Ririchiyo is a broken girl, as a descendent of a demon with rich blood, she is treated like an object rather than a person. To get away from all the deceit and fake smiles, she moves to Demon Manor, a place full of other descendents like her, specifically to be alone. However, every tenant of Demon Manor is assigned a protective guard, aptly named "Secret Service". How will Ririchiyo react when she meets her bishounen guard?
When I started watching this I felt a lot of deja vu with other series. The main heroine Ririchiyo looks a lot like the heroine from Ookami Kakushi, the descended from demons theme reminded me of Zakuro/Inu, and the unlimited-willed destined male reminded me of Kaichou-wa Maid sama and Special A. Regardless of speculative feelings, the series is a very direct girl meets boy very similar to Kaichou and Special A. The deviation from the similar series is that the main heroine is a loli tsundere. This is a series where you either love or hate the main character; you can either blame her for her non-stop, sour-spitting mouth or you can sympathize with her inexperience at dealing with people. Overall, I thought it was a decent watch but nowhere near Kobato or Kaichou levels.
Animation:
Random characters aside, the animation here is pretty standard fare. Backgrounds are nicely detailed, colors are slightly faded, and the overall setting is believable.
Now the actual residents of Demon Manor are something to behold. All the residents can transform into their demon form, be it a raccoon dog, mini-troll, or a paper scroll. Once you get over the initial wtf it isn't that bad as the supporting characters really take a back stage to the main action. I will never get the Japanese addiction with heterochromia and eye patches.
This is a fairly tranquil series, there are a few minor scuffles but nothing that would satisfy a true action seeker. There is also relatively little fan-service/ecchi to cover up so I don't know how they're going to sell the Blue Rays...
Sound:
I typically don't like many dude OPs, this is one of them. The EDs are voiced by the VAs and range from Ririchiyo's lullabye to a questionably-informative S&M description. It doesn't get much better when you move to the BGM. Usually I'm fine with minimalistic, instrumental BGMs; but in this case the series is already slow enough that adding a few slow pieces really is asking for bedtime.
VA-wise, uber-young Rina Hidaka gets her shot at playing tsundere. I'm not completely certain but perhaps she was trying to make the tsun sound a bit forced given Ririchiyo's history. The only major surprise for me was having Kana Hanazawa play such a quiet, monotone character; I still hear "Kobato ganbarimas!" and "Tu-tu-ru~" ringing in my ears...
Story:
This is a very linear story with an ending you can predict after seeing the first episode. You can also predict a fair amount of how they get there as well. What you probably won't predict is the major mystery piece, how is it that Ririchiyo had previously saved her questionably-indebted fox-demon servant/guard/dog? This is the only thing that will probably keep you watching, and if you've wondered why the episode rating for episode 11 is so high...
Plot-wise, there isn't much going on in this series, you can practically jump from episode 3 to episode 10 without missing much in terms of plot. What you will be missing out on is a lot of character interactions. The climax near the end of the series, I don't even know if I should call it a climax, isn't really much of one as it's more of an entire episode of "ooooooh that's what it's all about."
Character:
This series is all about character interactions, specifically how Ririchoyo's interactions with her inu changes her personality forever. It differs, arguably in a good way, from a lot of peers in that it focuses heavily on one relationship. Apparently Ririchiyo had previously freed her inu in the past as well... So in the middle, you get a lot of Ririchiyo trying her best to hide her dere under a lot of forced Tsun. Given how un-tsundere Shana was this season, I guess it's not bad to get a dose of it elsewhere.
In the end, this is supposed to be a somewhat romantic series. However, unlike Kaichou and even Kobato, I think there is just too much fiction to make it feel tangible. In that sense I never really grew attached to Ririchiyo. If you watch the first 2 eps and feel for Ririchiyo, this will be a good series for you.
As for supporting characters, they're pretty weak and only contribute minor humor points; their backgrounds are mostly left blank and many of them leave you with just more questions.
Value:
As I said in the beginning, this show will be a toss up based on how well you can connect with the main protagonists. This series is very character driven as there really isn't even an antagonist in the series. This is a bit of an endurance run as you're really not rewarded for watching until the very end, and they don't try very hard to keep you watching. Overall, the series setting mixes things up a bit, but I think there are just much stronger "find your perfect guy" series out there.
