Sket Dance, although primarily a comedy manga, is also a very touching Slice of Life manga, and, beside many heartwarming moments contains also examples of this, mostly in the Backstories of various characters.
Spoilers unmarked on this page
- The backstory about their client in the one-shot introductory episode. The client fell in love with a girl but she died in an accident, and he was in such grief that he started to treat her twin sister as that girl — and the sister decided to go along with it.
- Switch's backstory, where his jealousy towards his brother got the better of him and what was meant to be a small lie lead to the death of his brother and his childhood crush Sawa to move away out of grief. He insisted on blaming himself and his grief overtook him; in "Switch On", by the time Bossun and Himeko decided to approach him, he had become a full-on hikkimori.
- The backstory about Bossun's parents, where a 14-year-old Bossun found out that not only is Akane his adoptive mother, but his father actually died along with his wife (and the real mother) Haru in separate accidents on the day he was born. He ran away out of frustration and took a while to process all this information.
- It becomes clear his falling out with his childhood friend and crush Sawa still haunts Switch when he responds to Momoka's confession with, "I can never fall in love again."
- In Chapter 267 at the summer festival, Saaya observes how well Bossun and Himeko understand each other without even having to say anything, and she tears up while coming to terms that it's Himeko Bossun's at least the most partial for."It's not me, is it?"
- A heartwarming tearjerking moment occurs in Chapter 286 between the Sket Dan trio. Switch finally gets the courage to speak again, and it's to tell Himeko and Bossun he's proud of them. The pair rush to Switch and fall to the ground, and they all have a good laugh before they begin to cry as it finally hits them that they'll be soon going their separate ways.
- Which is followed up in the final chapter by Switch giving a graduation speech where he calls Bossun his best friend and thanks him for giving him the strength to get to where he is. Bossun acknowledges the same about Switch via internal monologue.
