Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

[Yamamaya]

For those not aware, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a comedy/satire anime. It generally satires Japanese society and anime. I just completed the first season. It was absolutely hilarious.



Each of the characters is a sterotype. The main character, the teacher himself, is always in despair over everything from the internet to Japan's prejudice against first timers. He often tries to commit suicide but his efforts are always stopped by his female students especially Kafuka who is the opposite of her teacher. She's a massive optimist. The other characters include Chiri, a girl obsessed with being perfect, Abiru, the girl who's obessed with animal tails. Kiri, a hikkiomori, Maria the illegal Mexican immigrant girl that everyone adores, and many more. When you look at the kanji of their names, each of them spells out a controversial social issue in Japan.

It's difficult to describe in a single summary. Some episodes takes various themes regarding to society to satire. Others are merely introducing the various characters.

Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

I.
Friggen
LOVE
This series.

I've been pretty reluctant to bring it up as the show is one of the racier shows I've seen (despite the relative lack of skin being flashed) both in terms of conversation and the implications towards the characters. The humor is, suffice to day, extremely black. Still, the writing is terribly clever, the animation is a delight, and the disturbing mockery of everything that we on this side of the pond idealize about Japan so often is just incredibly funny to me. There are times where you'll find yourself gasping for breath with laughter only to have that voice in the back of your head and pop up screaming "Why are you laughing about that?! That's awful!" but you can't help but laugh...

Has this show been picked up yet? I watched it originally in subs and the guys I got the subs from actually did a really good job. At the end of every episode they would add to the experience by explaining each character. Every one of the girls in the show's name is a spin on something. For example, Kafuka is a generally teasing poke at Franz Kafka.

They also did a really good job taking the title cards in the opening (which are done in a quirky 1920s silent film style despite the punkish music in the background) and editing them to include the english text alongside the Japanese. Sometimes there is so much going on in this show it's hard to keep up. You really have to watch it more than once to catch everything. It's a lot like FLCL in that sense, I think.

Edit: Just thought of another one of those things. In one of the episodes they take five seconds to congratulate the winner in a Shounen Jump contest the mangaka was participating in with this series. They then showed the mangaka of the winner getting mugged and beaten in a back alley. Like I said... Black.

[That Dude]

I started the manga and enjoyed it, I'll probably have to check out the anime now.

[blkmage]

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is fantastic as long as you are cool with satire. It's probably not the best thing if you're easily offended.

I recently watched the some of the first season again and for something that doesn't rely on or have a lot of continuity, the difference in style from, say, the third season and the OVAs and the first season is really noticeable. This is especially strange because the particular chapters that are animated for each season aren't necessarily done in any order.

For me, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was also my introduction to SHAFT and Akiyuki Shinbo. If you're a fan of the direction style (fast, random cuts, heavy use of patterns and shapes, a billion references on the screen, shots from weird angles), you'll definitely want to check out some of their other works. It's particularly interesting to see it applied to things that aren't comedies.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

There's more than one season? Whoa... And I thought twelve episodes might be pretty intense.

[TriezGamer]

Yeah, there's 3 seasons and 2 OVAs.

[ilikegir33]

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is fantastic as long as you are cool with satire. It's probably not the best thing if you're easily offended.

I recently watched the some of the first season again and for something that doesn't rely on or have a lot of continuity, the difference in style from, say, the third season and the OVAs and the first season is really noticeable. This is especially strange because the particular chapters that are animated for each season aren't necessarily done in any order.

For me, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was also my introduction to SHAFT and Akiyuki Shinbo. If you're a fan of the direction style (fast, random cuts, heavy use of patterns and shapes, a billion references on the screen, shots from weird angles), you'll definitely want to check out some of their other works. It's particularly interesting to see it applied to things that aren't comedies.

Agreed. Akiyuki Shinbo is definitely one of my favorite anime directors. Shaft and Shinbo worked on an anime called Pani Poni Dash, which I could consider a lighter version of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei even though it was made a couple years before (but PPD is an excellent series in its own right, as well). And I really like some of Shinbo's earlier works, like: SoulTaker (a surreal action series that Akiyuki Shinbo did for Tatsunoko), Uchuu Senkan Yamamoto Yohko (parody of Yamato/Star Blazers, right down to the title), Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (did I spell that right?), Tsukuyomi Moonphase and Bakemonogatari (both excellent vampire comedies with their own twists), and the second Negima anime. But enough about that.

Let me get to the true point...

SAYONARA ZETSUBOU SENSEI IS AWESOME! Enough said and done. But if you're easily offended, it'd be a good idea to pass on it. If you want a (relatively) cleaner series with biting satire, Pani Poni Dash would suffice, but if you love black humor (as I do), you simply can't beat Nozomu Itoshiki and the crazy students he has to teach. I hope some company (especially Sentai Filmworks or Media Blasters) gets around to licensing this awesome series. And if people say that Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has no chance of getting licensed, well, the manga already did...and it's selling reasonably well.