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alt title(s): Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei; So Long Mr Despair 
Optimism or despair? Let's rumba!
What do you get if you take a man who is depressed to the point of melodramatic suicide, and make him the teacher of a class full of maniacs, psychos and misfits? No, it's not like your average Slice Of Life show. Instead, what Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei ("Goodbye, Mr. Despair", "mister" as in the salutation for a teacher) has become in its dark, disturbed humor and wisecracking background trivia is one of the most amusing Mind Screw series ever witnessed.
Nozomu Itoshiki, a man so unfortunate that even his name can be written to mean "despair", attempts to hang himself. He is saved by the most insanely cheerful girl imaginable, who then ignores his protests of sadness and declares him to have been trying to make himself taller by hanging himself. Scared, he runs from this beacon of bright light, and ends up at his new teaching assignment where, of course, the crazed happy girl awaits. The insanity only gets deeper from there...
This anime happily subverts any number of schoolgirl tropes, as well as consisting of many more normal ones. It's also gorgeously animated — the most jaw-dropping scenes are often beautifully rendered. A second season, (Zoku) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei ([Vulgar]/Continuation Goodbye, Mr. Despair) aired shortly after, meaning Nozomu had even more reasons to be in despair.
Following that, a set of three OVAs titled Goku: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei ( Prison: Goodbye, Mr. Despair) was bundled with the limited edition of volumes fifteen and sixteen of the manga, with the second one released independently, and a third season, Zan: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Repent/Remainder: Goodbye Mr. Despair), recently finished airing.
The manga is out across the pond courtesy of Del Rey, so now you can despair in English!
This show provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Subverted in Abiru's case. Contrary to the wildest imaginings of her classmates and sensei, her father seems to be a rather mild-mannered man; he even makes her a small cake for her birthday (that nobody else remembered).
- Ironically, the most outlandish rumor about him - that he was a former member of an elite special forces unit famous for improvising lethal weaponry from moe manga - may have been the only one that was true.
- Nozomu's parents, on the other hand...it would take an extremely bizarre childhood to produce somebody like Zetsubou-sensei, even taking into account his own histrionic personality. Then there's the Majiru situation...
- As far as Nozomu's childhood, he himself says "I had a good upbringing, so I'm not used to being criticized!"
 While we don't know if this is true (Or what he considers a "good upbringing"), I think there's a good chance that a ridiculously sheltered upbringing could be the reason for him being so fragile and unable to deal with even the simplest of life's problems. Of course, keeping a kid that sheltered should probably be considered a form of abuse...
- In the third season, the history behind his demeanor is revealed: he entered the wrong club by mistake and was forced to become negative and stay in despair constantly by a pair of glasses.
- Accidental Marriage: By making eye contact with someone.
- Accidental Pervert: Subverted. During the Hot Springs Episode, the wall between the men's and women's baths falls over. Poor Nozomu is the one who freaks out, because the girls don't care if he sees them naked.
- Done normally in another episode, where while taking a memento picture for Kafuka, a woman mistakes the picture taking as trying to get a shot at her. The entire town reacts.
- Actor Allusion: Rin usually shows up with her ass facing the camera — Akiko Yajima also voiced Shin Chan. One chalkboard gag also features Nozomu drawn in the style of On The Next Bakemonogatari, where he voices Koyomi Araragi.
- All Just A Dream: Zoku's sixth episode explicitly states the second of the Three Shorts is a dream, then goes into the nature of dreams themselves while slipping into a Bizarro Universe: Kafuka is in despair, Meru is actually talking, etc.
- And as soon as they all realize that, they figure that they'll all die if the dream ends and so try to kill the dreamer, who is Nozumu Itoshiki himself, in order to keep it going, and themselves alive.
- Anachronic Order: Not that it really matters, since the series is completely episodic, but notably in the anime, Nami Hito's introduction episode is saved for the second season (where she had just showed up in one episode with no fanfare in the first season). The anime has so far been in a different order from the manga, so if you take Nami Hito in stride, the entire anime is probably anachronistic.
- Zan has waited until episode six to introduce another, Kanako Ohra, and brings in two more in episode seven: Miko Nezu and Shoko Maruuchi.
- Art Shift: E.g. the first ED video of the second season portrays all characters in distinctive Shoujo - Shounen Ai - bishie-ish style, while the third OP features the characters in Magical Girl style, complete with massive eyes and an upbeat poppy theme song. And blue hair. Lots of blue hair.
- The third ED of Zoku is, bizarrely enough, in the art style of Mike Mignola's Hellboy.
- Also, the seventh episode of Zoku is an exercise on art shifting. Part three of the seventh episode of season 2 consists entirely of Art Shifts one after another, from claymation to drugged-up, Dr. Seuss-inspired spinning circles, finally finishing up with an actual video of someone going through a flipbook with the characters drawn on the pages.
- The first episode of Goku has this in its ending theme animation, which is otherwise the same as Zoku's second ending.
- And don't forget that the opening animation for Goku changes each episode, and is a combination of the original opening and paper cut-out dolls.
- The second episode of Goku Art Shifts to the style of the creator's very first manga, Go! Southern Ice Hockey Club, for the first part of the episode, and a Shoujo style for the third part of the episode.
- This art style has been used before in the first ending of Zoku.
- The opening theme of Zan has bits that are somewhere between this and Gonk.
- Zan episode eight, the third short set aboard the Mystery Train, goes into a roughly-sketched cutout style that comes across as rather trippy. There are art shifts that occur within this medium change as well, mainly pertaining to the art style used for faces, which are drawn for major characters.
- Attention Whore: Probably the motivation behind Nozomu's
attempts at suicide every action. There's also Nami Hito, but her Attention Whore tendencies only really show in her first appearance, in which she tries all kinds of gimmicks to gain pity and attention from her classmates. They all fail, of course.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel
- Bandage Babe: Abiru Kobushi all the way.
- Battle Aura: Chiri in the second episode, because dividing the cake evenly is Serious Business.
- Beware The Nice Ones: It's implied that Kafuka will eventually snap and just kill everybody in the class.
- Big Damn Heroes: It's not really last minute, but the opening episode of Zan features this as Chiri leads the other main heroines in freeing Nozomu.
- Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Every. Single. Episode.
- Bishonen: Nozomu Itoshiki and his brother Mikoto.
- Bishoujo: All but two of the "focus" students are female; this is lampshaded in the post-credit ending of episode ten.
- Black Comedy
- Black Speech: Meru, after being stuck in a corner with no cell reception and taunted.
- Bland Name Product: The class finds a time capsule and fishes out a radio labeled "SONV". Lampshaded immediately ("so Sony used to be Sonv, then?").
- Blue With Shock
- Boat Lights: Abiru has different colored eyes underneath the bandage.
