Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

Kyoto Animation’s Endless Eight stunt has been turning a lot of (rather unintelligent) people sour towards their most successful franchise Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. I’ve already dropped my $0.02 about the whole thing some time back, so I won’t be treading any old ground here. What I do want to talk about is the latest cylce in this Endless Summer that aired just last night.

There is something especially notable about (what we assume is) this penultimate Endless Eight cycle.  It’s not the expertly executed animation as seen in the first, second, and fifth go-arounds. It’s something that lies more in the direction and scripting. Those examples I noted are also extremely well directed, but this seventh cycle is a notch higher. There is a strong sense of cynicism along with–dare I say–melancholy present throughout the episode’s 24-minute runtime.

The cynicism materializes mostly in the scripting and voice acting. While obviously similar to the rest of the episodes in this arc, there is more variation. Kyon’s surprised response to Haruhi doing her homeworking in three days is not the usual surprised 「三日！？」 and instead an over done “THREE DAYS??” Similarly, Mikuru’s terrible confession about how she can no longer return to the future is reduced completely to unintelligible crying, and Koizumi’s happier than he’s ever been to find out that he’s stuck in a time-loop. Kyon’s “Tell me about these discussions, then leave” quip was probably the best. While these examples in and of themselves aren’t cynical or sarcastic, the way in which they come together creates a very sarcastic mood across the episode. You can almost hear the voice actors, animators, storyboard artists, sound engineers, episode directors and script writers all yelling at you through the television that they’re about as tired of this as you and the characters are.

The sense of melancholy is less present, but does come to the forefront in a few scenes. In particular during the Bon Dance scene and the scene in which Kyon narrates–for the seventh time–all the other things they did that summer. A slow, sad sounding piano piece sneaks up on you as you’re watching Nagato buy another 800 yen mask, and does well to highlight the monotony of the whole affair. Later on during Kyon’s narration, instead of scenes of the characters engaging in their activities, we’re treated to a landscape shot of the sky slowly turning from blue to red, matched to another slow, depressing piece of music brilliantly composed by Kousaki Satoru. The episode ends with Kyon writing 無理 (impossible) in big letters across his notebook.

I hate making an ass of both you and me, but given the tone of this episode, I would like to think they’re gearing up to end it with the next one. The sixth cycle teased us with fast pacing, giving us false hope that there may be an extra turnaround at the end, and this episode has a real strong undercurrent of GET ON WITH IT ALREADY. I still think this arc is rather clever, and I did pooh-pooh people who didn’t like it in the opening paragraph, but it sure would be neat if ended next week.

But it probably won’t!

…despite its awesome cover art, the only other things different from my US edition are the cut scenes along with the very few times the characters speak, and I can just watch that stuff on YouTube! It was however quite tempting at a nice 250 yen. In the end, though, I had to buy both Intelligent Qube and I.Q FINAL.

My love affair with this game started when I was a wee lad–around 10 or 11–and I constantly played the demo on a demo disc sent to me directly from the PLAYSTATION UNDERGROUND. I kept playing that demo for like… years. Never bought the game, though. Couldn’t find it anywhere. It wasn’t until around sophomore year in college that I played the game proper by way of emulation, and it was as brilliant as I remember it being. In fact, what prompted me to play the whole game was when I found out about its awesome musical score by way of bored Wikipedia surfing one night. Until I actually got around to finding an ISO for the game I just listened to the soundtrack over and over.

Just a little while ago I was wandering around the local BookOff to kill some time. I had never actually looked in the games section before (I don’t often play games) and decided to look specifically for old, cheap, Japanese PSX games. I found these and had no choice but to buy them. I.Q was 105 yen, and I.Q FINAL was 500.

Man, I don’t get what’s with me and Intelligent Qube. It’s just so… INTELLIGENT.

