When I first read this arc in the manga I was really curious on how Tatsunoko would handle it in the anime - would the music the school bands played at the cultural festival actually turn out to be listenable? Turns out I needn’t have worried at all.

Have to say that I’m a little surprised they kept on the seiyuu to provide vocals for most of the acts (obviously apart from the pre-auditioned The Sketchbook), though I suppose it does help when you’ve got a rock superstar voicing one of the characters ie GACKT doing Dante.

Be it by luck or by design, Sket Dance is blessed with seiyuu who can actually sing - the likes of Toyoguchi Megumi (Yabasawa), Kosugi Jurota (J-son sensei) and Nojima Kenji (Shinba) breeze through their songs with no trouble and even those who can’t really sing (hello there Kayano Ai) get a helping hand by being autotuned beyond recognition.

With that troublesome ear-shattering vocal problem that permeates most anime character songs out of the way, what we get from the KAIMEI ROCK FESTIVAL is a really fun, energetic album, just as a school cultural festival should be. Especially love that YABASU! version of YABASAWABOOKS’s 豪華絢爛ヤバヤバス - mad respect to Megu for managing to make the phrase ‘Yabasu’ sound cool even when repeated endlessly!