Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

[The Sandman]

I decided to pick this manga up on a whim, since it seemed prominently placed on the shelf and had an interesting art style. Then I started reading it, and realized something: this may be one of the funniest manga I've read, and my Japanese isn't good enough to catch most of the jokes.

I honestly don't see why this manga doesn't seem to have gotten much attention from the fan community, as far as unlicensed stuff is concerned, so I thought that I'd start a thread for it. If anyone else out there is reading this, and knows more Japanese than I do, I'd love to hear what you think.

It's also apparently getting an anime later this year, so maybe that'll give it more exposure here?

[Risaa]

I'm following it now. :) And yes, the anime is what turned me onto the manga.

The anime is following the manga pretty closely right now, adding in little things here and there that *compliment* the story already (usually doesn't distract from it like another manga-turned-anime-with-distracting-bits-added series I can think of). Though, there is a chunk of episode two that I didn't read in the manga, so they're probably jumping around.

Both anime and manga are very quick-paced with lovely, simple artwork and little references sprinkled throughout the story. And - omg - the first three pages were priceless. :)
Even though I saw the scene in the anime, it *still* took me by surprise.

Page 1: Happy cheerful girl skipping under the raining cherry blossoms, text informing the reader that her heart became warm this spring.

Page 2 & 3: Some dead guy hanging from one of the trees.

Yes... *immediately* the reader/viewer is thrown into the world of dispair, without even time to take a breath and enjoy the sakura. :) :)
I love how atypical Sensei is. Sure, you'll find nice guys in many series who just sort of get thrown into situations in which they help others in need out of their own kindness. But Sensei doesn't really care about other people and just wants to die and clue others in that dying is the best way to go. In fact, he's *reluctant* to help anyone at all. He's such a great character. :p

[d-one]

it was a really interesting story

i wonder when the next chapter gonna be released by the scanlation team, or else i must download the raw

[Necro-]

unfortunately...i cant find it scanlated anywhere :(

[G. Zeus]

unfortunately...i cant find it scanlated anywhere :(
Look harder (http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=5433).


it was a really interesting story

i wonder when the next chapter gonna be released by the scanlation team, or else i must download the raw
Yeah. Considering the number of active projects, we might be in for a long wait. I'm really looking forward to the next chapters.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is such a refreshing break from the typical slapstick humor, panty exposure, and otaku lingo of the usual (high)school comedy. The black humor is reminiscent of the jokes we shared back in my own highschool days. :D

[Necro-]

i should have rephrased that while it is somewhat scanned certain places where these scanlations can be obtained don't seem to have any of it :(

[White Manju Bun]

Im following this but since I can only read the scanlated version Im very very behind :heh:
Im hoping with the anime out maybe other scanlators will pick it up. I really love the simplness of the manga, its drawn well but not overly done. I really like it.

[Risaa]

Ah, same here, same here. I'm following scanlations and it appears it'll be a long while until I'm able to read the next chapter.

So far I like the anime more, I think it adds a little more "zing" to the series without turning it into something else entirely.

[White Manju Bun]

So far I like the anime more, I think it adds a little more "zing" to the series without turning it into something else entirely.

Exactly but with the anime only being 12 epis and the manga almost 10 vols Im hoping there is much more backstory in the manga that we probably wont get to see in the anime, unless there is more then 1 season (which Im also hoping for!)

[Pistbag]

I've watched the anime and I'm now reading the manga. Well since they skipped a bunch of volumes Theres this new kid I see who looks like a mini Itoshiki sensei. Just wondering who he is?

[sumowow]

Yea i was wondering too. Until i saw wikipedia and it said something about his nephew or something like that. But i would rather have some solid proof. Not everything on wiki can be trusted

[Risaa]

Just letting you know that there's already an existing Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei thread (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=47536).

[ellifeedn]

Is 90 the most recent chapter?In ch90 Rin becomes one of Nozomu's students (lol the class had to repeat the second year:heh:). In most harem series when they introduce the sister of the main character often the sister has feelings for her brother (how strong varies). I wonder what the odds are that she will fall victim to this pattern, especially with her name:naughty::uhoh:.

[serenade_beta]

Is 90 the most recent chapter?In ch90 Rin becomes one of Nozomu's students (lol the class had to repeat the second year:heh:). In most harem series when they introduce the sister of the main character often the sister has feelings for her brother (how strong varies). I wonder what the odds are that she will fall victim to this pattern, especially with her name:naughty::uhoh:.

Translated: Yes, I think so

Japanese: Nope.

As of volume 10, she doesn't have that kind of love for him.

The only thing that happens because she transfers to the school are:

School Uniform Rin
Her doing random things for chapters

[iczelion74]

Does anyone know why the group translating the manga decided to skip 7 chapters? Ive searched high and low and I dont think its due to another group covering those chapters. So whats up with the missing volumes?

[GyroidFanatic]

They decided to start at the (then) latest chapter and work backwards

[ellifeedn]

It seems that my hope for more scanlated chapters has done the one thing Itoshiki-sensei could not do, it died:heh::sad:. I wonder if another group will pick it up.

[CrowKenobi]

According to AnimeNewsNetwork (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-04-19/dey-rey-picks-up-three-new-manga-novel), Del Rey has picked up the manga rights to SZS and will start releasing it next year! :D

:cool:

[The Sandman]

Wow, the unthinkable has happened: it actually got licensed! This is awesome news, and now I just wonder how in the hell they're going to translate it. :D

[ellifeedn]

While the hope for scanlated chapters died, the gratitude for translated chapters was born out of those ashes. Nothing personal to the scanlator groups. :uhoh:


I wonder what each character in the series would say about this. I could imagine Chiri going "They must properly translate every bit of text of each page, even the bits that don't have an English equivilant." :p

[GyroidFanatic]

Ignoring the Kodansha connection, I'm really glad it's Del Rey that picked up if only due to their great cultural notes in each volume.

