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For an anime that's essentially the length of a movie, and is a rarity being that it's horror, definitely give it a watch if you're interested. It won't change your life, but it's absolutely a fun way to spend 2 hours.

As a whole, the show was okay. The animation was consistent, pretty, and each character would pass the silhouette test as long as the roster was just this show's characters. The voicework (I watched the dub) was quite good, particularly in the later episodes. The music was solid, subtle, but not very memorable. Also, the story was genuinely interesting despite feeling cliche for a lot ... of it and requiring an hour's worth of expository dialogue to explain it all by the end (It'd be awesome to get a 12-24 episode version of this with some changes so the viewer could piece together more of what's going on by themselves if they paid attention but just not be able to confirm it until it's officially revealed).

The first episode was definitely the weakest one. It starts off interesting, there's a really great flashback to the past, but the scares wind up feeling more humorous than actually scary, and some dialogue feels off.

The second episode is where things start to feel more serious, but also a bit cliché. Despite the clichés though, it remains interesting and doesn't feel nearly as "off" as the first episode did with its scares and dialogue.

The third episode was worrisome at first, it had me concerned that it all was gonna wind up being a big bundle of clichés by the end. But stick around because by the end I was thoroughly invested in what was going down.

The final episode, despite having loads of dialogue to explain...things...was loads of fun and the voice acting was truly wonderful. The buildup from the prior episodes may not have been there, but even without that I felt satisfied with the way things ended and greatly enjoyed the ride.

Altogether, it's not great. Not even "good" really. But it's fun, and it made me want more.

Overall) 7.4/10 - I'm really glad this series exists and I definitely want some of these episodes to get their own series' or films' in the future. The length of the episodes seemed to be the biggest cause of issues aside from some of the dub's voicework


The Duel) 6.5/10 - Interesting with (mostly) great visuals but not very captivating and definitely not flawless. The voice acting was mixed

Tatooine Rhapsody) 6/10 - It's consistent and interesting with a few small laughs, but it's really hard to build a meaningful connection with characters in ~14 minutes and conventional rock music feels a little too out of place ... in Star Wars and it feels too "safe" to be engaging. The voice acting was mixed

The Twins) 7/10 - It looks incredible, very interesting concepts, I'd love to see it adapted into an actual show with more character development and explanations for things like breathing in space, but the dialogue felt a bit forced and it had way too many callbacks

The Village Bride) 8/10 - It's predictable with one or two very minor issues, but it's beautiful, emotional, the music was perfect, and I'd love to see this turn into something more than just one episode

The Ninth Jedi) 8/10 - Apart from a bit of rough dialogue and a small amount of distracting CGI, I loved everything about it and I'd love to see more of this story

T0-B1) 8/10 - Stellar sound design, music, and visuals. Aside from a few too many callbacks and a couple of imperfect moments it's excellent

The Elder) 9/10 - The voice acting could use a little more emotion, but otherwise the episode is damn close to perfect

Lop & Ocho) 7.5/10 - Definitely the most beautiful episode, but the story and characters fall a bit flat. I'd love to see it adapted into a series with better character development

Akakiri) 6.5/10 - There's not much to criticize but it didn't really invest me in the characters or the plot, and the visuals weren't as appealing as the other episodes

(This is a review for the 20-minute version, NOT the 50-minute one)

OVERALL: 7/10
As a summary for the first season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, I'd say this is pretty decent. It gets the basic idea of the show across and re-introduces most of the major characters. It also changes and adds some imagery/dialogue which can make it worth watching even for viewers who don't need a recap.

However, it falls short of excellence by not providing all of the information. It doesn't show off all of the characters, not even all of the main ones. One could argue that this doesn't matter since all of the ... characters are stereotypes/exaggerations, but I think that even with the 20-minute time constraint, the creators could have fit more info in the episode if they tried to.

STORY: 6/10
There isn't really much of a story in the show. It's more of a focus on the interactions between characters rather than plot or character development.

ART: 8/10
I really like the artwork in the show. It's not the most detailed thing, and I'm not a fan of every bit of it, but it's aesthetically pleasing and a really great mix of different art styles bunched up into one.

SOUND: 8/10
I love the soundtrack in the series and all of the sound effects/sound design, in general, are satisfying and impactful.

CHARACTER: 6/10
All of the characters are exaggerated and/or stereotypical so they really aren't particularly special. But the voice actors seem to do a great job playing them, and there weren't really any issues I had with them

ENJOYMENT: 8/10
I enjoyed the series and this recap. It never felt boring to me, though its repetitive nature definitely means it won't entertain everyone for the whole duration. It does have quite a few flat jokes, but none of them were appalling.