The main reason for this is perhaps that this instalment was even more Japan-o-centric than usual - The first chunk of the episode in particular exemplified this with its talk of TPO, a frequently used Japanese acroynm meaning "time, place, objective"; in other words a broad comment on a person's given social situation. In short then, this segment dealt with inappropriate behaviour for any given situation, which of course with this being Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was taken to the ridiculous (and not to mention amusing) length of playing dodgy erotic Nintendo DS games in the middle of Japan's "Warring States" period.
From here, we take in holidays that perhaps shouldn't be, pondering why Japanese prefectures who aren't directly next to water should celebrate "Sea Day". This soon melds into situations where celebrating can either be considered good or weird (celebrating a horse winning a race after 300 straight defeats for example) before introducing us to the concept of a "chimera holiday", which apparantly needs to be as boring as humanly possible. I'm pretty sure I've had a few of those actually...
Finally, we return to the concept of taking "excessive care" of things, from over-zealous copyright infringement lawsuits (oh, how I punched the air over that being mentioned, liberal despiser of modern copyright law that I am) through to the ever-increasing blight of health and safety (which sees the removal of all the fun things from a children's playground in this case). If the first two segments of this episode were a little too localised for your tastes, this is probably the one that had you nodding in agreement.
So, not a classic episode (particularly for the non-Japanese viewer) perhaps, but hey, if nothing else I feel like I've learned new things from this episode. And learning is a good thing, as we know, with your level of education only slightly less important in life than your ability to successfully complete the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei drawing song without creating a monstrosity. That particular gag, which closes off every episode of this series, should probably be getting old for me by now, yet somehow it makes me laugh out loud every time.
"China's "Warring States" period"
ReplyDeleteI'm sure China also had a Warring States period but the ep clearly showed Japanese samurai and buildings indicating Japan's "Warring States" period...I'm sure you typed China by accident...
Yes, I think the one shown here was that of Japan (Sengoku jidai), in the 15-16th centuries, until the Tokugawa shogunate was established and unified all of Japan, with the capital at Edo (currently Tokyo). From this period are the famous Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi, who are often mentioned in anime. They are the ones who conducted several wars that unified Japan under shogunate control. The emperor from this time on was just a figure head (although since the 12th century they had had no total power, there had been some balance between shogunate power and imperial power, but the Tokugawa shogunate took all power for themselves)
ReplyDelete(And by the way, I loved Chiri here. Such a fitting historical period for her)
I don't know much about Chinese history but it's warring states period (zhanguo shidai) was at around the 3rd century BC when the Zhou dynasty's central government was weakened and many independent dukes appeared. This is a famous period above all because it was the time when Chinese classical philosophy appeared - for example Confucius, Mencius, Taoism, etc.
Indeed I did mean Japan, not sure why I put China, guess it was just the first one that sprang to mind. :p Anyway, corrected, so thanks for the heads-up guys!
ReplyDeleteHanner I really enjoy your reviews about sayonara zetsubou sensei and eden of the east but the fifth episode of sayonara zetsubou sensei is out since friday or something and you were always very quick about it. I don't wanna push you or somethingg, maybe you have more important stuff to do but it would be nice to read it soon ;D
ReplyDelete