List of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei episodes

This article lists the episodes from the anime series Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei animated by Shaft and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. It premiered in Japan on July 7, 2007 on TV Kanagawa and contained twelve episodes. There was also a preface and a "girls collection" bonus OVA.

A Zetsubou Girls Collection DVD was released on January 1, 2008. The DVD consists of seven parts, each featuring one of main heroines with several additions to the original TV broadcast version. A 20-minute summary (preface) was aired on BS11 Digital on January 4, 2008. The second season, Zoku, began airing on January 5, 2008. A set of three Goku OVAs were released, starting with the first volume on October 17, 2008 and the third in early 2009. The Zan season began in mid-2009 and concluded after 13 episodes and two bonus OVAs, the last of which came out in 2010. A special was released in January 2012. Though not part of any season, it still uses the same opening and ending themes as Zan. Each episode title is a reference to a piece of literature. Each episode ends with a still image drawn by one of manga artists associated with Kōji Kumeta.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
The series was directed by Akiyuki Shinbo at studio Shaft, with Kenichi Kanemaki as the series composition writer and Naoyuki Tatsuwa as the assistant director, and Tomoki Hasegawa composing the series' music. Hideyuki Morioka designed the characters for animation; and Morioka, Hiroki Yamamura (Studio Pastoral), and Yoshiaki Itou (Shaft) served as the chief animation directors. Half of the season was outsourced to Studio Pastoral: episodes 2, 4–5, 7, 9, and 11.


 * Opening Themes
 * Hito toshite Jiku ga Bureteiru (人として軸がぶれている) - Kenji Ohtsuki feat. Ai Nonaka, Marina Inoue, Yū Kobayashi, Miyuki Sawashiro & Ryoko Shintani (eps 1-9, 12)
 * Gōin ni Mai Yeah~ (強引niマイYeah～) - Ai Nonaka, Marina Inoue, Yū Kobayashi & Ryoko Shintani (eps 10-11)


 * Ending Theme
 * Zessei Bijin (絶世美人) - Ai Nonaka, Marina Inoue, Yū Kobayashi & Ryoko Shintani

