There’s one big pitfall that strikes quite a lot of comedy-series: getting increasingly less interesting as the end nears. Generally, there are two causes for this: the insertion of forced drama at the last minute and a refusal to develop the cast of characters. The second season of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei manages to avoid the former, though I wish I could say the same for the latter.

It’s a shame, because Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei starts out better than ever. In the first half, there are a number of priceless episodes that really deserve to be watched (my favourites were the art-one and the gibberish-one). Episodes have also been divided into three parts to prevent them from getting boring, and for a while, this series overflows with laughs. But as is goes on, it becomes increasingly apparent that the creators shot themselves in the foot with their cast of stereotypes.

The thing with stereotypes is that they may be funny when they’re introduced, but there’s no way for them to remain funny for 26 full episodes without some development. In this series, it takes longer than usual, but the final six or seven episodes just lack the spark that made the rest of the series so great. Only two or three characters receive minimal development, and that just isn’t enough for such a huge cast. The social commentary that was once so interesting degrades into “social commentary of the week”, and ends up getting dull.

It’s a shame, I really thought that Shinbou had seen the light, but he still has a bunch of weaknesses, despite his unique style that made Shaft stand out. The second half of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei is still funny, but nowhere near the standards that were set by the rest of the series. Still, if you finished the first season, then you at least need to watch the first half of the second season.

Let me start this review by stating the following: I did manage to finish watching Neon Genesis Evangelion a couple of years ago, before starting this blog. I ended up really liking the second half, though the first half of the series was a pain to get through. So yeah, after watching a movie that does nothing other than recapping episodes 1 to 5 (or 6), of course I’m in a bad mood. I want those 90 minutes of my life back!

Really, I fail to see the point behind this movie. All it does is follow the exact same storyline as the series did, with perhaps better graphics. To make matters worse, the only scene I was looking forward to (Unit 01’s little “itadakimasu!”-moment) ended up being cut out, for goodness’ sake! At least Death and Rebirth had a clear purpose: to silence the angry fanboys who were upset with the ending of the original series.

If you were planning to watch this movie, and you already saw both Neon Genesis Evangelion and Death and Rebirth, then don’t. In that case, this movie is just the same as a recap-episode. In fact, it’s even worse, because it’s freaking five times longer than your regular recap-episode, making you sit through scenes you’ve already seen for an eternity. I guess that if you’re one of the few who hasn’t seen the original Evangelion, you might give this movie a try, but I don’t see why you should pick this movie above the original series, apart from flashier graphics and a slightly shorter length. Gainax: stop trying to milk your dead cow!

This is going to be another two-episode arc. I like how the creators have managed so far to relate Aoki’s ordinary problems to the extreme cases that we see portrayed in the cases that have to be investigated. This episode is all about privacy and the intrusion of it.

In this episode, a girl murders nearly her entire family, and her father ends up taking all the blame and smashes the victim’s heads while the daughter hides for three years until the case dies down. The father then passes away (I didn’t quite catch how), and Aoki how the girl had murdered these people. The problem however is that for some reason, Aoki is not allowed to reveal the information he discovered. I didn’t exactly understand the reasons, but I think it has to do with the fact that Kinuko (the girl) claimed a loss of memory, and she would end up being released anyway.

Aoki basically doesn’t want a killer like that to go unpunished, but at the same time, Maki reminds him how acting like this won’t bring the dead ones back. There’s one thing I don’t understand, though. I mean, what guarantee is there that the girl will never kill someone else again? If I’m not mistaken, then one of the purposes of throwing killers in jail is to make sure that they won’t repeat their actions in the future.

In any case, in the next episode we’ll probably discover why Kinuko ended up killing her parents. We already know that her father invaded her privacy once, when she was “spending time” with her boyfriend, but that doesn’t yet explain why the father was the only one surviving and the rest of the family died.

Why I’m not bothered by Manami’s brattiness:
- She’s not THE main character of this story.
- She’s an interesting combination with the rest of the cast.
- She’s fleshed out pretty nicely. She’s an idiot, she’s naive, and yet she’s easily afraid.

The thing I have against most annoying and stupid teenagers isn’t the fact that they’re annoying, but that they’re badly written. Take Lala from To Love-Ru for example. Sure, she’s an extreme case, but the reason why she’s annoying is because the creators spent no effort whatsoever in making her believable. She instantly falls in love with the male lead with no subtlety whatsoever and I couldn’t spot anything that made her really seem like a living being, an being an alien is no excuse.

I think the biggest reason for this is the creator’s desires to make teenagers important at places where they shouldn’t belong. A teenager who occupies a high rank in a military organization doesn’t usually make sense, so writers make these characters a bit too perfect for their own good, in order to help them survive and remain at their position.

The thing is with Manami, that even though she’s an idiot, the creators never portray her as some kind of hero. The only thing that she’s good at is providing emotional support for others, but this episode showed yet again that she often gets way too ahead of herself and tries to get involved in places she shouldn’t belong.

I still wonder why this series has become so neglected, though. Is Manami such a turn-off? Or does this have to do with Poririn? I admit that he was rather disturbing in this episode, wearing the gala-dress and all, and trying to pee while wearing it… Still the reason why I like this series so much is the chemistry between the different characters. The cast of Crystal Blaze is varied and interesting, and one character’s weaknesses are complemented by another.