* Your list is public by default. Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Farewell Mr. DespairJapanese: さよなら絶望先生English: Sayonara, Zetsubou-SenseiMore titlesInformation Volumes: 30 Chapters: 302 Status: Finished Published: Apr 27, 2005 to Jun 13, 2012 StatisticsScore: 8.151 (scored by 82368,236 users) Ranked: #48922 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.Popularity: #579 Members: 31,728 Favorites: 1,389Available AtResources
DetailsCharactersStatsReviewsRecommendationsInterest StacksNewsForumClubsPicturesMore Info Ranked #489Popularity #579Members 31,728SynopsisHigh school teacher Nozomu Itoshiki has been waiting for a chance to end his life. He has grown averse to the very idea of toiling every day to make an ordinary living, and he makes no attempt to conceal his crushing despair. Sadly, he is almost always dragged into the bizarre—and sometimes outright suspicious—problems of his quirky students. Every time he gets a little closer to kicking the bucket, he finds himself in an absurd situation, trying to save his students from the same rabbit hole of misery that haunts him.Despite his ever-present existential crisis, Itoshiki attempts to find a new normal in the silliness of his daily adventures—all the while chasing the sweet demise that eludes him.[Written by MAL Rewrite]Background_Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei_ had eight volumes published in English as Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei by Del Rey from February 24, 2009 to November 23, 2010. Kodansha Comics USA picked up the license, releasing volumes 9-14 from June 21, 2011 to April 3, 2012 and republishing the previous volumes digitally on July 16, 2013.Related Entries MALxJapan -More than just anime- Characters Reviews Jan 28, 2014 Quite possibly my favorite manga series, SZS is a masterpiece of satire, social commentary, and fiendishly twisted romance. The artwork is done in Kumeta's gorgeous abstract style. Solid darks and whites in flat planes and intricate geometric patterns. Kumeta demonstrates a genius for character design, taking the concept of the silhouette to its most extreme by actually portraying his characters as silhouettes when it suits him. This plays into the fact that they are all references and satires to various manga character tropes, effectively shadows cast by other characters that came before them, yet visually distinct and instantly recognizable, boiled down to a simple geometric... conglomerate.SZS's humor is a biting satire of contemporary Japan, everything from rampant commercialism and media sensationalism to the closer to home commentary about manga conventions and life as an artist. SZS is never satisfied with merely referencing these issues, there is always an opinion associated with them, often with an almost Socratic dialogue taking place between Nozomu and his students. SZS relishes in exploring social issues in an unusual light, something done brilliantly with the immigrant character Maria, whose view of everything from commercial waste to lolicons was markedly different and elicited surprise from various characters.Lastly I want to talk about the romance of Fuura Kafuka and Itoshiki Nozomu, and the truly staggering amount of foreshadowing that went into setting up the last two chapters. SZS toys with the conventions of the harem sub-genre of romance manga, but little does the reader know just how insidiously Kumeta has undermined the notion of the harem or the traditional romance. Anyone familiar with the harem manga is familiar with the shipping wars that come with it: who will end up with the MC? Or will it be open-ended without the MC choosing, so as to appease all the fans? Or will it be the legendary, unattainable true harem-end? Kumeta's choice is none of these, instead he opts for a weapons-grade mind fuck that will force you to pour over the manga's earliest chapters to verify that he had indeed been planning this ending from the very beginning.SZS is a manga that has to be read to understand why it is great, I cannot properly put it into words. Reviewer’s Rating: 10 What did you think of this review? Nice0 Love it0 Funny0 Confusing0 Informative0 Well-written0 Creative0Show all Jul 9, 2015 Please bear with my english.Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is Not a Masterpiece. It's Not even great actually. Basically this manga is not for everyone. It's main genre is comedy and yet it's hard to understand that comedy. This manga's comedy is mostly about present japan i.e you have to know more about the japanese culture and about the famous people living in it. And people like me who knows almost nothing about japan had hard time understanding the comedy in the chapters. There are some chapters where comedy are only focused on the japanese cultures that I even skipped chapters. Yes, I even skipped the chapters.... Ofcourse many of them were really funny because i love dark humour but still there are dull moments in the manga. You can get bored really fast because of it. Then why? WHY am I giving this manga a rating as high as 9? It's simple... twist.Almost every popular or critically acclaimed animes/mangas has that one huge moment or that one huge twist that changes the show completely. Onepiece, the highest selling manga has that huge moment. hunter x hunter 2011, with its slow and weak starting had that huge moment in the later episodes which made it one of the best animes of all time. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has that huge twist that will instantly blow your mind and want to reread the whole manga again. Yes, all 301 chapters of the manga again. Its insane, it's weird, it's mind-fucking-ly brilliant, it is unexpected. It changes the view of the manga completely. Also the moral that this manga, "don't commit suicide" is successfully conveyed. And because of this unexpected event I just couldn't help but praise it. So Story is a 6 because it's quite simple tbh. Art is 10 because I don't know how to draw so idc much.Characters are 8 because some of them you will forget.Enjoyment is 7 because comedy was good but again not that great.Overall- 9 because it will make you reread again.