A Cup of Tea, A Cup of Life...
Life is much like a hot cup of tea. You savor its scent as you take a sip on it. In life, you experience fun and excitement when you're happy but felt vexed, bitter and sad at times just like when your tongue got burned on the boiling hot tea that you're supposed to enjoy. Life is a bittersweet game that becomes harder as he level gets higher. And you will only be considered great when you had overcome them all.
Anyways, what I really wanted is to share something a certain butler that I know. Oh yes! I'm aware that there are lots of butler stories in novels, mangas, anime and dramas that had spread in just few years and it continues to capture the hearts of the readers and viewers as time goes by.
In line with it, I remembered ten great butlers that I've known for a while now. Two of them are not that well-known to me besides the fact that they were considered great butlers, the extraordinary one and they are Sebastian Michaelis from the manga turned anime turned musical turned live-action film, Kuroshitsuji and Ayasaki Hayate from the manga slash anime Hayate the Combat Butler.
First stop would be Sebastian Michaelis, a demonic butler bound by a supernatural contract to serve the twelve-year old head of the Phantomhive family, Ciel. Ciel maybe just a kid because of his age but he is the owner of a toy manufacturing company named Funtomhive. Sebie helps Ciel in his tasks and when he finished everything, which include revenge for his parents' death, Sebi is allowed to kill and take the boy's soul.
Mistsushita Yuya as Sebastian Michaelis
-Musical Kuroshitsuji-
Mizushima Hiro as Sebastian Michaelis
-Kuroshitsuji Live-Action Film-
The second one who is an another extraordinary butler is Ayasaki Hayate. He is an unfortunate lad who worked for himself since he was young. Hayate's parents are irresponsible ones and even planned to sell his organs to a Yakuza group to make money, leaving a debt of about ¥150,000,000 on his shoulders. While running away from the debt collectors, he met Sanzen'in Nagi the heiress of the wealthy Sanzen'in estate and because of a misunderstanding, she fell in love with him after he rescued her from some kidnappers. With that, Nagi hired Hayate to become her new butler. What caused him to be extraordinary is that though he does his duties as a butler, he also fights to protect Nagi from any harm.
Ayasaki Hayate
And as I said a while ago, I don't know much about these two anime so I can't say much about them. I never watched Kuroshitsuji and I had only given a chance to watch Hayate once with only one episode. Waaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!! I could imagine Kuya Amadz wearing his Sebi cosplay!!!
The next butlers in my list are Shibata Rihito, Shibata Kento and Shinobu from the Japanese drama, Mei-chan no Shitsuji. Rihito is an S-Rank butler born to serve the heiress of the Hongo family. As a bulter, he has to be with his lady, Mei, all the time in order to serve her and protect her from harm. Then here comes Rihito's younger brother Kento. MameShiba* is actually Mei's childhood friend but he doesn't want to be a butler like his brother but when Rihito took Mei after her parents' sudden death and brought her to St. Lucia Academy, he followed as an in-training butler for him to protect her as well.
Eikura Nana as Shinonome/Hongo Mei
Mizushima Hiro as Shibata Rihito
Sato Takeru as Shibata Kento
Mei-chan is the first butler drama that I had watched and I really wanted to share more fangirling about it but I have to save that for later when I watch it again~ Now, I missed Takeru so much! I still need to wait for a year for the showing of Rurouni Kenshin Live-Action Movie!!!
Anyways, let's move on to the "imba" group of butlers, the HAPPY BOYS! They are not the usual butler that we know. They are not in-charge of a manor staff or anything but they are called butlers. Oh yeah! They are butlers in a café named Lady Braganza and their mission is to make the ladies/customers happiness. Of course, these five young men have different personalities and have their own ways to make the ladies happy. one thing that I commend in them is that they touch the hearts of every customers that they had not only through their physical appearances of being ikemen* but also with their way of helping them with their problems. Shiva, Renjou, Ivory, Eve and Silk had made a big difference in the history of Lady Braganza through their heartwarming messages to everyone as they let them learn a new lesson in life for they learn through their mistakes and improve to be better and consider as great butlers of their time.