- But Not Too Foreign: Kaere. Although we're still trying to figure out exactly what Caucasian she is. A map of Britain appears when Nozomu is discussing her initial return to Japan with the class, but she ends up coming off as a Jerk Ass American...until she starts bringing up animal sacrifices and other pleasantries. She probably just represents the outside world that is blonde and not Japan.
- Catch Phrase: Nozomu Itoshiki's favourite quote "I'm in despair" (Zetsubou shita!) as well as "What if I'd died?!" (Shindara dou suru?!); Kiri Komori with her "Don't open it" (Akenaide yo!); Kaere/Kaede Kimura's "I'll sue"; the Nozomu/Matoi exchange of "You've been there?!"/"Yes, always" (Ita n desu ka?/E. Zutto.); and last but not least, Nami Hito's cry of "Don't call me normal!" (Futsuu tte iu na!).
- How...normal.
- Chiri often demands that things be done properly. This is a pun on her name, which means exactly that. (Kitsu Chiri > Kicchiri)
- Demands that things done properly, and often proclaims that not doing so "irritates her."
- Kafuka: "How could [character type], something I've only seen on TV or in the newspaper, exist so close to me? This is obviously [improbable explanation]."
- Catchphrase Interruptus: Nozomu's surprised when a one-shot character borrows his catchphrase.
- Censor Steam: Very disturbing censor steam.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Subverted. The show has gradually glided from a showcase and parody of a suicidal man teaching a dysfunctional school class to becoming a showcase and parody of social ills in modern Japanese society — but don't think for a moment this means it's taking itself the least bit more seriously.
- Character As Himself: The opening credits list all the characters as being played by themselves.
- Especially unlikely in the face of all the prodigious Theme Naming.
- Cherry Blossoms: Featured in the first episodes of all four seasons.
- Chick Magnet: Zetsubou-sensei, to his class.
- Cliffhanger: The end of Episode 11, where Nozomu gets hit by a train and his students are waiting outside the emergency room.
- Even worse, the incident is not even mentioned in the following episode (the season finale, no less). He got better.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Kafuka, the eternally happy girl. Maria, the near-brainless illegal immigrant. Heck, almost every girl in the show is in her own fantasy world.
- Special mention however for Kanako Oora. She barely seems to notice the frequent carnage around her, never letting her vacant smile slip.
- The Collector Of The Strange: Abiru's collection of mounted animal tails.
- For that matter, Itoshiki Nozomu's collection of unwanted admirers.
- Color Failure: Majiru has one after a quest to catch measles as a child (metaphorically) ends with him groping Chiri and ending up on her bad side. Needless to say, he's no longer interested in breasts.
- Control Freak: Chiri; she's come close on several occasions to slaughtering everyone in her class to keep the numbers even.
- So far, her tally is 'once': Chiri did not take kindly to the "Schrödinger's cat" dilemma and responded by turning the homeroom into a 'class in potentia' that nobody dares open.
- Cool Big Sis: Kiri to Itoshki's nephew, who refers to her as "big sis Komori".
- Crosses The Line Twice: Suicide, not funny. Suicidal teacher winning the love and affection of his students by promising to take them with him when he does it, hilarious.
- Cross Popping Veins: Chiri's appears symmetrically in the direct center of her forehead.
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: The soundtrack varies between hauntingly beautiful orchestral pieces as season main themes, great piano minuets for Nozomu, and the rather light, silly fare used for the rest of the show.
- The opening themes all use a mixture of punk vocals (for the main singer), J-poppy backup singers, grunge guitar and (for the fourth OP) soaring piano melodies. The ending themes are an appropriately crazy mix of styles that manages to mesh, from swing jazz to surf rock to punk-infused cabaret.
- RUMBA RUMBA RUMBA RUMBA RUUUMBAA
- Culture Clash
- Cut Himself Shaving: Subverted in Abiru's case; everyone assumes she's abused, but really, she's just pulling animal tails for fun.
- Cute Shotaro Boy: Nozomu's little nephew Majiru. Has a touch of the Mouthy Kid to him, but still cute and mostly innocent.
- Cute Mute: Meru, who talks through her cellphone and sends people abusive text messages. Mayo also never actually talks to anyone, you only hear her voice in a narrative sense. In Goku SZS, she didn't communicate her idea verbally, words appeared above her head instead.
- It helps that her limited vocalizations (mostly just wordless gasps) are voiced by Chiwa Saitou.
- Dead Baby Comedy
- Deadly Euphemism: It's not suicide, he's just trying to make himself taller!
- Deadpan Snarker: Arguably, Abiru Kobushi. She usually wears a totally neutral, bored expression on her face at all times, occasionally uttering a cutting line to another of the students while they're talking about something. In chapter 19 of the manga, when Kotonon (the heavily-photoshopped net idol) is outraged over being called a fat-ass and nobody-has-ever-been-so-mean-as-to-call-me-that, Abiru quips "What? Not even once?" with a perfectly straight face (and even tone of voice in the anime, IIRC). Many of her lines can be interpreted as being snarky; occasionally Nozomu-sensei receives some of this snark too.
- Demonic Possession: Implied to be one of Kafuka's mother's many, many problems. Luckily it means she knows we can get a Blackly Speaking Meru to behave by knocking her upside the head with a giant cross!
- Deranged Animation: Oh god, Goku's openings.
- Devil In Plain Sight: Mayo Mitama has the Face Of A Thug. Her name is a homonym for the Japanese phrase "mita mama yo" - "Exactly as it seems".
- Despair Event Horizon: Nozomu crossed this horizon way before the series even started.
- Dont Explain The Joke: In the 10th episode of the second season they (the characters) decided to make the show more accessible to first-time viewers by explaining every single joke, Running Gag and Meaningful Name. Played for fourth-wall-breaking laughs.
- Dream Apocalypse: One episode features Nozomu dreaming, and the characters realizing what will happen if he wakes up. They decide to kill him instead.
- Driven To Suicide: Nozomu, at least once an episode. Though when he almost does die, he is rather angry about it.
- Dropped A Bridget On Him: If we were to believe Mariah's "May Exposure" in episode 8 of Season 2...
- Ducks In A Row: Sort of. Each character has a focus episode where we really find out about them.
- Dysfunction Junction: Everyone except for, apparently, Nami Hito, whose name is an anagram of hitounami — run-of-the-mill. Her catchphrase ("Don't call me normal!") is mainly a protesting form of Never Heard That One Before.
- Though some might see her extreme normalcy as dysfunctional in itself.
- The Eeyore: Go on, take a guess. Any guess, a wild stab. Ok, here's a hint: The anime is called "Goodbye, Mr. Despair" in English. And no, it's not ironic, at least not the "Despair" part.
- Earworm "Sensei no petto, sensei no petto, sensei no petto..." Imagine that in the style of The Beatles.