[yezhanquan]

Anyone knows what the latest chapter is? I'm guessing 100++.

[d-one]

According to AnimeNewsNetwork (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-04-19/dey-rey-picks-up-three-new-manga-novel), Del Rey has picked up the manga rights to SZS and will start releasing it next year! :D

:cool:

damn my country publisher can't publish it 'cause it's too hard tor them and for the reader in my country >_> (That sucks but true)

[The Sandman]

While the hope for scanlated chapters died, the gratitude for translated chapters was born out of those ashes. Nothing personal to the scanlator groups. :uhoh:


I wonder what each character in the series would say about this. I could imagine Chiri going "They must properly translate every bit of text of each page, even the bits that don't have an English equivilant." :p

Harumi would probably want more hot Sensei-on-Jun action. Kafuka would be sure it would turn out for the best. Kaere would be confused as hell. And Matoi is too ingrossed in her deep love to care. :p

[ellifeedn]

While I'm grateful for a licensed version, I'm happy that the scanlators are giving out the second volume, which will probably be their last release of this series. Downloading it was worth the laughs that that volume had.

[yezhanquan]

I hope they include all the references and omakes.

[SinsI]

damn my country publisher can't publish it 'cause it's too hard tor them and for the reader in my country >_> (That sucks but true)
It just means that your publisher is actually sane. English anime fansubs of the latter episodes of ZSZS attract just ~7000 downloads worldwide - and anime is FAR superior in the visual department, VA's work and music. If half of them lives in the US, and 10% of those actually buy it, 10$ per volume - you are looking at a "huge" potential market of 3500$. Now take into account increased translator's fee and other costs - and you see that you are in a big red. If you actually publish volume 2 it's going to be even bigger loss, and volume 3 and on are a guaranteed cancel.

[Irenicus]

According to AnimeNewsNetwork (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-04-19/dey-rey-picks-up-three-new-manga-novel), Del Rey has picked up the manga rights to SZS and will start releasing it next year! :D
They *can't* be serious. :twitch:

No, I don't hate them. In fact I totally love them for it. But this is like, a guaranteed loss if anything could ever be called that.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

It just means that your publisher is actually sane. English anime fansubs of the latter episodes of ZSZS attract just ~7000 downloads worldwide - and anime is FAR superior in the visual department, VA's work and music. If half of them lives in the US, and 10% of those actually buy it, 10$ per volume - you are looking at a "huge" potential market of 3500$. Now take into account increased translator's fee and other costs - and you see that you are in a big red. If you actually publish volume 2 it's going to be even bigger loss, and volume 3 and on are a guaranteed cancel.

The massive delay in fansub releases together with the incomprehensible nature of the text-heavy raw episodes mean people just don't bother with it. The amount of downloads in this case isn't the limiting factor in the popularity of the show, but is the difficulty in translation.

[ellifeedn]

Why must you be so negative about this series being licensed? You never know what will happen.

[SinsI]

Why? The answer is very simple. Since it is licensed, scanlations will stop/become fewer(no new SZZ for over a year); so far we have two volumes translated - and I expect Del Ray to cancel this series after the same two volumes are out, with them loosing money and wasting translation/editing potential that could've been better spent elsewhere.
And we even cannot be sure someone will pick this series back up, as timing is extremely important. Unless they put out another full season of SZS anime the interest in this title will dwindle.
In the end everybody loses.

[CrowKenobi]

^^You just don't want to pay for any SZS manga, do you? :rolleyes:

:cool:

Since you seem to be a real genius (:eyebrow:) at this, how do you explain the Excel Saga manga anyway? (15+ volumes released by VIZ so far)

[SinsI]

What does extremely niche and wordplay-oriented SZS has to do with good-for-all Excel Saga?

[CrowKenobi]

What does extremely niche and wordplay-oriented SZS has to do with good-for-all Excel Saga?Everything! The anime ended a couple of years before the manga got here, yet it seems to be selling; and I don't consider Excel Saga "good-for-all," but more like SZS, as you put it: "niche and wordplay-oriented." (otherwise why would there be a section in the back explaining a lot of the wordplay)

:cool:

[SinsI]

Oh, please!
Excel Saga has constantly attractive art, some main plot(and character development), it doesn't involve current Japanese culture too often and wordplay jokes play only a minor part (like 10% of them all, you can easily remove them altogether) - most of the humor is about character interactions and thus perfectly translatable. This all sums up to what I consider a good-for-all comedy.
SZS on the other hand has very uneven art (generic Kumeta art is very controversal), no central plot, static characters and a billion references; each chapter is basically built around some major wordplay (and takes it to the extreme at that, often consisting of just listings of wordplay-facts). Yes, it features some interesting characters and then they interact it's often very funny - but those are at most 30% of the original humor...
With SZS "a section in the back explaining a lot of the wordplay" wouldn't be enough - its needs a page of references for each page of the original, and you can't postpone them.
And those who say "ah, i've read some first chapters, it can be translated" - please note that they actually introduce the characters and thus have a much higher percentage of character interaction than the latter ones. (I was also hooked by Kaffka - Nozomu chemistry, but it didn't develop into anything...)
Try something like chapter 83 (also was scanlated) and see if it still stays funny.

[Dop]

Time to bounce this old thread with the news that the first volume released by Del Rey is now out, and my copy arrived today.

[duckpuppy]

Where did you order from? Amazon and BN say pre-order for February 24.