One of the seven mysteries of the academy is now being tackle by the Sket club!
What They Say:
Yuuki Reiko, member of the Occult Club, barges into the Sket-dan’s room holding a picture of one of Kaimei Academy’s seven mysteries, the “Ghost of the Incinerator”. The Sket-dan are on the case (mainly Switch), trying to find out the truth behind the picture, and getting Shimada Takako from the Newspaper Club mixed up in it, too…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As Sket Dance continues along, we’re getting familiar with the various clubs and activities that populate the school and the kinds of wacky things that they go to the Sket club for in order to have resolved. We’ve had the manga club, sports and so forth in just the first few episodes, so it’s little surprise that the show jumps on the occult bandwagon early on by introducing Reiko, a positively occult stereotype girl who comes to them for help from the Occult Club. Like just about any school, at least according to anime lore, there are seven mysteries within the place and they’re all fairly traditional pieces. She wants them to deal with one of those mysteries with the “Ghost of the Incinerator” mystery.
While we’ve seen Himeko and Bossun getting some stories of their own so far, this one lets Switch take the spotlight as he gets into the idea of disproving the mystery as a ghost story kind of thing. With him being so technology bound, what with a laptop always in front of him and a computer voice that lets him get his thoughts across, it certainly makes sense that he’d take this approach. While Switch does take the lead on this, the other two aren’t ignored as they get involved in their own way, including have Bossun go all existential for a moment as he puts himself out there to try and understand part of what he’s seeing with the picture that Reiko gave them of the man floating above the ground from behind.
As the episode plays on, it’s amusing how even when the story is seemingly focused on Switch, he becomes less of a player in it as Bossun take the lead in explaining how the trick is worked. Bossun’s personality is certainly one that makes it easy for him to do it while Switch himself prefers to just be confident and work his own angles. He’s not a glory seeker, not that Bossun really is either, but he’s comfortable in letting others explain the mystery and how it all works. When it gets down to the actual mystery, it’s a nice little piece that speaks well of the people involved with what they’ll do for Reiko to make sure she gets things out of her life that she wants. You do have to feel bad for Reiko as the truth comes out there, since something she was very much believing has been proven to be a lie, but it’s a fairly standard schoolgirl bonding moment, sans any real fanservice.
In Summary:
The further into Sket Dance that I get, the more that I find the show is just plain harmless. It’s not a show that’s meant to do really big things or to be super serious, but the stories it’s telling so far are very, very familiar. The fun comes in the characters of course, and we’ve gotten a few little nuggets about the leads, but mostly it’s a revolving door cast of guests that come on that help to provide the actual stories. While this is a decent bit of fun, Sket Dance lacks something it needs to really be more than average. There are some minor things happening in the background, wit the introduction of the vice president of the class who gets some bookend material here that may bring something new to the show, but so far Sket Dance is a take it or leave it show. One that I think looks very good and has its own sense of fun and style, but it’s one that hasn’t separated itself yet from a sea of similar shows over the years.
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.