Akebi’s Sailor Uniform is a healing anime by CloverWorks, the same studio that produced the recent My Dress-Up Darling. The story follows Akebi as she joins an all-girls school for the first time. She wears a sailor uniform, made by her mom. However, the school no longer uses sailor uniforms as their official dress, but the principal makes an exception. Akebi’s mom had also went to the school. The story then follows Akebi as she makes friends and settles into school life.

I have to note that the anime has an unsettling amount of foot fan-service in the first few episodes. So much, that I considered dropping it. Thankfully, this disappears after awhile. It’s unneeded and distracts from the main point of the story, like most fan service tends to do, unfortunately.

Akebi is a dynamo of energy and enthusiasm, game to try anything and speak with any of the girls at the school. Because this is a healing anime, there’s no bullying or major conflicts among the characters. What conflicts there are, resolve gently, with Akebi’s gusto infecting the other girls. The story is all about enjoyment and friendship. Some of the characters grow, trying new school-related activities, under Akebi’s encouragement.

CloverWorks’ animation varies throughout the series, but the landscapes and stills look amazing. The lighting of the characters during certain sequences appears delicate. During these scenes, there’s animated chiaroscuro. The scenes are regular, and come at a cost of other scenes–you will see budget-saving still frame panning–but they are lovely when they appear. Akebi’s Sailor Uniform teems with beautiful scenery that look to have been painted on location. As expected with healing anime, the countryside is meant to calm. However, Akebi’s enthusiasm for small things–bugs, rain, frogs, and other creatures–seeks to teach the audience to pay more attention to the joys around them.

Akebi’s Sailor Uniform teaches in interesting ways. It takes the joy of the characters for granted; rain becomes an adventure. In the process, the story reminds us of how adventure sits all around us too. As we grow older, we become blind to it. Adventure sits in the small daily discoveries, the daily, mundane victories and losses, and with friends and family. Healing anime often indirectly teaches this. The idea seems to come from Zen teachings, which centers on being present in every moment of daily life. Living in the future, living with distractions, worries, and thoughts, means not living at all. Akebi often embodies this idea with how she is present for everything. She has worries and cares, but these don’t consume her. In fact, the worries of the characters around her ease with her influence. This too suggests to the audience of how each of us influence those around us.

Akebi’s father proves to be an interesting character. He says little and barely appears, unlike her mother and younger sister. It’s quite a realistic portrayal of a hard-working, loving, but often absent father. He’s not aloof, however. Whenever he appears, there’s a warmth. Akebi can’t wait to show him her winter and summer uniforms, for example. He even hangs around, running a bit late for work, so he can see her. Akebi’s younger sister, Kao, hangs on him and bubbles with similar enthusiasm as her sister. Neither have any reservations around him or any sort of formalness. There’s just warmth. While we don’t see him often, the scenes reveal volumes about the family’s love for each other, and his efforts to be involved with his girls whenever he can. You don’t often see this sort of realistic fatherly involvement in anime. In the scenes, it’s obvious too that he and Akebi’s mom have a good, understanding relationship. They allow their girls to just be themselves and share in their small joys.

Akebi’s mother plays a more prominent role than her father. She sews Akebi’s uniforms, offers gentle advice, and provides motherly support. She doesn’t have many scenes either, but she is present. Too often in school anime, the parents are absent because of one contrivance or another. As Akebi’s Sailor Uniform proves, it doesn’t take many scenes with parents to establish personality. Anime miss opportunities for the sake of convenient writing. Interestingly, My Dress-up Darling features a grandfather who appears infrequently but offers similar support and personality and guidance. He functions in the same way as Akebi’s father.

Healing anime often feature a teaching element beyond providing a space to slow down. First, they teach us to appreciate the small things and not to lose Akebi’s gusto for life. Second, they teach us the importance of getting out in nature. Nature heals and calms us. It makes us use our bodies, even if we don’t run everywhere as Akebi does. Third, healing anime teaches the importance of community, whether it is a network of friends or of family. Too often we live in isolation. Now, not everyone needs a host of friends as Akebi wants. I’m fine with just a small number. But the need for friendship and relations with others is part of healing.

Finally, there’s death hidden behind the story. It seems odd that a school slice-of-life like Akebi’s Sailor Uniform deals with death, and in fact, it doesn’t directly. However, behind all the nature, school-fun, adventures, and other cute-girls-doing-cute-things, sits the passing of time and of death. I may be thinking too much about what is, in the end, a fluffy story, but common to all of these stories is the passage of time and the transience of the present moment. The characters often look back at all the fun they had after it is gone. Everything passes and realizing this fuels Akebi’s gusto. The key to enjoying life is realizing all moments end in death: they pass never to return in the same way. It seems a dark realization. However, it offers perspective and healing if used well.

Akebi’s Sailor Uniform offers a joyful, healing look at life. Nothing happens in the story: life happens instead. For those of us who have become cynical and worn down by adulthood, it offers a reminder of how beautiful life is, and how it teems with adventures on the way. You don’t have to fly to a foreign country or skydive or bungee jump. Adventure is a frog found a sidewalk. Adventure is a fly buzzing around a room. It is a run on the way to school or work. Healing anime like Akebi’s Sailor Uniform offers a challenge to our idea that story must always have major conflict. They teach without teaching, leaving the lessons unstated but encouraging us to heal and then realize how easy life is to live with joy.