown outside (would have been better if he used the Kamehameha wave. Again, Word actually recognizes this as an actual word) where he lands in the fountain and meets Shinra the head of the household, amazing beauty, and our main heroine. After Ren passes out and wakes up in the lap of his sister he finds out that Shinra wants to hire them as live-in servants however they must go through a one week trial period to see if they have the skills to stay. They accept the trial and we get introduced to the cast. First up Shinra voiced by Shizuka Itō (Akeno from Highschool DxD) the head of the mansion and despite her young age a famous orchestra conductor. She also has a love for panda and cute things. Next up is Miyu voiced by Yūko Gotō, Shinra’s younger sister who has the body of a loli despite being an adult. She also has an IQ of 240 and has an egg robot named De Niro (an obvious shoutout to Robert DeNiro) with AI intelligence. There’s Yume voiced by Shizuka Minamori who is Shinra’s second sister and the youngest of the sisters (she’s the normal one). As for the servants we have Benisu (or Beni as I like to call her) who serves Shinra and has a fondness for her, Natose the personal maid of Yume who also might have a lesbian crush on Yume who has superhuman like strength and a huge appetite (she may be a woman but she acts more like a dog), and finally Chiharu our trap character for the anime who’s in charge of cleaning and serves no major presence or point in this anime (a running gag in the anime is that everyone forgets about him).
In episode 2 Ren and Mihato’s one week trial begins. Through the trial we do learn a few things about the characters and see some friendships form. For starters we learn that Shinra likes to pick on things she likes and she especially likes to pick on Miyu because she’s so cute. Ren befriends Natose and begins calling her “Big Sis” because he can tell she’s always wanted a younger sibling. Miyu has a thing for BL and loves to see boys in short shorts (that’s unhealthy). We also get to meet a few of Yume’s school friends. Keiko who’s pretty normal is on the track team with Yume, Ageha another rich girl who’s quite energetic and her family might have military ties. She also has a butler named Kojuro who enjoys getting hit with Ageha. But the one character I like the most out of Yume’s friends is Anastasia a girl who is a huge masochist (and who is completely underused throughout this anime. She appears in like 2 episodes. What a waste). Ren’s trial period seems to be going great that is until the last day where he accidently breaks a priceless pot while trying to capture a ferret that got into the house (//youtu.be/m5RtlpXsl8k, hope you enjoy living on streets because you ain’t ever getting back in this house). However despite this screw up Ren still passes because this one screw-up doesn’t overshadow the great work he did throughout the week. Mihato becomes Miyu’s personal maid and Shinra makes Ren her personal servant for the time being.
Episode 3 starts off with a laugh (scene here: //youtu.be/MgtCgeXTzjU, the ones after the first two take place in later episodes). After that we also get a shout to Initial D (yeah this anime has a lot of parodies from past animes so be on the lookout for them) with Colonel racing some car downhill while drifting in a limousine (that is so badass). After that a majority of the first half of the anime is Shinra pretty much teasing Ren both mentally, physically, and very sexually (she is the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden). And her playful nature isn’t just limited to Ren she also teases Miyu where she pretty much drags Miyu to her room and molests her in bed (I gotta tell you Shinra I’m having a hard time figuring out your sexual preferences). In the second half Miyu has enough of Shinra’s treatment and challenges her to a game of Kuonji Flag. It’s basically capture the flag with the winning team getting to do whatever they want to the losing teams. Since it’s a family tradition all the sisters have to take part in it. Shinra’s team goes for Yume’s flag where they easily capture it eliminating her from the competition (might as well take the weakest link out first) leaving only Miyu’s team. Miyu had an effective plan of separating the forces which worked but Ren pulls an upset and gives Shinra the victory (Miyu you will not be sleeping for the next 24 hours).
In episode 4 Ren has been making a lot of mistakes on the job so the Colonel takes it upon himself to train Ren in the ways of being a butler (The Butler Kid). In order to do this the whole group goes to a southern island to relax and enjoy vacation while the Colonel takes Ren to the Butler’s Lair where Ageha is training Kojuro as well (what does he do wrong not take a hit properly?). The training as you would expect is ridiculous training where Ren has do all sorts of crazy stuff (you know, stuff that a butler will never have to do. Sort of like how they teach us complicated math formulas in school which we will never use in our life). But the training does pay off as Ren has become a better butler able to understand, read what his master wants, and he makes a good batch of tea. While all of this is going on Beni and Natose go the casino on the neighboring island where Beni loses all their money and they get conned by a loan shark who forces them to work off their debt to him.