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 * EpisodeNumber      = 01
 * Title              = Goodbye, Mr. Despair
 * TranslitTitle      = Sayonara Zetsubō sensei
 * NativeTitle        = さよなら絶望先生
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Yukihiro Miyamoto
 * WrittenBy          = Kenichi Kanemaki
 * Aux2               = Michio Fukuda
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|7|7}}
 * ShortSummary       = Kafuka Fuura is cheerily walking to school one April morning when she spots a man trying to hang himself. Kafuka manages to use her weight to snap the rope, saving his life but almost killing him. Kafuka is an optimist while the man, Nozomu Itoshiki, is a pessimist. Kafuka gives him the nickname Pink Supervisor, and proceeds to pay him fifty yen to call him by this name. Nozomu eventually cannot take any more of the girl's ramblings, and runs off to his school at the start of a new school year. When Nozomu walks in, he finds Kafuka is one of his students.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 02
 * Title              = Beyond the Tunnel Was Whiteness
 * TranslitTitle      = Tonneru o nukeru to shirokatta
 * NativeTitle        = トンネルを抜けると白かった
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Yoshihiro Mori
 * WrittenBy          = Katsuhiko Takayama
 * Aux2               = Yoshihiro Mori
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|7|14}}
 * ShortSummary       = After confiding in his latest despairs to Ms. Arai, she asks Nozomu to visit one of his students who hasn't shown up to school — Kiri Komori, a hikikomori. When he arrives at her house, he meets Kafuka, who joins him in his attempt to reform Kiri, even though her attitude causes her to misunderstand (and complicate) the situation. In the end Kiri goes to school but decides to be a hikikomori there. The next day, Nozomu notes that another of his students, Matoi Tsunetsuki, didn't show up that day. Ms. Arai brings Nozomu to the counseling room, where she explains Matoi's obsessive-stalker tendencies to Nozomu. That night, he attempts to dissuade her from bothering her last boyfriend; however, his strategy — suicide as the ultimate form of love — backfires on him once he tells Matoi he will kill himself with her if she wishes, as he has offered in the past. This turned him into Matoi's latest object of affection.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 03
 * Title              = Fly over That Country to Come Here
 * TranslitTitle      = Sono Kuni o Tobikoshite Koi
 * NativeTitle        = その国を飛び越して来い
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Tomoyuki Itamura
 * WrittenBy          = Kenichi Kanemaki
 * Aux2               = Kazuya Shiotsuki Naoyuki Tatsuwa
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|7|21}}
 * ShortSummary       = This episode is a pastiche of parodies about foreigners and Japanese attitudes concerning them. A foreign student named Kaere Kimura transfers into the class. Nozomu initially hopes to use her to bring up the class average; his attitude subsequently shifts to horror at the thought of an obnoxious 'returnee' that corrects his English, then fear that she will sue him for sexual harassment. Kimura is a blonde girl with multiple personality disorder stemming from cultural identity confusion (Kaere: the foreign personality; Kaede: the Japanese one). After an incident on the school rooftop, Kaere threatens Nozomu with a lawsuit, after which he disappears; while taking roll, Ms. Arai uncovers an illegal immigrant who purchased the name and seat of "Tarō Sekiutsu" from their original owner.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 04
 * Title              = Not Losing to Elbows, Not Losing to Knees
 * TranslitTitle      = Hiji ni mo makezu Hiza ni mo makezu
 * NativeTitle        = ヒジニモ負ケズ ヒザニモ負ケズ
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Masayuki Iimura
 * WrittenBy          = Katsuhiko Takayama
 * Aux2               = Jou Tanaka
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|7|28}}
 * ShortSummary       = Chie dispatches Nozomu to investigate rumors that the invariably injured Abiru Kobushi is suffering from domestic violence. He pursues Abiru's father while he shops, causing him a great deal of inconvenience, before discovering Abiru's obsession with pulling the tails of dangerous animals. The latter half of the episode concerns Meru Otonashi, who is silent and shy in person, but remarkably abusive via text-messaging, her only means of communication.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 05
 * Title              = Measuring Social Standing
 * TranslitTitle      = Mi no take kurabe
 * NativeTitle        = 身のたけくらべ
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Hideyuki Yoshida
 * WrittenBy          = Katsuhiko Takayama
 * Aux2               = Shuuji Miyazaki Keita Shimizu Hiroki Yamamura
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|8|4}}
 * ShortSummary       = On physical examination day, many of the girls are feeling stress about their weight, measurements and fitness. Nozumu distracts them by deciding to judge the "social worth" of students so that they will know whether they are living "above their station". Chiri seizes on this idea, scolding everyone who possesses any luxuries, appalling Nozumu to the point where he decides to go on a hedonistic binge before killing himself. In the second half he encounters some of his students at a hot spring and is frightened to learn the spring has the power to remove their "toxicity", giving them well-adjusted personalities.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 06
 * Title              = Leap before You Lock Eyes
 * TranslitTitle      = Miau mae ni tobe
 * NativeTitle        = 見合う前に跳べ
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Tomoyuki Itamura
 * WrittenBy          = Masashi Kubota
 * Aux2               = Tomonori Kogawa{{efn|Credited as {{nihongo|Otokanbun|音間聞}}.}}
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|8|11}}
 * ShortSummary       = Kafuka comes down with a cold during the summer and has to go see the doctor, Mikoto Itoshiki, who happens to be Nozomu's brother. Later, Chiri and Kafuka find out from Mikoto that Nozomu has gone back to his hometown in Kuraizawa for an arranged marriage. One way or another, the girls somehow all end up arriving at Kuraizawa, where they are taken to the Itoshiki residence by Tokita, the Itoshiki butler. Here they find out that the Itoshiki tradition for arranged marriages simply involves both parties exchanging eye contact. The rest of the episode involves Nozomu and his attempts to avoid eye contact with the girls and various other people and objects.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 07
 * Title              = Confessions of a Pen Name
 * TranslitTitle      = Kamei no kokuhaku
 * NativeTitle        = 仮名の告白
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Yoshihiro Mori
 * WrittenBy          = Katsuhiko Takayama
 * Aux2               = Yoshihiro Mori
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|8|18}}