Kamakari Kenta as Akasaka Junta/Renjou
Shindo Gaku as Inada Gen/Silk
Seto Kouji as Segawa Kyoichi/Shiva
Nagashima Shuugo as Tsuruoka Kokoro/Eve
Kato Keisuke as Kitamura Kosuke/Ivory
Whoa! I said too much... Well, Happy Boys is my favorite butler drama after all! I remember how Junta asked, "Why is my name the only one written in Japanese?" Haha~!
The last but not the least is Stevens from the novel The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. Stevens is indeed a great butler in himself. He spent his days serving Lord Darlington for years since when his father was still alive. When Lord Darlington died, Mr. Farraday who is a very considerate American became his employer. Stevens is a kind of man who acts professionally all the time to the point that he always put on a mask in order to hide his true feelings and his true self. His so-called dignity as a butler lies behind the mask even his loyalty and trust to Lord Darlington is very visible to the extent that he entrust every decisions to the Lord. And because of this personality, he usually decides poorly for himself as if it is his profession that matters the most. Even though Stevens gives Lord Darlington his full trust, he still wasn't able to grow in both mind and heart for he regretted that he failed to improve himself and his view in life.
With the great influence of his father, Stevens became a butler just like him. Also, he usually talks about him and how great he is. He always keeps in mind that his father is a very dignified one to which he considers he inherited from him. With this, his notion of greatness within a person is a very evident mindset that he really looked up on his father. Stevens wanted to be like his father, a very dedicated and a very excellent one. And it became a reason for him to think only of his profession and make it his priority over his own personal feelings. It is as if he detached himself from all the emotions that he believes are not included in his profession and to his goal of becoming a great butler himself. Maybe it is also because his father doesn't really give him much attention or even doesn't give any sign that he is a family especially when he's doing his job. So, we could say here that this is one of the reasons why Stevens limited his relationships to people as well as his personal growth.
Stevens could have been productive if he had been true to Miss Kenton. MIss Kenton is the former housekeeper head of the Darlington Hall. She was hired when Stevens father was stll alive because of her efficiency and intelligence. She was also the opposite of Stevens. She will speak out her opinion on what she think is better and on the right side. She likes Stevens and she knows that he loves her too yet he didn't want to admit it because of his so-called dignity as a professional butler. Miss Kenton then grew tired of waiting and left Darlington Hall to marry another man whom she could feel accpeted and loved. She makes decisions based on her own thoughts and beliefs. In this sense, she displays more dignity and personal integrity than Stevens ever does.
Stevens's personality, as if he believes, on being dignified like his father led him to be confined in his own world. Well, thanks to Mr. Farrsaday's suggestion of him to take a leave he slowly realizes what he has done and slowly regretting the fact that he keeps on denying within himself his true feelings, the one that he should have shown even before. It is only then when he were able to interact with other people, something he missed when he was still working with Miss Kenton when the Lord Darlington was still alive.
As he goes along his journey, he kept on thinking and re-thinking all of the things that had happened years before, not to mention the convention lead by Lord Darlington himself. I'm not sure if he really found his own answers as his journey ends because when he met Miss Kenton again, she made him realize what are the things he refused to see and feel during those times when they were still working under the same employer. And after that, because of both shame and regret, he decided to go back to Darlington Hall and submitted himself to Mr. Farraday's bantering.
So that was Stevens's life. He is indeed a great butler but as a human being you should keep something left for yourself like the other butlers mentioned about for they accepted all their flaws and never achieve perfection just like what Stevens wanted to have.
Now that you've met the ten great butlers that I had known in my entire life, what do you think about them? Do they deserve to be called great?
For me, no one is as great as Kenta himself! His role as Renjou in Happy Boys really made me cry. His character maybe slow but when he realizes something and learned from his mistake, he would definitely improve himself to be the best!
*KentA picspam???*
Just remember that no matter what profession you have and whatever you do, you would be consider as a great person as long as you continue living your life to the fullest and at the same time, you accept yourself of who you are and you acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses as a person. A butler is also a human being who could feel and express himself yet being bound to his own profession and neglecting his true feelings may not be appropriate in such a way that it is as if you cannot accept who you really are!