- "Zessei Bijin," an upbeat jazz-like tune. Just try to ignore the Lyrical Dissonance of lover's murder.
- Emotionless Girl: Abiru Kobushi is this whenever she's not obsessing about animal tails or when she's alone with her teacher.
- Or that one time when Ai Kaga infected everyone with her guilt complex, and she blamed herself for her sensei's death (he gets better, though).
- She's also a Lawyer Friendly Cameo of Rei Ayanami with the hair color inverted. Her bandages are the same as Rei's from the first episode of Eva.
- Ensemble Darkhorse - Chiri gets an awful lot of fan art dedicated to her, and she seems to get more screen/panel time than any of the other Despair Girls except maybe Kafuka (who's probably closer to a main character since she's explicitly Nozomu's foil). I guess people like their Yandere Knife/Shovel nuts?
- Epileptic Trees: Lampshaded:—> "Even the author didn't think of such things when they were drawing it... Guess there are people who pointlessly distort something that deeply."
- Even The Guys Want Him: An episode of Zoku shows Nozomu has this kind of appeal.
- Evolving Credits: The opening to Zoku starts off in black and white. Despite additional animation, the "film" appears to gradually deteriorate episode by episode. In the second-to-last episode, one scene of the sequence is in color for a few seconds before the film becomes misaligned and the next 20 or so seconds are simply the credits on a white background. In the last episode, the film quality is back to perfect and the whole sequence is in full color.
- Face Of A Thug: Mayo takes great advantage of the fact that because everyone expects this trope, nobody would believe she's really a thug. She is.
- Fan Art: Not only does one of the characters produce explicit Doujinshi based on famous series, but the starting sequence of Zoku includes a massive wall of fan art.
- How can one also forget the short clip of fanart on the series done by a fellow mangaka at the end of each episode?
- The "Zetsubou Sensei Drawing Song" at the end of each episode of Zan could also qualify, though it appears to be done by the staff and cast of the show.
- Fan Service: The show offers a constant stream of fanservice so random, pretext-free, and in-your-face that it might as well count as parody. Kaere Kimura is explicitly designated as a Panty Shot character and goes through several in every episode, sometimes complaining about it and at other times regarding it as her duty (in one episode she actually greets strangers by mooning them). The other characters chip in as much as they can, with practically every female character (and some of the male ones) appearing in a random erotic context multiple times per season.
- Nozomu's younger sister, Itoshiki Rin, seemed to take over for Kaere for a while in Zoku. The fact that her name can be read as zetsurin — "confidence in (her) sexual prowess" hints at this as well.
- How can we forget Chie Arai? She appears often in season 1 as a means for fan service, even in the middle of scenes.
- She and Kiri have also been seen in yuri-esque scenes constantly, the most explicit being the Hot Springs Episode. Of course, this series being what it is, that episode takes a nasty left turn at the end.
- Well yes it does, but that's a different character. The Les Yay in that episode was pure Fanservice.
- Feed Me: Nozomu's rants tend to be grandiosely overblown at times. Nobody takes them seriously, and one or more of his students will frequently hang a lampshade on it ("I'm going to kill myself now!" "I'm not going to stop you.")
- First Name Basis: Kafuka calls Nozomu "Pink Supervisor". He hates the name, but has resigned himself to the fact that she's not going to stop.
- Of course, she only does this in the first few episodes...guess the author forgot about it.
- Or maybe she just ran out of money.
- The Fool: In the very first of the third season's three shorts, Ai Kaga manages to turn her "I'm sorry!" bowing into a headbutt that takes out several armed men.
- The Foreign Subtitle: The English translation is subtitled The Power of Negative Thinking.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: Threatened by Kaere's foreign side all the time. The manga features the actual lawsuit documents in the bonus materials for the tankobons.
- Gag Sub: By the very people who make the show. Season 2, episode 2 is spoken in nonsense, with even greater nonsense added on in the form of subtitles. Only Shaft and Shinbo would do this.
- The Generic Guy: Nami Hito, whose defining trait is having no defining traits.
- GIFT: Meru is an interesting case. At first, she seems like a plain old Shrinking Violet and is completely unable to communicate verbally. However, with the power of texting she can (and does) unleash torrents of verbal abuse on the undeserving people around her. The odd part is that she does this while only standing a few feet away from them and personally giving them her e-mail address, taking away the anonymity aspect that usually is the reason GIFT exists.
- Hair Colors: Completely averted; despite the surreal atmosphere of the show, every single character except Kaede/Kaere Kimura (who has foreign ancestry) has black hair.
- Heroic Sociopath: Mayo Mitama Crosses The Line Twice in about everything she does and always gets away with it because she looks evil — no one wants to judge her based on her appearance.
- Chiri becomes more and more this trope as the series goes on, starting to carry around a shovel and making frequent references to killing people. At one point she ends up in the Sengoku period and tries to declare herself the ruler of Japan — by killing everyone else.
- Hey Its That Voice: Abiru's VA is Mikuru (it's hard to tell!) and Ikkyu is Kyon.
- Hidden Heart Of Gold: Itoshiki-sensei. Despite their various insanities and occasionally being murdered by them, he really does care about his students. Some of them, anyways.
- Hikikomori: Kiri Komori.
- Honey Trap: The entire first segment of Goku is dedicated to this, including Kafuka introducing a group that's immune to any honey traps. Just guess who they are and how they are immune to it.
- Hot Blooded: Itoshiki-sensei is sort of a negative version of this, at least whenever something annoys him (see What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome below).
- Hot Springs Episode
- Ho Yay: There's a bit in episode 10 of Zoku, with all of the boys in the class directing it towards Nozomu.
- Hurricane Of Puns: The names should be a good start.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All chapters are plays on the titles of pieces of classical literature.
- I Just Want To Be Special: Nami. She's normal and doesn't like being called that.
- Image Song
- Incredibly Lame Pun: "This is where the contest parts." Subverted; Nozomu and Maria find it extremely hilarious, much to Chiri's annoyance.
- Interrupted Suicide: Way too many. If the first episode doesn't clue you in...
- Invisibility: Kagero Usui.
- Who?
- The girl who spends all her time apologizing?
- Its All My Fault: Kaga Ai. Just as Nozomu will find some outlandish theory that will drive him to despair, Ai will find some outlandish theory that she will blame herself for being the cause of.
- Joshikousei
- The Klutz: In episode 9 of Zoku, Chiri attempts to be a "proper" dojikko, with horrendous results.
- Large Ham: I'M IN DESPAIR! BEING A LARGE HAM HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!
- Last Episode New Character: The previously unseen Ai Kaga, who suffers from delusion of infliction (加害妄想), blames herself for everything. Her reason for not showing up was that she felt she would be a detriment to the class and the show with her presence; along with Mayo Mitama, a cruel girl who tortures anyone she sees with multiple witnesses to the act only to receive no blame.
