Reviews

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 history of 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.