Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
amassed
Brief summary:
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"Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei" is a gag anime based on a manga of the same name. Animated by SHAFT ("Bakemonogatari", "Madoka Magica"), 12 episodes long (with a second season). From what I understand, it jumps around the manga's chapters. Zetsubou-Sensei is a high-school teacher who flies into sudden fits of despair, usually caused by the most minor of things. This usually leads to his attempted suicide, but he is often distracted or talked out of it by other characters. The show focuses on his antics with the students in his class (nearly all girls); each student has their own brief story segment and defining character traits. Despite the macabre premise, the show is lighthearted and funny, with humor on the darker side of things.
My thoughts:
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Before I get negative abo…
Read at the sourceLegionIscariot
Goodbye, Teacher Despair is a surprisingly entertaining anime i stumbled upon while trying to find something new to watch.
The story revolves around a highschool teacher Nozomu Itoshiki who is suicidal (dont worry its a comedy).
And a very optimistic but kinda clumsy girl Kafuka Fuura. Who despite trying to save him from killing himself she always accidentally almost kills him...
His classroom is full of girls who are strange and eccentric in their own way. Girls with split personalities. Stalkers. Girls who look shy but only communicate by sending mean texts. A girl who gets hurt playing with (abusing) zoo animals. A girl who refuses to leave her room.
Each day he has to deal with a new problem.
All the characters are interesting and entertaining. The MC aswell as his eventual unwante…
Read at the sourceCurlybrace101
If there's anything Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei does well, its presentation.
Firstly, the premise is one that's objectively funny and cute. In this surreal comedy, the main character is a miserable, pessimistic high school teacher, but despite that, he still manages to bond with his eccentric and weird students and be a good teacher to them, aided by the deuteragonist: a teenage girl in his class with all of the world's joy and whimsy in her heart.
That premise lends itself well to an absurdist comedy, and as an absurdist comedy, SZS is certainly successful. Its comedic timing is perfect and a lot of the jokes are genuinely quite funny. On top of that, the art style is particularly notable for being clean, stylized, and unique, also lending itself well to the premise.
However, the longer…
Read at the sourceAnnihilatorX3000
Works from SHAFT, such as their beloved monogatari series, often make me question how to even watch the damn thing. This absolute fever dream of an anime is like watching multiple shows, commercial breaks, fitness shows, drama/sitcom openings (no seriously, the anime contains all of these), or whatever other ADHD-fueled madness they have in store all at the same time. Its constantly changing art style which feature real-life imagery crudely slapped on top of the animation. The quick-paced cuts which force you to hover over the spacebar if you want to catch all of the little texts and gags the show has to offer. Their philosophical commentaries which dance between the lines of reason and absolute nonsense. It's all so jarring and yet, much like a fever dream, it all strangely makes sense.…
Read at the sourceTheCompletionist
I often have a troubled history with slice of life anime. It is often my least favorite genre of anime but I'm always willing to give the genre a chance just on the off chance I find a slice of life anime that I actually like which can happen albeit not very often. Slice of life anime can often delve into many subcategories such as romance, school life, or the daunting tasks that perpetuate our daily lives. However this anime abandons many of the typical tropes of slice of life anime and focuses on complete and utter zaniness in order to be entertaining. Unfortunately it doesn't really work although the anime has given me it's share of laugh out loud moments just based on the most randomized craziness when you least expect it. Sometimes finding something to laugh at with each and every epi…
Read at the sourceAmin-RTX
I never realized an anime about suicide will be this funny
It is basically episodic, with each episode introducing a new character, my favourites are: the girl who trolls others with messages , and the one obsessed with animals tails (Yes that is really in the anime).
Be aware the it is very fanservicey and filled with random shots of panties and other weird stuff.
Aside from that, this anime can teach your things about society, particularly the Japanes society and the social issues which you do not normally see in media.
I can summarize the show in five words:
Random
Hilarious
Meta
Crazy Informative
Sorry If my review is a random, I am trying to mimic the style of the anime :)
Read at the sourcealbertbrown
While this was almost close to a 10 score, the main character was also close to trying to kill himself. This alone stopped it’s way from having a perfect score.
In all seriousness Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the perfect underrated (though, at times underappreciated) comedy that balances the darkness and absurdity in ways that made for the best entertaining comedy I’ve seen from an anime perspective. The mental acuity in trying to keep up with most of the satirical jabs regarding Japanese school, work and home life were very unique and done in a way where both the main and supporting characters shined in ways in which I did not think were possible.
