Found this very awesome fanmade OP set to Bouken Desho Desho while lurking around. Video, despair, etc. Hope you enjoy it.

Going into the first season’s final episode, we return to the earlier format of two skits with two different girls. Apparently Itoshiki recovers back to full health from the accident, so we get to meet two more of his deranged students.

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It’s winter break and the girls criticize a film they have just seen. As they each voice their own complaints about it, the director peeks out from behind a sign and tells them that he was only following the “original way”. Itoshiki helps the director run away from the girls. Together, Itoshiki and the director escape down a street called Original Way. Itoshiki defends the director’s work by telling the girls that the director is not at fault for the movie’s boringness, because he followed the original way. It is further elaborated that people in the movie industry escape criticism by using this excuse.

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It’s time for every school slice-of-life anime’s cultural festival. We all love those don’t we? If you don’t, then pretend you do. Itoshiki thinks too literally into the “cultural festival” and deems the class unfit to act like cultured people when they are not. Chiri puts up the argument that all Japanese citizens have the Constitutional right to maintain a minimum standard of living and culture. He abides with the Constitution and orders the class to enter the cultural festival following the bare minimum cultural standard.

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Nami is trying to solve a “Spot seven differences” puzzle but falls one answer short. Itoshiki takes heed of this and proceeds to instruct the class to spot seven mistakes they’ve made in their lives. After debating with his thoughts out loud he then decides that the class should identify ten life mistakes the students have made. Kaere turns the tables on Itoshiki by asking that he identify some of his mistakes first. Itoshiki easily does so and soon goes on a tirade from being born, how it was a mistake to teach the class, and several other trivial things.

Itoshiki then asks the class to name three mistakes the class has made as a whole. He answers his own question by saying they made the mistakes of enrolling in the school, getting chosen for his class, and getting him for a teacher. He pushes the earlier issue of having the students identify their individual life mistakes. All of the students think about the issues that are relevant to their interests. For instance, Meru concentrates solely on topics pertinent to bad cell phone related decisions. He notices that Maria is the only one that has remained unaffected by this class activity. She responds that coming to Japan was not a mistake and the trio of Chiri, Harumi, and Nami are quick to defend her, calling Itoshiki a bully.

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Usui, the balding student with a bad comb-over, begins the episode by narrating his life up until now along with a glimpse of his scrapbook. Ever since he was born he had a problem of never being noticed, but he hoped to turn his luck around in high school by becoming the class representative of Itoshiki’s class…

While walking outside, he bumps into someone that doesn’t notice him. He is then hit by a truck whose driver remains oblivious to his existence. Itoshiki walks by and bumps into Kafuka and Chiri-chan. He starts discussing the lives of inconspicuous people that live in the shadows as outcasts; Such as Mr. Curie who was overshadowed by his wife Madame Curie, and subsequently forgotten. Chiri-chan agrees with his argument, further discouraging Usui, as they remain oblivious of his presence. As Itoshiki further emphasizes his claim with more examples, he sends himself into a fit of despair at how society can allow great achievements to be overshadowed and forgotten. Usui is still forgotten as the group walks away to continue the conversation elsewhere.

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Harumi, the crazed yaoi fangirl, collides with Itoshiki-sensei on the way to the copy store to publish her doujinshi. She discusses her doujinshi hobby with Itoshiki and he reveals that he too used to be into doujins in his youth. Of course the two are talking about totally different subjects as Itoshiki writes self-published poetry while Harumi is into fan comics. She invites Itoshiki to sell his works at Comiket.

At Comiket, Itoshiki is mistaken for a Rurouni Kenshin cosplayer and has his picture taken by quite a few girls. His stalker also garners some attention from the cosplay photographers as well. His poetry ends up being a big flop.

Harumi’s manga is critiqued by Chiri-chan who explains the proper story setup and demands that the doujinshi be rewritten on the spot into a 4-koma comic. After Comiket is over, Kafuka and Chiri-chan tell Harumi to aim for Manga Koshien to sell her new, improved 4-panel comics. The next day at school Harumi, Chiri, and Maria are in the classroom talking about 4-panel manga. Itoshiki hears them and introduces them to concept of the forbidden fifth panel which he names “Darkness”. This fifth panel adds very dark subject matter to the comics and depresses the girls.

We are now taken to a summer festival where all of the girls are having fun doing stereotypical festival activites. A moving shrine passes by and everyone becomes excited at the spectacle. Itoshiki then tells them that they should think before jumping onto the bandwagon so easily. He goes into a huge rant about the evils of marketing and putting everything on a pedestal through undeserved hype. The men hauling the shrine soon begin to hype everything they see from stalkers to hikkikomoris. They even hype Nami for being very normal.

