Random mindreading does sound like it would be awesome…
What They Say:
When Switch brings out an invention that can read the minds of animals, he and the other members quickly find out that it can also read human minds! Then, Himeko has been recruited by Momoka to go on a TV show, where she has to battle a professional comedian in a war of zingers.
The Review:
With some fun having been had when it comes to Saaya and her interests and the way that Bossun and Himeko have danced around things recently, as well as a little fun with Tsubaki, there’s definitely some fun relationship potential going on here. But like a lot of shows of this nature, I can’t help but to feel that it’ll remain as just that, potential, with little in the way of real progress. It’s usually counterproductive for some writers to do actual relationships since it’s easier to write the other side of things. Still, Sket Dance manages to balance things well since it has such a diverse cast to work with and can massage the situation out for awhile without it really being too forced. Though as you can tell from the new opening sequence here, the cast of women has definitely grown in the past sixty-five episodes.
This episode goes back to just some simple, wacky fun, especially with Switch who has been a bit on the outside recently as the show goes in cycles. The silliness starts off quickly when Switch builds a device that can read the minds of animals and translates it to human speech, which is cute when it comes to Hoosuke, the club owl. Where it gets amusing and fun is when they discover that the machine can read human minds as well, up to a five kilometer radius, but it’s completely random. This leads to a rather silly game on their part which is fun, especially since all the big animal heads and masks are dragged out to hide who looks like what while things are being thought as they try to guess who is thinking what. With this particular trio, it goes wonky quickly and you can’t help but to laugh.
The second half goes in a whole other direction when the trio end up at the TV studio to help out Momoka a bit, something Switch will always be there for. Himeko’s been drawn into the show where it is, as described, involves a battle of zingers between the contestants and a professional comedian. The competition is certainly amusing as they go at it and Himeko holds her own, really surprising the guy. There’s a lot of fun with it as they get into a pretty serious competition, but it goes even further when she gets to play off of Bossun once he gets dragged out on stage as a participant. While Himeko’s material felt a bit flat for me, the fun was in watching how Bossun handles the whole situation and the overall enthusiasm of Switch.
In Summary:
Sket Dance has a pair of fun stories here, but the first one worked a lot better for me overall. The silliness of the whole mind reading device just worked right as one of the outlandish things that people like Switch and Chuu end up coming up with just to produce some goofy results. The second half is a bit more reality based with Momoka drawing in Himeko for some help and she ends up getting completely caught up in it and overperforming when you get down to it. It doesn’t quite have the bite or strong laughs that it could or should, but it is silly and fun. I think Bossun steals the show in that story though but I have to admit that the final scene with how Himeko reacts to Momoka’s news about how it’s like a tournament is priceless.
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.
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