(but if it didn't make you reread again..........) Reviewer’s Rating: 9 What did you think of this review? Nice0 Love it0 Funny0 Confusing0 Informative0 Well-written0 Creative0Show all Jun 9, 2020 The easiest way to convey what mind state you should read this manga in is that it is like South Park but for Japan. Every chapter has a new dysfunction of society or psychological disorder that is poked fun at and trivialized in a way that makes people afflicted with these dysfunctions laugh at themselves, a much needed remedy. The first chapter opens up with suicide being the main joke, a huge problem in Japanese society being suicide rates. This joke often comes back to in the form of the main character falling into despair over various aforementioned social or personal dysfunctions.Each volume is sub-titled... "The Power of Negative Thinking", negativity being a constant personality trait of the MC's.The twist on it being a straight up social commentary is that the MC is the quirky teacher of a quirky group of curious students, mostly females, all who have something wrong with them to say the least. They are all infatuated with Itoshiki Nozomu their teacher, and time and again are completely thrown off by his sudden outbursts. It is almost as if he intentionally derails their thoughts every episodes with his own "band-aid thought" of the subject. His silly little comforts often drive them crazy or make them unimpressed, but they still pay attention to him.The other MC is a girl who is super positive and often comes around when he is hanging his head in despair. Their dynamic usually leads to her positivity overwhelming the situation, sometimes not to a good end result (each chapter ends with an often whacky punchline, making fun of "explosive ending" or "it was a dream all along" tropes").I enjoyed the representation by each of the characters of separation anxiety, OCD, dissociative identity disorder, guilt complex, acute social anxiety, manic depression, toxic positivity, truancy, and many others by the characters. For a mangaka these disorders are actually represented surprisingly realistically.A lot of jokes fly over my head being American but I still find the ones I understand hilarious and relatable.You either understand it right away and fall in love, or are confused by the pacing and seeming lack of plot. I fell in love clearly lol 10/10 Reviewer’s Rating: 10 What did you think of this review? Nice0 Love it0 Funny0 Confusing0 Informative0 Well-written0 Creative0Show all Interest Stacks Recommendations Recent News Recent Forum Discussion Poll: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Chapter 301 Discussionichig0fan - Jun 11, 2012 32 repliesby thischeetobussin»»Aug 19, 10:11 PM Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Chapter 302apotheosi - Sep 15, 2013 6 repliesby thischeetobussin»»Aug 19, 9:54 PM Poll: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Chapter 20 DiscussionKino_no_Tabi - Mar 10, 2009 2 repliesby a2dfjk1»»Mar 24, 10:41 PM Poll: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Chapter 19 DiscussionKarva1 - May 17, 2022 1 repliesby a2dfjk1»»Mar 24, 7:04 PM Poll: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Chapter 18 DiscussionKarva1 - May 17, 2022 1 repliesby a2dfjk1»»Mar 24, 6:58 PM
* Your list is public by default. Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Farewell Mr. DespairJapanese: さよなら絶望先生English: Sayonara, Zetsubou-SenseiMore titlesInformation Volumes: 30 Chapters: 302 Status: Finished Published: Apr 27, 2005 to Jun 13, 2012 StatisticsScore: 8.151 (scored by 82368,236 users) Ranked: #48922 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.Popularity: #579 Members: 31,728 Favorites: 1,389Available AtResources
SynopsisHigh school teacher Nozomu Itoshiki has been waiting for a chance to end his life. He has grown averse to the very idea of toiling every day to make an ordinary living, and he makes no attempt to conceal his crushing despair. Sadly, he is almost always dragged into the bizarre—and sometimes outright suspicious—problems of his quirky students. Every time he gets a little closer to kicking the bucket, he finds himself in an absurd situation, trying to save his students from the same rabbit hole of misery that haunts him.Despite his ever-present existential crisis, Itoshiki attempts to find a new normal in the silliness of his daily adventures—all the while chasing the sweet demise that eludes him.[Written by MAL Rewrite]Background_Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei_ had eight volumes published in English as Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei by Del Rey from February 24, 2009 to November 23, 2010. Kodansha Comics USA picked up the license, releasing volumes 9-14 from June 21, 2011 to April 3, 2012 and republishing the previous volumes digitally on July 16, 2013.Related Entries MALxJapan -More than just anime- Characters Reviews 
