Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei features comedic sketches, mostly standalone with very loose continuity, playing out between high school teacher Nozomu Itoshiki and his class of 32 students, class 2-He. As a teacher, Nozomu is addressed as "", a sobriquet which ironically shows respect for his profession while inauspiciously corrupting the kanji writing of his name so that it is read as "despair". True to this name, Zetsubou-sensei views many aspects of life fatalistically, carrying a resigned attitude that undermines both his authority and work ethic. He habitually interrupts lessons to make various defeatist arguments, which he proceeds to validate by threatening suicide or by leading the class off on tangents, whether in or outside of the classroom. His negative outlooks are always gainsaid by Kafuka Fuura, a student who presents as relentlessly optimistic, though her positive outlooks are even further afield or, ironically, cynical in comparison. While Zetsubou-sensei's students are unimpressed with his demeanor, they generally play along in group discussions that contribute many examples supporting the topics of his rants. Despite disrespecting him, many of the girls in the class nevertheless carry torches for him, while being disappointed by his lack of reciprocal interest. On many occasions, the girls openly defy his authority and treat him as their possession, backed by wanton slapstick violence committed against both him and each other. Chief among his pursuers is Chiri Kitsu, who is not only obstinate and dictatorial towards the entire class and world, but also prone to bloodthirsty and deranged rampages. Zetsubou-sensei's torment at the hands of the class is often orchestrated by Kafuka, who underhandedly pulls strings to inflame the other girls' passions and jealousy, inviting disastrous results. Each chapter or episode of the series revolves around a particular aspect of life, Japanese culture, or a common phrase in the Japanese language. Typically, this involves the subject being taken either to its most logical extreme (a discussion of , the practice of "descending" from the public to the private sector, results in Nozomu "descending" until he reaches his previous life), or taken literally (in Nozomu's family, , normally a meeting between a potential match in an arranged marriage, is instead a marriage made official by eye-contact). On other occasions, Nozomu challenges his students to think about the negative aspects of something usually considered positive. These in-depth, off-kilter analyses (along with the reactions of the students according to their own personality quirks) are usually brought to a head with a punchline based on the overall premise, or more rarely, a non-sequitur gag or piece of fan service. While the manga is set in the 2000s, it makes numerous references to contemporary events and media. However, it simultaneously uses a variety of aesthetic tropes that evoke the Taishō period, that being the relatively liberal period in Japan before the rise of militarism in the Shōwa period. The story is set in the fictitious "Koishikawa ward" of Tokyo, whereas the real-life Koishikawa has not been one of the special wards of Tokyo since the 1940s. Many aesthetic aspects are meant to evoke Taishō liberalism, Taishō Romanticism (see Japanese literature), and Taishō arts (see Hanshinkan Modernism). This is exemplified by Nozomu and Matoi consistently wearing a kimono and hakama (an obsolete style of Japanese school uniforms in the late 1800s), but is also evident in stylistic choices such as the anachronistic appearance of architecture, vehicles, and technology indicative of the Taishō period. However, the fashion of women typically follows the modern girl trend, which is a break from the Meiji period and signifies the style of the Taishō period. Chapter titles are oblique references to literature, modified to suit the needs of the chapter. The chapter title pages are drawn to resemble karuta cards, with an illustration in a silhouetted kiri-e style. The anime carries this further through a washed-out, grainy visual style that mimics film, and frequent use of katakana (rather than hiragana) as okurigana. The anime also regularly refers to the date as though Emperor Hirohito were still alive, such that Heisei 20 (the twentieth year of Emperor Akihito's reign, or 2008 by the Gregorian calendar) becomes "Shōwa 83". ==Media==