Anime: Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei

Intro: This was a very fun anime to watch. It's based off of the manga and many of the episodes follow it closely.

Animation:
This reminded me of ef - a tale of memories. However I only watched the first two episodes of ef because I can not stand slow, boring shit. But from what I can tell, the animation is SZS is very similar. Therefore it is nice looking.

Sound:
Sound is good, good soundtrack. The OP is nice too.

Story AND Character:
No continuing story. But this is comedy and so what this section is going to rate is the comedy.
The comedy was good. The first episode had me laughing for sure. BUT, the problem with this anime is that some of the jokes are lost in translation. For example, only Japanese people would know the names of famous seiyuu's and politicians.

Throughout the anime is littered random text, either as a card in the middle which usually repeats what the last person just said, or text in the writings in the background of class (chalkboard, posters). All of this is supplemental. I kept on pausing or going back a few seconds to read them. The jokes on these walls are not very funny and are usually just references to other anime.
One common one in the first few episodes is "Believe in you who believes in yourself" which is from Gurren Lagann (TTGL).

For anyone considering to watch this anime, DO NOT READ THESE THINGS. It is a waste of time to pause and read them and it detracts from the show.

Now back to the comedy, it is very good. Each character has a name (of course), but their names can be rearranged or tweaked to mean something else (this is due to the Japanese writing system). For example, the lead is the teacher Zetsubou. The leads real name is Nozomu Itoshiki, which means "hope" if I recall correctly, BUT when written horizontally reads Zetsubou which means "despair". And this alternative reading of the characters name defines the traits they possess. Zetsubou Sensei is always in despair and points out many of the quirks of everyday life.

EVERY character has this sort of alternative reading of their name.
So it interesting to see the different characters. BUT, the problem is this is really their only trait. Zetsubou is always in despair, the ordinary girl one is always ordinary, etc.
Each episode introduces one or two characters, each having a trait shown by their name.

Near the end of the series, however, once the meaning of everyone's name is figured out, the show gets less funny.

The characters are just personified by their name. There is nothing else interesting about them really.
The anal-retentive one is anal-retentive, zetsubou is always in despair.
The first 10 episodes were funny, but this is only because they were introducing characters.
It is kinda like how shows are good when they are new. Or when a new character is introduced. But keeping a show funny after the initial introduction is hard to do. This is why most TV shows get cancelled, it is hard to make new storylines and hard to keep the characters interesting. Soap operas have been going on for decades, but none of the original cast is still on the show. The have to constantly remove and add characters.

And this is where SZS loses a couple of points. Every character is predictable in a sense, or there is nothing new to the show.

Value:
Would I rewatch this? Probably.

Enjoyment/Conclusion:
I enjoyed it for the most part. This is a great show, and one of the funniest anime I have seen.

[br]Animation[br]It was really good at times. However, most anime series tend to present an excellent, fluid first episodes and drop dramatically in the following ones. This is no exception. The first episode had some excellent animation quality and such, but towards the end I was thoroughly disappointed. The coloring was not bad and fit the anime style and mood.[br][br]Sound[br]It was pretty decent. Voice acting was appropriate. My only complaint was that the same bg music kept looping over and over throughout the entire series. True, this anime has only 12 episodes, but that doesn't mean that the same bg music has to appear in almost every episode. The OP and ED song was kind of catchy in my opinion.[br][br]Story[br]Pretty interesting. It was the first anime series that had such theme of social irony (as pakxenon mentioned). However, in the end the story boggles down to simply character profiles of his students. There was no underlying storyline that the audience can anticipate for, hence, that is probably why there is a second season. But, I do have to admit some of the episodes were REALLY REALLY FUNNY.[br][br]Value[br]There was no real impacting theme that knocked me out. There was also no lasting impression of the series. [br][br]Enjoyment[br]When I first started to watch this anime series it was really fresh andinteresting. However, after half way through I found myself forcing therest. It was kind of tiring and I got the feeling that I just wantedthis to end and be over with. Indeed, it was funny, but every episodejust presents another student and the sensei's raging depression, whichgets depression and old.[br][br]Opinion[br]Got time to burn? Well this could be a good choice. There are a lot of aspects that the audience may not understand (like the writing on the blackboard) because it pertains the Japanese culture. But, as I said before, some episodes were really funny.[br][br]-BOOYAH[br]

