Manga Review: Sket Dance

Title: Sket Dance
Author: Shinohara Kenta
Release: Weekly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Slice of Life, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: S
Characters: S
Humor: S
Action: A

Impression: This about rag-tag team of colorful characters that have formed an official club in their school dedicated to helping people and their everyday antics. As many times as that has been done, this is definitely the best example I’ve seen of it. The author manages to mix in “rolling on the floor laughing out loud” levels comedy and many incredibly heartwarming crowning moments in this simplistic but wonderful story. There are even unexpected moments of coolness from characters you don’t expect to see them from. The characters are very well thought out and each one manages to achieve some level of depth within their eccentric actions. That applies to most of the recurring characters within the story as well. I have never known a Shonen manga that has been capable of achieving an indisputable crowning moment of heartwarming within the first 10 chapters let alone having an average of one every ten chapters. There are even some tearjerker moments that have been almost as effective Key’s crying game tactics. As over the top the main characters can be (That’s our Switch!), they all have surprising well thought out reasons for being the way they are and flashbacks into all three characters’ pasts have proven the author’s ability to tug at the heart strings time and time again. This is easily overlooked by manga readers thanks to its deceivingly battle manga-esque name and the concept behind the story but this is something that is easily on the same level as Honey and Clover, only a hell lot funnier. I myself dismissed it as a battle manga because the name reminded me of a certain Epitaph from .Hack G.U. but when I did check it out, I simply could not wait to read more.