For my second review, I figured I'd go with something of a much less serious nature. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a parodic comedy centered around the super pessimist Itoshiki Nozomu, a teacher at a local high school. Unlike most other parodies of its type, SZS does not have a central plot; rather, it focuses on making fun of everything in a highly episodic manner. While many of its targets are fellow anime series, it also makes fun of the people that watch those series, visual novels, actors and actresses, and even manages to delve into political and sports satire, as well as worldly problems such as unemployment and identity theft. Additionally, the students in the classroom, in their own way, actually make fun of common character archetypes, such as bipolar, nerdy, amorous, foreign, and even "normal" characters. Each female student seems to also hold some form of affection for Nozomu, even though most of them like him for bizarre reasons, such as how he looked while wearing a tail, or because he woke up next to one of the students in the nurse's office one day. On top of this, every character in the series (more or less) has a name that in some way relates to the character itself. For example, the name "Itoshiki Nozomu," when written in kanji, looks like "糸色望." By merely crunching the first two symbols together, we get a character that looks like "絶望" which when read now, reads "zetsubou," which means "despair;" highly fitting for the most pessimistic teacher ever. Patterns like these continue for just about every student, as well as for Nozomu's family; making puns on word pronunciation, portmanteaus, and even references to real-life places, such as the Kinokuniya bookstore chain. Just about everything about this show is some kind of a reference to Japanese culture, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.
One thing I would like to state before anything else is that this show has an all-star cast of seiyuu (Japanese voice actors/actresses that also sing). Voice talents such as those of Kamiya Hiroshi, Goto Yuuko, Kobayashi Yuu, Nonaka Ai, Inoue Marina, and Horie Yui are just a small portion of the cast that perform in this series. Also of noteworthy mention, the opening themes to this show are (almost) all performed by one of my new favorite singers, Ohtsuki Kenji. The combination of his rock/metal appropriate voice with those of the aforementioned seiyuu often makes for a highly entertaining song collection, including "Hitotoshite Jiku ga Bureteiru", "Kuusou Rumba", and "Ringo Mogire Beam!". However, don't be fooled by the audio track alone--this show is as much a visual feast as an acoustic one. This show is not only incredibly artsy, but also focuses rather heavily on character designs. For that reason, it's possible to actually figure out what the artist to the series, Kumeta Koji, likes most in his female characters; most notably, long legs/thighs. However, unlike most other comedies that have to resort to obscene amounts of fanservice in order to maintain their fanbase, SZS really only designated about 3 or 4 characters to that role; namely Chie-sensei, Kimura Kaere, Kobushi Abiru, and to a lesser extent, Komori Kiri. Furthermore, of these 4 mentioned, only Abiru really shows up often.
To state what should be obvious at this point, SZS is one of my all-time favorite anime series. I would also like to state that there are 2 sequels and 2 OVA series to follow up the first season-Zoku SZS, Goku SZS, Zan SZS, and Zan SZS Bangaichi. The series, a banquet for the eyes and ears as it is, does have its share of problems, however. The biggest and most noteworthy problem is the form of humor it capitalizes in; parody. While I may find most of the jokes made in the series funny, the show requires one to have at least some knowledge of Japanese culture, in addition to knowing certain common Japanese terms that aren't found too often in other parts of the world, such as the term "NEET," or a person Not involved in Education, Employment, or Training. Simply put, the weakness of all parody-based shows is making fun of topics that not everyone is familiar with. While one may easily look up any terms they don't know, most people, unfortunately, would rather not have to look up a word in order to find a joke or a jab funny. For this reason and this reason alone, I cannot recommend this series to everybody. However, for those who would like a comedy with great music, amazing art, and have at least some understanding of Japanese culture or a will to learn more, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is for you.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
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