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In the game あつまれどうぶつの森, フータ the owl's job is to evaluate fossils that the player brings him. If you bring him a fossil that's already in the collection, he will say that if he had enough money he would buy it from you:

ま、それも　かなわぬ夢なので

とにかくこちらは　お返しいたしますデス

Well, that's just an impossible dream.

Anyway, let me return this to you for now.

My question is: what kind of affectation is 〜ますです? In what speech register would it even be appropriate? If it is appropriate in some speech register, who typically speaks like this?

Text from game

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  • 1
    Isn't デス just his 語尾? Each character has one.
    – Leebo
    Jul 18, 2020 at 23:36
  • It's not. He only uses it here.
    – jogloran
    Jul 19, 2020 at 0:02
  • 3
    He also uses this particular 「ますデス」 on the explanation of Pteranodon: 「同じ　翼を持つ者として、 ストイックさに　頭が下がりますデス・・・」though on other cases, he uses です normally.
    – Andrew T.
    Jul 19, 2020 at 6:40
  • In fiction, some always uses ますです as a キャラ語尾, but people who are not good at keigo occasionally use it when they tries to be politer than usual. For example a confused ドジっ子 girl might say "すみません、すぐに掃除しますです!"
    – naruto
    Jul 20, 2020 at 4:06
  • @naruto That seems plausible. It's a little strange, though, because in other respects this character's 敬語 is quite standard.
    – jogloran
    Jul 20, 2020 at 6:44

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ますです should be 二重敬語 as a grammar. お願いします or お願いです is a normal polite speech.

However, from my knowledge, I think the game, manga, novel, etc. characters often say so adding the nuance of formality even if it is 二重敬語.　It is consensus that owls do not speak natural language, so writing です as デス implies owls trying to speak Japanese somewhat awkwardly as a result of mimicking natural language.

The discussion Is おはようです just weird also explains キャラ語尾 or how the です works in アニメ.

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