Sket Dance dabbles in poop for awhile. Sadly.
What They Say:
First, a Sket fractured fairy tail pits crab (Himeko) versus devious monkey (Switch), with Bossun thrown in as a piece of crap. Meanwhile, in continuity, when Date becomes an enka singer overnight, can the Sket-dan bring him back to his normal visual-kei self?
The Review:
After a few good episodes dealing with a variety of different things, Sket Dance makes me cringe right from the first frame as you read the episode title. Genius Poopman Yearning. Hoo boy. That alone gave me reason to feel less than eager to get into th eepisode and the prologue dealing with a fairy tale version of the crew as a monkey, crab and a piece of poop only further cemented it. Sometimes they can do stuff with the fairy tales and out of continuity stuff pretty well and it can make you laugh, but other times like this it really is just cringe inducing for me. A show of this nature does need to take time here and there throughout its run to just have fun and be silly, but…
This one just left me beyond cold. The last thing I needed to see what Bossun dressed up as a piece of crap. The entire first half here is something that is better just written off and ignored.
The second half brings us back to the main world storyline as it gives us a Dante story, which generally means its another one that I get to tune out. Dante just isn’t all that interesting of a character, especially with the way he’s so hard to hear. This time though, he’s undergone a change from his visual kei style to that of an enka singer, kimono and all. It’s actually rather amusing to see him in this way as he’s easier to hear and more outgoing to some degree, really giving us a very different look at him. With Dante’s friends wanting to get him back, the Sket club gets involved but are just entranced by how good he is as an enka player. It’s amusing to see him in this light, but it doesn’t stop them from going all visual kei themselves in an effort to draw him back.
In Summary:
Sket Dance has one of those episode that just leaves me tired in a way. The opening piece was just plain unfunny and didn’t work from start to finish for me. While they’ve done some stories before that step outside the realm of continuity that I liked, it’s pretty hit or miss and this is a big miss. The second half is a decent story involving Dante, which is a rare thing itself, but it’s not enough to salvage the episode. Dante brings some good bits here though with his whole enka involvement and a good ending to it, both with him and with Kura, that at least sends you off with a smile if you made it through the whole thing.
Grade: C
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.
