Subculture Anime Blog

Totali: “Ooo a new ep of ZSZS!” Shaft: “You just got punk’d.”

Summary:

Nozomu and his class meet a very strange man, who proceeds to interfere with the daily lives of the students. After several events, the class finally makes the man realize his place.

Nozomu brings up his belief that Ohinamatsuri (girl’s day) is full of too much decoration. For examples, he takes all off the traditional things the girls have around them, including things like Maria’s makeup. He believes that if something isn’t done, more excessive decoration would appear. For example, there are the decorations next to sashimi, advertisements at amusement parks, and stuffed animals in crane machines. Nami then brings up those who need to have decoration all the time, such as those who wear excessive things or those who keep many things in their house. Kafuka does not believe any of these things are useless decoration, but rather selections from abroad. Taking Nozomu outside, she points out many things to prove this to him. Although she thinks all of these things are wonderful, Nozomu is still only able to see them as excessive decoration. When the two visit Kiri at school, she points out there are even people who put on too much decoration when they are not in the real world. She shows them a program which allows her to add accessories to people, along with a few that she did for those in class. Kagero requests that Kiri do one for him, but he finds that she has not improved the most obvious thing he would have liked. Maria appears to tell Nozomu that she has found someone with excessive decoration, bringing him to a teacher with a monstrous tattoo on his back. Nozomu expresses that this is not actually excessive decoration, running in fear. Nozomu accidentally knocks over one of his older brother Kei’s statues, causing him to be cursed. Afterwards, Maria faints after making herself dizzy.

Nozomu exclaims that it is a new semester, even though his students bring up that it obviously isn’t. Nozomu states that it is an unexpected new semester, bringing up that there can be unexpected things like unexpected xmases and valentines. An acquaintance of Nozomu’s that likes unexpected things, Ikkyu, then shows up. Ikkyu brings up the sudden things in his life, as well as those things that go on in Japan. When he praises two girls who suddenly joined a college tennis team the previous day, he is given a beating. Kafuka brings up that Ikkyu does not have a maiden name, however, making him wish for one. He attempts to enter one of Nozomu’s girl’s families to do so, but finds that it isn’t possible. When Rin suddenly appears, Ikkyu takes her hostage in an attempt to receive a maiden name. As the Itoshiki father would easily let something like this pass, Rin calls for help from Sebastian. Sebastian reveals that Ikkyu would have to change his name if he entered Rin’s family, forcing him to choose between two. Finding that the situation is pitiful for Rin, Maria offers many of her acquaintances that would like to marry someone in Japan. After an interference from Chiri, Nozomu suggests that Ikkyu die with him as an old friend. Kafuka then reveals that Ikkyu and Nozomu are not actually old friends, but two people who only met for a day. Chiri and Maria then mention many things that only happen for one day.

Translation note: Nozomu’s friend Ikkyu is actually obsessed with things that have to do with “kyu”, and the Zetusbou gang plays on many things with the phrase “kyu” in them.

Impression:

Ok, first of all, i refuse to try to translate the first part of this episode. The gang was speaking complete gibberish, with the use of subtitles to move the story along. I am not fluent in Japanese, and attempting to cover the first half of this episode seems like more work than it’s worth for something that I do for fun. My written Japanese is currently mediocre as it is, and it would have taken me hours to comprehend everything on my own. Moving on to the second half of the episode, SZS is as witty as ever. Excessive decoration is not something that only happens in Japan. Many of the things they presented in this episode, such as the arm bands people wear and decorations in the household, can be found here in the States. Many people find these extra things to be useless, myself included in some cases. Kafuka would believe otherwise, claiming that these things are something cultural. That’s another wonderful thing about this show; the display of many different opinions through the entire cast. While the first season represented many different aspects of human society through the introduction of characters, Zoku seems to be using the entire cast effectively in a more straightforward way. Even Kiri’s display of people changing their appearance online was quite realistic, and the play on spiritual symbols at the end made me laugh very hard. I almost forgot how edgy this show was!

The introduction of Kei and Ikkyu might have contradicted my claim about the use of introducing characters, but they are not major players in the cast. I thought it was extremely funny to hear the seiyu that play these two. Kei was played by Koyasu Takehito (of Gundam SEED and Initial D fame), and Ikkyu was played by Sugita Tomokazu (from Suzumiya Haruhi and Kanon). Both voices were instantly recognizable. Seeing the return of Rin was also a treat, but Nozomu’s siblings did not get a whole lot of action in this episode. I’m not really sure what to say about Ikkyu. He does represent people who are quite obsessed with things, but the second half of the episode seemed more like an excuse to send a lot of “kyu” wordplay at us. Ah, it feels like it’s been so long since I’ve had these nice talks about Zetsubou Sensei. Before I forget, I’m pretty sure this was a Ikkitousen parody, Mac appearances always make me giddy, and I really laughed at the falling sakura blossom revealing. Shaft is always great at representing things that wouldn’t usually be thought of in a typical anime.

EDIT: Zakarum has done a lovely job translating the first part of this episode here.