There’s this guy living in my guest house. In fact, he may be reading this right now. Anyways, on Friday nights I usually come back home with takeout for dinner. Sometimes I come back with something from Mos Burger. This guy will typically have made some impressive feast of meats and vegetables for himself for dinner that night. I’ll compliment him on how good his food looks while holding my Mos Burger bag, and he always replies with, “Yeah, but…”

“…YOU HAVE MOS BURGER”

There’s not a lot of information about our boy Shinbo Akiyuki on the internet. Well, at least in English. I mean, yeah, there is this blog, which has some really informative translations and shitty everything else, but that’s about it! As such, one has to turn to the Japanese internet for information–with the first and most obvious place to stop being Wikipedia.

The Japanese Wikipedia article on Shinbo isn’t all that longer than the English language version, but while reading it last night to kill some time I did happen across some interesting bits of information which I would like to share very much with you, the reader.

I’d just like to note upfront that this won’t be any sort of kransom-esque translation of an obscure, interesting, ONLY IN JAPANESE UNTIL NOW interview or essay or anything. My Japanese is really bad, and I’m just sharing with you some of these random bullet points I found interesting incase you’re unable to figure out Japanese sentence structure and don’t really know how to work Rikai-chan. Of course, it goes without saying that what I write may be inaccurate. Anyway, here goes!

• Much like Outlaw Star director Hongou Mitsuru, Shinbo is bad with photos. Even though he does accept interviews, pictures of him in the mass media are few in number. (If that’s so, why is he smiling in that one Zetsubou Sensei opening!)
• Shinbo is acquainted with Yu-Gi-Oh! manga author Takahashi Kazuki.
• Shinbo is a big fan of film director Ichikawa Kon. The Tenamonya Voyagers ending theme is apparently a cover of the theme song for a television series directed by Ichikawa. The show was called Kogarashi Monjirou, and the song was titled Dareka Ga Kaze no Naka De. Also, episode 11 of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Kuroi Juunin no Shoujo) was a parody on an Ichikawa film titled Inugami-ke no Ichizoku. This episode was actually made when Ichikawa died.

That’s it. Nothing really interesting to anyone else except me, but it’s there if you want it. The rest of the bullet points are either obvious or already covered in the English article. There is a section in the Japanese article on Shinbo’s stlye, but once again it’s all stuff that you can figure out just by watching the shows he does.

It’s going to be cool when this post gets no comments.

(Also, does anyone know where that photo is from? Seems like a TV show or DVD extra. Nico and Youtube turn up nothing.)

I actually meant to order Giant Robo OST 7, but since it was late I ordered this on accident. Still something I wanted, though!

I imagine the scene at the post office will play out something like this.

Comedy Dr. Strangelove option.

Those familiar with most daring hero of Japanese animation Shinbo Akiyuki through his works with studio SHAFT such as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are probably unaware of his other, lesser known works. There’s a reason for this, and that’s simply because these lesser known works aren’t terribly great. They’re directed fabulously, but often times Shinbo’s older work is just held down by some bad writing. Le Portrait de Petite Cossette, or the The Portrait of Little Cossette, or コゼットの肖像 is of a slightly higher pedigree than, say, Shin Hurricane Polymar, but it still suffers from what I will for now on dub as the “Shinbo OVA Curse.”

Cossette aims high, and at a place that I like. It’s a twisted love story between an older man and little, but kind-of-sort-of-ALREADY-DEAD girl. Our main man, Kurahashi Eiri works in an antiques shop and is fascinated by one of the antique glasses in the store’s collection. Within the glass he can see a figure of a girl going about her daily life–the titular Cossette. Through a series of crazy SoulTaker-like imagery, our cute Cossette comes to life by the end of the first episode, which is where their tragic love story spirals into pits of despair. There’s also some other characters who are really concerned with our main man–as they should be–but they really don’t do much.

I’ll go ahead and get the bad stuff out of the way. This writing is pretty confused. In the end, the story makes perfect sense, but there’s too many diversions. I think–on some level–the core plot is fine, but what takes away from it is all the extra stuff. While character dialogue tends to make sense, they do have habit of pontificating upon things that don’t really mean anything. Another thing that distracts the story is the existence of characters other than Kurahashi and Cossette–they do well to illustrate how people close to him feel about this whole thing, but the degree to which they get involved feels a touch pointless. On this same vein, the show doesn’t get to expand much on our cast of characters in its three, round-about-45-minute episodes, so they don’t leave much of an impression. Had the story focused more squarely on Kurahashi and Cossette, I feel it would have been better.

