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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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…
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| 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).
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| 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.