is a Japanese light novel

Light novel

A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...

 series written by Tsukasa Kōzuki, with accompanying illustrations by Munyū. The first novel was released in September 2006, and as of September 2009, nine volumes have been published by ASCII Media Works

ASCII Media Works

is a Japanese publishing company in the Kadokawa Group which formed on April 1, 2008 as a result of a merger between ASCII and MediaWorks where MediaWorks legally absorbed ASCII. Despite this, the former president of ASCII, Kiyoshi Takano, became the president of ASCII Media Works. The company...

 under their Dengeki Bunko

Dengeki Bunko

is a publishing imprint affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works . It was established in June 1993 with the publication of Hyōryū Densetsu Crystania volume one, and is a light novel imprint aimed at a male audience...

 imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

. A manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 adaptation by the illustrator group Nekoyashiki-Nekomaru started serialization in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Moeoh seinen manga magazine in June 2008. A drama CD

Radio drama in Japan

Radio drama in Japan has a history as long as that of radio broadcasting in that country, which began in 1925. Some consider the first Japanese radio drama to have been "" which was a radio broadcast of a stage play. Others consider the Japanese translation of Richard Hughes's "Danger" or to be...

 based on the novels was released in September 2009. A 12-episode anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 adaptation produced by Xebec and directed by Atsushi Ōtsuki aired in Japan between January and March 2010.

Plot

Akiharu Hino lost his parents when he was young and was adopted into his uncle's family. He decides to enter a boarding school, Hakureiryō Academy, because he no longer wants to burden his relatives. He decides to take the exam for that school and succeeds in entering the House Management Department, where the school trains servants for high society. He wants to become a butler, but his delinquent appearance frightens the girls, who make up the majority of the students. Being unable to get along with his classmates, Akiharu meets his childhood girlfriend Tomomi Saikyō, a girl with a two-faced character who traumatized him many times when they were kids. Another girl named Selnia Iori Flameheart chases after him because of his looks and calls him suspicious. Still, Akiharu starts finding his feet at the school and his relationships with the girls also get better.

Servant-ed class

The main protagonist of the story, he is often seen as a delinquent because of his red eyes and rough exterior (accented by a scar on his left eyebrow). However, he has a caring and righteous personality, but is dense in regards of girls and love matters. He was tormented by his childhood friend Tomomi. Often because of everyone's less than friendly perceptions, he is often accused of performing perverted acts on the girls of the academy. Tomomi is often behind the schemes leading to these misunderstandings.

Akiharu's roommate and also a servant-ed student. She has many fans in the upper-ed section, and is mistaken to be a guy, but is actually a cross-dressing girl (because of a strict father, who told her to graduate from Hakureiryō as a man). She is rather cold to Akiharu at first, but slowly opens up to him. She is always worried about her real gender getting exposed, especially with Akiharu's presence in the room. However, when Akiharu accidentally sees her naked from the waist up (with a towel held in front of her lower region), he showed no reaction and still is under the mistaken conception that she is a guy (mostly because she is flat-chested), and she was rather upset and embarrassed by this. She also is revealed to have feelings for Hino, which she realized when she was responding to a love letter she received. She is implied to be the daughter of a dojo, shown in her flashbacks, and that she holds a blackbelt.

A clumsy maid at the academy who always causes Akiharu much trouble. She also has an older sister, Saori Shikikagami. She used to be in the upper-ed, but because of her family falling on hard times, she was transferred over to the servant-ed. She shows much ineptitude for tasks required for a maid, and usually ends up making a mess.

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 that 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 pervertedness 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 crowd, namely the ladies in the servant-ed class.

Upper-ed class

Tomomi is an upper-ed student at the academy and is also Hino's childhood friend. Her polite and refined attitude serves as a front to hide her true self: a manipulating prankster. She plays pranks on other people (usually on Hino, Selnia or both) to keep herself from being bored (though it eventually turns into jealousy after seeing them kiss) and is 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) whenever she sees fit. Also there may be some cases where she involves others in situations 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 Hino, 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 whenever she is having an evil thought. It is revealed by Hino while she and him were on a date that, despite her constant pranks on him, he had in fact had a crush on her and his dream was to marry her when they grow up, which surprises and embarrasses Tomomi, showing that she reciprocates these feelings but never realized it until then.

As an upper-ed student at the academy, Selnia is extremely proud of her status as a part of the Flameheart family. She is often the unfortunate target in the various misunderstandings purposely caused by fellow student Tomomi Saikyo, which also normally involves Hino Akiharu. While outwardly harsh and condescending towards Hino, she continually appears to express concern for him when he finds himself in less than desirable situations, though this is usually followed a blunt lecture or a small beating. Her hairstyle is the reason why she is referred to as "Drill" by Hino (which upsets her) and in the anime, it spins and make sounds similar to a drill bit whenever she is upset. She is shown to have strong feelings for Hino, exemplified in her kissing him and her rivalry with Tomomi for his affection. Even though she outwardly denies feeling anything for Hino, she does in fact realize and accept how she feels.

She is the princess of a small country who transferred to Japan largely for her love of anime. She openly asserts her pride in being an anime otaku

Otaku

is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...

, and has contempt for the 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 their principal). She speaks in an "archaic dialect", mixing in words like and adding at the end of sentences.

