''Sket Dance'' (stylized as ''SKET DANCE'') is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

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-dans three members: Bossun, the leader of the group; Himeko, the "muscle" and the only female in the group; and

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

, the ''otaku'' and the "brains" of the group. It was serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The fol ...

's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the '' Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that ru ...

'' from July 2007 to July 2013, with its chapters collected in 32 ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. The manga was adapted into an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series produced by Tatsunoko Production, and was broadcast on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certifie ...

from April 2011 to September 2012, airing 77 episodes. In 2009, ''Sket Dance'' won the 55th annual Shogakukan Manga Award in the ''shōnen'' category.

Synopsis

The manga follows the shenanigans and day-to-day activities of the , 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

, 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

Manga

''Sket Dance'' is written and illustrated by Kenta Shinohara. A

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

chapter was published in the Winter 2006 issue of

's ''

Akamaru Jump Akamaru may refer to: *Akamaru (Naruto), Kiba Inuzuka's dog in the ''Naruto'' series *Akamaru Island Akamaru is the third largest island in the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia. It is a small, rocky island with an area of approximately . The ...

'' and another one-shot was published in Shueisha's ''

'' on August 28, 2006. ''Sket Dance'' was later serialized for six years in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from July 14, 2007, to July 8, 2013. Its 288 individual chapters were published in thirty-two ''

'' volumes published by Shueisha, released from November 2, 2007, to August 2, 2013. Starting in 2018,

revealed plans to re-release ''Sket Dance'' into a 16-volume '' bunkoban'' edition release, which condenses two ''tankōbon'' volumes of the manga series into one supersized volume. The first two ''bunkoban'' volumes of ''Sket Dance'' were released on June 18, 2018. The final ''bunkoban'' volume was released on January 18, 2019, and the complete 16-volume box set was released on August 8, 2019. Outside Japan, the series is licensed by

Tong Li Publishing Tongli Publishing Co. ( Chinese: 東立出版社, Hanyu Pinyin: ''Dōng Lì Chūbǎnshè''), most known as Tong Li Comics, is a publishing company which distributes a variety of domestic and imported comics in Taiwan. History Tong Li was founde ...

in Taiwan, by Kazé in France, by Elex Media Komputindo in Indonesia, and by Kim Đồng Publishing House in Vietnam.

Anime

In October 2010, an

television series adaptation of ''Sket Dance'' was announced. Animated by Tatsunoko Production and directed by Keiichiro Kawaguchi, the series was broadcast for seventy-seven episodes on

from April 7, 2011, to September 27, 2012. The series has been published in numerous DVD volumes. The first DVD compilation of ''Sket Dance'' was released on August 28, 2011, with individual volumes being released monthly. As of May 24, 2013, 26 individual volumes have been released. An

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...

(OVA) was released on February 4, 2013, bundled with the 29th volume of the manga. In September 2021, in commemoration of the anime's 10th anniversary, it was announced that a

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

box set, titled "''Sket Dance Memorial Complete Blu-ray''", is set to be released on December 24, 2021. It will include the seventy-seven episodes and the 2013 OVA. On October 15, 2021, the first 25 episodes became available for

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

in Japan on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pr ...

. Episodes 26 to 51 will be made available on November 15, and episodes 52 to 77 will be made available on December 15.

Drama CDs

So far, Shueisha has released two drama CD based on the manga series. The first drama CD is named ''Sket Dance ドラマCD'' (), and was released on October 30, 2009. A second drama CD called ''Sket Dance 2 ドラマCD'' () was released on April 28, 2010.

Light novels

*SKET DANCE extra dance1: Theory true? Seven wonders of school *SKET DANCE extra dance2: Student Council Case Report ~The Cook Shell Incident~

Video games

Bossun, Himeko, and Switch appear together as a single support character in the ''Jump'' crossover fighting game ''

J-Stars Victory VS is a crossover fighting video game that combines the universes of several ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' manga series, including former series and some that have been transferred to other magazines. It was released in Japan by Bandai Namco Entertainme ...

''.

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.

References

External links

Official Website

Sket Dance
at TV Tokyo * {{Tatsunoko Production 2006 manga 2009 Japanese novels Animated television series about teenagers Anime series based on manga Comedy anime and manga Light novels School life in anime and manga Shōnen manga Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Slice of life anime and manga Tatsunoko Production TV Tokyo original programming Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga Japanese high school television series