[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei #12: end
Hats off to a.f.k. for pulling out all the stops and delivering the final instalment of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - we can now give a final Farewell to Mr. Despair, if only a temporary one. With it being the last episode and all the series leaves on a high with the quality of humour being up there with the stronger instalments earlier on in the series. The reasons for it being such a great show were twofold: firstly the humour was darker, dryer and sharper than what we’ve come to expect from the high school comedy genre, more in the vein of classic Britcom. Secondly Shinbo’s input made it an artistic marvel was well as a refreshing piece in terms of entertainment value.
The Guilt Complex idea worked a treat possibly because of the image that Japan presents to me as being a society that prizes politeness so highly is quite a quintessentially British one too. Once again, a social commentary theme is used to take the situation off at a comedic tangent, which is all the more convincing because the UK takes a fairly similar stance in terms of apologising profusely in public situations and the like. Chav culture has often put a stop to this sort of thing in practice but we still know how to queue and the familiarity of “Oh, I’m terribly sorry…”, “Excuse me one moment…”, “I beg your pardon…” and “Don’t mind me…” are as much cultural stereotypes here as they are there. Moreover, as someone who sees international sporting events as a national embarrassment, the idea of the guilt complex, especially with the UK/Japan sharing similar values, makes the football team example utterly brilliant. How else can you explain away the fact that your national side fail in the World Cup? “I’m terribly sorry old chap, I didn’t realise you wanted the ball too..”, or whatever the hiragana is for a similar expression of apology. The Japanese footie players explaining why they lose had me in stitches.
Unfortunately the second half of the episode didn’t do as well as the first, which is common enough in SZS but the examples that stem from it were still pretty good. The return of the Chalkboard Comments, plus other neat little bits of text and other background details (above), were as welcome as they were hilarious, adding to the show’s rewatch value (not to mention the usefulness of the pause button). I didn’t actually notice Mitama-san at all until now, so I’m guessing she didn’t appear earlier on either (the fact that we’ve only just noticed Kaga-san is pretty self explanatory). Although it wasn’t quite as funny as Kaga’s story, it did win a bonus point from me in terms of oddness. What the hell is that prank with the dog and the stick?! It’s enough to put you off chocolate Pocky for life…
The reference-driven side of the humour was well done in the episode too - I especially loved the Lupin III sketch, complete with a Cagliostro-esque car chase with Kimura on a motorbike. It’s moments like this that break up the stucture of the episodes, making them delightfully off-the-wall and unpredictable.
Although it feels like a normal episode for the most part, there is the moment we’ve all been waiting for: driven to despair by his guilt complex, Itoshiki-sensei finally succeeds in hanging himself. More or less. Fortunately it takes place in one of the little related side-sketches, rather than the main story arc (a terms I’m using in a very loose sense here) so we’re still all set for the second season without him being properly killed off. The significance of these little moments comes into play here too, because it allows for both the sketch show type of approach that is derived from the 4-koma idea, but also allows for a continuous timeline enjoyed by longer-running sitcoms. SZS joins the likes of Lucky Star in being a comedy show that balances the self-contained sketches with a discernable storyline, without losing the benefits of either, and for the most part succeeding. Although certain parts worked better than others, the overall standard was high enough to make it a funny and even though-provoking series; not to mention the artistic side of things, which added much to its achievement of being a refreshing break from the norm. Good stuff all round.
Posted on January 6th, 2008 @ 7:22 pm
I enjoyed the finale, Especially with the references to it being a series and all. I can’t say it wasn’t odd and somethings didn’t drag but it’s as you said its not really out of the norm for a normal Zetsubou-Sensei episode. I thought the sleepover with all the students seemed quite weird, Reminded mind of Michael Jackson actually. It was cool to see some more of that Hikikomori girl, She was awesome.
The follow up series “Zoku” or something will hopefully still deliver all the lulz we need, Also for some reason, I think this second series will take a different approach to what the first took. It seems like something it would do.
Posted on January 6th, 2008 @ 9:33 pm
I had my fingers crossed when Maria brought up the whole “countries playing the victim” thing, but it seems that it’s territory that even SZS can’t touch.
Posted on January 7th, 2008 @ 10:20 am
I know what you mean about apologising. Yesterday in the course of five minutes I apologised and was apologised to in the same conversation, and afterwards I realised that I’d used the exact same apologetic phrase in both cases - ’sorry’ in effect being used to apologise and receive apologies.
An American friend commented to me once that she thought the Japanese and the British were very similar. Now, while I’d say we’re very different, it’s interesting that from a third (American) perspective we seem to have shared traits. I think it was the politeness and the island-dwelling she was referring to . . .
Posted on January 7th, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
@Jayme: I’m looking forward to the second season but I’m hoping it takes a different tack. Since the whole class has been introduced, they’ll probably have to do something different. More of Itoshiki’s family, perhaps?
@intro: yeah, I could tell there was a lot in that scene that could’ve been said…I was surprised that anyone would dare make a comedy about suicide in the first place!
@IKnight: I know what you mean! There could be some truth to the island dwelling thing - hopefully I’ll be able to investigate first-hand later this year. I’m just waiting on my employer to give the go-ahead for my annual leave… *crosses fingers*
Posted on January 17th, 2008 @ 11:35 pm
[...] which didn’t really have a place in the de facto post to be cited. * Concrete Badger’s final episode post at The End of the World mentions the Britcom element of SZS as well as providing some other [...]