Skip and Loafer

Plot

Mitsumi Iwakura is a high school student who moved from the outskirts of Ishikawa Prefecture to high school in Tokyo after graduating from junior high school. Mitsumi grew up in a depopulated area, with only eight students in her class. However, on the day of her entrance ceremony, she gets caught in the commuter rush and gets lost. A tall, handsome boy worried about Mitsumi calls out to her and runs to school with her. He is a student of the same school and her classmate by chance.

Characters

Mitsumi Iwakura (岩倉 美津未, Iwakura Mitsumi)

Voiced by: Tomoyo Kurosawa

First-year high school student who moved to Tokyo from the outskirts of Ishikawa Prefecture. She has bobbed hair and sanpaku eyes. Raised as a child prodigy, she entered high school at the top of her class; however, she has no athletic ability. Her pure personality unintentionally influences the people around her. She has a younger sister and brother.

Sousuke Shima (志摩 聡介, Shima Sōsuke)

Voiced by: Akinori Egoshi

Mitsumi's classmate who is handsome and popular with girls. He is known for sabotaging the entrance ceremony and skipping classes. Though he planned to skip the entrance ceremony, he meets Mitsumi and they run to school together. He was once a child actor that was caught up in a scandal, and has a strained relationship with his mother.

Mika Egashira (江頭 ミカ, Egashira Mika)

Voiced by: Yuka Terasaki

Mitsumi's classmate who approached her after Mitsumi became friends with Sousuke. Mitsumi's pure nature inspired her to face her complexes. She develops a caring relationship with Mitsumi.

Yuzuki Murashige (村重 結月, Murashige Yuzuki)

Voiced by: Maaya Uchida

Mitsumi's classmate and her first friend in Tokyo. Her popularity among boys made her develop a complex about being shunned by other girls. She studied abroad in her childhood so people assume she is good at English, but according to herself she is not that good at it.

Makoto Kurume (久留米 誠, Kurume Makoto)

Production

Before working on Skip and Loafer, Misaki Takamatsu went through a difficult period of having submitted many storyboards to publishers, only to be constantly rejected. Looking for inspiration, Takamatsu read Ryōtarō Shiba's 1966 historical novel Sekigahara. The main characters in the novel, Mitsunari Ishida and Sakon Shima, along with their relationship were what inspired Skip and Loafer's main characters, Mitsumi Iwakura and Sousuke Shima, respectively. Takamatsu remarked that "Mitsunari is smart but clumsy and overconfident, and Sakon supports Mitsunari while thinking he can't help it. In fact, that is the basis of Mitsumi and Shima." Mitsumi being from a more rural area of Japan was based on Mitsunari being depicted as somewhat of an outsider in Sekigahara, as well as Takamatsu also being from the countryside, thus enhancing the contrast between Mitsumi and Sousuke, who lives in Tokyo.

Because the magazine Takamatsu was writing for, Monthly Afternoon, was in the seinen demographic, Takamatsu thought of coming up with a certain dramatic hook or theme for Skip and Loafer to fit in. Realizing doing so would make it uninteresting, she thought of making it like a shōjo manga instead, being "based on school life, with romance at the core but without a clear goal, and are viable even if other elements are not prominent." Her editor agreed, and the manga was approved for serialization without issue. Takamatsu admitted to taking elements of shōjo manga and reconstructing it with a greater focus on human relationships; for example, using character archetypes typical in that demographic, then adding more depth and personality to portray the "humanity beneath". She noted that working in a seinen magazine has enabled her much creative freedom to do so.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Misaki Takamatsu, Skip and Loafer has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon since August 25, 2018. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on January 23, 2019. As of April 23, 2026, 13 volumes have been released.

In North America, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they had licensed the manga for English release in February 2021. The first volume was released on August 10, 2021.

Anime

In November 2021, it was announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation. It was animated by P.A. Works and written and directed by Kotomi Deai, with character designs handled by Manami Umeshita, who also served as chief animation director, and music composed by Takatsugu Wakabayashi. The series aired from April 4 to June 20, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks. The opening theme is "Mellow" (メロウ) by Keina Suda, while the ending theme is "Hanauta to Mawari Michi" (ハナウタとまわり道; "Humming and Detour") by Rikako Aida.

In December 2024, it was announced that the series will receive a second season. The main staff members from the first season are reprising their roles, with Yoko Yonaiyama joining Deai to write the scripts.

Crunchyroll streamed the series. Plus Media Networks Asia licensed the series in Southeast Asia, and premiered on Aniplus Asia.

Musical

A musical adaptation of the manga was announced and is set to run in March 2026 in Tokyo and Osaka. Ako Takahashi is writing the script and lyrics, Tetsuharu is directing the musical and choreography, and Shū Kanematsu is composing the music. The cast included Miisha Shimizu and Sion Yoshitaka.

Reception

Manga

By January 2023, the Skip and Loafer manga had over 1 million copies in circulation. By March 2024, it had over 2.3 million copies in circulation.

Alongside Ranking of Kings, Skip and Loafer ranked seventh on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2020 for male readers; it ranked eighth on the 2024 edition. The series ranked 46th on the 2021 "Book of the Year" list by Da Vinci magazine; it ranked ninth on the 2023 list. In 2020, the series was nominated for the 13th Manga Taishō and placed third with 58 points. It was nominated for the 44th Kodansha Manga Award in the general category in 2020; it was nominated for the 46th edition in the same category in 2022; it won the 47th edition in the same category in 2023. The manga was one of the Jury Recommended Works at the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival in 2020. It was one of the Jury Recommended Works for the French 17th ACBD's Prix Asie de la Critique 2023.

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network gave the first two volumes an A−. Silverman wrote: "Skip and Loafer may not have fabulous art and it may not have an innovative story. But it does have a firm grasp of its storytelling and characters and a not inconsiderable sense of humor. It's light without being frothy and real without being a drag, and if you're looking for a story that verges on the humorous slice-of-life genre, I can't recommend this enough. Treats characters like individual people, balances humor and seriousness well".

Anime

The anime adaptation won the Golden Dragon Award for Overseas Animation at the 20th China Animation & Comic Competition in 2023. The series was nominated in the Best Romance and Best Slice of Life categories at the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2024. It also won the Magnolia Award for Best Storytelling, while it was nominated for Best Animation at the 29th Shanghai Television Festival.

The anime series was received positively. Alex Henderson of Anime Feminist reviewed the first episode, calling it "cute as a button", with naturalistic animation and well-done backdrops, with a female protagonist who is "endearing", said there is still room for the show to "wobble", and argued that the episode was "thoroughly charming".