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 the Colonel rescues Beni and Natose from the loan shark by cheating in a game of roulette (Shizuku: It’s only cheating if you get caught). After that the episode focuses on Beni where we learn about her past. It turns out that she was born in some European country where her parents died when she was little and her uncle sold her to some diner in the slum (you are scum~). Once in the slums Beni taught herself how to cook, study, and fight in order to survive. Once the diner she worked at closed down she wondered the streets from place to place until the Colonel came across her where she tried to rob him (you don’t rob from this guy and live to tell the story) but gets caught. Rather than throw her out the Colonel instead decides to help her and hires her on as a chef. Since then she’s been living in the mansion and serving Shinra who gave her a place to call home and the feeling of being loved (no offense but her love isn’t healthy and I wouldn’t exactly call what she’s doing love). After Ren hears Beni’s backstory he starts to understand why she’s the way she is and decides to spend a little more time with her where they get kidnapped by some thugs while out shopping and protecting a little girl. Luckily, Shinra and the others come in to save them and end their vacation with some fireworks.
Episode 6 focuses on Yume who I have to admit is my least favorite character in the show. She’s not annoying nor is she useless they just don’t do anything with her. Her whole character has one running joke. She’s a normal girl trying to find a unique trait about her so she can be on the same level as her sisters. That’s there joke and it’s not the best joke. The joke goes literally nowhere and just wastes time because the end result is going to be the same no matter what. Yume’s gonna realize she should just be herself and just being herself makes her unique. That’s pretty much the moral of the episode right there. Throughout the episode Ren and Natose try to help Yume find a unique character trait but fail incredibly hard (as to expected) until Ren consoles Yume by telling her she shouldn’t rush developing her character (actually she should. We’re halfway through the anime and I honestly don’t care about her. Hell, Chiharu has more character than her and he’s the guy we’re supposed to be ignoring. I’m actually more interested in hearing about his day than focusing on Yume). This works and cheers Yume up. As a token of their thanks both Yume and Natose kiss Ren on the cheek (one master down. Two more to go).
In episode 7 Ageha comes to stay over for a few days. During a training trip Kojuro got seriously injured (thanks to Ageha) and has to be hospitalized for 3 months (where apparently the horniest nurses work at as they keep trying to seduce him and he flat out rejects them. What the hell man?). Since Ageha has a lot of enemies in the world and her father is friends with the Colonel they worked out an arrangement for her to be stay at Shinra’s place for the time being. Of course Miyu and a few others are unsettled with Ageha staying however she bribes her way in (American style). She gives sweets to Yume, meat to Natose, gold to the Colonel, baby pandas to Shinra (I’m pretty sure this is illegal), and gives Miyu three shota boy idols in shorts (I am close to calling the cops on Miyu). Since Ren currently serves no master in the house he gets tasked with being Ageha’s stand in butler where he finds out a little more about her. She trains on a regular basis, has deep respect and admiration for the elderly, and while coming off as violent she’s actually a stubborn girl who trains hard to live up to the reputation of her family and be a strong leader for her country. Ren soon gains a lot of respect for Ageha and even tries to protect her from these two assassins sent to kill her despite her taking them down herself with ease (she got game) and she shows some gratification to Ren (scene here: //youtu.be/iT47lheqgZ8).
In episode 8 Ageha becomes attracted to Ren and decides to stay at Shinra’s mansion thus making Ren her servant a little longer (and surprisingly he’s okay with this). Things seem okay at first but everyone starts to miss Ren serving them and try to think up some way to get rid of Ageha (aww how cute they’re jealous). We also see that Mihato’s a little yandere as she try to prepare a blowfish for Ageha (woah I know you have a brother complex but this is straight up murder). As they try to think up a plan Kojuro sneaks out of the hospital (why he would leave is beyond me. He’s got a bunch of horny nurses fawning over him and everything) and tries to return to Ageha but she ignores him (you’ve been replaced dude). He finally sees Ageha kiss Ren at the mansion and challenges Ren to decide who’s the best person for serving Ageha (the one who’s got the MC aura around them). They partake in 3 challenges with the young mistresses serving as the judges for each one. The first challenge is carrying down a bunch of suitcases where we see that Shinra, Miyu, and Yume have rigged Ren’s suitcases to make them heavier so he’ll lose (okay that is BS. Shinra, you were the one who gave him away for a bunch of baby pandas and Miyu and Yume both accepted her bribes making it okay for Ren to be her servant. This is all your guys fault. If want him back just tell him how you really feel. I know they all miss him but it’s hard to be on their side when they clearly didn’t care about him earlier. Plus, them accepting the bribes also makes it hard to be on their side). Despite the handicap Ren manages to win the first round however in the second round he gets screwed over by his mistresses and loses. The final round is a pop quiz where Kojuro faints from his injuries. His injuries weren’t fully healed yet, he snuck out of the hospital because he was worried about Ageha (and the safety of his master means more to him than getting some nurse pussy), and fought through the pain to prove that he’s the only one who can serve her. Ageha sees all of this and decides to return back home as long as Kojuro goes back to the hospital to heal. So things return back to normal at Shinra’s mansion (or as close to normal as this anime can make them) but Ageha hasn’t given up on Ren just yet and is still interested in him.
