Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The power of negative thinking volume 2
Meet the most melancholy high school teacher in Japan: Nozomu Itoshiki, whose fashion sense is strictly nineteenth-century, whose personal goal is self-annihilation, and whose signature phrase is “I’m in despair!” He’s similar to Franz Kafka and Jean-Paul Sartre–if Kafka and Sartre had had to deal with a classroom of short-skirted, lovesick students. And to make matters worse, Itoshiki’s family wants him to get married. Forget the bride, here comes the gloom!
Hands down, this is one of the most enjoyable manga I've read in a long time.
The manga Sayonara, Zetsubou sensei revolves around Nozomu Itoshiki, a.k.a Despair-sensei, and his life as a teacher. But wait, he is no ordinary teacher, being suicidal and constantly in despair from trivial things to mannerisms to anything else in between. He teaches his class full of crazy students, from the overly positive Kafuka Fuura to illegal immigrant Maria to the "I'll sue!" double personality Kaere.
This particular volume starts out with wishes, which Zetsubou-sensei quickly points out that most don't come true. Then we have Commodore Perry come to the school and open everything, even though he's not truly Commodore Perry. Then we have commentary on some things aren't reported, even though people want to know, in this case the students wanting to know their grades. And then there is a chapter about shadowy outcasts.
The second half of the book deals with the "On-Edge" school, where everything would crack at any moment if someone burst a fuse. We also see Sensei and Fujiyoshi-san's passions for Doujinshi, even though they both have different visions of what doujinshi is. Then Sensei is arranged to marry-to anyone he makes eye contact with! And finally, the characters go through criticism training.
Usually, those things would only be worth a chuckle if performed normally. But this manga is satire, with some of the most funny and strange characters you'd ever meet. Everyone, from Sensei to Meru, the cute-but-nasty mute, pipe in on the situations in this book. It's funny. It's even funnier from the skewed perspective of Zetsubou-sensei.
As mentioned before, the characters are top-notch. You have to love them. They're all archtypes-the illegal immigrant, the hikikomori, the fujiyoshi, the positive one, the fanservice girl, and the balding one- would be boring usually, but Koji Kumeta makes them something special by having the comedy play off their archetypes. An example of this is Maria, the illegal immigrant, being a newbie to Japan and imitating others behaviors and not quite understanding everything completely.
The art is very simple, and it has it's own distinct style.
The quality is over the top, with pages of translation notes explaining pop culture references, Kanji jokes that American readers might not get, and chapter title meanings. The cover is so nice feeling and smooth, it makes you wonder why other companies aren't as good publishers as Del Rey. They also get bonus points for picking up this niche title.
This book really caters to the Otaku, Hikikomori, and Weeaboo, with lots of Japanese references and language puns. Most people will not enjoy this unless they are one of the aforementioned types, but those who will love it.
Art: 4.5
Characters: 5
Quality: 5 (Del Rey really went the extra mile)
Story (satire and comedy): 5
Overall: A 4.8. This is an A+ all the way. Highly recommended.
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