Akebi's Sailor Uniform

Episodes 6-7

Episode 6, “There's No School Tomorrow, Right?” invokes a treasured trope of mine: the sleepover, as well as lots and lots of rain and—say what, fishing action?!

By and large, this episode revolves around Komichi and her friend Kizaki Erika, the blonde-haired student in her class who was shown with her clippers in episode 1. Turns out Erika has layers, and actually, is quite the fishing enthusiast. She's also the target of Komichi's friendly affections this week, and the student who's coming to her sleepover.

But it's also high-budget Slow Loop this week because Komichi and Erika are going fishing, and the peak of this episode is a scene where the girls work together to reel in the catch of the day, while some very dramatic music plays in the background. It is, much like episode 5, exactly what I expected from an intensely low-stakes school anime: a simplistic, sweet moment of friendship forged through an entirely mundane activity. The music, the serious expressions on the girls when they're trying to reel in a fish, and the excitement of just simply wanting them to succeed all blend together into this really appealing scene that's really memorable, even if the girls let the fish go in the end.

And then we get to the sleepover – or at least, the visit-over – which is just as charming and thankfully bereft of the series' early male gaze (outside of her Komichi's sister slapping her butt for comedy), making this episode just… really peaceful and charming. It's yet another peek into Komichi's mind and her inherent kindness as she builds up her social links with her classmates one by one. While not necessarily notable, it's still really pleasing to watch, as all good slice-of-life episodes should be.

All the events of episode 6 pleasantly flow into episode 7, “Please Let Me Hear It,” which focuses on a different student: Hebimori Oshizu, a girl who didn't join any of the school's plentiful clubs. Instead, she's a member of the go-home club, returning to her dorm room alone, day in and day out. That said, in keeping with the theme of “girls being cute and hella into things”, Oshizu is very interested in music: more specifically, in rock music and rock music bands. It's what she fills her world with.

That is, until Komichi flips her world upside down by asking to listen to a real-deal guitar.

Problem is… Hebimori's skill level isn't quite there yet, at least not until Komichi plants the idea in her mind and gets her quietly fired up about things. In fact, her father's old acoustic guitar has been sitting largely unused in her dorm room ever since she arrived, though we're treated to a very charming scene of Oshizu getting quietly hyped as she strums the very out-of-tune guitar. Of course, things aren't as straightforward as jamming out; Oshizu has to learn the basics first, but her determination to learn is still really nice to see.

All of this builds to a poignant resolution set up by watching Oshizu practice. And ironically, it's not even Oshizu's performance, though we get a taste of her guitar playing. Rather, it's Erika being inspired by Oshizu and Komichi, in particular, that's poignant. A happy twist if there ever was one, since we do get to see the fruits of Oshizu's labor.

As a tweenager, a teenager, and heck, even at 29, I want to be immediately perfect at what I do. I want to mix music with ease: I want to create my own beats and tracks and melodies, my own synthesized creations. When I taught myself how to crochet this year, I wanted to be an artisan from jump: I wanted to cross the finish line now, much in the way Oshizu does. But practice helps: it doesn't make perfect so much as it makes the path easier, more walkable, and a heck of a lot more enjoyable. I suppose it's something we all cycle through time and time again, perhaps because we're all passionate little creatures, trying so hard to leave a mark on the world. We're ultimately all small stones desiring to make a ripple, even if it only affects one other person.

So much of this series is about the fleeting existence of being on the cusp of adulthood. It's a look at how it feels to be in the final years of being pre-adolescent and then suddenly, adolescent, left to figure out who you really are. For Komichi, that's still a nebulous question, and honestly, it doesn't need to be answered. It's becoming clear that her raison d'etre is just being a really good friend, and that's genuinely the coolest way to be.

At the end of the day, Akebi's Sailor Uniform is one of the most fascinating character studies I've seen yet, in both an extremely positive and a, thankfully, no longer as negative way. For the most part, it's a blissful story about one girl growing into her own. At other times, it's an unironic look at the sexualization marginalized kids (in this case, AFAB middle schoolers) often receive in a global society that treasures youth and coquettishness while simultaneously denying kids rights. Thankfully, episodes 6 and 7 lean far more towards being ongoing positive representations of this series, though I can't say anything for the manga as it's not legally available in English.

What I can say is this: I think it's really beautiful that there's an anime about being really into something as a kid. Whether it's Komichi's fixation on her sailor uniform, the clothes her mother makes, or in the case of episode 6, Erika's fascination with fishing (ironically, she kind of looks like Slow Loop's Koharu, but in much more detail…) there's just something really enjoyably wholesome here. Still not perfect, but still really, really enjoyable, which is all I ask from anime during these very trying times.

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Akebi's Sailor Uniform is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.

Mercedez is a JP-EN translation and localization Editor & Proofreader/QA, pop culture critic, and a journalist who, when not writing for ANN, writes for Anime Feminist, where she's a staff editor. She's also a frequent cohost on the Anime Feminist Podcast, Chatty AF. This season, she's reflecting on her youth with Akebi's Sailor Uniform. When she's not writing and reviewing, you can find her on her Twitter or on her Instagram where she's always up to something.