All in all, a fair episode. The Comiket segment was fairly funny and had some nice moments. The popsicle stick puppet act was well done. The second half’s social commentary joke really started to wear thin after a while and ruined the satire. Here’s to hoping the comedy returns back to normal in episode 8.

Itoshiki boldly proclaims that he will go missing during the summer break. As he marches out, it seems that Kafuka has a slight cold. She visits the local clinic for a check-up and discovers that the doctor there is in fact Mikoto Itoshiki, Nozomu’s older brother. She puts the characters in his name together to find out that his name means Dr. Death (Zetsumei-sensei), sending him into a fit. After calming down, Mikoto asks why Kafuka has come to the clinic, and it seems that the cold has passed. She happily skips away, further aggravating him.

She runs into Chiri-chan on the street who reveals a note from Itoshiki-sensei that he has seriously gone missing. Kafuka decides that no one she knows could ever go missing and that he has simply returned to his hometown. The two go back to the clinic to ask about their teacher’s whereabouts. Mikoto tells them that his younger brother has returned home to deal with his arranged marriage interviews.

Fate gathers all of the girls together at the train station as they begin their quest to find Spock Itoshiki-sensei. As soon as the girls disembark at Itoshiki’s hometown they are quickly greeted by the Itoshiki family’s butler, Tokita, who is there at the request of Dr. Death. To their surprise, they see their teacher walking by the side of the road in very casual summer attire.

Back at the Itoshiki mansion the girls learn about the Itoshiki family tree. They meet his younger sister Rin, who as per the quota goes ballistic once the girls analyze the meaning of her name. Chiri inquires about the arranged marriage, and Tokita obliges by revealing the true nature of the matter. From midnight to noon, he will be forced to marry anyone who he makes eye contact with. The girls also find out that they will also be participating in the marriage ritual.

As the ritual begins, Itoshiki masterfully avoids making eye contact with everyone that gets in his way. His luck runs out when he runs into a multi-eyed monster but it is voided because it’s a monster after all. The marriage ritual ends with Itoshiki coming out unscathed and everyone takes the train back to the city together.

All of those movie reference cuts really eluded me. While this wasn’t Sayonara’s funniest episode it was still good. Itoshiki seems to take great pride in his repertoire of useless skills like avoiding eye contact with people. Coming soon to a blog near you, the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei episode 7 write-up.

The girls (and presumably guys but we don’t want to see beefcake) are taking their physical exams and getting their measurements taken. When they return to class, Itoshiki tells them how futile the physical state is and pulls students aside to measure their internal worth. He tests the prematurely balding student by asking for a loan in decreasing amounts as each offer is declined. The student finally accepts to give Itoshiki 50 yen and is promptly judged by Itoshiki to only live a lifestyle befitting his cheap nature. The student’s desk is massively downsized to accomodate the teacher’s decision. The crazy girl obsessed with order goes nuts with this philosophy and goes overboard by harassing her classmates. Itoshiki quickly realizes the error of this belief and instead chooses to live extravagantly by indulging in an lavish lifestyle surrounded by the finest things. He finds himself in despair again and attempts to drown himself in a bowl of wine. His cheap nature saves him as he didn’t fill the bowl up high enough to kill himself.

Moving on to part 2, Itoshiki wins a free trip to a hot spring. Coincidentally enough, all of the girls are there too. He is horrified to learn that the hot spring detoxifies them, reversing all of their bad habits and personalities. I’m getting lazy on the writing now, so go look at some screenshots.

Screenshots

Currently listening to: move – Rage your dream

Case 1: Itoshiki is sent to investigate to investigate a case of domestic violence concerning a female student. He tails the student’s father as he goes to various shops. Itoshiki’s wild imagination imagines the man doing various dastardly, violent acts with the shopping items ranging from things like air pumps to erasers. Itoshiki soon has the man’s face blacklisted around the shopping district. To his dismay, he later finds out that the student is an animal trainer at the zoo; The origin of the mysterious injuries.

Case 2: Great Teacher Zetsubo deals with a seemingly shy girl who is anything but that. She sends vindictive e-mails to everyone in the class until Itoshiki forces her to trade seats with Kafuka, the only place in the room that doesn’t get phone reception. All in all, another weird episode. The new opening for this episode was strange too. Cough.

Screenshots