Skip to Loafer

In order to pursue her dream of bringing positive changes to Japan, Mitsumi Iwakura leaves her countryside town to attend a prestigious high school in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. As she has already mapped a clear life plan, she has absolute confidence that there will be zero mishaps from then onwards.

Despite her ambitious promise, the country girl ends up running late on the first day when she gets lost on her way to school. Fortunately, she meets a fellow first-year student, Sousuke Shima, who is in the same situation and offers to go with her. They eventually make it to school, but the misfortunes do not end there, as Mitsumi leaves an unfavorable first impression in front of her classmates.

Nevertheless, the class soon takes notice of her friendship with Sousuke despite their opposing personalities. Only time will tell whether Mitsumi will be able to forge fruitful relationships with her classmates, and she will certainly not be alone.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Iwakura, Mitsumi Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Shima, Sousuke Main

Egoshi, Akinori Japanese

Murashige, Yuzuki Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Egashira, Mika Supporting

Terasaki, Yuka Japanese

Nao-chan Supporting

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Kanechika, Narumi Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Kurume, Makoto Supporting

Han, Megumi Japanese

Tooyama, Fumino Supporting

Morohoshi, Sumire Japanese

Takamine, Tokiko Supporting

Tsuda, Minami Japanese

Yamada, Kento Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Cao, Cong Producer

Matsui, Yuuko Producer

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Tsuji, Mitsuhito Producer

Reviews

Nov 18, 2024

MrSlamboni

Recommended

Skip and Loafer shows that you can excel with just the basics. The characters act like human beings. Words that end with -dere are abandoned in favor of writing actually good characters. Each character has their own colorful and interesting personality and they interact like real human beings would. The characters also stay true to their personality and act accordingly. It is great that a writer finally got rid of the stupid one-trait characters that only do one thing.

There is no crazy premise or story with time-travel or whatnot. The setting is just a normal high school setting. Life is chill and there are no ... crazy stakes like death, poverty or world ending disaster. There is just the normal high school drama and their usual social interactions like friendship, conflict, school and events.

However, Skip and Loafer skillfully makes this interesting to watch. You see the effort characters expend to connect with each other. There is sometimes friction due to misunderstandings, jealousy or malice. Other times, friendships grow due to positive experiences between people. There are no deadly stakes, but there are stakes which matter and are relatable. People aren't instantly friends but their relationships develop based on their experiences.

The main characters and their interactions specifically sell the show for me. This is not a story of boy meets girl and instantly they fall in love. In fact, the romance aspect is sparse here. Sousuke himself is very socially adept and knows how to deal with others. However, he is cryptic and hides his true thoughts. Of course, you can infer how he feels a lot of the time due to his behavior and tone, but he will always politely smile and try to hide his true self. He becomes friends with his opposite, Mitsumi. She is transparent, headfirst and a little socially awkward. She interacts with people in good faith and speaks her mind.

My personal analysis is that Sousuke becomes friends with Mitsumi because he feels comfortable speaking with someone who has no ulterior motives. Mitsumi becomes friends with Sousuke because she enjoys their time together and she learns more about social norms through him. It is a very interesting dynamic and it makes perfect sense why they would be friends.

Sousuke's cryptic personality drives the story forward due to the viewer's knowledge that he is hiding something, especially when he deflects some questions. On the other hand, Mitsumi drives the plot forward in a "hero's journey" kind of way. The viewer knows her goals and you watch her try to achieve them. In a sense, Sousuke is the "mystery" aspect of the show and Mitsumi is the "straightforward journey"

The show relies on "show don't tell". Sousuke doesn't say "My polite smile hides what I truly think." You see it through the changes in his voice, how he talks, how he behaves, how talkative he is, etc. In fact, it is impressive how they took a character who is supposed to be cryptic and they made him subtly change his behavior based on what he is feeling. The rest of the cast operates in a similar way. Sometimes you can infer their motivations just by how they phrase their sentences or how they act.

There is nothing crazy but the creators have made a great show. I hope there are more seasons. I gave this 8/10 in my personal list purely because I had to rate it lower than certain other shows and movies, but it easily deserves a 9. This is my favorite anime romcom.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 16, 2024

randomath

Mixed Feelings

The pace is very slice-of-lifey, so it's hard to get absorbed into it if you don't have the best attention span. That said, the characters make it worth-while since they're unique and realistic. I haven't really seen some of the conflicts before portrayed in anime in the same way, and it feels like a lot of this show can be summed up as "not everyone is as they appear." A lot of the more trope-like characters often have hidden details making them more complex. The plot is pretty standard for a slice-of-life school anime, but the characters push this anime to an 8 for me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 16, 2024

KiloSixteen

Not Recommended

Funny

Thought it was supposed to be a romance. I was extremely bored the whole show. Not sure why I even finished it tbh.
I know there have been alot of good reviews about it, I think people enjoyed the slice of life and the character development aspect, but that still was absent for me personally and I was more or less just waiting for something romance-related, which never came.
There was I think one part where it was hinted at the possibility between the two main characters but it was so short lived. So if you like romance stuff, this aint for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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