“Skip and Loafer” is the new anime series released on Crunchyroll. Iwakura Mitsumi is a young, academically brilliant girl who moves from her small town to Tokyo in order to begin high school. She meets the laid-back Shima Sousuke in school, who is her complete opposite in all regards, and thus the quirky tale begins.
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 1: Recap: Sparkling Fresh
The episode begins by showing Iwakura dressed in her high school uniform on a video call to her friend. She looks confident, eager, and ambitious to begin her high school career. She leaves her small town and receives a send-off from her friends. She promises to return after the summer break. In Tokyo, she meets her father’s sister, Nao, who guides her as she navigates her way through the metro train system. While traveling, Iwakura imagines a perfect life in the future: get a law degree, join the Ministry of Internal Affairs, retire and become town mayor, and get her ashes scattered in the sea. She also worries her parents might distract her with questions such as ‘Did you have fun?’ or ‘Did you make friends?’ but plans to keep them happy as well.
The Orientation Ceremony at her new school, Tsubame West, has already started. We see Sousuke nonchalantly walking in the metro. He sees Iwakura with her head turned towards a wall. He is fascinated to see another girl from his school who is late for the ceremony. We see Iwakura, who is terrified of being late because she couldn’t navigate her way through the metro and got sick.
Sousuke goes up to her and is terrified at seeing Iwakura in that state. She loses her calm and asks him to help her get to school. Sousuke calmly reassures her and takes her on the right train. Meanwhile, the ceremony continues.
Sousuke tries to interact with Iwakura, totally unaware that the only thing running through her mind is her parents. She imagines them asking about her being late to school on the first day. She contemplates lying to them and feels ashamed. They get off at the nearest station and run toward school to reach it faster. Sousuke sees Iwakura running frantically as though her life depends on it and gets amused.
They reach just in time for Iwakura to make a speech at the ceremony. She reaches the podium and doesn’t find the speech in her pocket. She gets fearful but overcomes her hesitation and starts the speech. The audience is amazed at seeing her deliver the speech without needing the paper. Sousuke develops a fondness for her, but things take a turn when the anxious and sick Iwakura vomits right in front of everyone. Iwakura’s plan for making friends on the first day of high school is thwarted. Her wish to be known as an intelligent and confident girl is replaced by everyone’s beginning to call her ‘The Puker.’
Willing to change impressions, she tries interacting with a fellow classmate but gets brushed off. Sousuke arrives and sees Iwakura in his class. He goes and congratulates her for the speech. For the first time, Iwakura looks at him with full attention and finds him dreamy and charming. They share their online profiles. After this, the girl who brushed Iwakura off also asks for her profile.
Iwakura gets back to Nao’s place and chats with her friend Fumi from back home. Fumi asks her about her day, to which Iwakura replies that she has made two friends. Fumi is ecstatic after knowing Iwakura befriended a dapper and nice boy named Sousuke. Iwakura asks her to take care of everyone back home. Nao arrives with food, and they both have dinner.
Fumi goes to Iwakura’s house and tells them about Iwakura’s first day. Iwakura’s mother wishes Fumi was with Iwakura so she would worry less. Back in Tokyo, we see Sousuke hanging out with his friends but lost in thought, imagining Iwakura. When his friends try to poke him, asking him whether he met a girl, he gets irritated and heads home on the pretext of reaching school early the next day. His friends get confused when they see this completely new side of him. Iwakura doesn’t get much sleep and wakes up looking sick.
Episode 1: Ending Explained – Why Doesn’t Iwakura Sleep?
Iwakura puts the mistakes made on the first day aside and plans for the next day. She starts to get worried about the self-introduction she has to give to the class the following morning. She wakes up in the middle of the night and begins writing various versions of her introduction, one for each of the different moods of the class that day. She is clearly a perfectionist and wants to commit no mistakes, but in an effort to do so, she begins overthinking and goes into a downward spiral, and gets almost no sleep. Nao sees Iwakura in the morning, totally pale and sleepless. We might see Iwakura go on another adventure (or misadventure!) later.
“Skip and Loafer” (aka Skip to Loafer) offers a quirky high school rom-com between two absolute opposites. To catch all the fun, watch the first episode. It’s available on Crunchyroll.