Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Introduction.............

Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei (さよなら 絶望先生, Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei lit. Goodbye, Despair Teacher) is a Japanese manga by Kōji Kumeta, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. It is a comedy about a teacher who takes all aspects of life, language and culture in the most negative light possible. In 2007, the manga received the thirty-first Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category, and was adapted into an anime.

Story and Plot

Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei revolves around a very pessimistic high school teacher named Nozomu Itoshiki who tries to hang himself on a cherry blossom tree. Despite his best efforts, he is saved by a very optimistic girl known as Kafuka Fūra (whose real name is unknown). She explains to him that it is simply unforgivable to hang himself on such a nice day, especially in front of such beautiful trees. She decides to nickname Nozomu "Pink Supervisor" (桃色係長, Momoiro Kakarichō), offering to pay him fifty yen to do so. After having enough of the strange girl, Nozomu bolts to the school and starts his homeroom class, but the attempt to escape was in vain as he finds that the girl is one of his students.

Not only does he have this students to manage but also their problems. Each one of his students have a particular special problem. A special note: most characters' names derive from similarly pronounced Japanese terms which their traits refer to. He even complained this to a fellow teacher after experiencing them.