Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

Despair! I am in it. STORY - Story? What story? This is a slice-of-life series and it is based entirely around hilarious character shenanigans, though if you ever see characters like this in your life, I'd be a little worried. Still, there are a few reoccurring themes revolving around anime and otaku snark and satire of Japanese lifestyle, culture, politics, media, literature, etc. They also frequently make fun of themselves, which is incredibly amusing. It's all amazingly well done and highly entertaining, I assure you. A bit of warning through, if you try and pause to read every single thing written in the background for scenes,you will turn 20 minute episodes into 40 minute episodes.

One of several outstanding displays of the raw creative talent possessed by the individuals at Shaft, but irrecoverably marred by the all-too-common, subculturally sanctioned sickness on display by the creators. Shaft anime drives me absolutely bonkers because their work was and is some of the most unique and engrossing animation that I've ever seen, but it's so often wasted on indulging the petty whims of the creators, which can range from boring and rapidly dated non sequiturs from internet culture to the revolting but widely tolerated pedophilia typical in otaku culture. SZS will take you on marvelous journeys replete with interesting samples from the historyof Japanese visual culture and mind-bending travels to the edges of abstraction which are beautiful and never lose their representational power, but then if you have a remaining ounce of moral sense it will rip you right out of it when it turns out to be a setup for one or more jokes that center on sexualizing one of the female students, and you've probably already turned the show off when you realize that the opening credits for much of the series is just a grotesque reel of the female protagonists in bondage. The music, the excellent art, the style rife with gorgeous anarchonisms, and even the central conceit of a suicidally depressed teacher and a class full of madcap students, all of this should work so well together, but ultimately, like so many other products of otaku culture, the virtuoso displays of skill disappear down the drain of predatory otaku self-indulgence.

I'm in despair! This anime with such a plot that could have been expanded in so many directions has left me in despair! And so begins this disillusioning review of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. The series is a comedy, blending dark humor with otaku references and some slapstick. It's a very eccentric blend of various comedic styles so it comes off as a novelty and wears off just as fast. The first few episodes are uproariously funny, but once the novelty of the setting wears off there's nowhere for the series to go. Keeping to an episodic structure, no one grows and nothing changes. A goodcomedy will develop character relationships so it never runs out of tangents. Here it's Nozomu Itoshiki vs. his class. That's all you ever see. It's fun for a little while, but because it never goes anywhere, it gets old in a flash. Animated by the (in)famous animation studio SHAFT and directed by creative madman Shinbo Akiyuki, Zetsubou's art takes all the requisite turns expected of it and a few new ones. The problem is it's all very hit-or-miss. Shinbo-san's affinity for blending 3-D objects in a 2-D world shines here, but other elements such as copypastas and the chalkboard gags just annoy, especially since they're only on screen for maybe a second or two and only serve to distract. While some of them are quite funny, the emphasis placed upon them is vague. Should we be looking at the chalkboard or listening to what's going on onscreen? This probably translates better for Japanese audiences, but an American audience relying on subtitles will be hurting to keep up. The animation is often very smooth when it needs to be. It's a very unique style that doesn't reflect anything else done by the studio or the director before, which makes it pleasant to view. The only problem is really the character designs. They're either blatantly unique to the world or they just manage to blend in. I swear, I still can't tell Fujiyoshi and Hitou apart >< The character designs were not the only problem I had with the cast though. Much of Zetsubou's potential was ultimately squandered in the character department. As Zetsubou is a character-driven comedy, much of the humor relies in the various dysfunctional personalities of teacher Nozomu Itoshiki and his class colliding on matters of society and personality disorders. This is illustrated by giving every main girl a specific and unique disorder and limiting the girls' personalities to only that disorder. It works wonderfully in the case of the sadistically OCD Chiri, but other characters like stalker Tsunetsuki and "I'll sue you" Kaere are less like characters and more like running gags. Thus it comes as no surprise that eventually the chemistry falls apart and one is left wondering if they even had a plan as of what to do with each girl after her disorder was revealed. The accompanying music is decent. Noticeable at times, but often forgettable. The ED is pretty good, but it's the OP that's the real treat of the soundtrack. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has been receiving rave reviews for the last year and in some ways I can see why. Its comedically nihilistic take on Japanese society, as well as it's inventive style bring fresh air to the myraid of other anime. But ultimately, what potential it starts with is squandered on one-dimensional characters and a repetitive plot. Overall, I give Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei a 7 out of 10.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a Psychological, Slice of Life, Comedy about an extremely cynical teacher trying to spread his feelings and views of despair onto his students. Every episode is usually split up two as each part gives us incite into another one of the students, which means that every episode is different from the last. Seeing all the problems with Japanese culture laid out in front of you, just to make fun of it is not original however this anime is able to do it in such a unique way. With plenty of parodies and random moments, this anime is hard not to laughat. Another interesting thing about this anime series, is its “out of the ordinary” choice of censorship and how it makes fun of pointless fanservice. These are to sort of jokes anime fans would love to see nonetheless a lot of the jokes do get repetitive, which losses its affect in the latter episodes. With every episode focusing on one or two of the teacher’s students, this anime does a fantastic job in portraying each of the characters that show up on screen. With so many different psychological disorders and social issues to deal with, the characters never seem boring or clichéd in anyway. Itoshiki is the main character and he proves to be just that, with his odd mannerism and hilarious moments and even though some of his jokes get fairly repetitive, he still remains funny. Thanks to SHAFT we have a pretty unique animation style. The animation for this anime is basically a mix between superb, shoddy and just plain weird. It is just too hard to go into detail and explain it because it has the same weird conceptual artistic style as this entire anime. The music is an odd contrast of sweet melodies and hard rock, which go well with this messed up anime and it’s messed up main characters. Even the OP and ED themes are extremely catchy and you’ll never feel like skipping theme. Overall is one of those Satire comedies that are made with the hardcore anime fans in mind. With so many hilarious jokes churned out, us viewers are bound to find some funny with the rest going straight over our heads. Even though this show gains a merit for being pretty unique, it does end up losing a bit of its appeal later on. So if you’ve seen and enjoyed shows like “Lucky Star” and “Welcome to the NHK” then you are sure to enjoy this one. ^_^