However, I don’t think that hurts the piece too much, as what really makes this is Shinbo’s direction. This is dark Shinbo. This is SoulTaker, and sometimes-maybe-if-you’re-lucky Tsukuyomi -MOONPHASE- Shinbo. It revels in twisted storyboarding, the old-style Shinbo colour palette (which is making a reappearance in Bakemonogatari), hard black shadows, and striking lighting situations, all set to creepy background music. It’s over-the-top. It’s good. What also helps is fairly good animation work. It’s nothing really spectacular, but it certainly does remind one of the days when “OVA quality” kind of meant something. There is some iffy 3D work here and there, which does cheapen the piece a bit, especially when the Golgo 13 skulls make an appearance. The character designs aren’t particularly memorable, but I like the realist look they have about them. Cossette herself is rather cute, in a sort of creepy, porcelain doll way.

Even though the direction is great, the writing does hurt because of what it could have been. Had the staff thought through the script a bit more, this show would have been pretty good, if not fantastic. It sadly gets distracted by too many weird, unnecessary things along the way. As I say in most of my reviews for these old Shinbo OVAs–watch it if you like the man’s work, as it’s pretty good in that respect. However, unlike Hurricane Polymar, Cossette’s decent enough that I’d recommend it with caution to certain people who may be into its subject matter. It’s not bad, but it’s not great.

キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話キョンくん電話

There is a reason a show with a name as memorable as Butt Attack Punisher Girl that comes with a wild enough concept to match has been lost to the passage of time. Despite setting out to be a wacky, sexual and crazy parody show, it’s strangely not at all very funny.

This set of two OVAs–each running at about 45 minutes each–centers around a religious school which sets out to teach youngsters how to be fine members of society. There are a number of religious schools of thought gathered there, and among them is an evil religious cult known as the Black Buddha. When recently transferred, good-ol’-Christian-girl Tenchi Mari transfers in, she gets shouldered with the task of setting these wrong doers right when they capture her Hindu roommate Minami Saori. When praying to Christian divinities for help, only Buddha manages to come to the rescue, and gives Mari the power to transform into Gautaman–a turban-wearing supergirl sporting a hot fundoshi that runs right up her (Terasawa Buichi approved) ass. What ensues is a rancid tale of copyright infringement, love, violence, and lots of humour that’s not terribly well paced.

On paper, this show sounds incredible. And at times, it is rather incredible. However, what kills it is its pace. Each episode of this thing is 45 minutes long, and of those 45 minutes, about 15 minutes (that’s generous) are spent on actual jokes. The whole tone of the piece is very tongue-in-cheek, but that’s not enough to really elicit laughs. Blatant infringements upon copyright laws such as the masked sumo wrestler “Dark Vader” and The Terminator himself are charming, but the concept of them existing in a Japanese cartoon is funnier then when the creators of this show put it into practice.

Sure, there are some funny parts. There are a fair amount of good jokes spread throughout, but the aren’t shot at Pani Poni Dash/first season of Hayate no Gotoku rapid fire speed to make the show itself seem like a comedy over just some weird show with weird things happening in it. That’s really the big problem here. The show can be as depraved as it wants, but you need to throw some humour in there if you want to make people laugh. The show won’t win many points for animation either, so the whole thing just comes off as a little boring by the second episode.

That said, it’s not altogether bad. It has its charm simply as an obscure oddity, and watching it is a window into just what kind of shit was being produced during that OVA boom all those years ago. If you do hold some interest in old, strange and obscure anime from years ago such as I do, I’d recommend checking it out just because. It’s nothing special–especially now in this age where the parody show has evolved to a point where there needs to be a joke in every second of your runtime (see: Pani Poni Dash)–but it’s just kind of a neat thing to see. It’s not like it’s super long, or anything.

Oh, and it’s called Butt Attack Punisher Girl because she rams her ass into some of the baddies like once or twice.

