SKET Dance (Anime)

SKET Dance -  copyright: written by Kenta Shinohara (Manga) and Tatsunoko Production (Studio) / TV Tokyo

Imagine that you are watching one of your favorite programs or playing one of your favorite games. Everything is going as usual, when suddenly a character in the program quotes something that does not make part of that universe. Something like playing a Zelda game and finding a Mario’s game character, or when a movie has a character from another franchise.

It is thanks to Gintama that I discovered this amazing comedy anime that I will now talk about. Its name is SKET Dance, an anime that tells the story of a support group formed by three students: Bossun, the creative leader; Himeko, both the muse and the muscles; and Switch, the “know-it-all”. The support group SKET Dance main mission is to help all the students in its community and solves any problems taken to them.

SKET Dance (from left to right): Switch, Bossun and Himeko

As I said before, SKET Dance is a comedy anime. 90% of the series is full of jokes and crazy situations, always with great funny moments. Most of these moments are due to the anime characters unique personalities that create many lovely relationships. Besides the main trio, there are many fascinating characters: the samurai apprentice Shojiro, the supernatural Yuuki Reiko, the softball player Chiaki Takahashi (also known as Captain), the bully/voice actress/singer Momoka, the odd singer Dante, the tsundere Saaya, the mangaka Roman, among many others.

SKET Dance characters (I am sorry, but there is not enough space to list them all...)

Each episode is normally self-contained, which is good if you are not looking for those long plot sequences. The SKET Dance works are quite variable, from assisting teachers in their romantic lives to looking for missing items. Among them, for me the best chapters are when the trio must help its classmates in their personal problems, as dealing with love relationships (Bossun and Himeko are or are not a couple?) or accomplishing “impossible” missions (as win a Genesis Grand Prix or complete an action figures collection).

Never forget the Genesis pre-game dance!

The other 10% of SKET Dance are the background stories, which tell the origin of the main group. These singular episodes show how Bossun, Himeko and Switch met each other, and why they created a group to help their classmates. These stories are far more serious than the others chapters, but even so they keep the anime standards of quality. If it wasn’t for the familiar characters, we could think that it was a different (but also great) series.

The anime has a good variety of great plots, such as when Bossun becomes a child again

When talking about this anime, I cannot forget to talk about the Student Council, the SKET Dance “antagonists”. Obviously, the groups do not fight literally. The problem is that both are dedicated to solve problems and help the academic community, which makes them natural adversaries. Organized in five members, Agata, Tsubaki, Mimorin, Asahina and Shinba are responsible for some of the funniest episodes. And I have not even talked about Tsubaki and Bossun “rivalry” that hides a mysterious relationship…

The Student Council (from left to right: Agata, Asahina, Tsubaki, Mimorin and Shinba) vs SKET Dance

For me, the only con of SKET Dance is the series conclusion. Without telling any spoiler, the anime last chapter was a good one, ending with a big cliffhanger (for an inexistent sequence). Some people may consider it like those classic endings “and SKET Dance adventures will continue forever”. Even if this is the case, I still think that is a good series waste. The manga goes further on the characters stories, which could be perfectly adapted to anime (the manga end is really amazing, by the way).

Thanks for presenting SKET Dance to me, Gintama!

If you are looking for a funny anime, full of both silly humor and intelligent jokes, SKET Dance is a great option. It is impossible to resists Bossun’s silly inteligence, Himeko’s deadly charm and Switch’s scientific “otakuness”, besides the many others lovely characters present in the series. Most chapters have a single episode length, which is great when you just want to watch a good series without having much time to spend. So, don’t forget: if you are looking for fun, just call the Support-Kindness-Encouragement-Troubleshoot Dance group.