[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 2 and 3
Bure bure bure bure…
I don’t think I’ll run out of reasons for saying that this show is a piece of comic genius. High school comedies are two-a-penny (or a dime a dozen, depending on where you shop) so it’s testament to the writing that it can play around with the personality stereotypes and still offer something new - in ep #2 it goes all Welcome to the NHK! on us as Itoshiki-sensei and Kafuka are given the unenviable task of getting a hikikomori to attend class. By a twist of events, the two of them succeed…more or less. That is to say the poor kid is scared out of her room and decides to hole up in the science lab instead.
The hikikomori cometh…
I can see this being a running gag since the antisocial bishoujo winds up hiding in various classrooms and, at one point, inside a desk.
“Please return to your seat.”
“You’ll soon grow used to it.”
“I’d really rather not.”
Great stuff.
Then there’s the stalker who decides she has a crush on Itoshiki, and starts a chain of suspicion…my personal favourite scene is where the gallant teacher offers his own ‘anti-survival kit’ for suicide pacts, complete with pills, an ink pot and a will. It never ceases to amaze me how the turns of events bring about the most unlikely outcomes - Itoshiki is a paranoid individual with suicidal tendencies (although his fear of people suing over ridiculous claims is right on the money - the ‘hot coffee’ reference points to a very real problem of ridiculous lawsuits, which are lampooned by the Stella Awards) but somehow it all turns out okay. I dig irony.
That’s right: it includes the Best of Enya. Genius!
We also meet an overseas student with a culture shock-induced multiple personality disorder, but what I found even funnier is how an illegal immigrant bought her student ID number from a former student who now lives in a cardboard box. Very surreal but all the funnier for it.
The student who sold his pride
Every now and then echoes of the Goons and Monty Python creep through, which leads me to another point. As subjective and occasionally insular as humour is, the ability for SZS’s own brand to cross seemingly overwhelming cultural boundaries is staggering: I’m laughing myself silly at a schoolroom comedy written by (and for) people of another country, in a different language!
The comedy is also pretty close to the bone at times - I wonder whether illegal immigrants or overseas students will take offence to any of this. My guess is that they won’t. There are a lot of home truths behind these gags though: as amusing as the hikikomori can be, it’s a serious social issue. Not that SZS is a show that goes for social commentary, but it still sails close to the wind in terms of poking fun at topics that might be a bit sensitive. My own view is that laughter is an antidote to the gravity of the world’s problems - I was nodding in agreement at Itoshiki’s paranoid fears because they actually contain a few grains of truth!
The important thing is however, it never fails to deliver on the laughs - nor on the innovative and quite beautiful artwork. Because I’m no art expert I can only pin it down to a mixture of sepia-tinged 1920s art nouveau and traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e - a bizarre aesthetic style for a contemporary comedy but it somehow works.
Dig the sepia.
Posted on September 3rd, 2007 @ 1:04 am
I laughed my butt off seeing the “Best of Enya” in the suicide kit. I must have rewound and watched that scene at least a half dozen times.
“My own view is that laughter is an antidote to the gravity of the world’s problems - I was nodding in agreement at Itoshiki’s paranoid fears because they actually contain a few grains of truth!”
Absolutely, and I think that’s exactly why the show’s humor is so universal. It’s based on things that we can relate to, to some degree or another.
Incidentally, the “you’ll soon grow used to it” scene was Tsunetsuki-san, the stalker girl, not Komori-san.
Posted on September 3rd, 2007 @ 7:58 pm
@Orion: The ease by which so much of the humour transfers across the cultures gives me hope that it’ll be licenced…hopefully without a shitstorm from the tabloid media (cue the humourless Daily Mail and Mary Whitehouse with another ‘ban this sick filth!’ tirade). Cheers for clearing things up over Tsunetsuki too - I thought the hairstyle was different from Kamori but I wasn’t sure. Either way, it was funny