Review: Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei!

Have you ever watched an anime and felt like you were on crack the whole time? That's Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei in a nutshell. That's not to say it's bad, just strange.

The Hollywood pitch for this would be something like "Crazy teacher teaches classroom of even crazier students". Everyone in this show is messed up in some way. The titular "Zetsubou Sensei", Nozomu Itoshiki, is constantly "in despair" and trying to off himself. Kefuka Fuura can only see things in a positive light. Meru is shy and quiet in person, but an abusive troll in email. And so on, and so forth.

The art style for the show is incredible, in my opinion. Something about the combination of the way it's drawn and the way it's colored just clicks for me. The characters do suffer a bit of "CLAMP Syndrome" in the way they're drawn, though, as everyone comes out skinny and lanky as hell, but it doesn't really hurt.

Just about the only excuse someone could have for not liking this show, though, is the humor. To say it's dark is like saying that the "something is to something as water is to wet" metaphor is overused. Beyond being just dark, it relies a lot on Japanese puns and sight gags. Although the fansubbers (it's yet to be licensed) did a good job of explaining them when they could, the humor still can come across as a little flat if you're not already an anime fan. Also, the characters tend to go overboard in exemplifying their crazyness. The previously mentioned Meru is mute except for a few whimpers in person, Kefuka sees Nozomu hanging himself and suggests that he was "just trying to become taller", etc. If you're not the kind for over the top humor and whacky zanyness, avoid SZS like the plauge. Otherwise, watch a few episodes.