The PIKOM PC Fair has begun with the opening scenes in KL, Penang, and Sabah. Unfortunately I would be missing most of the action this year as I am occupied with the ongoing convocation exposition (CONVEX) and this made my schedule throughout the month quite packed.

Lets get literal about Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Translated as Goodbye, Despair Teacher, it is obvious to expect a teacher in despair and running desperate of a way out. In the end, the teacher becomes suicidal. However I was expecting for a dark theme in this story and that the story would revolves around the misery of this poor teacher and his final living days. I might be right about the plot but I was dead wrong about the theme. I had never thought such a storyline would be so funny as this one. I must say this is as wacky as you get to Suzumiya Haruhi, I mean the jokes. The enjoyable nature of the story is definitely addictive but the underlying question is how much would you love to see the characters in this story as much as we love the cast of the SOS Brigade. I am not comparing how good or bad Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei to Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu but rather having Suzumiya Haruhi as the benchmark, I wonder how unique is this story by comparison. And also there comes another question, will I follow up with this series later on or not?

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Spring is scenic, adorned with the cherry blossom trees (sakura) and a girl named Fuura Kafuka is embracing the season’s beauty – until he saw a man attempting suicide by hanging himself from a tree. Seeing this, Kafuka tried to stop and save him. Somehow her attempt would be in favour of the suicidal man as she grabbed hold of him, trying to pull him down. Isn’t that would strangle him more? Anyway she pulled him so hard, he snapped off from the noose. The guy lying on the ground, unconscious. But later he coughed off from the strangulation and indeed, he was pretty much alive. And sarcastically he said to her, “What if I’d died?” This is wrong. I thought he was considering suicide already. Eventually he came back to his senses, saying that his life is worthless and he should have died. From my point of view, he is not ready to die yet and still have some doubts about suicide. Yet Kafuka did not consider him suicidal as the beautiful springtime is not a proper setting for such grim attempt. Attempting so would offend the Pink Gabriel, said Kafuka. Pink Gabriel is the cherry blossom which she had named – on the spot. Then she began to name all the cherry blossoms at the park. And because he tried to hang himself from a tree she named the Pink Young CEO, she named the man as the Pink Supervisor. The man began to ramble about naming rights and because of this, she was willing to pay him 50 yen to call him the Pink Supervisor. Then the man began to talk about his despair about the world that revolves on money. So he turned to his suicide attempt.

A game of hangman

Not a proper way to let off someone from the noose.

“What if I’d die?”

Kafuka said the world is full of hope instead. She also said that he was not trying to hang himself but rather to make himself taller. Is this girl a whack job or something? She recalled her past experience with her father would always tried to make himself taller whenever he faced tough times. Even her mother tried to make herself taller at times. The man figured that she got the wrong idea about it. What we have witnessed here is the encounter of a man with a negative thinking and a girl with a positive thinking. Both from extreme sides, apparently. The girl began to pay her 50 yen for naming him the Pink Supervisor. The man ran away as he was not accepting to be called by that name. Later on, it turns out that the Pink Supervisor suicidal man is the teacher in-charge of Kafuka’s class. What a stark irony. He introduced himself to the class as Itoshiki Nozomu, in contrary with Kafuka’s reference to him as the Pink Supervisor. Nozomu began to rant about hating his name, so Kafuka stepped into the challenge of improving his name. In the end, she began to spell Nozomu’s name from vertical to a horizontal manner. His name spelled out as zetsubou or despair. Now I know why he was called zetsubou sensei because that is his name literally.

Kafuka is embracing life.

“Pink Supervisor is my sensei?”

Itoshiki Nozomu is Mr. Despair.

Days later, Kafuka suggested an onsen (hot spring bath) to be built in the school to her classmate Chiri. She opposed to the idea and because of her perfectionist personality, she thinks of Kafuka as sloppy with one of her socks slid down but Chiri fixed it straight away. Meanwhile Nozomu began to consult about his despair with the school counselor, Arai. He talked about the baseball game that he was not able to enjoy. He began to see on one of the teams with the label “hair” all over although Arai suggested him that it is actually a logo to represent E for the team Eagles. He returned to the class and noticed money on his table. It was a payment for his naming rights as the Pink Supervisor, which Kafuka had raised. Surprisingly he accepted it. Chiri asked him if he is fine with the name and Nozumu simply said that he accepted it with total surrender. Nozomu began to distribute handouts to the students and asked to fill them with their hopes and ambitions despairs in the future. Once they’re finished, Nozomu began to read out the list. One of the student who seemed to be studious had listed the best three universities in Japan but Nozomu simply put those as hopeless. Next another student who wanted to join the professional soccer league also being declared hopeless by Nozomu. He began label all of the ambitions lists as hopeless. However Kafuka stood up to suggest that there is a possibility of hope to each ambition. After the class, Nozomu was approached by another teacher, saying that the students in his class has high expectation in their ambitions. However a student caught his attention and was worried about the ambitions she chose. The girl is no other that Kafuka, who listed her ambitions as God, time traveler and Pororoca alien. And what the heck is a Pororoca alien.

The onsen fantasy is safely censored.

Chiri and the ignored guy.

Arai-sensei, the school counselor

“Hopeless, hopeless, hopeless…”

An open resume for God, time traveler and an alien.

This first episode of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is really impressive. Punching some hardline jokes along with its distinctive animation and drawing style, I see potential in this anime. In contrast, I did not like the opening song although the ending song is much pleasant. Nonetheless the BGM is surprisingly good. Yet even this anime is not excluded from certain annoyance. I noticed a lot of wordings written on the background and times, I had a hard time to catch up with those. In the end, I just ignored those and continued on watching the show. Why bother anyway? Also kudos to a.f.k. fansub who did a great job on this series. Despite being good in this first episode, I am still skeptical about its potential and how will the story would develop. Definitely I would follow up with the story but the decision to blog on this remains uncertain. I will continue on reviewing this anime for a few more episode before reaching my final verdict. Then again, it is still good so far.