From biker punk turned homeroom teacher Great Teacher Onizuka to Negima!'s boy wizard and his harem of kooky co-eds, a young male teacher surrounded by a class of bright-eyed and impressionable girl students is a tried and true manga plot line.
Now, Japan's latest anti-hero teacher is emo educator Nozomu Itoshiki, a.k.a. Zetsubou (Despair)-sensei, a man who's so depressed about modern life, he constantly tries (unsuccessfully) to commit suicide. And he's not the weirdest person in school. His students include a stalker, a obsessive compulsive, a shut-in, a girl with a furry tail fetish; all of them maladjusted poster children for Japan's most pervasive neuroses.
When Del Rey Manga first announced that it acquired the rights to publish Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking, back in 2008, the news was greeted by cries of "Oh YES!" from a few of the manga and anime fans in the audience. Now a year later, Koji Kumeta's black comedy of the absurd has hit the bookstores. It's a book that would never made it to American shores 10 years ago because this comic about a super-depressed teacher and his cute (but very wacky) class of co-eds relies on so many dense references to Japanese culture, literature, celebrities and events, it requires a minimum of 6 pages of translation notes to explain some of its dry, wry, and very dark sense of humor.
When the first wave of manga arrived in America, there was some concern that Western readers wouldn't 'get' Japanese culture that was inherent in many manga stories. It was said that comics readers couldn't handle reading 'backwards,' they wouldn't understand the humor or the cultural references, and those eyes! Those big, big eyes! Over 20 years later, American manga fandom has come a long way that it can embrace (and laugh with) a story that's so Japanese, even the most dedicated Japanophile will be astounded at the obscure literary references and pop culture trivia that's woven into this story.
Check out my review of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei Volume 1 and see if your O.I.Q. (Otaku Intelligence Quotient) is up to the challenge of this oh-so-Japanese story, or if it'll leave you scratching your head. You can also check out a preview gallery of other coming attractions from Del Rey Manga.
Image credit: © Koji Kumeta / KODANSHA
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