All good things must come to an end.
What They Say:
In this final episode, the Sket-dan does what it does best… help the students of Kaimei Academy! But there’s also time for potential romance, as Saaya sets her mind on declaring her true feelings…
The Review:
With the news in the previous episode that Sket Dance was coming to a close with this episode, it all felt like it just happened too quickly. Sometimes you like to know ahead of time that you’re time with someone or something is going to come to an end rather than finding out somewhat suddenly. Still, that’s often not the anime way when it comes to multi-season shows as they just stop almost suddenly sometimes. Sket Dance has had a good run to it and the show has moved through some fun phases recently, especially in letting the characters grow up a bit and to have the changes occurring in the student council that makes those changes even more evident. We’re not stuck with hundreds of stories happening in the span of a single school year, something that’s a huge plus.
For a finale, the show wants to do what it usually does in that it helps the various characters in the school. Some of it is simple and silly, such as focusing on how Jou continues his interest in a particular girl but finds ways that slow down his attempts at getting closer to her. Unfortunately, his attempts to get what he wants for Captain has caused a pair of friends on the basketball team to be injured and that means he’s come to the Sket Club for help. This just starts the split in the group in a way as they deal wit hmultiple requests, especially while Bossun goes through training to become a useful basketball player, something that he’s going to do his best with but can only go so far.
While closing out the series with this kind of stuff is fun, I do rather like that they deal with some good character stuff as well. Bringing Saya’s interest in Bossun to the forefront as she’s now ready to tell him, and does so, works really well to bring some additional humanity into the show. We’ve had dabblings with it before in other characters since the club has dealt with helping others find romance. Though things naturally only progress so far, it’s good to see Bossun given something to grapple with and to see Saya not leave things without at the least saying what’s going on in her heart. And of course, the show wants to cover a variety of the characters seen throughout its run in a light manner, giving many a chance to be seen if not heard as it runs through the final minutes.
In Summary:
Sket Dance was a series that took some time for me to warm up to, well over a dozen episodes, but once it found its groove and the characters started to actually develop, I got into it a fair bit. There’s certainly going to be uneven episodes along the way based on the nature of the series with what it does, but it takes some mild chances and works a variety of styles and character types to tell its tale. What helped to set it apart more is that it did make some changes along the way, grew the characters and avoided keeping them stagnant while everyone else went off screen. Characters came back, people changed, positions changed and interests changed. Sket Dance is the kind of show that is popular for a reason, and has a solid run of ongoing manga behind it, that leaves me with the hope that it’ll come back for a few more seasons here and there in the future to continue to tell the tale. And with a little luck, we might see it find a home in the US on home video as well. The series has a lot of episodes overall but it’s worth the time and investment.
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.