Jan 28, 2014 Quite possibly my favorite manga series, SZS is a masterpiece of satire, social commentary, and fiendishly twisted romance. The artwork is done in Kumeta's gorgeous abstract style. Solid darks and whites in flat planes and intricate geometric patterns. Kumeta demonstrates a genius for character design, taking the concept of the silhouette to its most extreme by actually portraying his characters as silhouettes when it suits him. This plays into the fact that they are all references and satires to various manga character tropes, effectively shadows cast by other characters that came before them, yet visually distinct and instantly recognizable, boiled down to a simple geometric... conglomerate.SZS's humor is a biting satire of contemporary Japan, everything from rampant commercialism and media sensationalism to the closer to home commentary about manga conventions and life as an artist. SZS is never satisfied with merely referencing these issues, there is always an opinion associated with them, often with an almost Socratic dialogue taking place between Nozomu and his students. SZS relishes in exploring social issues in an unusual light, something done brilliantly with the immigrant character Maria, whose view of everything from commercial waste to lolicons was markedly different and elicited surprise from various characters.Lastly I want to talk about the romance of Fuura Kafuka and Itoshiki Nozomu, and the truly staggering amount of foreshadowing that went into setting up the last two chapters. SZS toys with the conventions of the harem sub-genre of romance manga, but little does the reader know just how insidiously Kumeta has undermined the notion of the harem or the traditional romance. Anyone familiar with the harem manga is familiar with the shipping wars that come with it: who will end up with the MC? Or will it be open-ended without the MC choosing, so as to appease all the fans? Or will it be the legendary, unattainable true harem-end? Kumeta's choice is none of these, instead he opts for a weapons-grade mind fuck that will force you to pour over the manga's earliest chapters to verify that he had indeed been planning this ending from the very beginning.SZS is a manga that has to be read to understand why it is great, I cannot properly put it into words. Reviewer’s Rating: 10 What did you think of this review? Nice
0 Love it
0 Funny
0 Confusing
0 Informative
0 Well-written
0 Creative
0Show all 
Jul 9, 2015 Please bear with my english.Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is Not a Masterpiece. It's Not even great actually. Basically this manga is not for everyone. It's main genre is comedy and yet it's hard to understand that comedy. This manga's comedy is mostly about present japan i.e you have to know more about the japanese culture and about the famous people living in it. And people like me who knows almost nothing about japan had hard time understanding the comedy in the chapters. There are some chapters where comedy are only focused on the japanese cultures that I even skipped chapters. Yes, I even skipped the chapters.... Ofcourse many of them were really funny because i love dark humour but still there are dull moments in the manga. You can get bored really fast because of it. Then why? WHY am I giving this manga a rating as high as 9? It's simple... twist.Almost every popular or critically acclaimed animes/mangas has that one huge moment or that one huge twist that changes the show completely. Onepiece, the highest selling manga has that huge moment. hunter x hunter 2011, with its slow and weak starting had that huge moment in the later episodes which made it one of the best animes of all time. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has that huge twist that will instantly blow your mind and want to reread the whole manga again. Yes, all 301 chapters of the manga again. Its insane, it's weird, it's mind-fucking-ly brilliant, it is unexpected. It changes the view of the manga completely. Also the moral that this manga, "don't commit suicide" is successfully conveyed. And because of this unexpected event I just couldn't help but praise it. So Story is a 6 because it's quite simple tbh. Art is 10 because I don't know how to draw so idc much.Characters are 8 because some of them you will forget.Enjoyment is 7 because comedy was good but again not that great.Overall- 9 because it will make you reread again.(but if it didn't make you reread again..........) Reviewer’s Rating: 9 What did you think of this review? Nice
Jun 9, 2020 The easiest way to convey what mind state you should read this manga in is that it is like South Park but for Japan. Every chapter has a new dysfunction of society or psychological disorder that is poked fun at and trivialized in a way that makes people afflicted with these dysfunctions laugh at themselves, a much needed remedy. The first chapter opens up with suicide being the main joke, a huge problem in Japanese society being suicide rates. This joke often comes back to in the form of the main character falling into despair over various aforementioned social or personal dysfunctions.Each volume is sub-titled... "The Power of Negative Thinking", negativity being a constant personality trait of the MC's.The twist on it being a straight up social commentary is that the MC is the quirky teacher of a quirky group of curious students, mostly females, all who have something wrong with them to say the least. They are all infatuated with Itoshiki Nozomu their teacher, and time and again are completely thrown off by his sudden outbursts. It is almost as if he intentionally derails their thoughts every episodes with his own "band-aid thought" of the subject. His silly little comforts often drive them crazy or make them unimpressed, but they still pay attention to him.The other MC is a girl who is super positive and often comes around when he is hanging his head in despair. Their dynamic usually leads to her positivity overwhelming the situation, sometimes not to a good end result (each chapter ends with an often whacky punchline, making fun of "explosive ending" or "it was a dream all along" tropes").I enjoyed the representation by each of the characters of separation anxiety, OCD, dissociative identity disorder, guilt complex, acute social anxiety, manic depression, toxic positivity, truancy, and many others by the characters. For a mangaka these disorders are actually represented surprisingly realistically.A lot of jokes fly over my head being American but I still find the ones I understand hilarious and relatable.You either understand it right away and fall in love, or are confused by the pacing and seeming lack of plot. I fell in love clearly lol 10/10 Reviewer’s Rating: 10 What did you think of this review? Nice