Subculture Anime Blog

“Zetsubou shita” should only be used by one person.

Summary:

Nozomu refuses to notify his students of their grades one day, revealing that some things would be better off without notification. For example, he takes the ingredients of pudding among other things. Kafuka believes that her uncle is this type of person, revealing how he visited a doctor for a check up even though he knew he had a cold. The other girls in the class have their own stories, as Nozomu stops Meru from notifying Kagero of his bald head. Nami’s story is normal as usual, and Matoi expresses how she has tampered with others’ mail. Not wanting to learn any more, Nozomu escapes to the wilderness. He is unable to avoid learning about things, however, as he even sees messages from aliens. As Chiri still wants to learn about her grades, Kafuka takes her to someone who may know about them. The location is the house of a gossiping housewife, who really seems to know everything. Nozomu returns to question the woman about the aliens, but he finds that he would have really been better off without knowing anything.

Nozomu’s neighbor shows up with more curry later, but Nozomu and Majiru are sound asleep inside their home. As Nozomu begins class, he describes that they are inside a dream. Some of the students are surprised to find that they are already inside a dream, and Nozomu states that anything that happens inside the dream will be okay. Chiri has started acting like a delinquent, and Kagero has become very popular in the class. Nozomu finds that Meru is now talking with her own mouth, and Kiri is happily playing outside. Nami is very strange, and Matoi is no longer stalking Nozomu. Kudo tells Nozomu a dirty story, shocking Nozomu even more. Nozomu attempts to tell the class about something real, but Abiru wishes she would not talk about something realistic inside the dream. Kafuka suddenly wonders if babies have dreams as well, falling into despair. The students suddenly realize that they are inside Nozomu’s dream, and that they will disappear if Nozomu wakes up. They all attempt to kill Nozomu so that he will sleep forever, causing Nozomu to run away in fear. Nozomu begins looking for an exit, but finds that he cannot escape.

Finding that Nami had been forced to go to the dentist, Nozomu learns that she had told her parents about her situation. Nozomu believes that there are many that do things without their parents knowing, when Kaere describes how things are done in her country. Chiri takes Nozomu out to the city to find people, and Nozomu finds many examples of those who are doing things without their parents knowing. Maria points out a hideout of hers, which Majiru is hanging out in as well. Nozomu begins describing many things that kids would keep from their parents, when Majiru shows Nozomu a book he has found. This is one of Harumi’s doujinshi, which she obviously could not have shown to her parents. The students begin describing things that their parents did not know about them, when Rin appears with her own frightening information. Believing that things should be properly done, Chiri begins chasing Nozomu out in the city. Kafuka suggests ways for Nozomu to notify his parents properly, so Nozomu climbs a high building to send his message. This becomes hidden from Nozomu’s parents by Rin and Sebastian in the mansion later, however, putting Nozomu’s efforts to waste.

Impression:

WOW. HAHAHA. I think I was actually laughing through every second of this episode. I was starting to say that Zoku has not been as strong as the first season, but this episode just proved to me that there is probably still hope. I love you, Shaft. I’m sorry I had any doubts. The first part of this episode was probably the most sociological part of the episode, with the class going through many things that would be better off hidden. I laughed pretty hard at Nozomu trying to keep Kagero’s hair under cover, and even more at Matoi’s postal interference. I’ll agree with most people who have been saying that Matoi has become more on a trinket than an actual character recently, so it was nice for her to actually have some lines in this episode.

The second part of the episode had me remembering one of my favorite episodes of Pani Poni Dash! I was just waiting for Himeko to pop out of nowhere and yell “Maho!” This part was an absolute riot, from Kagero’s super stud appearance to Kafuka’s “Zetsubou shita!” Although most of my love is for Kiri, Kafuka probably comes in pretty close to being one of my favorite characters. It’s probably just all of that Nonaka Ai love I have, though. Speaking of seiyu, Meru being played by Saito Chiwa almost made me fall out of my chair. Actually thinking about it now, Zetsubou Sensei has always had some of my favorite seiyu, which just helps to make me enjoy it even more. As for the theme of the second part, I definitely loved the play on lucid dreams. That was kind of overshadowed by the pure hilarity of the situation though.

The third part of the episode almost had me in tears. We had what some would call the “VA Shuffle”, and Aroduc even posted a bit of the hilarity with his youtube powers. This reminded me a lot of the behind the scenes specials we have sometimes (think recently…Geass), where seiyu will playfully voice some of their peers’ characters. During this part of the episode, I couldn’t help but imagine some of the actor’s expressions. I imagine that it was a load of fun. It certainly was for me, and I was just listening! I think it would be better if you watched this for yourself, but when female and male roles got mixed up in the end, I thought I was about to die.

Anyways, I’ve started to feel like I should start writing my posts in two parts now. This is just the type of show that is better when it is watched multiple times, and that’s what I did with the first season. You can start expecting transforming posts from here on out, because there’s more than meets the eye to this blog. …….ok sorry, that was lame. Let Nozomu’s girls entertain you instead.