Overall
Goodbye, Mr. Despair (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) is a strange dark comedy that focuses on the despairs of modern society. It is a weird concoction that mixes the everyday undetectable faults of our current lies into a classroom of weirdos animated in one of the most ambitious SHAFT project to date (and will be outmatched by their next project ef - a tale of memories). It is not a lie when I say that this anime speaks the truth about modern culture and behaviour, and even though most of the issues are Japanese-centric, some applies globally and even in your lives; the comedy in SZS is deliciously ironic, and should it not apply to you, then you are best to live under a rock in addition to being without a sense of humour.

Animation
I am not really a fan of SHAFT's animation style, especially when Shinbo is in the director's seat - he makes VERY experimental moves with the secondary focus of saving money and the tertiary to try and have key scenes look really good despite the simple colours and drawings. SZS seemed like good practice material for Shinbo, as the manga's tone is accentuated by his directing style and presentation. This goes the same for his previous project Hidamari Sketch. Unfortunately, this time around, there are even MORE [still] frames fit into a single episode than two or three episodes of HS put together. You can't possible enjoy this fully/see everything without a good player that lets you pause, frame-by-frame, and rewind properly and quickly. This patience is not very rewarding, either, as most of the frames consist of Japanese and absurd symbolism that won't make sense to the culture outside Japan. He also has a notorious habit of trying to reference as many things as possible in the background, while making it fun for nerds to get at all of them, it is a pain and nuisance to the rest of us who have no idea why there are so many scribbles on the chalkboards in the classroom. Thus, while the animation style fits the manga somewhat, it is a pain to go through, which is why I give this an above average of 7.

Sound
SHAFT has another notorious habit: making a whole bunch of songs and presenting as many as possible, usually breaking the weekly flow of having different openings and endings every 4 episodes or so. I'm guessing this is where most of their money goes... but at least they seem to profit off of it later. Anyways, the opening song is an amazingly catchy chugging riff with the mean tone of Mr. Despair himself ranting off about the theme of the anime. The animation sequence, when it comes around at about episode 4/5, is chalk full of symbolism and eyecandy. The ending theme has the girls singing in an old turntable style (as it DOES have a turntable in the sequence) music. Later in the show, the OP and ED switches into... something I forgot. But then reverts back after a once-only affair. Asides from the songs, the voice acting features many talents, especially for such a weird cast.

Story
Yes, SZS's central theme is the telling of the inner workings and changes of the behaviour and culture of modern society. So of course, irony plays a big part in its comedy. While the commentating is very funny, it gets bogged down by too many examples and references when they go into a string of Mr. Despair's ranting fury. Also, most of the episodes are used to introduce ~2 new characters and their quirks. For the manga, it has a decent run behind it so the characters don't get old fast, but in the anime, it's like they do and they try to maintain freshness. The cast may not be as big as other anime at ~12 episodes with monster cast, but the classroom seems pretty big by the end of the show.

Character
EACH character's name is a play on words... thankfully explained by a.f.k.'s subs towards the end of the episode. They are all made weirdos as tools for commentating, as well as commentating a certain aspect themselves. Thoroughly introduced in their respective episodes, their personalities are kept from episode one and provide quick stereotype-like laughs when they're not being used as tools. Runnings character gags are probably more funnier than social commentary, but they get old fast due to the nature of the anime to introduce new characters when they don't need them yet. Especially when they received the budget of a second season to air after ef.

Value
Do you like dark comedy? Then this show will guarantee an unkeep of your sense of irony.