Review of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

To break it down simply, do you watch a lot of anime? If so, there's a decent chance you'll like this anime. Do you spend a lot of time analyzing anime to see what you can learn from it? If so you probably won't like this anime. This might seem blunt and quite possibly even disrespectful to say about an anime that I rated a 7, but in all honesty, that rating felt generous. Story: 4, Yes a story kind of exists in this anime, but as its primary focus is being gag/slapstick comedy, it really isn't trying to impress anyone with its story, sothere is no real emphasis put upon said story. Instead, Saiki K. is all about turning over as many jokes in as little time as possible, which makes sense given the 5 minute nature of the episodes, but for a binge watch (which is the way I viewed it) it certainly leaves much to be desired.

Art: 7, There aren't really any times I spent a lot of time thinking about the art. If I had to describe it simply, it falls somewhere between not awful, and lackluster. Nothing every stands out, you'll never have that moment of, "wow, this scene was animated beautiful", but on the same hand you'll also never have that moment of, "why did we just pause for 20 seconds on picture that looks like it belongs on a family's fridge". Personally, even if there isn't anything noteworthy about the art of an anime, I do always appreciate an anime that can maintain consistency in the quality of the art.

Sound: 7, Watched the English dub, which was hit and miss for me. I did really appreciated Saiki's VA, and quite a few others in fact, but the music didn't really stand out to me at all. Honestly, I watched the OP and ED quite a few times, and I still don't think I'd be able to hear them and just think "oh, yeah, that's from Saiki K."

Character: 7, A very hit or miss category, very similar to a lot of the jokes in this anime, but ill save that for the next section. My favorite character by far was Nendou, who is creepy as hell, but a relatively good guy. Quite frankly I noticed a positive correlation between my overall enjoyment in each episode and the amount of screen time Nendou received. This is probably because he's one of the few characters who receive some level of actual development. Most of the other characters (including some of the more likable characters) can all be described stupidly easy. I felt in many places the show was overly predictable and I believe that to be a direct result of the abundance of flat characters and repetitive story lines.

Enjoyment: 7, Some episode were genuinely enjoyable, enough so that I watched the entire series, hoping for more of those. Unfortunately, the cold truth of the matter is that the deeper you get into the series the fewer and fewer of these kinds of episodes you'll find. I'd like to think I'm not alone in finding most fourth wall breaks (unless done in an exceptionally clever and equally hilarious way) distasteful. Theres a handful of them, and unfortunately due to the 5 minute length that I mentioned previously, any time a fourth wall break occurs, you're probably going to have to deal with the entire episode revolving around them. There were quite a few episodes where I sat straight-faced the entire time, and all of the fourth wall break episodes fall into said category.

Overall: 7, I realize most of my review has been negative, but Saiki K. isn't a bad anime. More accurately, it is an overwhelmingly overpraised, decent anime. There are a plethora of genuinely good episodes, but unfortunately with the amount of 10's I see other reviewers handing out, its quite clear that either those are the only episodes they're remembering when writing their reviews, or I simply spend too much time analyzing anime, and as a result find this show to be overly predictable. Honestly, I'd like to think its not the latter, but its really hard to be sure. Saiki K. isn't bad; if you have some friends over for drinks and want to get some easy laughs, its certainly not a bad pick. Although I'd be lying if I didn't say that there are quite a few anime id recommend before this one.