Review of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan is the best gag/comedy anime that I’ve ever watched. It’s the perfect combination of absurd, ridiculous and heart-warming that keeps me compelled through every five minute segment. And yes, the episodes of this are only five minutes long. • Don’t let the length of the episodes repel you from watching though. Unlike many other short anime series, the animation and designs are high quality with really, really high-profile Japanese voice actors doing the subtitles version. I’m not sure about the English dub, so I wouldn’t risk watching it unless someone told you it was really good and I still wouldn’t trustit, because the Japanese voices are perfect. And there’s Japanese humor and jokes that might be tossed in the back burner for the English script.

• Saiki, our hero, is voice by Araragi’s notorious actorーHiroshi Kamiya, who is officially the king of monologuing. He’s the best at it, at the ver least, but monologues actually make sense in this show, because the main character can practically read everyone in the worlds’ minds through telepathy. So, much of his dialogue is combatting weird shit that his classmates are thinking with witty, short rebuttals.

• This series is a like an improved version of One Punch Man, because’s it’s actually funny, and the main character has amazingly OP abilities that sometimes screw him over and sometimes save him from a bad situation. Like, being able to go back to the beginning of time and being able to delete something out of existence, so it won’t further hinder him.

• I’ve been focusing on Saiki this entire time, but the whole cast is likable, no matter how douche-baggy they may seem initially. There are the typical character archetypes such as: the pretty girl, the power in my right hand-chuuni-bro, the overly competitive-athletic guy, the girl who falls in love with every guy she sees, and a failed alcoholic magician.

• Initially, you think that all of these characters are going to be extremely typical, but Saiki being able to read their minds adds more depth to them. The cast grows on you and after a while, you feel like you’re watching a group of people you know in real life, doing crazy things.

• Saiki’s humor is somewhat spastic like Teekyu, but has an eloquence about it like Gintama. It became one of my favorite series in a short period of time, and I haven’t put a show past 2012 on my favorite list yet. So, to me, it’s been the best anime in four or so years. Between coffee jello, a sweet escape, and glorious laugh-out-loud moments, all of you should definitely watch Saiki Kusuo, it’s hasn’t gotten enough press in the West. I give Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan a 8/10 without any reservations.