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

Egashira, Mika Supporting

Terasaki, Yuka Japanese

Murashige, Yuzuki Supporting

Uchida, Maaya 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

Tsuji, Mitsuhito Producer

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Reviews

Jul 5, 2024

lycoping

Recommended

I'll put my summary at the top: Not a perfect anime, but deserves its high ranking.

This anime is about a girl from the sticks in Ishikawa prefecture, who starts a school in Tokyo. She wants it to go perfectly, but, well, it doesn't. But along the way she learns that things don't have to be perfect, as long as you have good people to share the journey with.

Okay, let's start with the reasons I think this anime deserved its ranking, and as with most good anime, it focused around the characters. For a while I couldn't figure out what about this ... anime I actually liked - I knew I liked it, but couldn't really figure out why. Eventually I figured it out - it shares something with many of the greats, like "Sound! Euphonium". The characters are people. It's really easy to make an anime where the characters are one-dimensional, or tropes, or played for laughs, but this anime doesn't do that. It's not so much that the characters have a backstory, more that they have realistic motivations and flaws. As the story progresses, you start to see them as human. There's no tearjerking, emotional dramatic moments like you find in "Sound! Euphonium" - as much as I love that anime, those moments aren't subtle. But they're subtle here, like you would get in real life. Little moments of happiness, little moments of sadness, little moments of victory, little moments of setbacks. And all the characters experience this. This anime is as much about the dynamics of friendships amongst all the core characters, as it is about the journey of the main character, and I think that's what makes this a great anime worthy of its unusually high ranking.

I especially like how they treated Mika (I think that was her name). She's initially introduced as kind of a, well, bitch, I guess. Her first introduction to the main character isn't positive, and as her character continues to be introduced I wasn't really all that impressed. But as the story progressed, we could see that she's actually just an insecure teenage girl who just wants to be seen, just like everyone else, and the exploration of that character and her progression was actually kind of amazing. There aren't any characters that are perfect, but even the most unlikable character (Ririka) is treated sensitively and at the end you get a sense that, even she, is just a human trying to make her way like everyone else.

This really is an unusual quality in anime, and when I find it, I really do treasure it.

The thing I didn't like centers mostly around the character designs. There's a certain style of art that some anime have that I find just a little grating, and this anime has it. The character of "Takamine" is the canonical example of this. Many anime try to make their characters cutesy, looking like cats, kind of (which I'm not the hugest fan of but at least it's not going for realism). You know, with the flat faces, tiny noses, etc. This anime goes the other direction - prominent lips, wide faces, etc. Kind of a quasi-realistic look. But it's hard to make that style work when you're also trying to stick even a little to the cutesy anime style, and it just ends up looking a little... off. It's not a huge thing, but it's really noticeable.

This isn't a criticism of the art in *general* though. There were a couple of moments where the quality of the animation and background design really popped out at me. There was a scene at the end, that I think was set in the "golden hour", where I actually rather did a double take, it seemed actually unusually realistic to me. And there was another scene where they actually animated the spin up of a jet engine, and they did that so well that I actually went back just to see it three times. The sound was off - they continued the spin up sound even as the jet was taking off, but it was still a lot more detail than many anime studios would do.

And, of course, any anime where Tomoyo Kurosawa voices the main character has gotta be something worth paying attention to.

So, yeah. While not perfect, this anime has earned its high ranking, and if you're looking for a slow-burn high school romance that takes care with its characters and story, you could do a lot worse. Recommend from me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by lycoping (39)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

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

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by randomath (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

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

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by KiloSixteen (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Awesome Rom-Com Anime Where There's NO DRAMA (Part 1)

by BlackRose_1210

50 Entries · 788 Restacks

Underrated & Hidden Gems

by ManicPixieTerror

50 Entries · 290 Restacks

Part 1: school romance (CHALLENGE LIST ROMANCE ANIME)

by SpaceJourney

45 Entries · 11 Restacks

Spring 2023 Simulcast List [Update 5/19]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Spring 2023 season. Anime series licensed for hom...read more

Mar 29, 2023 5:59 AM by Snow | Discuss (60 comments)

'Skip to Loafer' Unveils Additional Cast

The special livestream program for the Skip to Loafer (Skip and Loafer) television anime at the DMM TV booth at AnimeJapan 2023 unveiled on Saturday additional cast ...read more

Mar 25, 2023 9:35 AM by Hyperion_PS | Discuss (4 comments)

	Poll: Skip to Loafer Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - May 9, 2023	135 replies	by EsieEyen »» Jul 21, 1:32 AM
	Poll: Skip to Loafer Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jun 20, 2023	235 replies	by addictedtoliving »» Jul 20, 7:08 PM
	Poll: Skip to Loafer Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - May 23, 2023	140 replies	by addictedtoliving »» Jul 20, 7:50 AM
	Poll: Skip to Loafer Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Apr 18, 2023	174 replies	by addictedtoliving »» Jul 19, 9:09 AM
	Poll: Skip to Loafer Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Apr 11, 2023	210 replies	by addictedtoliving »» Jul 19, 8:14 AM