Most people might shy away from anime like this due to its absurdist humor, but if anything, I have to say they’d be doing themselves a disser…
Read at the sourceBigDaddyTuesday
tl;dr this show is weird, and most people wouldn't like it or derive anything out of it. I still don't know why I gave it an 8.
If you boil down all the fat and reduce the show to its core components, it's a harem show with wordplay entirely based around straight man deadpan humor. The concepts are so farfetched, and the humor is so clearly targeted towards Japanese audiences I am amazed this show has a following as large as it does (not that a majority of people would know anything about this show but 100k members on here is a decent number.) Visually it looks better than most things released in 2007. I still enjoyed myself though, so in the end I suppose I am nothing but a statistic fueling the decent rating for this show. I am in despair!
Read at the sourceephemerry
This anime is a rare amalgam of slapstick humor, shameless otaku pandering, all within the haze of Kafkan antimonies! Rarely have I ever I seen an author speak so honestly about such normal day-to-day circumstances through the mouthpiece of a character — the side personalities themselves are collectively an exemplar of their respective archetypes, basic to the formula of anime stereotypes; but unlike their progenitors, they orbit around the anomalous Nozomu Itoshiki, and diurnally, his perspective on the odd quirks of their cartoon world, that then manifests itself into something fresh and new: the incognizant meta-narrative! Nozomu Itoshiki more or less in a Franz Kafka paradox, where he doesn't realize that he, himself is a cartoon character — and instead, acts as the narrative spectator…
Read at the sourceTeirayo
Hey! This anime reminds me of all you pessimistic motherfuckers dragging me down! Haha jk, genuinely though this anime centers on a very suicidal man :) and laughs at it :) and it's fucking hysterical :)
Anyways, soorrry, just did that cuz I'm bad at hooks. FTR, I'm reviewing the series as a whole here. And also, there are some circumstances with this series that idk- uh- well- the 8 score is probably a bit low? if I ever rewatch it I think the score would go up basically.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a fantastic comedy anime, and do not be fooled- despite the fact that I'm gonna talk about a couple more serious things about it that I like you should not go in expecting anything but a really funny comedy anime with some clever and sometimes pretentious social commentary.
We start off wi…
Read at the sourceBlxcken
Having fun with your Work: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Tl;dr - Much fun, very cool, recommend for da horny people
So it’s no surprise that SHAFT runs on rather tight production values (until Monogatari and Madoka anyway) and they sometimes tend to be ‘unprofessional’ but it’s these things that give there work so much damn character beyond what’s physically on the screen.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a prime example of the appeal of SHAFT, with brilliant use of audio-visual editing, pop culture referencing and seeming inside jokes that almost no one would get except the people who worked on this. The show itself is filled character with combinations of jokes made by staff or the source material itself, despite jokes not being that funny most of the time.
This show greatly raises the standard…
Read at the sourceAgent_Redacted
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a mediocre, second-rated, average series that regardless of the satisfactory qualities this show offers it is impossible to give such an ordinary anything more than 5/10.
Courtesy of Jason Severs' Fried Chicken will always taste like Courtesy of Jason Severs' Fried Chicken so long as the same oil, temperature, time, pan, stove, deep-fryer, bowl, flour, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, buttermilk is used. Of course there's also gravity, ounces/grams, amount of particles, environment, one's proficiency, and more. But you get what I mean?
A mediocre show cannot become more than mediocre with mediocre story, art, sound, and character. It's like adding a drop of water into the ocean. As there's barely any change we presume that the…
Read at the sourcegodfatherpayne
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is, without doubt, the best anime of all time. Not just that, but also the greatest piece of creative work that mankind has ever produced. Every single human living on Earth should personally congratulate Koji Kumeta for the beautiful, complex critique of society that SZS is. Every episode approaches an aspect of human society that is, somehow, deemed "strange" and, then, Nozomu falls into despair. What most people don't notice in this is that, in fact, every single despair moment in this entire series represents us, the members that compose society. In this way, SZS tells us, through its beautiful story and cast of characters, the way society should be. When humanity as a whole finally understands the instructions delivered by Lord Kumeta through this anime, we sh…
Read at the sourcehexashadow13
tl;dr: A very bizarre anime with a bizarre art style featuring a bizarre set of characters that managed to be quite amusing.
