The story about SKET Dance revolves around a club that helps people with their problems of any. Led by the enthusiastic Bossun (voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino), the foxy Himeko (voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi) and the otaku Switch (voiced by teh Sugita), the go around school receiving help and solving problems.
SKET Dance has everything pre-packaged to make it a good anime. You've got not one, but two all-star openings by AKB 48's French Kiss and Gackt along with ending themes by The Pillows. You also have an all-star seiyuu cast featuring Tomokazu Sugita, Ryoko Shiraishi, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Hiro Shimono, Tomokazu Seki, Yuu Kobayashi, Fumiko Orikasa, Marina Inoue and cameos from Ayana Taketatsu, Saori Hayami, Satomi Sato, Kaoru Mizuhara and lots more. There is also an episode directed by Shinichi Watanabe. Hell, they even adapted the Gintama crossover chapter, bringing the cast and characters of the Yorozura Trio into the SKET Dance world.
And yet, it still didn't fulfill its potential. Why? Because it's not funny enough.
The jokes are too safe and mediocre. The reason why Gintama is awesomely hilarious is because it holds no bar to how far the humor can go. In Gintama, they can show Okita creating a Human Centipede out of Gintoki, Hijikata and Katsura on top of the Bible because that's how they roll. But Sket Dance plays safer than the combination safe at Fort Knox. Hell, the few funny moments in this series is basically when the Gintama crew do one or two dirty jokes in this, and that's about it. That's as far as it goes with the humour. Come on Shinohara-sensei. You got your lucky break and blessing from Sorachi-sensei, and this is what you gave us? You can try harder than that.
But this series can really score in drama. When it has a backstory moment with some of its characters, it can get emotional and awesome, especially Switch's backstory. If it manages to have a Benizakura-esque arc later in this series, then why not? The show might just got better like what happened to Gintama after the Benizakura arc.
And that's why i'm quite optimistic. It has room to improve, and they can nail some serious drama. And this is one of the few series that is awesome for Tomokazu Sugita himself. If you love him as Kyon, Hajime, Gintoki and Hoshi, you will definitely love him in this. He's pretty much having fun voicing Switch, and he's the one reason that kept me continuing with this series.
I suggest you watch this only if you're a harcore fan of Sugita or Ryoko Shiraishi. Unless if this series manages to be as great as Gintama in its latter years, i would not think a casual anime fan would enjoy this.
