While school uniforms in school have been a bit of a debated topic in real schools, they are something that is quintessential to Japan and anime. School uniforms not only remove the potential to be bullied for your clothing choices, but also foster that sense of oneness and unity that Japan as a culture is historically quite fond of.
When it comes to school uniforms in anime, usually the best case scenario for the design is that the audience won’t think about them. Unless you are telling a story about fashion, you don’t really want the audiences’ attention to be drawn away from the characters and story to what they are wearing.
Most anime go for basic, traditional styles. Some anime excel at making a nice-looking uniform that doesn’t stand out too much. A small handful of anime shoot their shot at uniform design creativity and that shot curves back and hits them in the eye in the form of gaudy-looking monstrosities that any teen would be miserable to wear.
If you are looking for some of the very best – and very worst – school uniforms in anime, I rounded up some gems and crusty turds.
Best and Worst Anime School Uniforms
Blood-C
There are a small handful of melancholy, macabre vampire stories in anime that take place in a school uniform, but none embrace the edginess of those tales quite like Blood C.
While most remembered for its vicious, viscous gore, Blood C also brought forth a school uniform that isn’t cute, but rather is just plain cool without being complex.
Hibike! Euphonium
Specifically the summer uniform in Hibike! Euphonium is everything you wanted from a school uniform, though I would not envy someone actually wearing those light, bright colors and keeping them stain-free.
Interestingly enough, the winter uniform is starkly different in design and color scheme. It leaves a little something to be desired when compared to the summer uniform that is so perfect for the youthful story and strong yuri bait that it is exploring.
Kakegurui
With Blood C already mentioned, it may be that I just have an edgy fondness for the red and black color scheme. However, it isn’t just the striking color that attracts attention in Kakegurui – it is actually how perfect those uniforms are for the series.
Perfectly fitted and accenting the wealth of the school, those uniforms make an aggressive statement for aggressive wearers. However, perhaps the best thing about them is that the color scheme itself coincides with the colors of poker chips – perfect for the high stakes gambling anime that you get.
Your Lie in April
It is a small thing that elevates this uniform from ordinary to above average – a blue shirt.
It is so small to just change that plain white shirt out to a blue-tinted one, but that makes the uniforms a real hit. The blue doesn’t fight the gray and the addition of the red tie makes it pop. Furthermore, making that tie striped keeps the red from overtaking the whole thing too.
Vampire Knight
While a bit over-dramatic and eye-roll-inducing as a vampire romance anime, Vampire Knight did, to its credit, have some very dapper uniforms. They were complex and accented with the appropriate colored piping for both the Day and Night classes without becoming overly caught up in the frills.
It is also nice that there isn’t too much difference in design from the male and female uniforms since usually the girls get to look cute and the boys get to look basic.
Worst Anime School Uniforms
Masamune-kun’s Revenge
The big problem with the first season of Masamune-kun’s Revenge was not that it promised revenge and then proceeded to… do nothing particularly important until it ended. No, the problem was that the audience was consistently distracted by the school uniforms.
Pink and blue need not be enemies. They can work well together, but when combined with so many different types of striping and are paired with a beige skirt? Well, it creates a complicated look that at least gives you something to ponder on while the plot isn’t moving.
Class President is a Maid
Who was it?
Who said that lime green is an appropriate color for a school uniform?
Because it is not. Lime green is an appropriate color for traffic safety wear, so I guess you need not worry about a tragic traffic accident being part of the many old school shoujo romance tropes at play in Class President is a Maid.
Fate/Stay Night
It’s a good thing that Fate/Stay focused more on the death game and less on the school life as it went on because that school uniform is as low effort as low effort gets.
It is a step below even dressing those kids in a burlap sack since, while the color is right, burlap would at least have more texture to make it look interesting.
Amanchu
Full-length dresses are peak modesty and not so popular in modern school uniforms. However, they need not look bad. Amanchu decided that they needed to look bad.
A full-length dress that is both shapeless and lilac is just cruel. Lucky, as an anime about free diving, they have plenty of opportunities to shed this particular frock into something more fashionable.
Precure
Do you know why girls become magical girls? Not to earn a wish or fight evil to protect people they love. I think girls become magical girls for a brief respite from their awful, awful, ugly school uniforms – at least in Precure.
Now, Precure, or Pretty Cure as is the full name for this series, is a long-running magical girl anime for younger/mahotaku audiences that has many different series which follow different characters. This means there are many different school uniforms in Precure since magical girls are always school-aged and possibly vanish off the face of the Earth once puberty is complete.
Anyway, school uniforms in Precure run the gamut from “not obnoxious enough to notice” to “Holy wow, what the crap is this?”
Joining in the beloved tradition of tier-listing Precure uniforms, my Bottom 3 include:
- Yes! Precure 5 – Purple with an ugly, more purple short coat
- Splash Star – Beige top with orange plaid skirt
- Tropical Rouge – So cyan you better have sunglasses to keep those retinas undamaged
What school uniforms in anime do you enjoy or hate? Let fans know in the comment section below.