Episodes 9-13
Episode 9 focuses on Miyu. Ren is assigned to be Miyu’s personal servant for a short time where he begins to worry about her because all she does is stay inside all day surfing the internet, lazing around the house, and reading shota magazines (that’s it I’m calling the cops). But Ren finds out from De Niro that Miyu is actually making money from home. It turns out that Miyu has a lot of patents out there that people use and she receives money from them on a regular basis (this Japanese girl is living the American dream. Making money by doing absolutely nothing). Later on in the episode Shinra returns home where she sees her sisters goofing around which upsets her and she yells at them making Miyu upset. Just when Shinra is about to go yell at her some more Ren stops her (Shinra: Are you stopping me boy?) and tells her all the good things Miyu has done around the house. This opens Shinra’s eyes and she sees that she was in the wrong this time and apologizes to Miyu for her actions. They all have dinner together where Yume leaves the table upset because Shinra never pays attention to her at all (it’s because you’re character contributes nothing to the story).
In episode 10 we get another Yume episode (to this anime’s credit it’s better than the first Yume episode). With the encouragement of Natose, Yume tells Shinra her true feelings where Shinra is relieved to hear them because all this time she thought Yume was afraid of her because of an incident that happened when they were younger. When their parents died Yume cried her poor little heart out but Shinra didn’t cry not because she hated her folks but because she was trying to be brave for her sisters. Shinra felt that since she was the oldest of her siblings she had a responsibility to hold the fort and be strong for all of them. When Yume didn’t see Shinra cry she thought she was a heartless machine (which couldn’t be any further from who she really is) and Shinra took this as a sign that Yume was afraid of her. This experience has been weighing on Shinra’s mind for years but Yume doesn’t remember the event which upsets Shinra and the gap between them widens even more. Yume runs away where Ren and Natose find her and Natose tells her the reason she can’t remember is because the event was so tragic and sad that she blocked it. But Natose tells her she has to face the past and she talks about her past where Natose was actually born on a southern island with her family. She had younger siblings who she loved but due to a tsunami she lost them all and blames herself for being too weak to defend them. Thanks to Natose’s story Yume is able to dig deep down and remember what she said to Shinra on the day of her parent’s funeral. Yume rushes home where she apologizes for everything and the two make up resolving their issues and becoming true siblings.
In the first half of episode 11 Chiharu has a crush on Beni so Ren, Yume, and Natose decide to help him out in his romance (you’re wasting your time that girl only has eyes on the main character). Chiharu goes on a date with Beni to a baseball game where she actually admits that she’s attracted to Ren a little bit (told you) and Chiharu takes the hint and backs off (you’re one chance to take the center stage and you get shot down). In the second half of the anime everyone (including the side characters) all have a picnic in the park while watching the cherry blossoms. After that they all do a talent show making all sorts of parody references to other animes with some being parodies where the VAs were actually a part of. Near the end some thieves try to steal a purse but Ren, Koujirou, and the Colonel stop them with the Colonel doing something you wouldn’t expect (scene here: //youtu.be/Hb5wvNBwPf4).
In episode 12 Ren becomes Shinra’s servant since she’s got a concert coming up and her master is coming to see her. Shinra puts on a good concert however her master says that her music lacked passion that she had when she was in school. This actually upsets Shinra and she engrosses herself in preparing for the next concert (too much will only destroy your performance). Realizing that Shinra needs a change of pace, Ren decides to take her out on a date (go Ren) and with the help of the Colonel helping from the shadows it goes along swimmingly well (best wingman ever). At the end of the date just when it seems like the two are about to have a intimate moment Ren messes it up by saying that he feels like he understands the feelings of Shinra which she takes offence to that statement and says that Ren has overstep his lines as a butler. Shinra leaves and the Colonel tells him to cool his head and leave her alone for a bit. While walking back to the mansion Ren runs into his father where we get a short exchange between the two. It’s a short exchange but we clearly get an idea of their relationship. Ren’s father was a man who injected fear into Ren from an early age of his life which still haunts him to this day mentally. Ren’s father blames Ren for the death of his wife. They don’t explain the details all that well but my guess is there were complications during the birthing process which resulted in Ren’s mother dying and Ren’s father blames him for it (well that’s a bit unfair).