Original Post

This is the second Endless Eight related comic I had in mind. I really like it, even if the punchline is really corny. That probably just makes it better. At first I was just going to draw them on the train in different ways, but then I decided to parody Haruhi scenes after the first panel. Also I really wanted to draw a girl in a bikini.

The art is fine, I suppose. Awkward looking, but not horrible. I put more attention on the difference between colours in each panel to suggest the lighting situation in each, but they all didn’t turn out just as planned. Oh well.

Speaking of Endless Eight, that Yamamoto Yutaka guy is at Otakon right now, and at his panel he gave his 2 cents on the whole thing. I can’t repeat it, but if you know someone who was there, ask them about what he said. It’s not super interesting, but it’s neat to hear his view on all of this.

I really do hope they stop at the initially rumoured six episodes. The latest cycle had some really good animation, so that leads me to believe that they may be working their way up to a finale. It is a clever arc, but considering the nature of it, it does quite obviously get a bit repetitive. Also, one of my fears has been clearly realized during this arc–that is, not-so-hardcore fans jumping off of the wagon. I can’t blame them, but comments like “fuck this show” are just unintelligent and don’t do well to make it seem as if you know you’re on about. I’ve spoken to a few of my Japanese friends about it, and while they want it to end, they seem chill about the whole thing.

I’ve been watching Umineko No Naku Koro Ni on the recommendation of a friend who lives in the same guest house as I do. Some people have been pooh-poohing this show all over the net saying that either the game is better, or the whole affair is just stupid, but I like it. The presentation is appropriately over the top, and the story is rather engaging. People have been getting on the show’s case for its animation, but I already knew going into this that it was Studio DEEN, so I’m not put off by it too much. In fact, this show looks fairly good for them! The colour palette is still rather bland, though. I kind of want to watch Higurashi now…

That’ll be all for this week. I have a comic planned and sketched for next week, but I’m not sure if it’s any good.

Later!

There won’t be much here, but I just thought I’d mention that I did attend the opening reception for what is apparently an annual Kappa-themed art exhibit held in Ikebukuro. I forgot my camera, so there’s no pictures, but other people have taken care of that.

It goes without saying that a bunch of Kappa-centric works were on display. What was interesting was all the different ways in which people spun the theme. Works ranged from epic movie poster-esque paintings, to more traditionally rendered imagery, to Matt and Mr. Marugame’s Kappa Machinder! The sheer amount of pure creative force surrounding me for those 90 minutes was astounding.

Some socializing was also done. I’m not a terribly social person, but I did exchange words with the aforementioned Matt Alt, David Marx, and Jean Snow, along with a few other people who either don’t have websites, or I don’t know what their website is!

Overall it was good fun. The display will be up for a few more days–til the 21st–so stop by and take a look if you’re in the area!

When the first installment Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei aired around two years ago, it impressed me with just how artistically and skilfully it presented dark, sarcastic humour. The second series, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, set the bar a bit higher by speeding up the pacing and cranking up the insanity, while the Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei set of OADs perfected what Zoku paved the way for.

Now we’ve reached the third TV series–Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei–and it’s become quite clear that making an episode of this show has changed from an art to a science. Techniques which were once bits of artistic experimentation have become common place, and the way in which an episode flows is no longer surprising.This isn’t a bad thing at all. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s premise lends itself to being repetitive, so whether or not you enjoy the formula will dictate whether or not you’ll enjoy this follow up.

The one thing working against Zan is probably the franchise’s previous installment–Goku. I can’t say this with any certainty, but I believe SHAFTXSHINBO thought Goku would be the last hurrah, so they went out of their way to make those three episodes as insane as they possibly could. As such, the tone present in Zan feels a tad toned down.

That, however, doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the geniuses at SHAFT have found a way to mass produce a television show in which each episode is of relatively high artistic quality. And that’s just… amazing.

The best part of this all is that with the Zetsubou Sensei formula nailed, Shinbo can focus his efforts on what is quite possibly the best thing airing this season: Bakemonogatari!