The bigger the girl, the bigger the heart.
What They Say:
The Sket-dan try to help Koma-chan, a huge girl with a tiny voice. Koma-chan wants to find love, but every time she gets nervous, her near-superhuman strength is unleashed, as Bossun learns firsthand
The Review:
When it comes to the size of schools and the general student body, it’s easy to imagine that the Sket Club would have more than enough people looking for help with some pretty varied situations. The challenge becomes over time though to not overdo who it is that gets drawn into it as the new characters could be pretty over the top in some ways. Sket Dance kind of crossed that line for me a long time ago with their Jason homage character and one or two others, but even still they’ve managed to play things fairly realistically for the most party. This episode is no exception as they introduce Koma, a female student who has a pretty big problem that she wants to get some help with.
Koma, described as a huge girl but is just a few inches taller and a touch stockier than Bossun, has the problem in that she wants to find true love and experience happiness. Her problem is her size but also that her larger body comes with a very small and shy voice that barely anyone can hear. She does get a little better in talking with the club members after a few minutes though, but she’s still very soft spoken and unsure of herself. Typical of many in this situation, she’s certainly adorable in her own way as she carries herself with a downward look and plenty of blushing which is often made worse by how Bossun interacts with her since he has zero tact when it comes to women. But they’re all intent on helping her Koma is pretty old school in a lot of ways and it’s pretty cute to watch, especially as they give a little Dragon Ball Z style nod to some of her clothes with the weight of them.
As the story goes on, there are some fun moments as Koma gets to deal with Bossun but also some other guys, including Dante, which she has some good fun with since both of them are pretty shy in their own way. What makes it even more fun is that Himeko practically takes over as a matchmaker as she does her best to get the two of them together. She also gets to serve as the translator for Dante since he’s so sprawling in his style of speech. Watching as the club in general tries to decipher just one particular thing he says is comical. Just the whole varied way the dialogue goes during this session is amusing to watch since they’re translating, Koma is speaking softly and then screaming and then beating the snot out of Bossun because of how he repeats things in a voice she can’t which just embarrasses her. It’s the kind of vicious cycle that provides for some good comedy but also has a good bit of heart as well because of the two characters involved.
In Summary:
The introduction of Koma is a pretty nice addition to the series, though the soft spoken nature is something that can be a little problematic if it was a regular thing. Pairing her up with Dante is quite amusing since it’s hard to imagine how any long and indepth conversation between the two of them would go and not end up in a fight since Koma is so easily set off and he’s so easily misunderstood. Himeko has some nice time in here and while Switch is kind of sidelined for a bunch of it, Bossun gets to step up nicely and has some good action bits to it as he takes heaps of abuse from Koma. I can see Koma being a fun character in future episodes and while this isn’t a knockout, it’s a character I’d certainly like to see more of. Her story and the music really just feels like something out of an 80’s romantic comedy.
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.
