Wednesday’s What About: Sailor Fuku

So I wanted to talk about sailor fuku. If you’re interested in the opinions of someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, read on!

Before I broach this topic, however, I wanted to announce that this is probably the last article for my weekly feature, Wednesday’s What About, for various reasons. I can’t consistently post something every week, first of all. You can see that just looking at the archives.

Secondly, I am rather ashamed of my zettai ryouiki post last week. I don’t consider it to be quality blogging so I think I need to draw a line. I’ll bring up topics from time to time, but it won’t be on a weekly basis. Hopefully, since I will now have more time to work out these posts, they will be of higher quality.

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Anyways, back to the topic at hand. When the topic of Japanese schoolgirl uniforms are brought up, the seifuku/sailor fuku is probably what comes to mind first since they’re so prevalent in anime, manga, and other forms of Japanese media. There’s tons of characters wearing sailor fuku, after all.

To me, the sailor fuku is a symbol of youth. It’s something only schoolgirls can wear while they are schoolgirls (excluding cosplay and fetish play, I guess). On the other hand, blazers can be worn as a school girl or as a office lady. Admittedly, blazers do look cooler than seifuku most of the time, but I stil like sailor fuku more!

At any rate, what I’m trying to say is that not every sailor fuku is created equally. Even though the basic design is relatively simple, there’s tons of room for customization. However, this also means faulty design decisions can pop up.

Therefore, I want to kickstart my rambling by talking about a few sailor fuku designs which, in my opinion, are not very good. Again, please feel free to disagree!

First off, we have Kazekoshi Girls’ High School’s summer uniform (from Saki). I appreciate the soothing pink-and-white color combination, but the lack of a ribbon leaves the uniform looking a little plain. Mihoko just looks like she’s missing something (other than Hisa who should be in Mihoko’s arms, I mean).

Maybe Kazekoshi lost the right to wear a ribbon after their crushing defeat to Ryuumonchi in the prefectures prelims last year.

W-who came up with this abomination? The double-layered trim on the collar is too distracting. Furthemore, the students have to buy new seifuku every year since the trim on the collar is different for first-years, second-years, and third-years. Actually, this seems to be some strange seifuku-and-blazer hybrid jacket uniform.

I do think the lacy plaid skirts are a nice touch, but the ugly collars are just too much. The unseen struggles the poor girls in Girl Friend Beta experience every day undoubtedly include mustering the courage to put on these hideous uniforms.

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Now I want to discuss two sailor fuku designs which seem rather unique to me. First off is Shiratodai from Saki Achiga-hen.

The usual (summer) uniform for Shiratodai includes a belt. I suppose that’s to help emphasize their hourglass figures? They’re young anime girls, so of course they have killer figures. Youth sure is nice~

Matano, however, is wearing bicycle shorts and seems to have abandoned both the ribbon and the belt. I guess it’s a good thing the worst player in Shiratodai is so easily identifiable.

The girls in Yuru Yuri seem to be wearing a seifuku-and-dress uniform hybid. The Nanamori Middle School uniform certainly stands out, but it seems quite impractical since they have to put on the maroon long-sleeved dress-like garment first before putting on the white uniform. Still, it’s unique and the color combination of white, brown, and maroon works very well.

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One last thing I wanted to talk about is how seifuku designs vary from city to city. Back in Febuary, a Japanese artist tweeted an illustration that demonstrates the different winter uniforms schoolgirls wear in different cities (blazers and seifuku alike are included).

Kobe’s uniform looks rather classy, doesn’t it? Meanwhile, since Okinawa experiences very mild winters, schoolgirls can wear short-sleeved winter uniforms. I don’t really think girls wear thigh-highs in real life, but maybe some anime fans live in Fukushima.

I know it’s probably a bit strange to pay so much attention to schoolgirl uniforms, but they really add another element to slice-of-life shows, in my opinion.

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Do you prefer seifuku or blazers? Are there any schoolgirl uniforms that you consider to be your favorite? I’d love to hear more about it in the comments section!