Having reviewed the first season, I was glad when I coincidentally saw the new season released today on Netflix and binged all of it this morning. This Netflix release had me a bit confused at first since it doesn’t continue right where the second series ends. Instead, the story follows Saiki, once more, as he engages in his daily living with unexpected comedic events. I felt the comedic punchlines were not nearly as good as they were in the first two seasons.
For those unclear about the chronology of this series:
1. Season 1 & 2,
2. Shidou-hen episodes 1-5
3. Kenketsu Hen
4. Shidou-hen episode 6
Story/Comedy: 6/10
As much as I enjoyed the first two seasons, giving them a 10 and 9 respectively, the story and comedy in this season were not as entertaining as the first two seasons' story and comedy. Instead of coming up with new material, they often chose to revisit old jokes which were funny the first time around but got stale through repetition.
On the bright side, new characters are introduced and they present a new set of challenges. However, these new characters did not bring a lot of new comedic value to the show and it felt more like the writer(s) just wanted to add a new character and didn't know what kind so they just added these two. The show still has its signature “multiple stories per episode” format, often jumping from one story aspect and continuing it in a later episode which is great. Overall, this season’s story and comedy was alright, but I only laughed maybe about four or five times throughout the entire 6 episodes. The end of the series was incredibly satisfying.
Character: 7/10
We don’t get much new character development this season. The show reuses the same gags for the old characters as have been present for quite some time but introduces two new characters. One of the characters is a student and presented some funny moments, whereas the other was a teacher and a bit of a weird choice. I won’t go into the specifics of each but overall I’d say the characters were still pretty good.
Art: 6/10
The art and animation have never been the greatest and appears to be comparable to the first two seasons, with a simple art style and nonfluid animation. It works for this show since it’s a gag/comedy anime.
Sounds: 7/10
They cut out the opening theme altogether in this season. Instead, they replaced it with a 5-second singing clip. There was at least one interesting new OST, but overall it’s about the same soundtrack. Voice acting was about the same. It doesn’t seem like they went "all out" with the sound effects this time around.
Enjoyment: 7/10
It was pretty entertaining to watch, but I was hoping for more entering this season, quite honestly. Hopefully, they’ll pick up the momentum in any future releases depending on the number of people watching it this season.
Overall/TLDR: 7/10
The story follows Saiki as he continues to struggle with being a psychic and having “unwanted” people around him all of the time. In the end, we get a bit more character development of Saiki. Additionally, we get to see all of the main characters from the original series as well as the introduction of new characters. However, this season did not deliver as well as the first two seasons did, and consequently I didn't enjoy it as much either. I would still recommend this season to you if you enjoyed the first two seasons, but if you’re new to the Saiki Kusuo franchise, it is much better to watch the first two seasons first since there are plot aspects of this season that you would not appreciate as much if you hadn’t watched the first two seasons.
Should you watch this series?
If you watched the first two seasons of this series, then OF COURSE!
If you’re looking for a comedy series, then start with the first season?
If you’re looking for a sci-fi, then ehh it’s not THAT sci-fi related but you can give it a shot.
If you’re looking for a serious, complex, and/or linear plot with an end-goal, then you’re definitely in the wrong place buddy.
This series was too great! You should watch it if you haven’t heard of it before!
If you thought this review helped you make your decision please let me know by clicking the “helpful” button~ If you thought it was wrong or inaccurate, let me know why so I can improve my reviews in the future ^^
