SKET Dance – 18

Greatest. Game. Ever.

Two posts in one day (well a single day for me. I don’t know about the rest of you in different time zones.)?! Whoa I think this is a personal best here. Yeah, I don’t have much to say today. I’ve been working too much lately to have a life.

Screw school clubs, Sket Dance opens with some warrior who dedicated his life to the Supreme Leader heading off to battle. He promises some woman that he will return alive and walks towards the horizon. Oh, and there’s a new opening done by The Sketchbook -the contest band I talked about in my last post.

Yes, you are still watching Sket Dance.

Yamanobe is the needy person who requests help this episode and he asks the Sket to learn to play a board game called Hyperion. After a long explanation that I didn’t really pay attention to, Yamanobe explains that he was taught Hyperion by Master Wong in between Genesis lessons. Apparently there’s a tournament, but it’s a two man team game so he wants Bossun or Switch to master it.

Also, apparently women don’t find it interesting while men get extremely passionate about it, but Himeko decides to play out of stubbornness.

The game starts off by calling the names of Greek winds to evoke the blessings of the gods. It only gets more ridiculous from there. First off, the game has a 3000 year old history, but has an iron and a car as game pieces. Also, the other game pieces consist of robots, a warrior, an idol and an OL …..Whatever that means. Also, the OL has a power up that if you give her tequila, her move range changes (aka she stumbles around drunkenly. LOL).

Finally, Yamanobe brings out the king piece: some sort of low level monster thing that’s apparently a princess of somewhere. While Himeko doesn’t seem impressed by anything, the other two Sket members get really into it. So they play a game of it and there’s a scene about the vechile being crushed by the iron and the robot defeating the iron. Himeko just does not get it, while Bossun and Switch pick it right up so she give up and decides to just sit back and watch.

They start another game and Bossun manages form some legendary positioning of his pieces. There’s a scene of the game with Dudun-dun-dudun (the warrior) riding off into battle and Bossun gets really emotional. Switch also makes a great formation, so they decide to name it on the spot. Meanwhile, Himeko just wants to destroy the game board to get them to shut up.

A week later, the Sket make their way through the wilderness in order to find the world competition. Also, everyone looks surprisingly manly aside from Himeko, who just looks bored. Just as she says that the competition is probably a fake, they stumble upon a wooden shack with a sign saying “Hyperion World Tournament” beside it.

Unimpressiveness at it’s best (yes I made that word up)

Inside are two bored looking Chinese men who didn’t think anyone would show up. They explain that they’re only there because it was in their grandfather’s (Master Wong) will that they host the tournament. Yamanobe gets depressed that his teacher died and the brothers suggest a game to cheer him up. Yamanobe introduces Bossun and Switch, but by then the two realise that the game is ridiculous and leave.

The two suddenly realized that cosplaying outside a convention probably wasn’t such a good idea

There’s an ending scene of Dudun-dun-dudun coming home finally and being greeted by his wife. He also finally sees his little girl, who has grown up. After a touching reunion scene, the three walk towards their house.

…It’s probably a god thing that she took after her mother in looks.

After a new ending (also performed by The Sketchbook), Roman unveils her new manga project. The drawings are… interesting and the storyline is very stereotypical lol. It’s pretty funny though.

I remember when my drawings looked like this XD

Final Thoughts:

Oh god this episode was hilarious. It might seem a bit bland in my summary because I find that explaining comedy usually only takes away from it, but this was the best episode in a while. Really, if you want to get all of the humor here, you should just watch the episode. I think this was actually funnier than the manga chapter because this one had those extra in game scenes. Poor Himeko though. She’s too much of a natural tsukkomi to enjoy the game. Overall, I think it was a great manga to anime transition, something this show hasn’t really had in a while.

The game itself is pretty nonsensical, but I wonder if it could be played in real life…? Ahaha I’ve never played shogi, so I don’t even understand how it works. On to the new opening and endings: I like. The visuals are pretty interesting and it shows a lot of character interaction. I love to watch character interaction. The song isn’t bad either. It seems that Sket Dance is getting full use out of their new band and I’m not complaining. On a side note, I really need to catch up with the manga again… I think I left off somewhere on the school trip, so I guess I’ll start there again. I don’t think I’ll start from the beginning because I seem to like things better if I don’t remember what’s going to happen next.

Preview:

Moar comedy! I believe the Student Council get half an episode dedicated to them, so it’s worth checking out.

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.