8.2 /10 1 Votes
8.1/10 Anime-Planet Written by Kenta Shinohara Demographic Shōnen Published January 16, 2006 First episode date 7 April 2011 Number of episodes 77 | 8.4/10 MyAnimeList 7.9/10 IMDb Published by Shueisha Magazine Akamaru Jump Written by Kenta Shinohara Final episode date 27 September 2012 Program creator Tatsunoko Production | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Comedy, Drama, Slice of life Cast Tomokazu Sugita, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Ryoko Shiraishi, Rie Kugimiya, Manami Numakura Similar Gintama, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, School Rumble, Azumanga Daioh, Angel Beats! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sket Dance (スケット・ダンス, Suketto Dansu, romanized as SKET DANCE in Japan) is a manga series written and illustrated by Kenta Shinohara and serialized, beginning in July 2007, in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. Sket Dance won the 55th annual Shogakukan Manga Award in 2009 for best shōnen manga. An anime adaptation, produced by Tatsunoko Production, premiered on April 7, 2011 on TV Tokyo. On March 30, 2011, Crunchyroll announced that it would simulcast the Sket Dance anime series.
Contents
Plot
The manga focuses on the (mis)adventures of Kaimei High School's campus support club, the Sket Dance (Katakana: "スケット・ダン"; Kanji: "助人団"; Transliteration: "Suketto Dan"; Translation: "Helper's Club"; included English acronym: "SKET (Support, Kindness, Encouragement, and Troubleshoot)"). Dedicated to the general improvement of campus life, the Sket Dance is devoted to solving any and all problems submitted by the staff or student body. However, due to its general lack of meaningful assignments and the unglamorous reputation of being just a 'group of handymen', the Sket Dance is treated with widespread contempt and it is composed of only three members.
The story is told through a series of short, self-contained stories focusing on cases undertaken by the Sket Dan and is usually told in the space of one or two chapters. Cases to date focus on a variety of issues from more humorous cases (like chasing monkeys around the school or helping a wanna-be samurai find out why he cannot win kendo tournaments) to more serious cases (like those hinting at Himeko's violent past or those concerning near-terminal illness).
Characters from previous cases often make cameos in later cases and recurring story lines, such as the Sket Dan rivalry with the school's Student Council.
Manga
Sket Dance is written and illustrated by Kenta Shinohara and has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since July 2007. The chapters have been published into tankōbon volumes published by Shueisha with the first being released on November 2, 2007. The last volume was released on August 2, 2013 with total 288 chapters and 32 tankōbon volumes.
Outside Japan, the series is licensed by Tong Li Publishing in Taiwan.
Drama CDs
Shueisha released one drama CD Sket Dance ドラマCD (ISBN 978-4-08-901169-0) on October 30, 2009, and a second Sket Dance 2 ドラマCD (ISBN 978-4-08-901171-3) was released on April 28, 2010.
Light novels
Anime
An anime adaption produced by Tatsunoko Production of the Manga Sket Dance premiered on April 7, 2011 on TV Tokyo. It contains six openings and endings with 77 episodes as of September 26, 2012. An OVA was released on February 4, 2013, bundled with the 29th volume of the manga series.
Video games
Bossun, Himeko, and Switch appear together as a single support character in the Jump crossover fighting game J-Stars Victory VS.
Reception
From volume 6 onward, Sket Dance has consistently debuted on the weekly best sellers list for manga in Japan. Volume 6 debuted at number 9. Volumes 7, 9, and 10 debuted at number 11. Volume 8 debuted at number 13 while volume 11 debuted at number 12. In January 2010, Sket Dance was announced as the winner of the 55th annual Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen manga.
In September 2009, Japanese publisher Shueisha issued an apology in the 42nd weekly issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump over a depiction of main characters, Bossun and Himeko, inhaling helium to raise the pitch of their voices. The scene drew criticism from online forums and blogs over the danger of suffocation from breathing helium.