Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

[masamuneehs]

Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei (さよなら 絶望 先生, Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei "Goodbye, Despair Teacher") is a manga by Kōji Kumeta, serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump. It is a comedy about a teacher who takes all aspects of life, language and culture in the most negative light possible.

Nozomu Itoshiki (糸色 望, Itoshiki Nozomu)The main character, a high school teacher. When his last name is written horizontally, it looks like Zetsubō (絶望, Zetsubō "Despair"), which fits his extremely paranoid, pessimistic, depressive and suicidal mindset.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Episode 01 - a.f.k - avi

won the Kodansha Manga Award for the 'Shounen' category in 2006.

This one caught my eye because of the premise. I'm also happy because a.f.k does good work.

edit - watched it today, and laughed out loud a few times. Took me awhile to get used to the characters. The two dynamic opposites aren't my cup of tea (spot on interaction between them, though), but the humor really is. I loved the silly naming of trees and Zetsubo going on about naming rights ("And one day, even Mt. Fuji will one day becom Japan's #1 Mt. Shounen Magazine")

That freakin head creeps me out! Some serious fanservice, for the lolicons too...

I like this show. It's got a good style. Lots of little, small funny things that you sometimes need to pause for (the chalkboard: Watch anime in a brightly lit room, with a dark heart" a reference to the Gundam Haruhi dance? Rei Ayanami girl

Some of the 'despair lists' were funny too, noticed the mangaka appeared on there as if he's a member of the class.

Fuura's name "Kafuka" seems to be an ironic twist on the author, Franz Kafka, who is one of the most depressing authors ever...

[Lucifus]

WoW! I absolutly love this show! Definatly sticking with it. The first episode did its job alright, i'm hooked. Already cant wait for the next episode. The characters are awesome. Most pleased.

[oyabun]

Sounds great, I'll give it a shot

[kooshi]

WoW! I absolutly love this show! Definatly sticking with it. The first episode did its job alright, i'm hooked. Already cant wait for the next episode. The characters are awesome. Most pleased.

In COMPLETE agreement! Absolutely amazingly hilarious!

[Yukimura]

I don't know about this one. It was really entertaining in bursts but I found myself waiting for it to be over more than really enjoying it. Having to pause to read all the random black board comments was a bit of a bother as well.

[masamuneehs]

Having to pause to read all the random black board comments was a bit of a bother as well.

After I paused about three or four times and saw there ws going to be tons of those blackboard comments, I decided to just let the episode run and then went back at the end and read the comments.

Zetsubo was a little annoying towards the end with him trying to depress the children's hopes and dreams, but I really enjoyed his other tirade (naming rights and the baseball team). The up-beat girl, much to my surprise, kept me entertained and not wanting to throttle her (maybe because they poke fun at her?) and that was strange because I almost always hate that type of character... Supporting characters are all pretty good, even if boiler-plate archetypes, I especially like Receding Hairline boy and Cellphone girl.

I'm just glad people watched this show! I thought it was going to be who knows how long (until the next release) before I could post here again...

[kenren]

I got addicted to this anime already..this is the exact feeling i got when i started Bokurano. Cheers Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei!

[eat_toast]

This.... this is the funniest shit ever made. I knew it was going to be good when the intro song had the entire Yoshinoya rant in it.

Btw any info on the OP and ED songs or artists? They are catchy as hell.

[masamuneehs]

i finally got around to watching episode two, and I really liked it. the characters and small storylines are all hilarious, and I'm really liking the extreme coloring style. The animation is fittingly freaky too...

the music also cracks me up. And I'll be also looking for the OP and ED, as those songs are freaking awesome! (so glad that the OPs have different tirades in them)

I lol'd a couple times at episode two, mostly at the stalker eeriness and Fuura trying to "seal" the hikkikomori in her room. Also, when Zetsubou started giving that girl all those compliments and told her to let him know if she ever wanted to die... so they could be "suiciide travel partners"...

I feel that this show should start with a disclaimer: Much acid was dropped in the production of this episode...

[shinta|hikari]

The sheer lack of common sense mixed with the serious expression of zetsubou sensei sells this for me, as well as the cute student characters (especially the Hikkikomori girl)

[KoKo37]

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Episode 03 - a.f.k

[shinta|hikari]

Another girl that loves our depressed sensei. This is really turning out to be a harem, almost Negi-like. Still, the extremely weird blonde was really insane, and insanely funny too.

[masamuneehs]

despair no more! even though this is coming from ANN, the fact that it's from a reliable mag makes my heart sing!

Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei's 2nd Season in 2008 Confirmed
Issue 45 (on sale September 9) of Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine has confirmed that the television anime adaptation of Kōji Kumeta's Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei will have a second season in Japan. The high school comedy centers around a pathologically depressed teacher who somehow finds the will to deal with a class of oddball students. The first 12 episodes ran from July to September of this year on Chiba TV and other stations, and the second season is planned for the beginning of 2008. Ten volumes of the manga, which began in 2005, are currently in print. Source: Ultimatum

Now if we could only get some people to fansub this thing...

[NM]

Freakin' awesome! I was disappointed when I saw the RAW up and it said "End" on the file name. More Zetsubou goodness on the way!

And seriously...what are the fansub groups doing? I know schools have started up and all but there's been 0 releases for Zetsubou.

[animus]

Haha, they threw the DBZ fusion dance into the mix.

[shinta|hikari]

Yeah, I fell off my chair when I saw that. I was wondering what the hell they were doing, and all of a sudden, the final finger connection move made it obvious.

[Lucifus]

Oh my glorius christ. This show is Madness incarnate.

Refigerators, Stoves, Bicycles, Babies! Put that back where you found it!~
The DBZ fusion dance was so utterly randomly. Lmao. Court room sketch.

So love the characters. Wipes tear away...

[masamuneehs]

the chalkboard was 'ON FIRE' this episode!!! Alot of really funny things up there. Took shots at Haruhi, Eva, Death Note, NHK. This is like the anime version of Family Guy, but the references aren't the core components... and they all seem to revolve around anime and Japan.

I love the 'foreigner' characters. The 'bilingual personality disorder' is hilarious and the illegal immigrant girl was so funny (was wondering what the start of the episode was all about...) Stalker girl and Kafuka were great in this episode as well.

Absolute hilarious insanity. I feel like there's so much packed into each of these episodes. It really deserves to be watched more than once (just once to catch all the rapid chalkboard jokes)

[Yukimura]

So funny, I've found it's easier to just watch the episode twice, once for the story and once for the black board. My favorite black board line this ep "Use your (moe) drill to break through the heavens". Then there always "If you don't shut up I'll introduce your mouth to my fist" just plain hilarious.

And I can't believe she actually sued.

[shinta|hikari]

Thinking about it, what country were those immigrants from? If they are migrating to Japan in such numbers, and look kind of mexican/latino, and come from Asia, I only have one country in mind though.