Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – Episode 2
20 July 2007
Well, here’s episode two! I just realized recently that there’s only going to 12 episodes of this. I would’ve liked more than just twelve, both episodes so far were so fun to watch and I actually enjoyed screen shotting the episodes. As you can see, I end up with a lot of superfluous footage. Usually, taking screens is tedious. I try to avoid the subtitles and there are only a few moments that work. Anyways, my screen shot troubles aside, I’m just itching for more of this. This is the type of show that’s funny every time you watch it.
Plot As Kafuka is walking to school, she sees Itoshiki being restrained by a policeman, or at least a transit system worker, as he’s trying to commit suicide. She rushes over, yelling for him not to throw his life away, pushes him over and into the train tracks, missing by inches the train. He picks himself up and asks his, now, trademark question, “What if I had died?” Ah, the irony. We find out later, as he’s speaking with Chie, that he’s in despair this time because he’s under the impression that someone rigged the metrocard turnstiles and has his credit card information and as they speak with drawing his money. Chie tells him to stop looking only at the worst case scenarios. So deeply rooted is his despair and pessimism that Itoshiki concludes the only way for him to stop is, well, to die. Preparing to hang himself, Chie tells him there is a hikokimori in his class and he should check on her. Despite having his own issues, Chie persuaded him anyways.
Remarking that Chie has scary eyes, Itoshiki arrives at the student’s home. As he is about to enter, Kafuka shows up explaining that she also lived in the area. She hands him his fee for the day and asks to tag along with Pink Supervisor. The two are led inside by the father of the girl. It’s funny because the word “dad” is written across his back, same in Chinese as is in Japanese. The father begs his child to come out. Adamant, she screams no and yells for him to go away. Kafuka, seeing how people like hikokimoris only exist on TV and nothing so exotic could be this close to her, concludes that the girl is actually a Japanese spirit of sorts that reside in one’s living and is essentially good for the household. They decide that itd be best to keep her locked up in the house. They nail boards to door, with much fervor and zeal. Bewildered, the father asks why are they doing this? And Itoshiki, in all his grand pessimism, explains that otherwise, his entire family will have to share one bowl of plain soba, have no money and paint their feet for shoes. Kafuka instructs him to go and fix the windows. As he makes his way down the room, held by a rope, Itoshiki slips and ends up hanging outside the hikokimor’s window. Upon seeing this, she screams, picks up a TV, throws it at the door, trying to escape.
Upon exiting her room, the girl is confronted by Kafuka, armed and ready with Japanese spiritual…thingies…Anyways, this freaks her out even more and she begins to cry. Itoshiki, still alive, comes back. Her cloaked head revealed for the first time, Itoshiki brushes apart her bangs. Seeing her fair skin and cute complexion, he calls her beautiful and others to suicide with her anytime. This wins her over immediately. Next day, she’s at school. The principal congratulates Itoshiki on a fine job, however, Itoshiki mentally notes that she was not in class. Chie shows him that Kiri, the reclusive girl, locked herself up in the science lab.
Moving right along, enter Matoi, the crazy stalker girl. Apparently, every time she falls in love, she has the need to see him, call him, text him, fax him, email him, even bug his room. Itoshiki calls her one crazy stalker, Kafuka calls her the girl in deep love.
But first, a bit on Chiri: the tea ceremony club has four people, it has four strawberries on a cake, in the eyes of perfectionist Chiri, it’s perfect. Four slices, four people. One of their classmates walks in, asking for some cake. Four strawberries, five people? Chiri’s mildly bothered. Someone shows her that she can just cut the strawberries in fifth, much to her relief. Meru walks in and silently agrees to have cake. Four strawberries, six people. Chiri’s at best, only agitated. Cut the strawberries into even smaller slices and the nuclear meltdown is avoided. Then, Chie enters, making it a total of seven people. This drives Chiri crazy, 360 is not divisible by 7. And then she has an epiphany! Taking a blender, she makes drinks out of the cake.
Matoi, crazy stalker and deep lover, is at her ex-boyfriend’s house again. The blond being bugged by the girl tells her it’s been over for a while. Then Itoshiki climbs in through the window and explains that the only form of true love is to suicide together. He presents them with his travel ready suicide kit. Before he leaves, he tells Matoi that if she so wishes, he’d die with her anytime. Taking this as a confession of deep love, Matoi falls in love instantly with Itoshiki and promptly leaves her ex’s house, leaving him confused as heck.
The next day, Matoi shows up dressed like Itoshiki. At first he’s unaware of the reason, then it begins to set in that Matoi is stalking him now. She calls him repeatedly at home, faxes him when he unplugs his phone, stares at him in class, follows him around everywhere he goes. He, in frustration, screams that her love is too heavy. Seeking consolation and safety, he retreats to the nurse’s office for a nap. Chiri, after suffering a stomach ache from her cheesecake smoothie is there as well. By some twist of fate, she rolls from her bed onto Itoshiki’s and into his arms. Both of them wake up with a start, confused and disconcerted. Chiri takes this to mean one thing: marriage.
Apparently Matoi’s ex-boyfriend, no longer the center of her attention, is jealous and stalks her to see what she’s doing. The ex-boyfriend’s current girlfriend stalks him and is appalled to find that he’s still interested in Matoi. She’s being stalked by another man. The man is being stalked by his wife. The wife is being stalked by the man washes her underwear? As Kafuka and Chie notes, it’s turning into a whole chain of stalkers following Zetsubou sensei around. In the end, Itoshiki’s fleeing for his life from stalker Matoi and marriage seeking Chiri and everyone else stalking them.
Extra
Impressions I adore this show. It’s so quirky and lighthearted and silly and so bizarre that I’m starting to think it’s real. I really, in all honesty, love Itoshiki, he’s so pessimistic, but it’s wonderful. The fact that he’s afraid of swiping his metrocard, so much that he’d commit suicide was hilarious. The show even has its cheesy romance scenes, just instead of people confessing their love to one another, he proposed to suicide with her.
If you notice, all of Itoshiki’s students are girls. He has male students, just no one cares about them. It’s looking like Itoshiki, with a bunch of high school girls. I’d usually not go for this type, a harem, but Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is nothing like a harem. I love the fact that Itoshiki is the love interest for a three different girls. It’s hilarious, it’s great! He’s being chased by a stalker, an accidental wife and a hikokimori.
It was also revealed to me that Chie’s name is a pun of Nietzsche’s name. I thought it quite fitting that the two main women in the show are named after Kafka and Nietzsche. Everyone’s names are pretty symbolic and are puns off their excessive behavior. I’d really love to understand such puns and jokes, but I don’t understand Japanese. I’m still missing a lot of cultural references, save for that one about Anne of Green Gables in the first episode.
Despite it’s 12 episode run (shorter the sweeter?) I’m looking forward to more of Zestubou sensei. I’m going to end up rewatching this for kicks after it’s over. A lot of anime shows are funny, but only a few makes me laugh consistently throughout. Zetsubou sensei is one of them, I laughed so hard when they were nailing Kiri’s door. And also at Chiri, because I’m not a perfectionist at all, and it was so funny! She was having a fit over cutting cake, cutting cake! Her little insert had her with protractors and rulers. The blender scene was so out of place but so perfectly in place. This show has that random quality FLCL had, but different, in a good way.
I guess that’s what I like so much about the series, the fact that it’s so random, its like watching controlled chaos.