The End of the World

[Categories: Anime Reviews]

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 4 and 5

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei]

This is one of those shows where summarising and commenting on things such as storylines is a bit futile. What there is of a storyline is steered by the humour, which is the opposite of pretty much everything I watch, comedy included. Still, these eps did succeed in making me laugh. A lot.

Ask a silly question…

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how this show can take on potentially sensitive subjects - in this case the idea of domestic violence (okay, the actual situation just looks that way, but still…). It shouldn’t contain any humour value at all, or so I thought at first. The old comic staple of embarrassing misunderstandings comes into play though, as our heroic teacher sees the worst-case scenario and jumps to conclusions. Of course, we eventually learn the truth isn’t nearly as serious as it first appears; it’s just bloody weird. I mean, I ‘got’ the idea of the girl going through personal injury because of her love for animals (it’s a very extreme and very funny take on Azu Manga Daioh’s Sakaki and her painful experiences) but a tail fetish?! That’s even stranger than the idea of Orange Road manga being used as an offensive weapon…!

Here kitty, kitty!

The story that follows, that of the girl who communicates through phone mail, didn’t work as well for some reason. It could be because her vindictive nature didn’t quite feel right - it would have been just as funny if her messages were harmless but just as random as the stuff the other kids come out with. On the other hand, not much could follow on from the all-out oddness of a tail collection and those weird military-style aerobics segments that kept cropping up, anyway.

Amen to that.

This ep did remind me of the other great thing about this show: for all his rants about things that make him feel despair, Itoshiki often picks up valid points, such as how people are unafraid to be more offensive on the ‘net than in real life. Coming to think of it, there’s a lot to feel despair about what the online world has burdened us with: spam e-mail (no, I DO NOT want viagra, bogus inheritance or a new fireplace), 4-chan (my eyes! they cannot unsee!!!111!!eleven!!!), AOL (kill it with FIRE!)…the list goes on.

TOLD.

The concept of materialism and living beyond one’s means is a serious topic too I think, but it didn’t stop me creasing up when Itoshiki declares one pupil to be a cheapskate and punishes him accordingly - with a smaller desk. Again, the episode falls a bit flat in the second half, although any series deserves some credit if it’s able to draw even the smallest amount of humour from the hackneyed ‘hot springs’ episode idea - it seems to be the recurring thing for pretty much every anime comedy I’ve seen. That just makes me suspect that SZS was in ‘parody’ mode at this point but I feel it works better when it’s in ‘WTF-style originality’ mode instead. At least there’s plenty of that on offer though so it’s still a really original and painfully funny show.

Goodness me, is that a smile?

[Filed under Anime Reviews]  [Tags: Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei]

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