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In Lucky Star, Konata calls Shiraishi, one of her classmates (and co-host of Lucky Channellu), Sebastian, apparently because he looks like a stereotypical butler. This is presumably an anime/manga reference. Any idea where this reference comes from? Are butlers in a number of anime called Sebastian?

Cattua
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coleopterist
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4 Answers4

13

Seemingly that particular scene is referring to Mari Mite, or Maria-sama ga Miteru as Konata was parodying one of the main characters - Sachiko Ogasawara.

Reference

But in general, Sebastian is a stereotypical name for a butler in anime, and this fact is often used in comedic scenes involving them:

In Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Fukka insists on calling the Itoshiki families' butler Sebastian, even though that's not his name. Similar scenes occur in Junjou Romantica, Paradise Kiss and Mayoi Neko Overrun where butlers have the name forced upon them.

It occurs in Western media too, although Jeeves tends to be the name of choice, and appears in media over here in a similar sense. This first occurred in P.G. Woodhouses' short stories and novels and inspired similar characters. Presumably, the anime trope surfaced in a similar fashion.

In P.G. Woodhouses' stories, there is also a butler called Sebastian Beach, this could be just a coincidence though.

When I was looking information up on this, Black Butler and its Sebastian Michaelis kept cropping up, the name Sebastian here serves two purposes - the stereotypical butler and also sharing the name with a historic figure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Michaeli

Aki Tanaka
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Toshinou Kyouko
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    Thanks. That makes sense. Even though Mara Mite was released in anime form only in 2004, the light novels were first released in 1998. – coleopterist Apr 25 '13 at 16:43
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Konata probably called Shiraishi as Sebastian (reasoning that he looked like a sterotypical butler) because a lot of anime butlers are named as Sebastian. So the name Sebastian is probably connoted to the word butler for an otaku. And she is probably referring to the following butlers named Sebastian:

xjshiya
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  • Thank you. Any idea who the first was? The manga is from 2004 and I'm pretty sure that it carries this reference too. – coleopterist Apr 25 '13 at 07:08
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    She probably called Shiraishi as Sebastian with the reason that he looked like a stereotype butler, because a lot of anime have butlers named `Sebastian`. So its like `Sebastian` was connoted with the word butler for an otaku. – xjshiya Apr 25 '13 at 07:28
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That particular reference was to Daisuke Ono, who was the voice actor of the Sebastian butler in Black Butler. Daisuke plays himself in Lucky Star. There have been a crap-ton of Sebas-chans, though, which makes for a running gag.

SomeGai
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1

In the 1974 anime Alps no Shoujo no Heidi the Butler is called Sebastian. I guess it all started there, but it might go back even further.

Anime featuring a butler called Sebastian (even though that might not be their real name):

  • 1974, Alps no Shoujo no Heidi
  • 1998, Princess Nine: Kisaragi Joshikou Yakyuubu
  • 1999, To Heart
  • 2005, Paradise Kiss
  • 2005, Trinity Blood
  • 2006, Inukami!
  • 2007, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
  • 2008, Penguin Musume Heart
  • 2008, Kuroshitsuji
  • 2010, Mayoi Neko Overrun!
  • 2011, Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzl
  • 2012, Ixion Saga DT
  • 2013, Dokidoki! Precure
  • 2015, Overlord (though, he's called "Sebas Tian", making fun of the trope)
  • 2020, Hachi-nan tte, Sore wa Nai deshou!
  • 2021, I-Chu: Halfway Through the Idol

..and many more.

Ocean
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