Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Zetsubou-sensei fucking rules and if you disagree it is probably because you are intellectually maldeveloped. Koji Kumeta is the most powerful disgruntled middle aged man in existence and it shows in every frame of this. Because the humor actually references things like sports, politics, and contemporary events, average w**aboos will not be able to appreciate most of the jokes, but this only serves to reinforce that SZS is a thinking man's manga. The way the jokes build upon themselves and upon the central idea of each episode really tickles the brain. The art is idiosyncratic and beautiful. If you like Zetsubou-sensei, then I like you.

The easiest way to convey what mind state you should read this manga in is that it is like South Park but for Japan. Every chapter has a new dysfunction of society or psychological disorder that is poked fun at and trivialized in a way that makes people afflicted with these dysfunctions laugh at themselves, a much needed remedy. The first chapter opens up with suicide being the main joke, a huge problem in Japanese society being suicide rates. This joke often comes back to in the form of the main character falling into despair over various aforementioned social or personal dysfunctions.

Each volume is sub-titled ... "The Power of Negative Thinking", negativity being a constant personality trait of the MC's.

The twist on it being a straight up social commentary is that the MC is the quirky teacher of a quirky group of curious students, mostly females, all who have something wrong with them to say the least. They are all infatuated with Itoshiki Nozomu their teacher, and time and again are completely thrown off by his sudden outbursts. It is almost as if he intentionally derails their thoughts every episodes with his own "band-aid thought" of the subject. His silly little comforts often drive them crazy or make them unimpressed, but they still pay attention to him.

The other MC is a girl who is super positive and often comes around when he is hanging his head in despair. Their dynamic usually leads to her positivity overwhelming the situation, sometimes not to a good end result (each chapter ends with an often whacky punchline, making fun of "explosive ending" or "it was a dream all along" tropes").

I enjoyed the representation by each of the characters of separation anxiety, OCD, dissociative identity disorder, guilt complex, acute social anxiety, manic depression, toxic positivity, truancy, and many others by the characters. For a mangaka these disorders are actually represented surprisingly realistically.

A lot of jokes fly over my head being American but I still find the ones I understand hilarious and relatable.

You either understand it right away and fall in love, or are confused by the pacing and seeming lack of plot. I fell in love clearly lol 10/10

First off, i wont be telling spoilers. so rest easy.
second, if you think my rating is off BY A LOT even. do take note that this is MY point of view. but just to clarify, ive watched tons of animes and manga. (and collect them too) and you know what they say about beauty in the eyes right?
Third, lets get started:

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (SZS) is about Itoshiki Nozomu, a teacher with ultra negative personality(kinda), very high suicidal tendencies (kinda), and his class of freaks(yep,freaks).
In almost the entirety of the manga its about Nozomu complains about something in his life or society causing him to fall ... into despair only to have it blows up in his face (sometimes literally) with the not so helpful help of his students.

yep, this manga almost always follows this formula. not to mention its episodic,mediocre art and unless youre familiar with japanese or have a translator notes the jokes will almost certainly fly over your head.

WAIT! Dont give it a no yet. Let me at least finish.

Despite all those flaws sayonara zetsubou sensei has a certain charm to it that made it hard to put down. The characters are all likable, the numerous weird things going on at the background, the unpredictableness of how things will turn out in a chapter and somewhat relatable problem in Nozomu ceaseless rants made this series worth the read.

Theres really not much for me to say without spoiling the story so my advice, pick it up read it already!

Story:8
Art:5
Chara:9
Enjoy:9
Total:8

p/s: if youre wondering why i rate the story high for a series that seemingly doesnt have a plot well thats just it. it seemingly doesnt have one but if you look hard enough....

p/p/s: to all those who read manga online, SZS have volumes that arent scanlated. it put me off at first but i assure you its not as bad as you (and i once) might think. like i said its mainly episodic and the 3 season anime can cover those missing spots well enough.