Nozomu Itoshiki is a high school teacher that is so pessimistic that even small misfortunes can send him spiraling into a pit of despair. Surrounded by increasingly insane students, Nozomu’s unique brand of despair has its own way of affecting them, often in a positive manner.
An eccentric dark comedy that can take you an hour per episode to watch if you want to read every little thing, if you are looking for more anime recommendations like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, head on down below.
Anime Like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
For Fans of Oddball Characters Everywhere
Arakawa Under the Bridge
Kou Ichinomiya, as the son of a wealthy businessman, has vowed never to become indebted to anyone. However,when he falls in the river under Arakawa Bridge, someone dives in to save him, thus he owes his life to this person. She is a homeless girl named Nino who wants only one thing – to fall in love. In order to pay her back, he accepts her offer to be her boyfriend, thus moving out of his home and starting a new life under the bridge.
If you took the classroom setting, and changed it to under a bridge, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei would turn into Arakawa Under the Bridge. Both shows are highlighted by the extremely odd characters and their antics. The major difference is that Arakawa has a romance element to it.
Bakemonogatari
After surviving a vampire attack, high school student Koyomi Araragi finds he has several supernatural side effects that remained after being cured including the ability to rapidly heal. While trying to live a normal life after the event, he ends up catching a classmate, Hitagi Senjougahara, as she fell down some stairs. As he catches her, he discovers that she is near weightless after being inflicted with a curse. After enlisting the help of the easy-going wandering Shinto priest that helped him with his vampirism, Araragi finds himself embroiled in not just Senjogahara’s issue but several different supernatural events afflicting those in his town.
If you enjoy something with tons of characters that are odd in their own way and even more dialogue being thrown at you, then both of these shows are your jam. Both series even have a lot of subsequent seasons, meaning they can keep you busy for awhile. However, Bakemonogatari does have a supernatural story line compared to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s more psychological one.
The Tatami Galaxy
At a mysterious back alley ramen stand, a lonely college student in his final year accidentally bumps into a man that calls himself the God of Matrimony. There he pours his soul out to the god about all the regrets he has about his college life, which he spent bitterly trying to break up couples. However, soon he finds himself back at the very start of his college career. Can he change the past or will he just repeat past mistakes?
While Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has its great moments of absurdist and slapstick humor, it does also have that great element of psychology to its plot. If you removed about 90 percent of that humor, you would have Tatami Galaxy. Instead of having a comedy focus, Tatami Galaxy has a very surreal and psychological plot with quite a bit of dialogue and a similar sort of visual style.
For Fans of Dark Comedy
Welcome to the NHK
College dropout Tatsuhiro Satou has been living as a hikikomori for four years, and in his isolation, he has come to believe in a number of conspiracy theories. Primary among them is that a conspirator is behind his NEET nature. Although he tries to overcome it, his NEET nature is a deep hole to crawl out of.
Both series have actually pretty complex stories, but they are often hidden right behind a dark comedy guise. Furthermore, both of the main characters are kind of spastic in their own ways, which sets up for the comedy.
Humanity Has Declined
After constantly declining birth rates, human civilization is almost extinct. The few humans left now coexist with fairies who have extremely advanced technology and very little regard for humans safety. The story follows a mediator between humans and fairies that tries to make it so both races can live peacefully.
While Humanity Has Declined definitely doesn’t look like a dark comedy, it has its moments. What this series actually has quite in common with Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the commentary it has on society. It definitely has a lot of messages hidden below the surface.
Welcome to Irabu’s Office
This is the story of the many patients and their many problems that come to the psychiatric ward of Irabu General Hospital. Here, these patients undergo counseling by the child-like son of the hospital director, Dr. Ichiro Irabu and his sullen but sexy nurse Mayumi. While his treatments are unique and his advice seems insane, he gets results.
Both series hide their deeper commentary behind dark comedy and a endless cast of odd characters. Irabu goes one step further by also using its wild color palate to disguise things as well.
For Fans of Unique Teachers
Assassination Classroom
After the moon is mysteriously turned into a permanent crescent by an unknown calamity, the students of class 3-E at Kunogigaoka Middle School are presented with a daunting task – Assassinate the creature that blew up half the moon before the year’s end or die when the world is destroyed. The creature in question, dubbed Koro-sensei by his class, is super fast, super strong, and by all respects, indestructible. However, while the students try and learn how to destroy him, they also learn that he is the best teacher that they have ever had.
Both series are dominated by the teacher and their quirks. Furthermore, there is a lot of otaku comedy stuffed in there as well. However, they follow vastly different, yet still similarly messed up plots overall.
Great Teacher Onizuka
After becoming reformed from his rough and tumble past as a bike gang leader, Onizuka is looking for a new ambition in life. After witnessing a hot girl falling for her ugly teacher, he decides to become a teacher himself. However, instead of hot girls draping themselves all over him, he just has a group of problem students that the school administration had all but given up on.
Both series are about teachers that aren’t traditional teachers. They both try to help their students in what ways they can. However, Great Teacher Onizuka, while also have some similar societal commentary, is more your standard sort of comedy show compared to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
Pani Poni Dash
The eleven-year-old genius Rebecca Miyamoto has become a teacher. However, her class is full of weirdos. Luckily for her, she isn’t about to take any of their shenanigans. With a sadistic streak and her cute, but fierce looks, she might be just the thing to wrangle this class.
Despite the difference in art style, these two series are actually quite similar. A teacher gets stuck with a class full of oddballs and absurd comedy rules the day. Both series also highlight a lot of otaku comedy as well.
Do you have any more anime recommendations like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei? Let fans know in the comments section below.