 * ShortSummary       = This episode begins with Harumi Fujiyoshi bumping into Nozomu while she is on her way to make copies of her dōjinshi for Comiket. Harumi tells him about her hobby, but Nozomu misunderstands, thinking of dōjinshi in the literary sense rather than in the manga and anime sense. At Comiket, Chiri confronts Harumi about the structure of her dōjin, demanding that she redo it in the yonkoma format of Kishōtenketsu; this leads to Nozomu adding a fifth panel to the standard form. The second half of the episode involves the girls at a matsuri, where overzealous festival-goers begin piling random objects and people on portable shrines and dancing and parading around with them.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 08
 * Title              = I'm Predestined to Be in the Shadows,
 * TranslitTitle      = Watashi wa shukumeiteki ni hikagemono de aru
 * NativeTitle        = 私は宿命的に日陰者である
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Yukihiro Miyamoto Yuusuke Kamata
 * WrittenBy          = Masashi Kubota
 * Aux2               = Michio Fukuda
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|8|25}}
 * ShortSummary       = This episode begins with Kagerō Usui lamenting about how he never gets noticed by anyone, when he nearly gets run over by a truck driver who does not notice him. He runs into Nozomu in the shadows, who begins to talk about how some people are destined to be overshadowed by others, no matter how hard they work. After several humorous examples to illustrate his point, Kafuka brings up the merits of being in the shadows. Meanwhile, Kagerō continues to be unnoticed by everyone. The second part of the episode has the class undergo criticism training. A strange man enters the classroom and begins to launch various insults at the students. Kagerō continues to be ignored until a divine wind blows away his hair, revealing his bald head and allowing everyone in the class to see him. He fears that people in the class will begin mocking him, but Kafuka suggests that Chie insult him instead, which he seems to enjoy.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 09
 * Title              = Evening Primroses on Mt. Fuji Are a Mistake
 * TranslitTitle      = Fuji ni tsukimisō wa machigatte iru
 * NativeTitle        = 富士に月見草は間違っている
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Hideyuki Yoshida
 * WrittenBy          = Kenichi Kanemaki
 * Aux2               = Yuusuke Kamata
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|9|1}}
 * ShortSummary       = Nozomu notices a few members of the class playing a "spot the differences" game. Nozomu tells them that it is important to spot mistakes, and he instructs the class on how life is filled with mistakes. He asks the class to identify mistakes in their lives, after pointing out several of his own. After Nozomu contradicts himself, saying that a mistake was the correct action, Kafuka reasons that if a mistake comes to light, it is correct, resulting in many people approaching her, confessing their mistakes, making them correct. In the end of the first part, a boy approaches Nozomu, calling him "Dad." The second part of the episode reveals that he is actually Nozomu's brother's child, Majiru Itoshiki. Nozomu asks him to prove that he is indeed his nephew, and then asks all of his students to prove that they are real. When Majiru asks Nozomu to prove he is genuine, Nozomu is unable to come up with a response, and runs off. The episode ends with a sequence that deals with Majiru's apparent hair fetish.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 10
 * Title              = A Cultured Man Was Waiting for the Rain to Stop under the Rashomon Gate
 * TranslitTitle      = Hitori no bunkajin ga Rashōmon no shita de amayadori shite ita
 * NativeTitle        = 一人の文化人が羅生門の下で雨やどりしていた
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Yukihiro Miyamoto Tomoyuki Itamura
 * WrittenBy          = Masashi Kubota
 * Aux2               = Michio Fukuda
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|9|8}}
 * ShortSummary       = The episode begins with Nozomu announcing there will be a cultural festival, which he decides not to participate in and explains that they are not cultured people, believing that they will grow to be bad people if they pretend they are. The second part of the episode starts with the class taking a field trip preview, which Chiri makes a large itinerary guide for. They move quickly all over Kyoto until they come to a temple. There the monk enlightens them about the use of previews. The episode ends with Nozomu taking Chiri to visit his preview funeral and gravesite, where she gets angry and hits him, sending him to the hospital and putting him in a coma (which Kafuka calls a "preview of the afterlife").
 * EpisodeNumber      = 11
 * Title              = Hey, You Can't Do That! Isn't There an Original?
 * TranslitTitle      = Are ikenai yo Gensaku ga aru ja nai ka ne
 * NativeTitle        = あれ 不可よ 原作があるじゃないかね
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Yoshihiro Mori
 * WrittenBy          = Kenichi Kanemaki
 * Aux2               = Yoshihiro Mori
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|9|16}}
 * ShortSummary       = The girls are watching a particularly awful movie. Outside, they meet with the director, who defends himself by saying that he is just "following the original story." Chasing him, they arrive at roads that are used by many people to escape or to shift blame from their mistakes. In the second part, Nozomu, Majiru, and Matoi are sitting in a kotatsu in Nozomu's house. Chiri then arrives to clean everything up. After the cleaning, Nozomu keeps wishing that humans can hibernate and finally he and the regular cast decide to take a winter hibernation. However, after the group nearly dies of carbon monoxide poisoning, Nozomu decides to simply leave.  Matoi follows him as always, only to witness him being struck by a runaway trolley. The episode ends at the hospital as the entire class waits for Nozomu to leave surgery.
 * EpisodeNumber      = 12
 * Title              = Really, That's Annoying!
 * TranslitTitle      = Nan taru meiwaku de aru koto ka!
 * NativeTitle        = なんたる迷惑であることか!
 * NativeTitleLangCode = ja
 * RTitle             =
 * DirectedBy         = Masayuki Iimura
 * WrittenBy          = Katsuhiko Takayama
 * Aux2               = Tatsuya Oishi
 * OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|2007|9|23}}
 * ShortSummary       = The first part of this episode introduces Ai Kaga, a girl who always takes the blame for everything, even though it is not her fault. Nozomu takes the class to a "guilt scramble" to explain that history has led to the "guilt complex" such as Ai's becoming the Japanese mentality. After being overcome with guilt himself, Nozomu and Ai travel the world to try to stop burdening others. The second part introduces another girl, Mayo Mitama. Her evil-looking eyes have led to her being misunderstood - that is, she actually is evil, but people try not to prejudge her and assume she is actually good. She commits several cruel acts that Nozomu bears witness to and is blamed for, being the only other nearby party. He becomes so concerned with not prejudging that he doesn't blame her when she hits Majiru over the head with an aluminum bat, drops a brick onto Nozomu's head, or detonates a bomb in his house.
 * }

