New Obsession: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

14 episodes in one day, sad thing is this isn’t even a personal record. Not even close!

Jokes aside, I have been meaning to watch The Disastrous Life of Saiki K for a while. I’ve had it on my watch list for a few weeks and downloaded the first three episodes. Yesterday I finally got around to watching it.

Honestly, the title sums out the show rather well, but I’ll elaborate. Born with powerful psychic abilities, Kusuo Saiki hides in plain sight and tries to keep to himself but he always finds himself surrounded by hijinks and weirdos.

Saiki is the perfect straight man compared to the rest of the cast. His deadpan delivery paired with his dry wit makes him my favourite character. He is a rather serious person, rarely smiling and never laughing. The only thing that brings joy to his life is coffee jelly. His parents are not the brightest but they are kind and proud of their son.

Saiki has some odd classmates such as Riki Nendo, a well-meaning moron who calls himself Saiki’s best friend although Saiki finds him extremely irritating. Then there is Shun Kaido, the school’s resident Chuunibyou who just wants to make friends.

Kokomi Teruhashi is the most beautiful girl in school and has a major ego to go with it. Sweet Chiyo Yumehara has a crush on Saiki. Class rep Kineshi Hairo who tries to motivate his classmates.

As expected more characters join the cast as the show goes on but I don’t want to risk any spoilers slipping out, but they fit in well with the rest of the cast nicely.

With The Disastrous Life of Saiki K being a comedy Anime, needless to say, that it is funny. No, scratch that, it’s hilarious. Everyone has a preference when it comes to comedy and this is just my cup of tea. It has everything I like, slapstick, reference humour and deadpan jokes. Not to mention the fourth wall breaks and how brilliantly the cast plays off each other.

The show has an abundance of pop culture and Anime references. In fact, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K often parodies common anime troupes right down to character design. Notice Saiki’s pink hair?

It reminds me of another anime I adore, KonoSuba. While KonoSuba parodies ‘Lead character brought into a fantasy world’ Anime, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K parodies  Slice of Life/hidden power Anime.

I have ten episodes left of the first season but luckily there is a second season so I’ll dive into that one I finish the first.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K is a brilliant anime and from what I have read it is a fairly popular series in Japan as it has a game, a live action movie and a Gintama crossover in the works! I highly encourage you to check it out if you get the chance.

Now I want a coffee jelly, never had one before but I’m curious about it.