|
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a comedy manga and anime written by Koji Kumeta and animated by Shaft. It is Kumeta's magnum opus, and (in my opinion) Shaft's best show. It is unlike any other comedic anime/manga out there. SZS is a show about suicide. The main character, Nozomu Itoshiki (a kanji pun on despair) desperately wants to kill himself (but not really). Every episode he tries to hang himself, usually after taking a concept of modern Japanese life to its absurd conclusion. His day job is high school teaching, and he tries to instill his unique viewpoints in his students. These students have their own quirks, from a mysterious girl with evil eyes who can only see the good in things to a girl with an obsession with pulling animals' tails.  If there's one word to describe SZS, it's dense. A lot of the humor in it is based on puns. Everyone's name is a pun. These puns are part of their character, so you have to understand them. There are constant allusions to Japanese pop culture, literature, history and current events of the time. Unless you are a native speaker of Japanese with a good knowledge of Japanese culture, you won't catch everything. It's still funny regardless. I'll give an example. Nozomu's favorite book is No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. It's a semi-autobiographical story about a man who desperately wants to kill himself following a rough childhood, and how he drags all of his friends and loved ones down into a depressed hole of death. However, it seems he's more based on the character, Sensei from Sousemi Natsume's Kokoro, a man who cannot deal with the changing world of Taisho Era Japan. Nozomu himself cannot deal with his own changing world. There are other connections to Natsume, including a chapter entitled I Am a Golden Parachutist, but I Still Do Not Have a Job. The first portion of that sentence is Wagahai wa amakudari de aru, which is a reference to Natsume's most famous work, I Am a Cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru). There are even more references to the Early 20th Century. Nozomu dresses like a teacher would have in the Meiji Era (hakama, glasses), and he creates self-published poetry, something bohemians from the 20s would have done. There are connections to other Early 20th Century writers as well. One of the main cast of students is named Kafka (written in kanji, ka-fu-ka), and she is ironically a hopeless optimist. One of Nozomu's fellow teachers' name is a kanji pun on Nietzsche, and she calms Nozomu down whenever he feels like killing himself outside of the classroom. Even the year is a reference. Calendars in the series state that it takes place in Showa 83, which means that it takes place in an alternate timeline where Emperor Hirohito has not yet died. How does this come together? All of these writers were reacting (negatively) to a rapidly changing world (Natsume to the Meiji Era, Dazai to the Post-war Japan, Nietzsche and Kafka to modernity), and Nozomu cannot function in our contemporary society. Like Dazai, he tries to kill himself, but somehow cannot. That's a lot to think about, but luckily SZS has a ton of fanservice and jokes to keep your brain from exploding. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is pretty good, imo. You should watch and read it
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 00:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 10:30 |
|
|
Durr let's talk about a 10 year old shaft stupid show instead of cool stuff like love live.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 00:51
|
|
|
tell me about all the references to japanese film posters in the anime that i didn't get
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 01:01
|
|
|
SZS is really good and a small part of me dared to hope this thread was for a new season
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 14:30
|
|
|
HMS Boromir posted:SZS is really good and a small part of me dared to hope this thread was for a new season Same. I same the thread title and got super excited.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 14:42
|
|
|
I watched this 8 years ago or whenever and never really got it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 22:34
|
|
|
Poll : 72% of people said that their first attempt to be fashionable was a pocket watch.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 23:34
|
|
|
The degree to which the ending was foreshadowed without giving it away was pretty impressive. I had no idea.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 00:50
|
|
|
I liked this show a lot, but I especially liked the stylish OPs.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 01:54
|
|
|
This show is fantastic and I've thought about reading the manga. Has it been translated, official or otherwise?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 14:39
|
|
|
SZS was a lot of fun. "If you're going to play 'spot the difference', why don't you spot the mistakes you've made in life?" is an all-time great quote, and I know there are tons of other classic bits that I've forgotten about.Dexie posted:Same. I same the thread title and got super excited. Me too. Anyone who's a fan of SZS who hasn't seen Joshiraku yet should consider checking it out. It's not quite another season of SZS, but it's another Kumeta adaptation, and it has a very similar style of nonsequitur-conversational humor to SZS. (I think I actually might like it more than SZS?) A new season of either or both would be a wonderful surprise, but I guess they're not likely to happen at this point.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 15:03
|
|
|
this is a funny anime
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 17:44
|
|
|
In Training posted:This show is fantastic and I've thought about reading the manga. Has it been translated, official or otherwise? Not officially, but yes
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 18:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 10:30 |
|
|
Yeah, actually, there are officially-translated volumes of the series. I own a few, in fact. No idea how far it got though, because I bought them years ago and don't do that sort of thing anymore, but they exist.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 19:27
|
|