My School Comedy jones continues unabated, so today I’ll be taking a look at a new favorite – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (or in English, “Goodbye, Prof. Despair”), which attempts to answer the immortal question: what happens when the world’s most negative man meets the world’s most positive girl?
Moody and melancholy high school teacher Nozuma has decided to end it all by hanging himself in a grove of cherry trees….only to find out that his suicide attempt has been by Kafuka, an insanely optimistic school girl who can’t believe he’s attempting suicide on such a wonderful spring day - and in front of her favorite cherry trees to boot!
Rather than be subjected to her positivistic prattle, the wane young man bolts, and Kafuka continues on to school….where her new homeroom teacher is none other than, yes, Nozuma. To make matters worse, Nozomu realizes that the uber-optimistic Kafuka is the least of his problems - every student in class appears to be total head cases, rivaling their new teacher in neurosis. It’s up to Nozomu to help his student resolve their issues….and serve up a heaping dose of negativity to boot.
SZS is one of those cases where “the whole is more than the sum of its parts” – the theme of “eccentric teacher helping his eccentric students work through their problems” is a withered old chestnut that’s been used by everyone from Great Teacher Onizuka to Welcome Back, Kotter. But creator Koji Kumeta takes this standard school comedy formula and twists it into something utterly unique, mixing blacker-than-black comedy along with offbeat wordplay and pop-culture in-jokes, all done in a refreshingly gothic/minimalist art style – imagine a manga Edward Gorey and you’re almost there.
Visually, this is one of the most striking and original series I’ve watched/read lately, with simple, almost Osamu Tezuka-influenced character designs, eerie gothic flourishes, and a black/white contrast that rivals even Jamie Hernandez (Love and Rockets). Kumeta ups the weirdness quotient by adding vaguely out-of-date clothing, TVs, and buildings, despite the clear inference that the series is set in the present day.
Although most of SZS’s offbeat and dark humor can be easily understood by most readers, I fear that some folks many be put off by how Japan-specific some of the jokes are – like Yakitate Japan, the puns and wordplay comes fast and thick, and the references to Japanese culture (both high and pop) make leave some readers scratching their heads. However, ambitious readers will be rewarded with a bleakly hilarious take on “modern Japanese visual culture”.
It also bears mention that this is the first series that I’ve read/watched that was entirely online – no DVDs or print manga have appeared in the USA as of yet (Del Ray is planning to release the English-language version of the manga sometime in 2009); in the meantime, you can check out fan-subbed versions here:
http://www.sidereel.com/Sayonara_Zetsubo_Sensei
http://www.onemanga.com/Sayonara_Zetsubou_Sensei/
Moody and melancholy high school teacher Nozuma has decided to end it all by hanging himself in a grove of cherry trees….only to find out that his suicide attempt has been by Kafuka, an insanely optimistic school girl who can’t believe he’s attempting suicide on such a wonderful spring day - and in front of her favorite cherry trees to boot!
Rather than be subjected to her positivistic prattle, the wane young man bolts, and Kafuka continues on to school….where her new homeroom teacher is none other than, yes, Nozuma. To make matters worse, Nozomu realizes that the uber-optimistic Kafuka is the least of his problems - every student in class appears to be total head cases, rivaling their new teacher in neurosis. It’s up to Nozomu to help his student resolve their issues….and serve up a heaping dose of negativity to boot.
SZS is one of those cases where “the whole is more than the sum of its parts” – the theme of “eccentric teacher helping his eccentric students work through their problems” is a withered old chestnut that’s been used by everyone from Great Teacher Onizuka to Welcome Back, Kotter. But creator Koji Kumeta takes this standard school comedy formula and twists it into something utterly unique, mixing blacker-than-black comedy along with offbeat wordplay and pop-culture in-jokes, all done in a refreshingly gothic/minimalist art style – imagine a manga Edward Gorey and you’re almost there.
Visually, this is one of the most striking and original series I’ve watched/read lately, with simple, almost Osamu Tezuka-influenced character designs, eerie gothic flourishes, and a black/white contrast that rivals even Jamie Hernandez (Love and Rockets). Kumeta ups the weirdness quotient by adding vaguely out-of-date clothing, TVs, and buildings, despite the clear inference that the series is set in the present day.
Although most of SZS’s offbeat and dark humor can be easily understood by most readers, I fear that some folks many be put off by how Japan-specific some of the jokes are – like Yakitate Japan, the puns and wordplay comes fast and thick, and the references to Japanese culture (both high and pop) make leave some readers scratching their heads. However, ambitious readers will be rewarded with a bleakly hilarious take on “modern Japanese visual culture”.
It also bears mention that this is the first series that I’ve read/watched that was entirely online – no DVDs or print manga have appeared in the USA as of yet (Del Ray is planning to release the English-language version of the manga sometime in 2009); in the meantime, you can check out fan-subbed versions here:
http://www.sidereel.com/Sayonara_Zetsubo_Sensei
http://www.onemanga.com/Sayonara_Zetsubou_Sensei/
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