- Justified, Mayo was briefly seen in the first episode, and as a background/cameo character before her official introduction.
- Ai Kaga was in the first episode, too...hiding directly behind Abiru Kobushi.
- Both Ai and Mayo can be seen on the eleventh episode in the hospital scene.
- Les Yay: Chie-sensei and Kiri Komori on occasion.
- Limited Wardrobe: Nozomu is nearly always seen wearing kimono and hakama, and most of the time that he isn't, he's sporting something else retro and Japanese. The same goes for his nephew Majiru (who lives with him) and Matoi (whose fashion sense is dictated by whomever she's obsessed with). Notably averted by most of the other characters, though.
- Literary Allusion Title: Every single chapter title is a reference to a work of literature, albeit in parody, and with the meaning twisted beyond all recognition.
- Love Dodecahedron: Played straight insofar as virtually every girl loves Zetsubou-sensei, some of them have other love interests or boys that are interested in them, and Nozomu-sensei is entirely aware of their romantic expectations; subverted in that he is exceptionally ambivalent to anything like a romantic relationship. He occasionally opens up to the possibility of romance, but nothing ever comes of it (except maybe a suicide attempt).
- I would say "anything like a sexual relationship," but he's clearly got no problems with that aspect of the matter, since he once spent an awesome, perfect night with a high-class escort-girl who was apparently very satisfied with his "performance".
- There's even an entire segment about this trope in Zan, with the conclusion that in order for the Love Dodecahedron to hurt less, Nozomu must take up relationships with as many people as possible (in order to make it a non-pointy circle, you see). It goes about as well as you would expect.
- Love Hurts: Poor, poor Itoshiki-sensei...
- Lyrical Dissonance: The first ending theme, "Zessei Bijin", sings about lovers' suicide to a peppy swing jazz number.
- Magic Skirt: Aside from Kaere, there are barely any panty shots of any of the other girls aside from the occasional gag.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Itoshiki-sensei shows up in a supporting role in the Shounen Sunday x Shounen Magazine: Taisen Action fighting game for the PSP.
- Meaningful Name: Every single named character has a name that is some sort of Japanese-based pun on his or her personality type. In fact, this almost seems to be to the point of Anthropomorphic Personification. See the Character Sheet link above, lest this section become a complete duplication.
- Nami Hito, the only normal character in the show, translates to Hitonami: run of the mill.
- Chiri Kitsu's name has three puns—one referring to perfectionism, another to clairvoyance, and a third to burying.
- Four puns if you recall SZS episode 9 where she mentions that her hair is naturally chirichiri (Japanese for frizzy).
- Nothing can kill Despair, not itself, not even the Death Note (seriously).
- The convention has even been fought by Rin, Nozomu's sister, whose name can become "unequaled" (in terms of sexual stamina). She threatens to cut down anyone who brings it up and wants to marry out of the family to lose the surname.
- Kagero Usui's name means overshadowed, while usui refers to his thinning hairline. For this reason, he can only be seen / noticed when his balding head is exposed.
- Harumi Fujiyoshi is a reference to "fujoshi", a derogatory term for "Yaoi Fangirl", while Harumi was the previous site of Comiket before it moved to Tokyo Big Sight.
- The entire Itoshiki family. To explain: the kanji for "itoshiki", when jammed together horizontally, form "zetsu", which, roughly, undoes the word appended to it. Every Itoshiki family member has a given name that turns into something appropriate when attached to the "zetsu" kanji. The main character's name, Nozomu, means a wish or a hope. When written horizontally, it becomes "zetsubou", which means despair.
- Measuring Day
- Meganekko: Harumi Fujiyoshi
- Memetic Mutation: "X has left me in despair!"
- Mind Screw The Series
- Ms Fanservice: Chie Arai was one in the first season, but Kiri Komori seems to have taken over for her in Zoku. Both pale in comparison to Kaere, though.
- Motive Rant: Ruthlessly parodied, as Itoshiki rants every episode about his latest reason to commit suicide.
- My Name Is Not Durwood: Half of the Itoshiki family is prone to this sort of name corruption, including the butler.
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Deconstructed lightly. Mikoto, Nozomu's older brother, apparently has little business because his name crammed together becomes "death".
- Nietzsche Wannabe: The main character. The counselor, Arai Chie, is also named after him (her name can also be read niichie) for whatever reason.
- Doesn't it have something to do with her sadomasochist fetish tendencies?
- Unlikely, as Nietzsche has no connection to S&M. So far, she hasn't done anything even remotely Nietzschean, but perhaps we'll get an explanation eventually.
- Nietzsche did have a quote to the effect (paraphrased) "when you go to be with a woman, bring a whip", so the naming isn't all that inexplicable.
- Negative Continuity
- New Media Are Evil: Parodied in a couple of episodes during the teacher's rants.
- Nigh Invulnerability: Nozomu Itoshiki. He gets better. Always.
- He has survived hangings (self-inflicted and accidental), stabbings, bludgeonings, carbon-monoxide poisoning, and being hit by a runaway trolley so far. He once tried to drown himself in a bowl of Dom Perignon, so that probably also counts as an attempt at drinking himself to death that failed. Considering all of the pills he keeps in his suicide kits, he's probably also survived overdoses of OTC medications at well. Even when he has died, it doesn't ever stick, much to his consternation. Incidentally, popping out of his coffin at his own funeral to tell everybody to stop blaming themselves for his death inadvertently prevented him and Matoi from having to survive cremation.
- Don't forget surviving from having his name written in the Death Note .
- Nightmare Fuel: Though most of the show is just wacky, some segments have twisted the surreal too far.
- The end of episode 5's purifying is a startling vignette that can haunt the dreams of those unprepared for it.
- Zoku's first episode is a treasure trove of Nightmare Fuel, in particular Kafuka's creepy Traumerei and school lighting fixings turning into the bottom halves of crying babies.
- The ending of the hikikomori episode creeped this editor out.
- The eighth episode of Zoku ended with a moment to rival the ending of season 1, episode 5. And it's all the more terrifying considering it focused on Kafuka, the only character in the series proper who we know is thinking of murdering everyone.
- Chiri has been letting bits of this slip more and more lately, such as her description of a childhood game called "Meat Doll"
- One episode focuses on using different genre and animation styles. The magical girl pastiche was adorable, but the simplistic claymation was quite frightening, and the "acid" style forced some viewers to stop watching.
- The openings to Goku. Creepy, jerkily-animated paper cutouts of characters with paper cutout!Maria crying arms and legs? Sure, why not? Adding weird old-timey effects and DOOR EYES? Sure! Oh, we forgot to include the part where Kafuka is
standing dancing and tossing flower petals on the dead bodies of her classmates. No problem, we'll add that, as well as a heaping of Mind Screw!