In the final episode we open up on the next morning where Ren accidently destroys Shinra’s notes. This results in Shinra firing him but Miyu and Yume don’t like this (everybody loves Ren) and convince Shinra to withdraw her firing for the time being. Later on, Shinra calls Ren to her room where she openly apologizes for the way she acted (just be honest with him) and notices that Ren is hiding something from her but won’t talk about it. Ren decides to go out the next day and face his father himself without telling anyone but because of the abused he suffered as a child Ren goes through mental trauma and just can’t go against him (to Ren this man is a demon a demon who he can’t defeat). The others are watching from the bushes where Beni can no longer stand to see Ren take the beating and tells him to fight back but he just can’t. After she punches Ren’s dad for calling Shinra a bitch he hits her back which finally gives Ren the resolve to face his father and beat him. Shinra tells him that Ren is her butler and no longer his property. This results in the others dishing out revenge on the part of Ren as he leaves to accompany Shinra to her practice. Ren’s father finally confesses that in truth he actually misses Ren and just wanted him back. Ren was the only one who stood by his side despite all of the abuse and now that he’s gone he now understands what it means to be lonely. Mihato tells him to clean up his act and she’ll allow him to see Ren again. After that we see Shinra’s concert go off without a hitch with even her master impressed with her skills. After the concert Shinra goes to thank Ren the only way she knows how (scene here: //youtu.be/fe_f9hX7s7k). After that we get a nice happy ending. Ren, Mihato, and their father go to pray at the family shrine, we get a few nice pictures of everyone going on vacation, and everyone just relaxing at Shinra’s mansion (a perfect wrap up to the anime).
Final Thoughts
This was a very enjoyable anime. The story is great as it keeps building up to satisfying conclusion between the characters and their past. While the story to this anime remains in the background for a majority of the anime the build-up for it is done amazingly well throughout the anime’s run. Another well-done factor is the development of the characters in their interactions off each other. As the anime goes on we start learn about the characters such who they are, what happened to them in the past, and how they got to where they are in the anime. And it’s all done without having to stop the story. Each little event the anime has or the interactions between the characters helps us learn more and more about them. None of the characters are cliché or generic at all. Ren is a very relatable character. He’s young, strong, reliable, and looking for his place in the world while keeping those he cares about close to him. Shinra was favorite character. Despite being the master of her house and heir to her family’s fortune she doesn’t act like a spoiled rich girl. She can be quite childish, playful and nonsensical but at the same time loving and caring about her sisters and her servants treating them all as members of her family. Miyu is the one with common sense but at same time she also has her moments where she’s silly and nonsensical like Shinra. Yume as I said before is the weakest character in the anime for not really doing all that much but even still I found her cute and I was happy to see her and Shinra patch things up and become sisters again. The rest of the characters are also good and fun to have around with them having a good amount of screentime to get to know them. However, there are some characters you do wish you knew more about such as the Colonel, Chihiru, and Yume’s friends at school.
The animation for its time is really good. I like the character designs, the artwork looks great, and the city they’re in actually does look like a very realistic and beautiful city that I would love to tour someday. The music is probably the only weak point for in this anime. While not bad it really didn’t stand out to me all that much as it should have. Personally I found it forgetful. The parodies made throughout the anime were also a good laugh for me and it’s even funnier when you realize a majority of these VAs were in the animes they parody. Finally, the anime isn’t really that ecchi. Despite having the harem tag it’s not really that big on fanservice. The anime stays focus on the story and developing its characters while making us laugh and keep us entertained. So for those of you out there who hate ecchi harems rest assured this anime doesn’t have that.
Final Score
The final score for They are my Noble Masters is a very strong and positive 7/10. It’s a good and classic anime harem anime that’s not too ecchi and has a great story with characters who work well off each other and go through development and growth as the anime progresses giving us a satisfying ending. While it would have been nice to see who Ren choose to serve at the end I think leaving it up for us to decide is a nice touch since all these young mistresses are fun to watch. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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