Akebi's Sailor Uniform

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro. It has been serialized online via Shueisha's ''Tonari no Young Jump'' website since August 2016, with the chapters collected in fifteen ''tankōbon'' volumes. An anime television series adaptation produced by CloverWorks aired from January to March 2022.

Plot

Throughout her young life, Komichi has always adored sailor attire (being inspired by her idol Miki Fukumoto), even going so far as to have her mother Yuwa make a sailor-style school uniform for her when she enters middle school. When she gets accepted to her mother's old private school Roubai Girls' Academy, she is delighted that she'll get to wear her homemade uniform; once arriving at her new school, she is surprised to find out that Roubai's dress code no longer uses sailor uniforms and have been replaced with blazers instead. Despite the circumstances, the school's headmistress happily makes an exception and allows her to wear the traditional sailor uniform. As she goes through her years of early adolescence, even experiencing some struggles along the way, she meets and befriends many of her school peers and enjoys her school life.

Characters

Roubai Academy Class 1-3

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: Seat 1: A first year middle school student/the titular protagonist and is a graduate of Futaba Elementary School who has recently been accepted to the elite all-girls' Roubai Academy, the same school her mother Yuwa attended when she was her age; since she was a child, she has had a fascination for sailor attire as well as sailor school uniforms. She eventually gets her mother to make her one, an exact replica to her mother's school uniform, for her first day of school. Once she arrives at the school's entrance ceremony, she at first feels out of place due to her sailor school uniform, which happens to be Roubai Academy's original dress code from when Yuwa was a student there. Meanwhile, the other students are wearing blazer-styled school uniforms instead. Despite the misunderstanding, Komichi is happily given permission by the principal to wear the sailor uniform, making her the only student in the school and her class to wear the school's original uniform design. While she attends her new school and living out her adolescent years, she hopes to make hundreds of friends. At the school, she quickly becomes popular for her extroverted personality and joins the school's drama club. She is fond of performing gymnastics tricks thanks to her flexible body.
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: Seat 2: A mischievous student who is originally from Tokyo. She is Kizaki's dormmate, and befriends Akebi on her first day. A member of the softball club, Usagihara is known among her classmates for cooking and baking various food for her schoolmates, having a kitchen in her dormitory, as well as her poor grades. She went to the same cram school as Tatsumori.
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: Seat 3: An inquisitive girl. Ohkuma does not like socializing, preferring instead to take notes of people while observing them in the hopes of using it in the future. She also takes notes of various wild animals she sees. In the anime, she shares a dorm with Togeguchi.
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: Seat 4: A girl with the tendency to sleep a lot. She is Usagihara's roommate and belongs to the archery club.
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: Seat 5: A girl from Tokyo and the first person who Komichi meets on her first day of school, quickly becoming her best friend. She hails from a rich family as her family back at home owns and lives in a mansion. When feeling nervous or anxious, she has a habit of using her nail clippers, saying that the sound of the clippers are a therapeutic relief for her; she has learned many hobbies, such as playing the violin, piano, and horseback riding, but ultimately joins the climbing club.
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: Seat 6: A shy, quiet girl with glasses who is originally from Nagano Prefecture. She is a bookworm and thus a member of the literature club.
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: Seat 7: A self-conscious girl who used to play tennis.
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: Seat 8: A studious, serious student. She is the class vice president and a member of the track club.
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: Seat 9: The class president. She gives off the aura of a tough, no-nonsense student and thus is somewhat unpopular, but Akebi befriends her anyway. She is a member of the photography club, as well as the best student in the class academically.
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: Seat 10: A loner girl and Ohkuma's roommate. She has twin-tailed hair. Tougeguchi suffers from severe anxiety to the point of taking medication, which Akebi assists her with. She is a member of the table tennis club.
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: Seat 11: A girl in the basketball club.
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: Seat 12: A friendly, popular girl in the school's volleyball club.
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: Seat 13: A girl from Kansai and a member of the swim team. She is playful and competitive, but does not perform well academically.
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: Seat 14: A sweet and soft-spoken girl in Komichi's class with the height of a grade schooler, making her one of the shortest students in her class.
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: Seat 15: A girl with a penchant for punk rock and Togano's roommate. Despite her love for music, she initially cannot read music, though she eventually learns the guitar.
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: Seat 16: A tall, stoic girl whose only interest is volleyball, and is thus a member of the volleyball club. She is subsequently Nawashiro's best friend.