She is 19 years old despite looking 10 due to an illness, which has kept her in the hospital most of her life. She is a talented artist and hates having to draw for the sake of others, wanting to only draw what she likes. Although hating Akiharu at first, she starts to develop feelings for him when he stands up for her, telling other students that she only wants to draw for herself and not for others.

Suiran is one of Selnia's closest friends. At times she utters Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 words and wears the qi pao on occasion.

She is the older sibling 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 has a habit of taking her clothes off without minding where she is, who sees her as she undresses or if it is appropriate or not. She also appears to be as ditzy as her younger sister although unlike her, she merely tends to strip her clothes off.

She is very shy and hardly talks to anyone but her body guard. When Akiharu finds her changing in a classroom he is instantly engaged to her due to her family's customs about a man seeing a woman's skin unless it is her husband. Unknown to everyone else who tries to stop them from getting married, Ayse is in love with Akiharu and wants to marry him, and confesses to him. She has resolved to wait for him to love and choose her.

She is Ayse's ever-loyal bodyguard who would faithfully protect and defend her mistress with her lethal-looking scimitar

Scimitar

A scimitar is a backsword or sabre with a curved blade, originating in Southwest Asia .The Arabic term saif translates to "sword" in general, but is normally taken to refer to the scimitar type of curved backsword in particular.The curved sword or "scimitar" was widespread throughout the Muslim...

. When Hino accidentally saw Ayse naked, Hedyeh hounded him to the gates of Hell 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 beside Ayse.

The only male member of the academy's upper-ed class. He considers himself as the most beautiful creature in existence and as such and proclaims that he should be admired by everybody. Ironically, students usually avoid him because of his extreme narcissism

Narcissism

Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...

 and androgynism

Androgyny

Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...

, which they find creepy.

Others

Hakureiryō Academy's principal whose hobbies include playing eroge

Eroge

An or Ero-ga is a Japanese video or computer game that features erotic content, usually in the form of anime-style artwork. Eroge originated from galge, but unlike galge, they feature erotic/pornographic content.-History:...

 even at work. Her otaku tendencies tend to get in the way of her work, and lets her react to situations similar to what she sees in her games with excitement, usually leading to more misunderstandings. To keep her focused at more serious matters, she is often reprimanded by Mikan, who she is afraid of. She 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 want to talk more to Pina about it, but she is unable to do so easily because of Mikan, who has a close eye on her.

The academy's head instructor who oversees almost all things related to the school. She is known for her mastery of all things related to becoming a maid or butler and her strict, cold demeanor towards those who slack off in the middle of duty and anything unrelated to school matters and as such, students and even the principal herself avoid provoking her. She uses fountain pens in the same way a ninja uses throwing knives with deadly accuracy.

Light novels

Ladies versus Butlers! began as a series of light novel

Light novel

A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...

s written by Tsukasa Kōzuki, with accompanying illustrations by Munyū. The novels are published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko

Dengeki Bunko

is a publishing imprint affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works . It was established in June 1993 with the publication of Hyōryū Densetsu Crystania volume one, and is a light novel imprint aimed at a male audience...

 imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

, starting with the first volume released on September 10, 2006, and as of January 10, 2010, ten volumes have been published.

Manga

A manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 adaptation by the illustrator group Nekoyashiki-Nekomaru began serialization in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Moeoh seinen manga magazine in June 2008. The first bound volume

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

 will be released on December 18, 2009 under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Comics

Dengeki Comics

is a manga publishing label affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works and is aimed at a male audience. Aside from the main Dengeki Comics label, there is the related Dengeki Comics EX label which publishes a lesser number of manga volumes...

 imprint.

Drama CD

An hour long drama CD

Radio drama in Japan

Radio drama in Japan has a history as long as that of radio broadcasting in that country, which began in 1925. Some consider the first Japanese radio drama to have been "" which was a radio broadcast of a stage play. Others consider the Japanese translation of Richard Hughes's "Danger" or to be...

 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

Sketch (drawing)

A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually intended as a finished work...

, and a set of postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

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

Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

 show to promote the anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series and other Ladies versus Butlers! media called started airing on September 28, 2009 hosted on the anime's official website. The show is streamed online every other Monday, and is hosted by Mai Goto

Mai Goto (voice actress)

, is a female Japanese voice actress from Hokkaidō, Japan.-Anime:* Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl , Maririn* Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na -Crescent Love- , Mai Asagiri...

 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

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 television series produced by Xebec and directed by Atsushi Ōtsuki aired in Japan between January 5 and March 23, 2010 on AT-X

AT-X (company)

is a Japanese anime television network owned by . AT-X, Inc. was founded on June 26, 2000 as a subsidiary of TV Tokyo Medianet, which, in turn, is a subsidiary of TV Tokyo. Its headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo. AT-X network broadcasts anime via satellite and cable since December 24, 1997.AT-X is...

. 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 Disc

Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...

s.

External links

• Ladies versus Butlers! at ASCII Media Works
  ASCII Media Works
  is a Japanese publishing company in the Kadokawa Group which formed on April 1, 2008 as a result of a merger between ASCII and MediaWorks where MediaWorks legally absorbed ASCII. Despite this, the former president of ASCII, Kiyoshi Takano, became the president of ASCII Media Works. The company...
  
   
• Anime official website
• Ladies versus Butlers! at Xebec