The focus turns back to Bossun for a bit, to very good effect.

What They Say:
After Bossun drinks another one of Chuu-sensei’s concoctions, his feelings and expressions become mismatched! And then, Bossun becomes an origami master, but can he overcome nervous jitters to win a major contest?

The Review:
After a less than thrilling episode prior to this, Sket Dance manages to do something to redeem itself, though it has to bring in Chuu to do it. I’ve never been a fan of the teacher since he brings in things that are a bit beyond the mostly real world aspects of the series, but there is the flip side in that it often does amuse with what happens. This episode has a good bit of fun with things at the start as he puts an experimental drug of his in Bossun’s drink in order to expand his happiness while wondering what the side effects make be. There is some, ahem, discussion from the others about how inappropriate this is, but he’s not exactly the kind of teacher that will be dissuaded by such things.

The problem that comes from the drink and drug concoction is that Bossun’s emotions are all screwed up in a way that has him being completely off. When he’s unhappy he laughs kind of mismatch. This puts Himeko and Switch to the task of figuring out and collecting information on this for Chuu for his research. It has comical moments where he gets sad when he’s bored and so forth and even ends up blushing regularly with a near shoujo girl kind of look to him when he’s eager and excited. So when jobs come in, his emotions are all over the map when it comes to expressing himself and it throws not just those that come in but also the rest of the club as they have a hard time dealing with this. It’s simple comedy but it hits the laughs in good order, especially with how Switch and Himeko cope with it.

The second half of the episode goes in a whole other direction as Himeko discovers that Bossun has an incredible hidden talent; origami. While she’s horrible at it, he can do it very casually, even while on the phone with one hand, in making beautiful things. This truly frustrates Himeko to no end, but she does know a way later on to make use of it as she discovers just how far his talent goes, so far as to even make an owl that looks so much like the real thing that Saya can’t tell the difference at first. There are a few quirks along the way that the gang has to deal with, but for the most part it is just a lot of fun to watch Bossun go through all of this and use his power for good, not that he sees it as a power, and seeing how it practically relaxes him to a whole other level is comical. There is more to the story here, but really, just seeing the variety of his creations and the way he’s so talented at it and how it frustrates everyone is worth it alone.

In Summary:
After really not caring for last weeks episode, this one redeems itself well. Sket Dance isn’t a show that’s on the bubble for me for watching, especially after over a years worth of episodes, but ones like last week can drain my will to watch it for a bit. Thankfully, this one hits a lot of fun with both of the stories here as it focuses on Bossun and how everyone reacts around him to what’s going on. Dealing with Chuu’s drink pushes everyone to the brink while the origami story was a whole lot of fun in so many ways, even if it does end exactly as you knew it would. There’s a lot to like here and each story offers something different about Bossun and helps to lightly expand him in fun and amusing ways.

Grade: B+