Others

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:Komichi and Kao's mother and Sato's wife. She is an alumna of Roubai Girls Academy; Yuwa can be seen in an old photograph with two of her friends wearing Roubai Academy's original sailor school uniform, which inspired Komichi to have Yuwa create her a sailor uniform of her own.
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:Komichi's younger sister and a third grader who attends elementary school.
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:Komichi and Kao's father and Yuwa's husband who is usually away on business, but he does make time to see his family whenever he does not have to work.
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:An idol that Komichi deeply admires. Her use of a sailor uniform in a water bottle ad is what inspired Komichi to adopt a sailor uniform.

Production

''Akebi's Sailor Uniform'' is Hiro's first work published by Shueisha. Around half year before the end of his previous work, ''Yumekuri'', he was reached out to by the editorial department of ''Weekly Young Jump''. He knew that it would be impossible for him to carry out a weekly serialization and therefore had little interest in working with ''Young Jump''. He however still had a meeting with them and surprisingly found out they could provide options other than weekly serialization.

Media

Manga

''Akebi's Sailor Uniform'' is written and illustrated by Hiro. The series began serialization in Shueisha's ''Tonari no Young Jump'' website on August 2, 2016. The first volume was released on April 19, 2017. As of May 19, 2025, fifteen volumes have been released.

Volumes

Anime

An anime television series adaptation by CloverWorks was announced on March 26, 2021. Miyuki Kuroki directed the series, while Rino Yamazaki wrote and oversaw the series' scripts. The character designs were provided by Megumi Kouno. Kana Utatane composed the series's music. It aired from January 9 to March 27, 2022 on Tokyo MX and other networks. The 16 main cast members, under the name , performed the opening theme song , while Manatsu Murakami (credited as Komichi Akebi) performed the ending theme song "Baton". by Manatsu Murakami (credited as Komichi Akebi) was used as the ending theme song for episode 4. A cover of the Spitz song sung by Mitsuho Kambe (the voice of Oshizu Hebimori) is featured in episode 7. Funimation streamed the series outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia.

On January 27, 2022, Funimation announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered on January 29.

Episodes

Reception

Mercedez Clewis from Anime News Network called the series, which she described as "a coming-of-age story about a teenager just being passionate", her favorite show of the season. Clewis revealed she wept of joy with the series' final episode, which she give five stars out of five. Allen Moody from THEM Anime Reviews gave the series 4/5 stars, praising its energetic, pleasant story, which he considered an "affirming show", although he felt a lack of comic relief. Commenting on popular accusations that the show contained foot fetishism, he found the series' visual fixation on feet mild and non-sexual. Gracie Qu from Anitrendz gave the series an 82/100, calling it a "gorgeously rendered anime that depicts girls’ friendships in a way that I haven’t yet experienced in an anime". She praised its high-quality animation, visual storytelling, character development and interactions, finding them particularly authentic, as well as an exploration of "light and dark of puberty". Qu similarly noted the series' usage of feet as a narrative resource rather than fetish.

Boston Bastard Brigade gave the series 4,5 out of 5. While they criticized a lack of plot, they found the story highly relatable, especially by female viewers. They praised the visuals and animation, noting its "movie-level quality" and expressing, "there are not enough words to describe how radiant CloverWorks's animation is in this series". Lewis Williamson from Honey's Anime called the series a "joywful watch", noting its character development, animation and soundtrack. He found no sexualization in the series' controversial focus on feet, although he commented it might be offputting for some viewers. Ragashingo's review stated, "it was a true delight to watch, and I think it will be well regarded as one of the better pure slice of life anime yet produced". Aside from the animation, they praised the series' development of all its characters, as well as its ability to make their interactions feel authentic and natural. They also addressed accusations of the series allegedly sexualizing young girls, stating "I think these accusations are complete nonsense. That they say far more about the commentator than they do the show."

Double-sama's review of the series focused on its large cast and their interactions, acknowledging "they’re all unique and are generally given time to shine". He gave it the best art of the 2022 anime season, and one of the best animations. He considered it an underrated series. By March 2023, the series has over one million copies in circulation.

See also

* '' Super Cub'', a light novel series also illustrated by Hiro

Notes

References

External links

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{{CloverWorks

2022 anime television series debuts
Anime and manga set in schools
Anime series based on manga
Aniplex
CloverWorks
Crunchyroll anime
Funimation
Japanese webcomics
Muse Communication
Seinen manga
Shueisha manga
Slice of life anime and manga
Webcomics in print