(Sixth post in the “12 days in anime” 2009 project led by Mega Megane Moé. Other participating blogs include Shameful Otaku Secret!, Continuing World, Fighting for Nippon!, We love maids., Bokutachi no BLOG, Anime Profiling, Desu ex Machina, Blogging about Anime, I Will Show You Terror in a Handful of Flans, Pontifus, Open Your Mind, ∑Xce7ion, Ganbatte Forever!, Mikotoism, wat u say, Memories of Eternity, Simplicity, Gabrielino Anime Club, UNMEI KAIHEN, Nigorimasen!, Mainichi Anime Yume and We Remember Love)

I’m in despair ! Having to change my list of moments at the last minute has left me in despair !

I’m late with this one, but a terrible and cruel battle raged in my mind yesterday, and I had to let a winner emerge before I could take action and finally write this post.

At first, this moment was to be dedicated to a rewatch of ef, because this series proved to be a totally different beast the second time around. That came as a surprise seeing how I’m used to feeling more or less the same about shows I watch more than once. And it was something worthy of this list.

Then Sayonara Zentsubou Sensei came.

I just finished watching this… thing, and even though I’m aware my judgment may be distorted by recency biais, I know for sure I would still remember the sheer madness of the whole thing had I watched it many months ago.

So I knew this post was going to be about a SHAFT-animated show, but which ? After a long internal debate, the craziness won, and I decided to make class 2-H my seventh memory for this year.

I’m not sure words alone are really able to convey what makes Sayonara Zetsubou Seinsei worth remembering. Let it be said that it’s probably the craziest show I’ve ever watched. It’s not complex, it’s a comedy, but it advances at a breakneck speed and you’re often almost overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that’s happening, and there are flashing walls of text, countless jokes appearing on blackboards and signs, and what not…

I guess the most memorable moment of it all is the first contact I had with the desperate teacher, in the form of the “Preface” episode. Not only is it one of the most frantic of the season, it’s also the only one that catch you unprepared.

It hits you like a shinkansen then stops, turn around, and run over you again. And again, and again. Until you’re begging for mercy, and it’s over. And when it is, you’re left with a puzzled look on your face as you wonder what the hell did you just watch.

I will say no more, except this : if you haven’t experienced the madness of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, you ought to yourself to at least watch the preface episode. Only SHAFT could pull off something like that, but you’ll be glad they did !