Akebi's Sailor Uniform

Episode 4

Episode 4, “My Image?” is another Kei-centric episode, which is nice but had me quaking if I'm honest. I was real afraid we'd get some more underage cheesecake selfies like in episode 3, and… well, spoiler alert: this episode doesn't give us underage cheesecake shots! Grab your Christmas crackers, lads: we've got a really good episode!

The central element of this episode is that Kei asks Komichi to model for some photos. It's an innocent request, though it comes with the added caveat of Komichi not really having an image outside of being “That first year who wears a sailor uniform.”

It's actually a really good foundation too, largely because it feels apropos to the kind of macro thoughts tweenagers start to have as they gain awareness of the world as a place with billions of simultaneous experiences, rather than the world being a neighborhood, city, or even just their home and school. In this case, the world grows to include the Mangetsu Dorm, where a lot of students live.

And it's here that we get to spend time with Komichi, Kei, and new friend Touko, a resident of Mangetsu and a member of the softball team. She also happens to make very good sweets, which is really where we spend the back half at. It's thankfully largely sexless: what we get is a cute series of scenes with a gaggle of middle school girls just being a gaggle of middle school girls.

Episode 4 has a lot of elements that feel true to being a tweenager: questioning who we are, what image we want to have, who we ultimately want to be in the distant future. When I think back on who I wanted to become —or rather, how I wanted to look— when I was in middle school, it was pretty: I wanted to be feminine, almost to hyper-extreme. Of course, that wasn't who I actually wanted to be, largely because I hadn't had all the experience that led me to lean into being a soft butch lesbian. Still, those memories of my potential were precious: they're the same here for Komichi and Kei.

Akebi's titular sailor uniform still remains something of a conversation piece, perhaps because we're still early in the series. It's a nostalgic touchstone for almost every adult she encounters. I don't think there's anything more poignant than that though, if we're being honest: it's just this lovely blast from the past that marks Komichi as her mother's daughter and as something of a nostalgic kid herself, though sense it's in the title, maybe it'll become a bigger thing as the weeks go on.

All these elements mix together and lead to an episode that still has the same uncomfortable, not at all subtle sexualization at times, though it's starting to be left behind in exchange for genuine moments with Komichi and Kei as friends: moments that are telegraphed through Komichi being goofy, versus Komichi being weirdly sexualized. We see that a lot of her personality is constructed around Miki-chan, her favorite idol, which feels like potential for character growth. It's exactly what you'd hope for from a series set on the cusp of teenagedom: an exploration of the often platonically sapphic nature of female friendship, and how intimate being friends with others can be.

We also learn that cooking—rather, baking—is not Akebi's forte. She's very, very bad at it, creating a “cracker made out of charcoal” that's supposed to be… a crepe. And it's so in keeping with Komichi's character that it honestly has me hyped for the rest of the series. It also poses the question “What the heck was episode 3?” because this was just so good and wholesome. More of this! And less of the jarring, sexualized moments. This episode makes me love Komichi and her world so much more. I really hope episode 5 follows suit.

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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, and for But Why Tho?. 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.