Quite possibly my favorite manga series, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei manga is a masterpiece of satire, social commentary, and fiendishly twisted romance.
The artwork is done in Kumeta's gorgeous abstract style. Solid darks and whites in flat planes and intricate geometric patterns. Kumeta demonstrates a genius for character design, taking the concept of the silhouette to its most extreme by actually portraying his characters as silhouettes when it suits him. This plays into the fact that they are all references and satires to various manga character tropes, effectively shadows cast by other characters that came before them, yet visually distinct and instantly recognizable, boiled down to a simple geometric conglomerate.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei's humor is a biting satire of contemporary Japan, everything from rampant commercialism and media sensationalism to the closer to home commentary about manga conventions and life as an artist. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei manga is never satisfied with merely referencing these issues, there is always an opinion associated with them, often with an almost Socratic dialogue taking place between Nozomu and his students. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei relishes in exploring social issues in an unusual light, something done brilliantly with the immigrant character Maria, whose view of everything from commercial waste to lolicons was markedly different and elicited surprise from various characters.
Lastly I want to talk about the romance of Fuura Kafuka and Itoshiki Nozomu, and the truly staggering amount of foreshadowing that went into setting up the last two chapters. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei toys with the conventions of the harem sub-genre of romance manga, but little does the reader know just how insidiously Kumeta has undermined the notion of the harem or the traditional romance. Anyone familiar with the harem manga is familiar with the shipping wars that come with it: who will end up with the MC? Or will it be open-ended without the MC choosing, so as to appease all the fans? Or will it be the legendary, unattainable true harem-end? Kumeta's choice is none of these, instead he opts for a weapons-grade mind fuck that will force you to pour over the manga's earliest chapters to verify that he had indeed been planning this ending from the very beginning. OVERALL: The Good: + A hilarious, strange, and insightful dark satire comedy. + The characters are unique. + Simple and effective use of episodic story telling.
The Bad: - Very japanese, not exactly funny for people not versed in Japanese culture. - Simple artwork.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a manga that has to be read to understand why it is great, I cannot properly put it into words. If you're a fan of read manga then should give it a try.
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