- No Fourth Wall: Several characters refer to each other using the anime character tropes they embody, such as "Designated Panty Shot Girl" or by noting that "the bandaged look isn't popular any more." This also happens in the manga, both in references to the characters and to the manga itself.
- Off Model: The art stays of high quality throughout, but there is constant lampshading throughout Zan about the animation quality suffering from the huge deadline crunch the animators were going through (as one gag noted, they were working on this, Bakemonogatari, Negima, and Hidamari at the same time).
- The Ojou: Rin Itoshiki is this trope played to an exaggerated degree in her traditionalist behavior (her style of dress, leading a flower arranging school), but also fits the bitchier variant (she decides to enter Nozomu's class as she wants to feel what it's like being a commoner and in one episode, when she can't leave her apartment, she buys all of the surrounding property and evicts the residents)
- Once An Episode: Itoshiki's declaration that something "has left me in despair!"; also if you look carefully in every Zoku episode, you will see a dog with a stick in its butt.
- Generally done with all the random, silly background characters that has appeared. This is even done in the manga apparently.
- You'll see the creator's face hidden among things.
- In the manga, it's actually a running challenge by the authors (once a chapter) to find all the things in a list provided at the end of the chapter. These usually include at least one penguin and a panty shot. It makes sense that these would carry over to the anime, even without a specific list.
- Only Sane Man: Nami Hito, the only normal person in the entire series (even minor characters are crazier than her).
- Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: At the end of every episode there's a "This show is a work of ficion" disclaimer. It usually contains a lot of Suspiciously Specific Denial.
Similarity to any actual paradises on Earth, interesting comics called Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, Blue Man, or Hata Kenjiro and his assistant who came to ADR, cipped in their voices, and got photographed with two of the actresses is purely coincidental.
- Painting The Fourth Wall: The punctuation in Chiri's dialogue shows up on-screen in the lower right corner, accompanied by Kabuki Sounds.
- The characters for certain sound effects (jiiiiii~ being the main example) have been written on the screen, like in a manga.
- In addition to appearing on screen, every sound effect in the third season is spoken, including doors (ga-CHA), a tense crowd (piri-piri), and in one case, constantly in the background, the ocean (za-zaaaan).
- Out Of Focus: Only certain members of the cast will appear in any given episode, but some of them have been given less and less screen time.
- Pale Skinned Brunette: Nozomu. Kiri even more so, having very pale skin (probably from being inside at all times) and jet-black hair.
- Panty Shot: Kaere Kimura provides gratuitous panty shots, usually with the print on them being absurd (green with eyes, a picture of the manga's author). Meru Otonashi lampshades this to the extreme.
- One of the second season episodes has a Homage Shot sequence borrowed from the Evangelion movie with Chiri (giant-sized) filling the role of the mecha...which leads directly to a shot of ten-foot panties.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Kaere Kimura
- In the fourth episode of the second season, a textbook with English exercises is shown. The cartoon illustrations seen on the page feature grotesque caricatures of foreigners with enormous noses.
- This is apparently Truth In Television: actual textbooks feature this kind of caricature. See this link for an example and an attempt to turn the tables. Hypocrisy knows no bounds.
- Phrase Catcher: "How...normal" or variations thereof, to Nami.
- Plague Of Good Fortune: Again, suicidal teacher Itoshiki. Man, he's not a happy guy, is he?
- Political Correctness Gone Mad: In the episode about preconceptions, Itoshiki decides at the end to be more accepting of all peoples. So he doesn't turn down sex offers from a gay man.
- The Pollyanna: The
delusional optimistic Kafuka Fuura, who sees Itoshiki hanging from a noose in the park and pulls him free while yelling "Don't throw away your life!" Seconds later, she begins denying the idea that he could have meant to die, because "No person could ever attempt to take their own life on such a beautiful spring day!" What was he attempting to do with the rope, then? Why, he was "making himself taller", of course, just like her father when the debt collectors came, or when his company went out of business...or her mother that one time...
- Power Limiter: If Zan's second episode is to be believed, Harumi's glasses are so heavy they're what's holding her back from being a sports legend.
- Note she is already naturally a decent athlete.
- Pretty Freeloaders: Kiri Komori taking up residence at Nozomu's home.
- Matoi, as well, for obvious reasons. I don't even think she's been in her own house since the first season.
- Previously On: Every episode of Zan opens on a "the story up to now" recap told in pop-up storybook format. This would be all well and good, except that none of the stories being told have actually happened, or indeed make any kind of sense. The stranger part? All taken from the manga itself.
- Psychotic Smirk
- Punny Name: See above under Meaningful Name.
- Rape As Comedy: Mayo anally violates dogs with pencils and branches as a Running Gag. It's played for comedy.
- Red Eyes Take Warning: Kafuka in the full-color "Kuusou Rumba" opening.
- Refuge In Audacity: Well, there's suicide, weird David Lynch segments, gratuitous panty shots, and a song about the Rumba.
- Mayo Mitama (whose name is a pun on "exactly what she looks like") gets away with the most appalling behavior even when she's caught red-handed, because everyone assumes that no one could possibly get caught doing those sorts of things.
- The point is that she looks evil, thus "exactly what she looks like".
- The last episode of season one features Itoshiki's "funeral," and shows Harumi reading a Kamina x Simon Doujinshi while kneeling at his coffin and blaming herself for his demise. Funny? You bet.
- Remember The New Guy: Because of Ai Kaga's extreme guilt complex, she doesn't even appear until the first season's last episode, thinking that if she had appeared on camera it would drive down the ratings.
- Retro Universe: Though set (more or less) in the same time period as when it was written, the series' aesthetic sensibilities evoke early Showa-period (1920s-1950s) Japan. This is driven home by the use of katakana where hiragana ought to be, and referring to the year as though Emperor Hirohito (who died in 1989) were still alive.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Jiiiiiiiiii.
- Throughout Zan, many sound effects appear written on screen as the sound is heard. Whenever this happens, the girls' voices also read said sound effects.
- Scenery Porn: Breathtakingly!
- School Festival: With the absolute minimum amount of culture possible, as demanded by Itoshiki.
- Screams Like A Little Girl: Nozomu, combined with the Big No. Even funnier when you realised during this situation, the roles should be reversed.
- Screw The Rules I Have Money: Rin Itoshiki. Unable to leave the house due to Chiri checking up on people every hour, she bought out her neighbours and added their property to her estate just so she could move around. When she suddenly craved for ramen, Tokita mapped out the several properties they could buy out so she could buy ramen without technically leaving her home.
- Serious Business: Played with every which way short of aversions. The main source of humor in all versions is taking the most minor things seriously, to ludicrious extremes.
