Review of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

Recommendation: Really funny, well worth the watch. Note: the show aired as daily 5 minute episodes that were then compiled into a full length episode on the weekend. It can be watched either way, though if you watch on Netflix, you'll be watching the full length compilations (this is how I watched it personally). There isn't a ton to say about The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. It's a comedy anime that consistently succeeds at being funny. It's an "everyone is a dumbass except the straight man MC, who reacts to their shenanigans" type of comedy, and succeeds because our straight man and narrator Kusuo's retortsare actually funny and delivered completely deadpan, rather than the unfortunately common brand of anime comedy that involves characters screaming the punchline at each other. Kusuo himself can be a bit hard to like because of how misanthropic he is (his ideal peaceful life apparently involves watching TV by himself and never talking to anyone) but it works better if you read him as an unacknowledged tsundere who just can't admit that he likes having these people as his friends.

I was also impressed by the way it was paced. A show like this has to walk a fine line between getting stale by repeating its formula with the same characters and throwing too many new characters in at once to freshen things up. It does an excellent job of keeping its core cast involved and funny (the JUDGMENT KNIGHTS OF music cue that hit when Kaidou did something chuuni was still making me laugh every time 40+ episodes in) while adding in new characters at the right times and combining different characters in its ever-expanding cast in different situations to keep the formula from getting boring.

My list of negatives is pretty small and inconsequential overall. Its 5 minute airing format means that a lot is crammed in to each segment, and the jokes sometimes come at you too fast to process or laugh at. It can be hard to understand because everyone speed-talks as well. If you are watching it subbed, the subtitles can get confusing when 2 or 3 people are talking at once on what sounds like 1.5x speed. Kusuo can also be hard to like as a main character as I mentioned above, but he's not so unlikeable that it makes the show unpleasant by extension. It also has an unfortunate tendency to portray almost all of its female characters as manipulative and boy-crazy, which can feel a bit sexist even though it's part of a pattern of portraying its entire cast as idiots or scumbags. All of these are minor issues at most and don't really affect my overall impression of the show though, which is that it's hilarious, broadly accessible even for people that don't usually watch anime, and fun to watch at any pace.