Sket Dance

Sket Dance (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kenta Shinohara. The manga follows the adventures of the Sket-dan, a high school club whose goal it is to help the students and teachers of Kaimei High School with their problems, as they do whatever it takes to help make their campus a better place. The story is mainly told in the perspective of the Sket-dan's three members: Bossun, the leader of the group; Himeko, the "muscle" and the only female in the group; and Switch, the otaku and the "brains" of the group. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 2007 to July 2013, with its chapters collected in 32 volumes.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series produced by Tatsunoko Production, and was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 2011 to September 2012, airing 77 episodes. In 2009, Sket Dance won the 55th annual Shogakukan Manga Award in the category.

Synopsis

The manga follows the shenanigans and day-to-day activities of the Sket-dan (スケット団), a high school club dedicated towards helping other people in the campus of Kaimei High School, whether teacher or student, with whatever request they have – completely free of charge.

The club consists of three members: Bossun, the immature yet reliable "jack-of-all-trades" leader of the group; Himeko, the aggressive yet delicate "muscle" of the group who wields a hockey stick as her weapon; and Switch, the tech-savvy otaku and the "brains" of the group who only speaks through his laptop with speech synthesis software. Together as the Sket-dan, the trio take on requests from different kinds of individuals around their school, and no matter how big or small the request, no matter how mundane or absurd, the Sket-dan manage to always get the job done – all on a mission to improve the lives of the people in their high school.

Media

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.[28] Volumes 7, 9, and 10 debuted at number 11.[29][30][31] Volume 8 debuted at number 13[32] while volume 11 debuted at number 12.[33]

In January 2010, Sket Dance was announced as the winner of the 55th annual Shogakukan Manga Award for best manga.[34]

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.[35]

External links