School comedy which has laughter and tears － "SKET DANCE" (スケット・ダンス)

Today I want to introduce SKET DANCE. It is a school comedy manga written and illustrated by Kenta Shinohara. This manga was serialized from 33, 2007 issue to 32, 2013 issue in Weekly Shonen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ). There are 32 volumes of comic books. Thus far over 14 million copies of this manga have been printed as of August 2019, and it won the 55th Shogakukan Manga Award in the category of comic for boys in 2010.

The main characters are three people, Yusuke Fujisaki (called “Bossun”), Hime Onizuka (called “Himeko”), and Kazuyoshi Usui (called “Switch”). They are second year students of Kaimei Gakuen High School and they belong to the school life support club commonly known as SKET-dan (スケット団) which they established themselves when they were first year students. The word “SKET” comes from the initial letters of support, kindness, encouragement and troubleshoot. It is also derived from Japanese word, “助っ人“ which means helper. They work to help not only students but also teachers by offering advice and solving troubles so that people in the school can enjoy their school life comfortably. The leader of the group, Yusuke said that they are a party of supporters relied by all in the school...but unfortunately it was not reality. In actuality, they are treated like handymen. Requests from others are, for example, search for lost items or clean the backyard. Basically they are not so many clients, so they often spend their time lazily in the club room or sometimes do origami and so on. However, if someone relies on them for help, they respond with care and concern. The main flow and the highlight of this story is that they solve requests brought by students or teachers with a slapstick comedy.

This manga doesn't have flashiness like battle comics, but the characters are all unique and never boring. In addition, the stories involve a wide variety of contents such as case-style mysteries, love, science fiction, and others. I would like you to read it.

Work of Reference: Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/SKET_DANCE(accessed 2022-9-25).