- Shout Out: SHAFT's famous quotations on the blackboard and Harumi's fangirlisms are the main culprits, but there are also stuffed toy characters and dances from several shows, as well as split-second references to other anime, games, or general pop culture.
- Partial listing of the blackboard shout-outs, subject to change:
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: "Use your (moe) drill to break through the heavens!" "Believe in the you who believes in you."
- This doubles up as a reference to Lucky Star's Nintendo DS game: Lucky Star: Moe Drill. (It's Brain Age-like)
- Azumanga Daioh: "Hang in there, Tomo-chan"
- One Piece: "Zoro x San"
- Code Geass: "ZEROOOOO!" and "I am not Orange!"
- Can't remember the exact wording, but once the blackboard featured a shoutout to the guy-on-guy shotacon hentai Boku No Pico. Seriously.
- There's a picture of Pico on the bulletin board that turns into Chico later on, during the scene where Kiki offers to show Majiru her swimsuit, no less.
- Yet another blackboard gag referenced, of all things, Sylar and Hiro from Heroes.
- 'In Zan there's a caricature of Nozomu in the art style of Bakemonogatari's next episode previews.
- Dragonball Z: Not a blackboard shoutout, but when Itoshiki is bewailing all the significant historical landmarks that were dwarfed by greater ones, many examples appear in the background; one of them is "Saiyan's strength / Krillin's strength"
- Matoi and Nozomu perform the fusion dance halfway through episode 3.
- And Goku and Vegeta spar in the background while Itoshiki monologues during the non-athletics festival in Zoku.
- And then there's Perry's search for the Dragonballs...
- And Masako Nozawa saying Goku's Catch Phrase, but with Meru's name.
- Zoku even has the first appearance of the vocaloid Hatsune Miku in an anime.
- Zoku has a whole screenful or two of various characters from other shows, and during the Honey Trap segment included knockoffs of some very popular series.
- Death Note: Light Yagami appears briefly for one page, followed by a confused Itoshiki.
- In episode 3 of the anime, while the class is discussing the optimal angle for viewing fireworks, Sensei briefly sees Light Yagami. Pan back to the students - on the blackboard behind them is written "Death NEET," an obvious reference and pun.
- In chapter 17 of the manga, a wanted poster for Kira (with a question mark in place of the mugshot) appears.
- There's a chapter in the manga about people saying things they'd never say as jokes (but because it's out of character, it gets taken seriously) — included is Soichiro saying "I'm Kira".
- The class discusses how Nozomu's "confession training" would ruin manga, leading to several imagine spots.
Man: Just who is Ki—
Light: I did it.
- Lucky Star: "You're purposely talking about stuff nobody cares about, aren't you? Like how to eat a chocolate cornet! Nobody gives a damn!"
- Not to mention the brief classroom shot with Kagami, Tsukasa and Konata in it - but in Zetsubou Sensei's animation style... or the brief "Chinese bootleg" parody.
- Or Bob Ross painting Konata.
- G Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion both get referenced in a big way in Episode 4 of Zoku.
- In episode 9 of Zoku, Ghost In The Shell gets a shout-out when Maria jumps out of the classroom window, holds her hand up as she falls, and vanishes.
- One episode briefly shows the class with desks like from the second Mahou Sensei Negima Anime.
- In episode 8 a picture of Ritsuka and Soubi from Loveless appears whilst the class is talking about criticism training.
- A lock from Ace Attorney briefly appears.
- in episode 4 "Zoku" ,where Chiri is fighting the mechas,her fighting style is pretty similar too that of asuka in Neon genesis evangelion, speaking German during the entire fight.
- A box of doujin labeled Genshiken appears in the classroom one day, and the table behind Itoshiki-sensei at the Comic Convention turns out to be staffed by Genshiken members as well. In Goku episode one, the Halloween cosplayers include one dressed as Ritsuko Kubel Kettenkrad. And the Tanabata chapter of the manga includes a tanzaku from someone wishing to get into "Shio University" (Genshiken's version of Chuo University).
- Meru's "death" bed looks suspiciously like the one from Sailor Moon, including her dress.
- During the Magical Girl opening, Meru is writing out something on her cell phone. The message? Up up, down down, left right left right B A.
- Nozomu's defeat at the end of the sequence is a reference to the end of the Shaman King opening credits.
- In episode 12, the practice for "soft" landing is done on an arcade-like machine. On the side in one scene, it reads "Afterburner" from the game series.
- A Zaku tied a wish to a tree. Its wish? "To become a High Mobility Model!"
- Part of episode 13 of Zan involves Kiri losing her blanket, and the episode section makes specific reference to the character Linus from Peanuts who is similarly known for an obsession with a blanket.
- Snap Back: One episode ends on a cliffhanger when Itoshiki gets so fed up that he goes for a walk downtown and is crashed into by a runaway trolley. The episode ends with the entire class crying for him in the hospital waiting room, and the "in operation" light finally turning off. The only indication the above actually happened is the fact that Chie is acting as substitute teacher in the next episode and Itoshiki has to storm into the classroom and resume his rantings.
- It's entirely possible that this was related to the first half of that episode, where a brief mention was made of "being completely disconnected from the source material".
- Somebody Elses Problem: To Kanako Oora, everything is somebody else's problem.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The final episode of the first season features a scene of Itoshiki attempting to hang himself (again...) while "Happy Birthday To You" plays in the background. Furthermore, cheerful or peaceful music is always playing when Kafuka presents an implausibly optimistic view of a negative situation.
- Split Personality: Kaere, between lawsuit-crazy But Not Too Foreign Kaere and demure Yamato Nadeshiko Kaede.
- Spoof Aesop: Anything that Itoshiki considers a valid aesop — the show doesn't tend to take him very seriously, and invites the viewer to do the same.
- It especially doesn't help when Kafuka jumps in and tries to put her own "spin" on things — it usually only means the examples are crossing the line into insanity.
- If Chiri takes the Aesop on, we can expect her to come within an inch of killing everyone in a sequence bordering Nightmare Fuel and comedy.
- Stalker With A Crush: Played straight but exaggerated severely with Matoi Tsunetsuki.
- Chapter four of the manga (Matoi's introductory chapter, naturally) has a block-long string of them.
- In Zoku, one of Nozomu's neighbors is a cute young college student who occasionally brings him home-cooked meals and commiserates with him about whatever rotten thing his students did to him that day. The end of episode 8 reveals that the girl is actually Kafuka wearing a wig, complete with creepy bunny-boiler overtones.
- Even creepier: in Zan (and possibly earlier), you can sometimes see a framed picture of her on his desk. Apparently he likes her enough to keep something like that. One wonders how he would react if he ever put two-and-two together and realized just whose picture he keeps prominently displayed on his dresser drawers...
