What these kids really needed was a teacher that’s just a few years older than them. That’l keep them in line…
What They Say:
The Sket-dan get a new assistant homeroom teacher (who wants everyone to call her, Onee-san), but she’s a klutz and is upset she can’t be a good role model for the students, so the Sket-dan ask Chuu-san to help with some of his strange drugs. Later, Switch goes through some old inventions of his that didn’t work out as intended…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After an amusing and in-joke filled episode last week with the Gintama crossover, Sket Dance gets back to basics here with some silly comedy and a hilarious new opening sequence just for this episode. The show focuses a bit on the real school side of things as the kids get a new homeroom teacher since their regular teacher is pregnant and “ready to pop out a kid” as Chuu says. This means that they get a temporary teacher for a bit named Misora Remi, who used to be a child actor that now takes all her passion and genkiness into the world of high school. Though it’s just for a moment, we get the kids opening theme to her show before it shifts into the real new opening sequence which is a lot of fun and expands on capturing a lot of the supporting cast of characters, rivalries and general silliness.
Misora is comical right from the start with her additional colors to her look as an assistant teacher and the fact that she basically looks like a schoolgirl herself standing at the front of the room. She insists everyone call her Onee-san and she basically takes on everyone for all kinds of reasons with a lot of motivation and excitement. Naturally, she runs into some small problems but she also ends up befriending the Sket Club a good bit and through them and Chuu, they help to sort of settle her a bit with her personality and what it is she needs to be as a proper teacher. It’s all fairly predictable stuff when it comes to shows revolving around the eager new teacher in training, but it also has some fun moments as well that allows it to work, even if it’s not fantastic or hugely funny material.
Misora does get more involved with the group as it goes on too, such as when Switch ends up showing off a bunch of his inventions that he’s made over the last couple of years that never really amounted to anything for a variety of reasons. A lot of them being that they’re utterly pointless things. The monkey head bag was priceless with the way you open its head from the top and can put thing in its mouth as well. Bossun’s time with the hover shoes is great too, especially as he’s on it when Switch talks about the fatal mistake in its design. It’s a very simple segment of the episode as it’s mostly show and tell but with some dangerous effects mixed in. There’s not much value per se, but it’s fun and has some good comedy to it, especially since it lets Misora get a little more involved without dominating all of it.
In Summary:
Getting the show back on track after the Switch background episodes and then the crossover event, Sket Dance mostly does things right here and in tune with past episodes. Introducing a new character that looks to be involved for at least a bit since she’s also in the new opening sequence worked well even if she is rather basic at this point. She dominates the first half but is blended in better in the second half where things focus more on Switch and his gadgets as everyone monkey’s around with them. They all have a use in the end though which is done in a very fun way even with it being serious at the same time, leaving me to just smile along with it all and how well done the animation is for it at times. Fun stuff, mostly fluff, but fun.
Grade: B
Streamed 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.
