Netflix had suggested Saiki K to the account I'd hijacked from my boyfriend who hijacked it from his father to me multiple times before, but I brushed it off due to its Mob Psycho 100 premise and main character's weird antennae. I just didn't feel like it was an anime I would want to watch, and, barring that, would be too much like something I'd seen before. I finally picked up my controller and decided to gamble on Saiki K when I was intoxicated and out of every other anime I had the smallest interest in. I'm very glad that I did. As the "punny" name it bears might suggest, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K (Saiki K no Sai-Nan) is the a gag anime that tells the tale of an all-powerful psychic's daily life and struggles that come with having his powers. Before you cry Mob Psycho, understand two important things: 1. Saiki was originally released in the 5 minute format. 2. The presentation and themes of the two shows are entirely different. While Mob Psycho generates humor within the confines of its universe, Saiki K utilizes a ton of meta-humor and subversion of typical anime tropes to create its chuckles. Saiki is more similar in tone to Sakamoto Desu Ga? than Mob. Saiki is an all-powerful psychic, and that is not to be taken lightly. Saiki began to walk, talk, and float as a mere months-old infant, decided that his pink hair stuck out too much among his pears so he changed the rules of genetics to allow people to grow naturally purple/blue/green/rainbow hair, can teleport entire islands, divert hurricanes, and conducts all conversations through telepathy directly to the conversant's mind while hypnotizing them to think they see his mouth moving. Oh, and the removal of one of his antennae-like clips can bring about the end of the world. Unavoidable comparisons to Mob out of the way, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K is an absolutely hilarious anime that handles the psychic thing in an over-the-top and fresh way. It's difficult to even think of another anime that made me laugh as much in 2 seasons, period. Saiki is funny because of how well it leans its situational comedy against the absolute over-poweredness of its main character. Saiki is so powerful that he can fix or prevent almost everything that could possibly go wrong: he reveals in the first episode that he has saved the planet multiple times. Part of the humor comes from this trope, and it is handled so well and encompasses so much that it doesn't ever get tired. In my opinion, of course. Another one of the anime's strengths is in its character building. Saiki takes itself from a large cast by the end of season 1 to an even larger cast in episode 24 of season 2, but we learn and actually feel something for each of them before the story's close. The characters are diverse in personality and the situational comedy and tropes they find themselves caught up in are entertaining to watch because we get the impression of knowing them. Most characters have a particular dominating, defining quirk, like Teruhashi's angelic demeanor, Kaido's Dark Reunion demon-hand shtick (which may be a Hell Teacher Nube reference?), Hairo's pedal-to-the-meddle dedication to everything, and Nendo's genetic face and general Nendo-ness. Each character is lovable in some regard, even the perverted purple-haired mess that is Reita Toritsuka. Riki Nendo is my husbendo of the series by far, being one of the most consistently hilarious characters. The show has us laugh at its characters for who they are sometimes, laugh at the situations their quirks bring them in to most of the time, and makes us grow attached to them with subtle acts of surprisingly well-written moments of characterization. The episodic nature of the series doesn't get tired or repetitive because of this well-directed balance of character development and gags. Some episodes even push forward the tiniest whisper of an ongoing plot that the series arguably has, but confirming or denying its existence could be considered a spoiler in itself. The writing of course owes its strength to its manga source material, as it often reminds its viewer. In some of the funniest meta humor I've seen in a while, the anime will often tell the viewer to go read the manga to find out the rest of a conversation, or to find out about characters it outright states are manga-only. That level of screen-busting only takes place a few token times to smartly preserve its humor. Mostly, the anime stays within the television or to light meta-quips about writing stereotypes or about certain situations, but it mostly sticks to in-universe situational humor. Whenever it does make these commentaries on the typical writing anime, its certainly worth noting that its jokes will truly only land if you've watched enough anime to be fully aware of the tropes its subverting. It's honestly really nice to see a gag anime with the low level of ecchi fanservice that Saiki has. For a lot of legitimately funny anime, one has to be willing to deflect a few bulbous, jiggling tits thrown at them from their screens in order to get their giggles. Reita is typically the source for most of the ecchi humor that does make its appearance in the anime, but his particularly naughty behavior like his panty-seeking and attempting groping is condemned and painted as weird and gross by the other characters. It's refreshing to see a pervert getting consistently treated like an actual pervert in a lower-budget comedy anime for once, and this seems to be another commentary on the type of ecchi humor that dominates anime today. Saiki's animation and illustration are nothing to phone home about. It's a standard J.C. Staff product in appearance, with the exception of a few distinguishing artistic choices like the scene above. Characters will occasionally shift appearance or small details will change, like Nendo's shirt, but things such as backgrounds, character designs, and scenery aren't much of a focus either. Which, I would hope most people entering into the show with the understanding that it is a gag anime would already understand.
One doesn't watch Saiki for the animation or character design (although Nendo, Mikoto, and Saiki himself aren't exactly run-of-the-mill). The voice acting in the subs is actually relatively star studded, with my favorite VA Hiroshi Kamiya of Bakemonogatari and Noragami fame, Daisuke Ono of a Jojos pedigree, pleasantly voiced Ai Kayano who is known for lending her voice to main characters in No Game No Life and Guilty Crown and tearjerking Ano Hana, and the Yuuki Kaji, whom if you need a listing of voice roles in the year 2018, you just haven't been watching subbed anime. I've given the series a solid 7.3 on Anilist. It's a legitimately funny popcorn anime that one may not want to binge, but certainly would want to keep coming back to. In my opinion, the show needs to be watched with space between groups of episodes. It took me about a week to sift through all of the episodes of seasons 1 and 2 until I was done, and I think that the humor was preserved because of this spacing. Saiki K may not be a gamechanger, but it's certainly worth watching if one's looking for good characterization and a laugh.
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AuthorI've been watching anime since I was 9 and I write about my thoughts sometimes. Archives
June 2019
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