- Stepford Smiler: Beneath her smiling and overly optimistic facade, Kafuka hides a past that is traumatic beyond all comprehension. The classmates who are aware of this fact are mortally terrified of the day Kafuka's mask finally breaks.
- Straight Man: Nami, whose defining characteristic is her normality. According to Kafuka, she is "more normal than most people."
- This, of course, is subverted and played for laughs. Nami's first appearance has her claiming to have various problems no normal person would have for sypmathy, only to be outdone by her classmates, so she threatens suicide. Of course that is the moment Itoshiki makes his appearance by attempting to hang himself from the school roof. Only Nami reacts to it though.
- Stock Footage: Nearly every time Itoshiki prepares to say his catchphrase. Other characters have used similar stock footage as gags. In the Magical Girl Parody sequence, Itoshiki's stock footage doubles as a pseudo Transformation Sequence, (though initially it's a reaction to all of his students being drawn in Chibi-style, he does gain a "suspicious cape and staff" when the shot returns to him, apparently from nowhere.)
- Strong Family Resemblance: Majiru looks like a young Nozomu. He even has the same dress sense as his uncle. Nozomu and Mikoto are also identical.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders Nozomu has this appeal.
- Surreal Theme Tune: All of them.
- The season one opening theme, set to (among other things) annotated diagrams of bondage positions, laments how everything is twisted.
- The season one ending theme, set to scenes of murder and death, enthuses about killing oneself with one's lover.
- Or the woman is killing the guy herself. I've seen both translations work. Either way, it's creepy beyond belief.
- The season two opening theme talks about a man trying to dance the Rumba being turned down.
- The season two ending theme Art Shifts the characters into a Shoujo style and shows them attached to medical drips, or, in the case of Kagerou Usui, dressed in nothing but a billowing long coat in front of a crucifix.
- A season two one-shot opening was the theme for a Magical Girl parody.
- The season two finale theme Art Shifts into a gothic horror, drawn in a style reminiscent of Hellboy.
- The season three opening, "Ringo Mogire Beam!" literally translates to "Apple Plucking Beam". The lyrics are about a man who believes he has found his soulmate, but is afraid to proceed (by "giving her his password"), accompanied by repeated exclamations of the song's title. Ringo Mogire Beam could be viewed as the password mentioned in the song... or it could just be a random exclamation. (Note: Apparently it parodies a group called the Cosmic Brotherhood Association; they believed that the world would be destroyed by a flood, but they would be rescued by UFOs. Their "password"? "Ringo okure C." This from Schwarz XD on You Tube.)
- The season three ED, "Zetsubou Restaurant", sings about leaving the troubles of the world behind, while depicting the various evening activities of Class 2-He (with the notable exception of Kafuka, who is only shown standing in front of the school in a Kimono).
- Subverted with "Marionette", the second ED of the second season, a rather normal anime song with rather normal images. Appropiately enough, it gives Nami the most eye-catching featuring of all the girls.
- Take That: "You're purposely talking about stuff nobody cares about right? Like how to eat a chocolate coronet? Nobody cares about stuff like that!"
- Also coming up frequently in whatever-it-is-Zetsubou-Sensei-is-ranting-about-today. Especially when he starts talking about soccer, or politics.
- This depends on how you look at it, but one of Meru's slanderous claims is that the name "creepy fangirl" was made for Harumi Fujiyoshi. She's a yaoi fangirl. Connect the dots and...
- Take That Me: The author appears to take regular potshots at himself as part of Nozomu's rants — he frequently shows up in the background (voiced by himself in the anime) demonstrating some annoying tendency that Nozomu is complaining about. The anime studio is also not averse to launching Take Thats at itself, as demonstrated by a brief reference to Mahou Sensei Negima's major Adaptation Decay popping up in the second episode of Zan. Also, in each tankobon, the bonus materials feature short and very self-deprecatory written pieces in which the author talks about himself in relation to the theme of each chapter.
- Talking Is A Free Action: Parodied in the Magical Girl spoof, Model Warrior Lily Cure. When Masked Despair starts monologuing, Kafuka just blows him away before he can even say, "Let me finish!"
- Take A Third Option: The third episode of Zan mocks this trope.
- Tear Jerker: Apparently, any story told by Jun Kudou.
- Tempting Fate: In one episode of Zoku, Dr. Death states (while performing surgery on an injured Nozomu), "I'll have to take care to avoid this blood vessel." Guess what happens next.
- There Are No Therapists: Possibly subverted in the fact that there is a school psychologist, but then again, when her name is a reference to Nietzsche...
- Averted by the presence of a therapist. Subverted by the fact that she doesn't help any. Made cute by her interactions with Kiri Komori...
- The Thing That Goes Doink: Itoshiki turns out to be from a wealthy family.
- They Changed It Now It Sucks: Starting with Volume 5, the English edition of the manga goes from being edited by Jason Thompson to David Ury. There are now much fewer annotations for the references and cultural notes, and the wording of all the character's catchphrases has changed.
- This Is Your Premise On Drugs: Slice Of Life on crack.
- It's also like tripping into drugs without taking any.
- Trash Of The Titans: Chiri's older sister, Tane Kitsu. She's a walking whirlwind of litter.
- Troll: Meru.
- And she's not the only one. Zetsubou-sensei advises his students to start trolling to avoid being trolled. Abiru replies, "I always have." (Nami: "I think that just came naturally." Burn.)
- Tsundere: Mayo Mitama is said to be one. If she is, though, she's probably the tsunnest Tsundere ever.
- Chiri Kitsu could also be called one - her default mode is tsun-tsun with (rare) instances of dere-dere that almost always devolves into a violent, psychotic episode when Nozomu fails to live up to her (somewhat unrealistic) expectations.
- Parodied/Discussed in episode 5 of Zoku. It even uses the "Don't misunderstand. I didn't do this for you" excuse which triggers the conversation and practically gets lampshaded as a common Tsundere excuse.
- Unmoving Plaid: Anything anyone wears that has a pattern. Most often applies to Itoshiki.
- Unreadably Fast Text: The first few episodes of season one opened with Unreadably Fast Anecdotes. Weird gags also show up before every episode title card. Most of Nozomu's lists of whatever he's despairing about at the moment also probably count.
- Another quick gag relying on this is the name of the school Nozomu teaches at. It changes on a whim, even going so far as to change itself to Hogwarts once.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: The upshot of every single girl in the class being in love with the teacher. He is almost pathologically resistant to their affections (ethical concerns aside), but is painfully aware of the UST, which is why he has stopped resisting Matoi's stalking as doing so only spurs her to more extreme behavior. The class exists in a kind of equilibrium where the UST never quite boils over, at least until somebody or something kicks over the anthill, such as Nozomu's arranged marriage in season 1, his flirtatious body-double in Zan, and an out-of-left-field love-confession from a random student who sounds an awful lot like Kafka-chan in the same season.
