The gang ends up in a pair of mixers where love is most definitely in the air.
What They Say:
Bossun and Himeko get into a little fight, and things are made worse when Bossun and Switch are invited to a mixer with Seiji and three other girls. Bossun is rarin’ to impress with his comedic flair, but he’s in for a tough crowd. Without Himeko’s firey comebacks, Bossun’s humor falls flat…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After the whole band arc piece in which we got to see a different side of Bossun, this episode gives him and Switch the opportunity a chance to shine once again. Bossun’s having a bit of a struggle with Himeko at this point in time and actively looks for a way to go and do something else. What they luck into is when Seiji comes to ask them to come to a mixer at a family restaurant with him as there are three girls and he needs two other guys. And he picks Bossun in particular because he seemed like such a fun guy during the music piece before. Bossun’s enthused and even Switch is, once he confirms there’s no alcohol. It’s all an effort to help Seiji though since he really likes one of the girls and is basically asking for the male side of the Sket Club to help him out.
Amusingly, the whole thing goes very well for Seiji as Tomoko is totally into him as well and they confess to each other right on the spot within a minute or two of the mixer getting underway. Which in turn leaves our two guys with the other part of the mixer, who were basically in the same position as them by helping out Tomoko. The guys have to do their best to entertain the girls, which scares the crap out of Himeko who is attempting to watch quietly from the next booth over. What’s comical about it all is that Bossun tries everything in the book that he has and it all falls completely flat on the girls. Yet Himeko is laughing so hard inside at everything he does, it just reinforces the connection the two of them have. Though this does make a certain amount of sense, I still can’t see the two of them as a couple even though it’s being painted as a long term inevitable kind of thing through storylines like this.
While all of this dominates the episode, they do throw in the flip side with a mixer set up by the girls with Himeko being drawn in with Yabasu and Kumi with a trio of guys. While the guys obviously aren’t hideous, they all have minor flaws that she can’t help but to point out. Like Bossun, she’s outgoing in an awkward way and can’t get into the rhythm of the thing. Especially since the guys are all being fairly seriously and her strange sense of humor and comedy doesn’t work in the slightest. And like Bossun’s mixer, things go pretty fast for some of the participatns here. After the way she dealt with Bossun and Switch, it’s fun to see just how awkward she is in these kinds of situations as well.
In Summary:
Sket Dance focuses lightly on romance this time around and it works pretty well. What we get the most out of all of this though is that our lead trio, as good a bunch of kids as they may be, are completely inept when it comes to social situations with the other gender and with each other in general. Bossun and Switch can’t handle it well with the two girls who don’t get them and Himeko is so out of left field and joking at inappropriate times that it makes everyone uncomfortable. The trio leads such a particular kind of life and grapples with everything with a different sense of humor that they have a hard time fitting into a “normal” life event sometimes. With so much of what they do being over the top activities and going the distance to help others, it’s not surprising. It makes for a cute episode, but one that does feel a bit forced in a way.
Grade: B-
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.