That anime was utterly bizarre. It's mostly a gag anime, with no real plot, wherein even when there was plot there wasn't any plot. But the thing that makes it different from other gag anime, is that the humor is pretty dark in a social commentary sort of way. It uses its humor to poke fun at society. Some of that of is universal, or at least easy enough to understand, and was quite amusing throughout. But a good portion of it also felt like it was targeted pretty precisely at individual Japan events and issues, which mostly probably flew over my head. In terms of the characters, they were certainly interesting, though flat, but really, they were so strange that I'm…
Read at the sourceNeimaj
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a dark comedy anime about a pessimistic, suicidal high-school teacher who teaches a bunch of mentally broken girls about how horrible and negative the world is. One student has serve O.C.D., another one is a hikikomori, one has a guilt complex, and one is an extreme optimist, who sincerely believes that there's nothing in the world that is negative; she's the polar opposite of Zetsubou-Sensei. Nozomu Itoshiki is the Zetsubou-Sensei. If you put the first two characters of his name too close together, his name says, "Zetsubou," which means, "Despair."
Episode formula:
1.) Zetsubou-Sensei conveys a statement about a negative aspect of society, and on some occasions, the world.
2.) He then gives examples to further prove his point. Most of the time, the show uses…
Read at the sourcetotalbodyworkout
One of several outstanding displays of the raw creative talent possessed by the individuals at Shaft, but irrecoverably marred by the all-too-common, subculturally sanctioned sickness on display by the creators. Shaft anime drives me absolutely bonkers because their work was and is some of the most unique and engrossing animation that I've ever seen, but it's so often wasted on indulging the petty whims of the creators, which can range from boring and rapidly dated non sequiturs from internet culture to the revolting but widely tolerated pedophilia typical in otaku culture. SZS will take you on marvelous journeys replete with interesting samples from the history of Japanese visual culture and mind-bending travels to the edges of abstraction which are beautiful and never lose their represen…
Read at the sourceBOBTHEMAN
Yes the characters are one note and defined by their "gimmicks", that is the joke, and I for one think it works very well.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a parody anime. What it is parodying is the average harem, for instance Da Capo or Absolute Duo. For the record, I hate absolute duo. Why? Because I see it as the most average of average harems. There is nothing unique. This is exactly why Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is so hilarious to me. Take Julie from AD, for instance. She is the token kuudere character. We don't know much about her other than that she is a kuudere and she comes from some place in the north. We also know what her boobs look like because fanservice is more important than character development...? Oh dear. Then, let's take Kafuka from SZS. She is hilariously cheerful. Her on…
Read at the sourcebeverkeb
Story: 1/10
There is no story.
Art: 6/10
Pretty ordinary, but I did like it's contrasting colour-scheme and character design. Not bad.
Sound: 3/10
Nothing special, the voice actors worked with what they had I suppose. They did their job well. The music was terrible and unbefitting of situations, as if the creator were purposely making a mockery of it's own soundtrack. Eh, it was kind of funny for the first few episodes guys, but you can stop now. I know this anime is a joke.
Characters: 3/10
There was no development, you never really found anything out about them. As for Zetsubo himself, he's the only character you gain any real insight into, but it's not nearly enough to paint a proper picture of a man. The only thing of interest here is obviously his tendancy to think the worst of eve…
Read at the sourcezetsubou-kami
Zetsuboshita! People giving reviews on the internet not knowig what they do, has given me despair(zetsubou)!!!
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei deserves a proper review. All these guys below me didn't do a proper job. because you can't rate Zetsubuou-Sensei as a normal anime.
If you do, you give it a 6 or maybe a 7. It has no story at all, only introductions and the episodes always have one theme they go about.
There is no fights, no love story, no ecchi and the lolli they could have done isn't touched at all.
All the 7 remaining points might be given for the animations, because they are art in it's finest way. All with that japanese sense for calmness and perfection and so many drawing styles. It has infinite.
But Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has one thing above them all.
"Vegeta, what does the sco…
Read at the sourceHaneken2086
SAYONARA ZETSUBO SENSEI tells the story of a depressed teacher named Nozomu Itoshiki (whose name means "beyond hope" or "despair"), who leads a class of students who are just as mentally disordered as he is. There's a perfectionist schoolgirl who hacks at everything she deems imperfect, a mute girl who only spews abuse through her phone, a stalker fixated on her beloved teacher... and the most dangerous of them all, the cute but psychotic girl who sees everything in an optimistic but insane manner, which ultimately boomerangs on Itoshiki and almost always lands him in trouble.
This show has a simple enjoyable premise and some interesting characters, but beneath it lies the ultimate in Japanese satire. It hosts all the classic elements that make up a great satire: eccentric characters in a…
Read at the source
