Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei: Volume 2

by Koji Kumeta, 169 pages

In this second volume following the antics of a suicidal teacher and his class of head-cases, we meet yet another student, a creator of dojinshis (self-published zines and comics); but she doesn't write the kind of lofty essays Zetsubou-sensei remembers from his youth.  An impersonator of Admiral Perry, famous for "opening" Japan to the West in the 19th century, drops by--only this guy has taken the concept of "opening" to extremes.  Also, in his world-weariness, sensei often takes the chance (between attempts to throw himself from the window) to be a wet blanket and dispense (questionably sound) advice to the younger generation.  This time around, they discuss such topics as overshadowed things (like second-place athletes, siblings of celebrities, etc.), criticism training, and the benefits of instability.

So very silly and morbid.  Just don't read it when you're tired, as all that dense, rapid-fire text and flipping back-and-forth to the end-notes to interpret it requires more brain cells than I usually have at my disposal after, say, 8:00 in the evening.  If you're awake enough, however, and in a perverse, cynical mood, it's a hoot.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei: Volume 1

by Koji Kumeta, 176 pages

Serial optimist Kafuka is surprised when she bumps into her new school teacher, Nozumu Itoshiki, hanging by the neck from the bough of a lovely blossoming cherry tree.  As he'd been dangling there quite voluntarily, he's only more depressed when she "helps" him down (nearly killing him in the process).  Her cheerful declaration that he was just trying to make himself taller only adds to his frustration.  Resigned to finding an opportunity to kill himself later, he follows her to class and begins to meet the rest of his misfit students.  One's a love-obsessed stalker, another's a refugee, another can only communicate via rude text messages.  Split personalities, OCD, and even the dreaded curse of ordinariness--everybody has issues.  So their suicidal downer of a new teacher fits right in.

Such a weird little series, this.  Brimming with pop culture references (thank you, end notes!) and stupidly funny graveyard humor, it sports simplified, highly stylized line art with lots of solid black-white contrast, a minimum of screentone, and some nice little details (I love sensei's kimonos).  Making a play on his written name, the kids start referring to him as Zetsubou-sensei  (Mr. Despair).  And then he turns a questionnaire about their future aspirations into one about their future failures.  And it's all downhill from there.  :)