Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Episode 12

So, Zetsubou Sensei leads us on down the path of righteous weirdness for the penultimate time, and by this point there's little more to say about this series' brilliance that hasn't already been mentioned by me.

This episode starts off with an admonishment for a 'hard landing', particularly when it comes to holidays - In other words, you should make sure you wind down before your break begins, a sentiment I'm sure we can all agree whole-heartedly with. This isn't the best skit to come out of the series so far, but it does have its moments... Oh, and some hearty fan service too.

Then, poor old Nozomu finds himself getting caught up in other people's dramas, although that was eclipsed for me by the fact that this series has dared to sing happy birthday, in its entirety and without alteration - Considering that this song is copyrighted by some assholes who 'protect' their ridiculous intellectual property doggedly, I imagine some kind of Kaere-esque "I'll sue!" moment arriving soon enough.

Anyway, this episode saves the best until last, and delves into the world of swimming against the current - Not in a literal sense of course, but in a more subtle way. This segment is absolutely hilarious, from its Evangelion references through to the brief Che Guevara t-shirt buying skit, and that's without even mentioning the Winning Eleven gag. Pure genius, and a great reminder of just how good this series is when it hits the right notes. Again ,every moment is well worth watching, and with so much detail flying past in each episode I'm increasingly getting the feeling that I need to watch each episode multiple times to fully appreciate it.