Review of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

Pure comedy anime is a bit of a tough one from my perspective, like, how do you make a show be constantly full of jokes that's focused primarily on making the audience laugh not hit a point where it feels repetitive or tiresome? Well the answer a lot of shows seem to have had is just, "you don't", and to an extent, Saiki K also falls into a sense of repetition, but it ultimately doesn't matter too much when the show is both so goddamn funny and also really touching and charming in a lot of ways. I feel a big reason this works sowell above a lot of other shows that attempt to focus hard on surreal, wacky comedy is the way this one understands where to properly place its emphasis to elevate a joke rather than being tiresome in how it focuses on every small weird detail. So much utter madness is skimmed over within a few seconds of appearing, and it not only makes for a show that goes at an absolute breakneck pace, but one that ends up being hilarious for it due to respecting the audience enough to understand that these shenanigans are meant to be ridiculous, rather than dwelling on it for long stretches at a time. I think it also helps that the titular Saiki, while filling the role of the "straight man" is just as full of his own brand of weirdness and absurdity, with his blatantly overpowered abilities allowing to take his role to incredibly massive lengths while often not acting all too different from the rest of the cast, essentially being a voice of reason who eschews this in his own special way.

The way this chaotic, ridiculous comedy is then further used as a way to bring in this really lovely, touching story about friendship and the importance of being oneself without ever losing its core identity is that final thing that brings everything together for me as well. By the end of the season, while the vibe is kept pretty consistent, I love how many episodes seem to forgo the idea of being outright funny and instead focus on some elements of (admittedly goofy) continuous narrative to better represent the change of Saiki as a character over the season and how much he really does care deep down. The way the cold introversion in early parts gradually shift to a sense of insecurity and not wanting to let down others is a particularly poignant element that gets brought in, as while sure, sometimes Saiki really just wants to have peace and quiet, often there's this clear sense of "I'm not really that fun and don't want others to deal with me anyway" thrown into the mix, and it ends up making for some pretty compelling moments of characterisations that culminates in a really wonderful scene that I can't help but think is a perfect way to end this season. While the show isn't flawless by any means, with some overreliance on throwing new characters into the mix along with just having some subplots that feel a bit too weird or mean spirited, the show as a whole is an absolutely wonderful time all tied together by a character who's equal parts ridiculous, yet rather relatable in certain respects, and I think that it ends up being some of the best comedy anime I've experienced.