First Look: SKET Dance
Title: SKET Dance Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life
Summary: The manga focuses on the misadventures of the “Campus Support Group” or “Sket-Dan”, of Kaimei Gakuen, a club devoted to solving any and all problems brought to it by the staff or student body for the general improvement of campus life. Due to its general lack of meaningful assignments and unglamorous ‘group of handymen’ reputation the organization is treated with widespread contempt and it is composed of only three members.
First Look: A slice of life comedy that is actually pretty funny, and a bit interesting. So far SKET Dance is one of the most entertaining anime out this season. The premise isn’t anything special and I’m sure it has been done before (MM! for example) but it has its own shine. The story itself isn’t all that great. I was never really interested in the problem the members had to solve. So far there haven’t been any interesting developments either. The series is done episodically which doesn’t leave much room for support character development. However, I think what makes the anime so enjoyable are the main characters.
The three main characters of the Campus Support Group are very enjoyable to watch. The hot headed Hime is one of my favorite characters. I’ve always been a fan of the bad girl as you can probably tell from my past reviews or favorite characters list. It seems obvious that she is trying to change herself for the better, which is very commendable. Plus she is kind of cute with her fixation are probably the most disgusting candy I’ve ever heard of. Kazuyoshi, the tech specialist of the group isn’t too bad either. He hasn’t really done anything more than finding out information (scarily detailed information) about the client/target. I find his inability to do any real field work rather amusing. Having him stand around awkwardly in the background when a fight breaks out making strange posses or yelling in his computerized voice has made laugh on multiple occasions. Finally, the center of the spot light is Yusuke. His desire to help anyone in need with any problem is kind of inspiring. I’m still curious as to why he created such a club, and I’m sure in twenty-four episodes they will explain.
The series is pretty straight forward but it seems to be hinting at some sort of bigger story. For example, the student council president seems like he might play a big role later on. It seems like the school in general isn’t on SKET’s side which I’m a bit curious about. It doesn’t seem like the club has done anything worth getting mad about except the occasional property damage. But come on, kids will be kids amIright? What’s a couple exploding baseballs among friends? With an unknown number of episodes I can either see this series being pretty average or a little better. I’m not expecting much and I’d probably consider it something to watch if you have the time. We can only wait and see!
Final statements: I’ll be keeping this on watch for the rest of the season with somewhat high hopes. It seems to be headed in the right direction and I’ve laughed here and there, but many anime of this genre have fallen short by becoming boring. Even though I like the characters so far, they might get repetitive later on because nothing new is happening. Best of luck SKET Dance!