- She actually debuted in Goku; she's a student from another class (or another school?) who works at a Maid Cafe where she makes desperate losers fall in love with her. The absurdity of the situation arises from the fact that Itoshiki-sensei was never one of her customers, so it's not only a complete role-reversal for her but a totally unexplained one (except insofar as Chiri's explanation is correct, namely that Itoshiki-sensei's popularity with the ladies is starting to spread beyond the classroom...)
- Perhaps the reason why Nozumu has yet to make a definitive choice toward any specific girl is because many of his fans are examples of the pathologically violent Clingy Jealous Girl, especially Chiri, and even Matoi and Kafuka.
- This troper believes that the closest he ever came (so far) to making a definitive choice in the series was with Kiri in Season 1 when he personally invited her to hibernate together alone with him for the rest of the winter inside his closet like insects in the ground. Immediately averted by the predictably ominous response of perhaps his most dangerous fangirl ever.
- This troper thinks it's more of a trolling thing. Although most of the zetsubou girls get the chance to declare their love to the teacher proportionally to their affection (most notable example being Chiri, openly stating her love almost every episode), Kafka in fact never shows any signs of deep love to the teacher, nor does Itoshiki give any signs he might care. The plan's probably that this creates an image of a mental bond (they don't need words to understand each other). This assumption has been used for trolling several times, for example in Zan episode 8 where Kafka suggests "How about finally deciding on a woman, sensei? Haven't you already made up your mind?".
- Well, Kafuka is revealed to secretly be the Yamato Nadeshiko college student who Nozomu apparently has a crush on as evidenced by her framed picture which he displays on his drawer cabinet and Nozomu has been shown to actually miss the attention he receives from his fangirls on the few occassions when they actually manage to ignore him .
- Unsound Effect: A Running Gag. The most notable is Matoi Tsunetsuki's constant "jiiiiiiiii" for staring, but there are numerous instances where a chorus of girls will say a sound effect (with it often being written on-screen as well).
- Untranslated Title
- Unwanted Harem: Parodied, with the way that girls randomly fall in love with the teacher, but then don't bring it up again, except for the stalker.
- ...and the hikkikkimori and the busybody and the Pollyanna. These are consistently his 4 main fangirls from the very beginning.
- They do bring that up quite frequently in the manga, but not in a good way.
- And there is enough Ship Tease. An episode of Zoku has even Chie and all the boys in the class showing attraction towards Itoshiki.
- Taken to another level entirely in Zan - Abiru Kobushi has been "promoted" from one of those girls who fell in love with teacher once and never brought it up again to one who is consistently portrayed to be in love (or at least obsessed) with him, alongside Matoi, Chiri, and Kiri. Several other characters get distinctly "friendlier" with sensei at times in Zan.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: In one chapter on the manga, in which Chiri is trying to fill all of the "dead space" in Itoshiki's house, he says that she has dead space, too: between her breasts and her bra. Chiri responds, "Actually, I use it quite effectively," and pins Itoshiki to the wall with throwing knives.
- Wacky Homeroom: If the above and below don't clue you in...
- Wallbanger: Done literally with Mikoto, Nozomu's older brother, when anyone brings up his Meaningful Name zetsumei which means "death". So he's literally Dr. Death. Hilarity Ensues.
- Wangst: Itoshiki's ability to be left in despair by anything, any time, anywhere, followed by suicide attempts. Fortunately for the viewers, this isn't taken even remotely seriously.
- We Want Our Jerk Back: The hot springs turn all the girls in the class into normal, well-adjusted people. Itoshiki will have none of this, and feeds them junk food.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome: Episode 3 of Zoku explores the trope by having characters make statements like "I haven't eaten lunch yet".... in overly dramatic ways!!!!!
- Bread Eggs Milk Squick: Chiri then announces that she's given her sister illegal vitamin injections in a grandiose manner — because, apparently, doping one's sister isn't a big deal to her.
- The battery acid, however, was a different story...
- I'M IN DESPAIR! SHOUTING OUT THINGS THAT BUG ME HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!
- Widget Series: And how.
- The Woobie: Maria, who woobifies herself and even makes Nozomu pity her.
- Abiru Kobushi both subverts this trope and plays it straight, in that, on the one hand, all of her injuries are actually the result of her animal abuse and therefore entirely deserved, while on the other hand she was fooled into thinking her teacher returned her feelings, a notion which he coldly disabuses her of.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Kaere's alternate persona, Kaede.
- Yandere: Kafuka, arguably. She's certainly repressing, with her eternal happiness and obvious destructive past. Other characters fear her when they get a glimpse into her mind. Then again, all the significant female characters are mentally unbalanced in one way or another...
- While Kafuka's damage is only ever hinted at, towards the end of the series, Chiri frequently goes from just obsessive-compulsive to completely psychotic.
- A few chapters, such as chapter 127, indicated the entire class is composed of Yanderes.
- If you are observant, you would know this by second volume (chapter 11)
- Except for Nami anyway. She's normal.
- Although she doesn't have much of "dere" side, Chiri is a great fit for the "love makes your murderous idea". For instance, in one episode where Nozomu wanted to go out like a celebrity, he visited a high class callgirl and tried to drown in champagne. When the prostitute brings him the bill at school and he complains about dying being expensive, Chiri gets a completely insane look in her eyes, reaches for a knife, and says "No sensei, death can be had for free."
- This troper's favorite example of this aspect of Chiri's personality is when Nozomu (and guest commentators) immediately and bluntly rejecting her suggestion of the possibility that the two of them would ever have a successful lovematch (proper love) in the "Maybe Maybe" episode, despite considering and conceding the possibility of success of romantic relationships with Abiru (she first reveals her love for him here), Nami (normal love), Minami (unfaithful love), Kirara (violent love), Chie (adult relationship) , Maria (acquaintanceship), and even his one-day friend ( who's male ), upon their own suggestions. Her equally immediate response is just so hilarious.
- Yaoi Fangirl: Harumi Fujiyoshi
- Yonkoma: Played straight, but with a twist — according to Itoshiki, there's a hidden fifth panel: darkness.
- You Fail Biology Forever: In one chapter, Itoshiki reveals that he hates Christmas because he was born on November 4, which, if you go back 10 months and 10 days, means he was conceived on Christmas. However, most people can readily point out that the average human gestation period is 9 months, and one lasting over 10 months would be rather unusual.
- Actually, in Japan a woman's gestation period is considered to be ten months. So it's really a cultural difference.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Completely averted; everyone except Kaere has black hair, and their hairstyles, while distinct, are still realistic.
- This is, of course, referenced in the shojo parody episode of Zoku.
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