[Anime] Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Probably the official site

From the famous and awesome animation studio SHAFT comes a brand new anime, rejuice! I mean rejoice! Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei means "Goodbye, Despair Teacher" and is a (fairly dark) comedy with a unique style and flow. It's based on the manga by the new (as far as I know) mangaka Kouji Kumeta of the same name.

The story revolves around a teacher called Nozomu Itoshiki. He is an unusual teacher. When you write the kanji of his name horizontally, and squish the "Itoshiki" together, it spells "Zetsubou", or despair--and that fits his personality to a tee. He sees everything in a negative light. His antagonist (or the other main character) is Kafuka Fura, a female student in his class who sees everything in a positive light. Here they are when they first meet:

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I mean... Here they are when they first meet:


Here are two other seemingly important characters, students of Nozomu/classmates of Kafuka, Abiru Kobushi (I think? Her name wasn't mentioned in the anime yet) and Chiri Kitsu:


The school counselor Arai Chie, who likes sticking stuff in her ear apparently:


There are many other characters, and I'm not sure yet which are important, but you can see the style of the show well in these screenshots:



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This show didn't sell me in the first few minutes, but by the end of the first episode, I was really into it. It's really different, with lots of silence, pauses, very stylized "flat" art, and off-beat humour. However I think it could become really great if the chemistry between the teacher and the students works out well, which is something that I'll have to judge over the course of the show, and if they manage to keep the show light-hearted.

But so far, it seems like a really good show, I like the characters and the concept a lot, it's really funny. This may also be the best-looking show by SHAFT I ever saw, not so much because of quality but because of style. They're usually good, but I really dig this for some reason.

Plus, Kafuka keeps sticking her ass out which I think I speak for everyone when I say is super hot.
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OP and ED! The ED is especially nice.

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Episode one: Torrent (subbed by a.f.k.)

How ya doing, buddy?

I guess you could always wait for the DVD release. At least I would think they wouldn't censor that.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Ah, a manga reader! Explains a lot, really! Their opinions are usually quite worthless!

Seriously though, I'm not the biggest fan of it either but I don't see how it even matters that much. You're making a big deal out of nothing. I'd already forgotten about it until you brought it up.

But feel free not to watch this show! I'm not sure any of us could care less!

How ya doing, buddy?

The second episode was delectable, I'm definitely rewatching that tomorrow. My favourite bit was probably the 4-komi style sketch in the middle of the show, involving Chiri and cake! !

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'm a little disappointed in the development of this show as well, since the first episode left me with the impression that this was basically a show of Nozomu and Kafuka, but you barely see Nozomu at all in episode 3. Hopefully it'll revert to the episode one vibe, that was definitely my favourite so far. Their dynamic was great together, and all these other characters are pretty much lame as shit.

I guess they're about done with introducing characters if I remember correctly from the Manga wiki (which I only glanced to find out characters' names). Hopefully it means we'll no longer have to put up with this joke:

Nozomu: "she is [negative thing]"; Kafuka: "no, she is [positive, unlikely thing]".

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Kesubei

No, they still have to introduce the girl with the bandages, the normal girl and the girl with the cellphone.

They function (more or less) as Tsukkomi characters, so I don't know if they'll get a mini-storyline dedicated to them. But yeah, why not.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?