Girls Collection and Season Summary (Preface to Zoku)
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(Zoku) Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei
The series features a majority of the returning staff as the first season with a few changes. Akiyuki Shinbo, Naoyuki Tatsuwa, and Hideyuki Morioka returned as director, assistant director, and character designer (respectively); and Morioka and Hiroki Yamamura (Studio Pastoral) acted as chief animation directors (but without Yoshiaki Itou from the first season). Yukihiro Miyamoto joined the production as chief unit director, Kenichi Kanemaki was replaced as series composition writer by Yuuichirou Oguro, and Shaft (under the collective penname of Fuyashi Tou) took credit for the composition itself. Episodes 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 were outsourced to Studio Pastoral; and segments, or the whole of, episodes 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 were outsourced to Gainax.


 * Opening Themes
 * Kūsō Rumba (空想ルンバ) - Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi
 * Lyricure Go Go! (リリキュアGOGO!) - Ai Nonaka, Marina Inoue and Ryōko Shintani (ep 7)


 * Ending Themes
 * Koiji Romanesque (恋路ロマネスク) - Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi (eps 1-4)
 * Marionette (マリオネット) - Rolly and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi (eps 5-12)
 * Omamori (オマモリ) - Ai Nonaka, Marina Inoue, Yū Kobayashi and Ryoko Shintani (ep 13)

Goku Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei
The OVA retains much of the same staff from Zoku with few changes. Akiyuki Shinbo, Naoyuki Tatsuwa, Yukihiro Miyamoto, Hideyuki Morioka, and Hiroki Yamamura all retain their previous roles as director, assistant director, chief unit director, character designer/chief animation director, and chief animation director, respectively. However, Oguro is replaced as series composition writer by Shinbo and Shaft (the latter under the collective penname of Fuyashi Tou) themselves.


 * Opening Themes
 * Kūsō Rumba (空想ルンバ) - Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi (vol 1-2)
 * Kūsō Rumba Rap (空想ルンバらっぷ) - Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi feat. Rapbit (vol 3)


 * Ending Themes
 * Marionette (マリオネット) - Rolly and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi (vol 1)
 * Omamori (オマモリ) - Ai Nonaka, Marina Inoue, Yū Kobayashi and Ryoko Shintani (vol 2-3)

Zan Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei

 * Opening Theme
 * "Ringo Mogire Beam!" (林檎もぎれビーム!) - Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi


 * Ending Themes
 * "Zetsubō Restaurant" (絶望レストラン) - Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi (episodes 1–9, 13)
 * "Kurayami Shinchū Sōshisōai" (暗闇心中相思相愛) - Hiroshi Kamiya (episodes 10–12)

Zan Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei Bangaichi
All of the main staff from Goku remain the same for Zan, including director/series composition writer Akiyuki Shinbo, studio/series composition writer Shaft, assistant director Naoyuki Tatsuwa, chief unit director Yukihiro Miyamoto, character designer/chief animation director Hideyuki Morioka, and chief animation director Hiroki Yamamura (Studio Pastoral). Several parts or the wholes of different episodes were outsourced to other studios: episodes 2-3 and 11 to Studio Pastoral; episodes 4, 9, and 12 to Mushi Production; episode 5 to Mito Animation; and episodes 6, 10, and 13 to Studio Izena.


 * Opening Theme
 * "Ringo Mogire Beam!" (林檎もぎれビーム!) - Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi


 * Ending Themes
 * "Zetsubō Restaurant" (絶望レストラン) - Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi (episode 1)
 * "Kurayami Shinjū Sōshisōai" (暗闇心中相思相愛) - Hiroshi Kamiya (episode 2)