Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Glorious day was glorious. Which is unusual, because generally when I stay home because I feel like shit I end up feeling like well, shit. Not today. :) I went to the doctor and got some nasal spray (godsend) and now feel so much better I could dance, or perhaps blog. But enough about me, let's talk about anime! (or rather, what I think about it- so really, we're still talking about me.)

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, what a trip. As I told Ella earlier, it's like Azumanga Daioh if it were deeper. (Though, I'm sure if I rewatched Azumanga Daioh as the mature [yeah right] person that I am now, I would catch on to a lot more metaphors.) Much of the humor is very similar to your typical slice of life anime, Azumanga, Lucky Star, etc. However, it's quite layered and full of wonderful metaphorical goodness. The first thing I learned about Zetsubou Sensei, upon wikipedia exploration, was that it's an 'existentialist' anime. Existentialism being a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts (answers.com). Okay, I extremely dislike that rather wordy definition. Basically, existentialism is a way of thinking that explores our purpose (or lack of purpose) as human beings, human free will, and the human condition (me). Many of the classic existentialist works, Waiting for Godot, or my personal favorite Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ♥, tend to lack in the sense department. They don't have a concrete direction, and their purpose is never clear nor fulfilled. The same is true for Zetsubou Sensei. It reveals a lot of truth through not making any sense. Though I understand the concept of existentialism, it still took me a while to catch on to the show. I wanted concrete characters and character development, what I got was confusion and punchlines. You cannot go into this show expecting it to make sense or have some sort of linear plot, you're in for something entirely different. Being a mere 12 episodes, once I was finally able to understand how the show worked, it was over. (Luckily for us, there's another series. Which I am excited to be watching next!) Overall, it was friggen worth it. Bizarre, hilarious, and metaphorical- I loved it. Oh, and the music was pretty good too. When the soundtrack is awesome, it makes me love the anime just a little bit more.

Character development: 2/5. Storyline: 0/5. Originality: 4/5. Overall: 4/5.
That's just the way existentialism works. Makes no sense, but stands amazing regardless.

In my book, any show that can use the following words to express a truth about humanity wins:

"It's obviously a wig, but it's so obvious that you wonder if it's actually his hair!"


Yes, watch it,
Rachael.