is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by . It has been serialized online via Shueisha's Tonari no Young Jump website since August 2016, with its chapters collected in 16 volumes as of May 2026. An anime television series adaptation produced by CloverWorks aired from January to March 2022.
Plot Throughout her young life, Komichi Akebi has always loved sailor attire—being inspired by her idol Miki Fukumoto—even going so far as to allow her mother Yuwa make a sailor school uniform for her when she enters middle school. When Komichi gets accepted to her mother's old private school Rōbai Girls' Academy, she is delighted that she will wear her homemade uniform; once arriving at her new school, she is surprised to find out that Rōbai'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 Rōbai Academy Class 1-3
Komichi is a first year middle school student and the titular protagonist and is a graduate of Futaba Elementary School who has recently been accepted to the elite all-girls' Rōbai Academy, the same school her mother Yuwa attended when she was her age.
Tōko is a mischievous student who is originally from Tokyo. She is Erika's dormmate, and befriends Komichi on her first day. A member of the softball club, Tōko 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 Ai.
An inquisitive girl, Minoru dislikes socializing, preferring instead to take notes of people while observing them to use it in the future. She also takes notes of various wild animals she sees. In the anime, Minoru shares a dorm with Ayumi.
Neko is a girl who tends to sleep a lot. She is Tōko's roommate and belongs to the archery club.
Erika is a girl from Tokyo and the first person whom 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 is 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.
Tomono is a shy, quiet girl with glasses who is originally from Nagano Prefecture. She is a bookworm and thus a member of the literature club.
Riona is a self-conscious girl who used to play tennis.
Ai is a studious and serious student. She is the class vice president and a member of the track-and-field club.
The class president, Kei gives off the aura of a tough student, making her somewhat unpopular. She is a member of the photography club, being best student in academics.
Ayumi is a lone wolf who is Minoru's roommate. She suffers from severe anxiety to the point of taking medication, which Komichi assists her with. Ayumi is a member of the table tennis club.
Mai is a member of the basketball club.
Yasuko is a friendly and popular girl in the school's volleyball club.
Riri is a member of the swimming club who speaks in Kansai dialect. She is playful and competitive, but does not perform well in academics.
Hotaru is a sweet and soft-spoken girl in Komichi's class. With the height of an elementary school student, she is one of the shortest students in her class.
Oshizu is Mai's roommate who loves punk rock music. Despite this, she initially could not read it, but soon learns to play the guitar.
Hitomi is a tall and stoic girl whose only interest is volleyball. A member of the volleyball club, she later becomes Yasuko's best friend.
Others
Komichi and Kao's mother and Sato's wife. She is an alumna of Rōbai Girls Academy; Yuwa can be seen in an old photograph with two of her friends wearing Rōbai Academy's original sailor school uniform, which inspired Komichi to have Yuwa create her a sailor uniform of her own.
Kao is Komichi's younger sister who is in third grade elementary school student.
Sato is Komichi and Kao's father as well as Yuwa's husband. He is usually away on business, but makes time to see his family whenever he does not have to work.
Miki is an idol whom Komichi admires. Her use of a sailor uniform in a water bottle ad inspired Komichi to wear a sailor uniform.
Production Akebi's Sailor Uniform is author '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.
Hiro and Young Jump entered in talks about crafting a school story after he showed them school-themed artwork, which included prototypes of several characters. He intended to set the story in high school, but changed it to middle school, finding it a better setting for making discoveries about life. Komichi Akebi was not planned to be the main character of the series, whose focus would instead go randomly from a character to another in an anthology of stories, but Hiro decided ultimately to make her the protagonist and give her a social personality to share the focus with the rest. Hiro created her character arc by inspiration of his mother, who once told him how Japanese school uniforms like her own used to be home made. He and his editor Hachi Okuma later came up with the plot point of her wearing a different school uniform from the rest of her class.
Hiro writes the story without fixed plans, wanting it to develop naturally. He took inspiration from own experiences in his freshman year in college, which were reflected in Komichi meeting classmates from all over Japan from the first time. Hiro also read many shōjo manga in preparation, but consciously tried to avoid usual tropes and motifs of the genre. In order to draw the detailed artwork of the characters' movements, he studied videos of gymnastics and ballet, counting on his previous experience as an animator. He also studied Japanese idol MVs, including one by singer and voice actress Manatsu Murakami, who would voice the main character in the anime series.
Hiro helped choose the main character's voice actress during the production of the anime, deeming Manatsu Murakami ideal. Murakami, who described herself as strikingly similar to Komichi in personality and interests, although not in background, strongly identified with the character after reading the manga, to the point of crying in joy when she was confirmed for the role. She also became close to Sora Amamiya and Akari Kitō, who played Komichi's two main friends, and to Hiro himself, who coached her briefly on how to play the character. Both Hiro and Murakami described the experience working in the production as similar to Komichi knowing her classmates within the story. Aside from Murakami, several other members of the cast, like Kitō, Amamiya, Shion Wakayama and Shuka Saitō, became fans of the manga.
Media Manga Written and illustrated by , Akebi's Sailor Uniform started its serialization in Shueisha's Tonari no Young Jump magazine on August 2, 2016. The first volume was released on April 19, 2017. As of May 19, 2026, sixteen 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 Yamasaki wrote and oversaw the series' scripts. The character designs were provided by Megumi Kōno. 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 gave 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. Regarding 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 its exploration of "light and dark of puberty". Qu also noted the series' usage of feet as a narrative resource rather than fetish. By March 2023, the manga has over one million copies in circulation.
See also Super Cub, a light novel series also illustrated by Hiro
Notes
References
External links