Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – 04

Posted by Shin

If there's one reason why I like SZS a lot, it would probably be because of the twisted and inane nature of the main characters and how they are portrayed each week. For this episode, we are introduced to another 2 of the Pink Supervisor's students, first being Abiru Kobushi, the bandaged character so to speak, who is a suspected victim of domestic violence. The teacher is then asked to speak with her father regarding the matter and spots him shopping. Being the paranoid person that he is, the Pink Supervisor stalks him instead and watches as he makes purchases. As he enters a kitchen utensils shop, the Pink Supervisor immediately draws the conclusion that the father is buying things to abuse his daughter, no matter how unlikely these items can be used to hurt someone. The result? Every retailer in the district is informed about this matter, and they refuse to sell anything to Kobushi's dad and come up with weird theories on how the objects will be utilized to torture her.

We then shift our focus to Fuura, who has fallen into a tiger pit. While most people will be panicking and screaming for lives, Positive-tan remains ever so calm and at first insists it's a bad dream. Even after realizing it's not, she remains steadfast and states that it's okay to eaten alive, as did Buddha in the holy scriptures and claims she will become a god for doing so.

Just as Fuura is about to be attacked by the tiger, she is promptly saved by Kobushi, whom we discover actually got all her injuries when she interacts with the animals, mainly by pulling their tails. We also find out that she is also an avid tail collector. Haha, oh wow. On another note, the show slips in a parody on the Billy's Boot Camp exercise program featuring Kobushi's dad.

Yes, it's as gay as it looks.

As did the previous episode, we're introduced to the more interesting character in the second half, and this time around, we get to see Meru Otonashi, at first glance your typical shy soft spoken girl. Keeping in mind the show we're watching, it does away with the stereotypes and Meru-chan is actually a verbally abusive person, although she can only communicate through her cellphone, probably a representation of online flamers and trolls. While we've seen a glimpse of her nature in previous episodes, this time she goes all out and flames everyone in her class, sparing no one, well except for Maria, since she only owns a pager.

Meru's spot on analysis on Kaera's character.

If you notice the pockets in her blouse first, you're gay.

Sneak preview of future episodes?

Her SMS'ing tyranny is put to a stop when she swaps places with Fuura, whose location is out of coverage area. And if you deprive an obsessed person out of something, this is what happens. Without fail, Fuura steps in and says that Meru's current status is similar to that of her mother's during that time when, well...

!!!!!????

The episode comes to a close as Fuura smack Meru in the head with a gigantic cross and calms her down with a little prep talk, although in truth it actually had a reverse effect, scaring Meru out of her wits. Another week of random fanservice and weirdness! Oh, do watch out for the Final Fantasy reference at the end of the episode. Shin out.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – 03

Posted by Shin

Instead of the usual attempt at suicide, our Pink Supervisor drops dead and becomes one of Raito's many victims....

....not. That's how this week's episode opens, much to my delight, considering L's death was THE highlight of Death Note, which till today I still think should have ended at that point, since Near and Mellow's arc was pretty lame, but I digress.

Test's are coming up, as the ever callous teacher informs his students, although he's not placing any sort of hope in them, much to their displeasure. He instead places all his eggs in one basket and tells them that a returnee (basically a student of the same school who has spent time overseas) will be joining their ranks, and will be relying on that student alone to raise the class average. He is then brought back to reality, as he is told a single student won't be sufficient to raise the average should all of them do badly(duh), and it hits him, to which he reacted with attempted suicide(again)

Let's become taller together!

The returnee, that goes by the name of Kaere Kimura then walks in on them, and at first glance resembles an obnoxious kogal with bleached hair which she is, although there's more to it than meets the eye. Disturbed by the clash in cultural differences she witnessed, she rambles on about the some gestures and how they mean certain things in the country she went, of the which are really weird, like apparently if you're male and posses an image of strawberries, it means you're virgin (lawl)

Pink Supervisor Foreign Country Laws

Being the patriots that they are, the students get annoyed with Kaere's behavior and tells her off. This triggers some sort of personality change within Kaere and she then switches to her other self, the well-mannered and shy, all Japanese, Kaede Kimura. It wouldn't be such a hassle of she stayed this way, but it doesn't last long and to make matters worse, her Japanese self falls in love with the Pink Supervisor.

Of course, his number one fan, stalker-chan has something to say about that. Kaede is at despair and she witnesses the "closeness" of the latter's relationship with the teacher, and attempts suicide(uh huh), but is stopped in time by the Pink Supervisor. You'd think this would make her like him even more than before, but alas, she switches back into Kaere who then threatens to sue him for sexual harassment. ORZ

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Moving on to the second half of the show, we're introduced to a lovable little brown girl by the name of Sekiutsu Tarou(what?), which somewhat irritates Chiri since it's pretty obvious it's a boy's name and everyone act nonchalantly despite having someone who they've not seen before attend their class all of the sudden. Chiri then tails the little brown girl home, and stumbles upon Fuura, who tags along. They then reach a ramshackle and dilapidated room and to their shock, is filled with illegal immigrants or Asian returnees, as per Fuura's implausible logic.

And the rest are named Toyota, Sony, Sanyo, Toshiba and etc. The little
brown girl is known as Maria though.

Japan, the land of abundance, throws away working television sets, bicycles, refrigerators and even...

Why Japanese people are so kind....

All in all, it's a pretty decent episode, but only in the second half when Maria-chan is introduced. And judging from what I've read in the (scanlated) manga thus far, there should be a few more girls left to be introduced, including Bandage-tan and Cellphone-tan. I doubt this show would make it past the 12 episode mark, but that's pretty normal nowadays, unless they decide to extend it, like Nagasarete Airantou or Seto no Hanayome. Shin out..