Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Episode 6

After so long without a dose of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei for the soul, much like buses two come along at once, and once again this show manages to squarely hit the spot in episode six.

Amongst the topics covered in this episode are wisdom teeth (referred to as 'teeth unknown to parents' in Japan), which soon devolves into a wider examination of things that parents don't get told, as well as Nozomu Itoshiki's despair at the world where everything is reported, a trend which he tries to buck but, naturally, fails miserably.

If all of that sounds like rather normal fare, and you're expecting something along the lines of episode five's relative normalcy, forget it. Sandwiched inbetween those two sketches is a discourse and demonstration of the dangers of the dream sequence in a show which takes in some rather bizarre territory, and then just to confuse everyone further still the aforementioned wisdom teeth segment of the episode sees the various voice actors and actresses swapping characters faster than.... well, a very fast thing.

It's simply tricks like the above which would be annoying or just plain stupid in the hands of anyone else, yet Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei not only carries it off, it makes it pretty damn funny in the process. Besides all that, what other show would have the meaning of the universe revealed by a gossiping old woman in an apartment block, or question whether babies dream of inheritance and large accident compensation pay-outs? As I've said many a time before, this is a really hit-and-miss series, and its humour is very much an acquired taste (you don't have to be mad to watch this show, but it helps), but with its constant stream of dialogue, visual gags and the like, it rarely fails to meet its laughter quota.