Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Episode 8

After a couple of fantastic episodes recently, here we are again for some more despair and wackiness courtesy of Nozomu Itoshiki and company.

On the menu for this episode is being treated like a spy everywhere you go, 'May exposure' (where a front that is put up in April dissolves to reveal the hideous truth come may - Something to watch for with the forthcoming Spring anime season perhaps?), and the complaint that things which are 'half and half' usually aren't, an issue which is taken to extreme lengths by (who else?) Chiri Kitsu. While the episode still has its amusing moments, it doesn't hit the laugh out loud funny of the last two episodes, which only serves to highlight the hit-and-miss foundation on which the series is built.

Even on an off-day, you can't help but delight in the show's blatant fan-service that often gets worked into jokes, the often weird continuity (Chri's openly violent tendencies, and Kafuka's hidden agendas behind that cheerful complexion), and even the fact that you can often pre-empt what the characters are going to say and do next now that we know them and their foibles so well. These are all things which can serve to ruin other shows, but somehow Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei not only gets away with it, but makes it thoroughly enjoyable in the process. Episode eight may not be the best example of what the series can offer by a long way, yet it still succeeds in holding my attention.