I recently Finished the first season of Saiki K. and started the second season. How good was the anime? Is it worth checking out all 3 seasons now that I have seen the first?

Disclaimer: First and foremost, I want to make this a spoiler free review. Everything shared and discussed is owned by their respective creators, artists and animation companies, not by me. I watched the anime on Netflix and realized once I made it to the second season that it is not dubbed on Netflix, and all my experience with the first season is dubbed. With that lets check out Saiki K.

What is Saiki K?

Saiki K. is an anime adaptation of the manga series of the same name. The manga was written and illustrated by Shūichi Asō (Wikipedia). It was officially serialized in weekly Shonen Jump in May 2012 up until Feb 2018 (Wikipedia). The anime adaptation aired from July 2016 to Dec 2018 and was animated by J.C Staff and Egg Firm (Wikipedia). The anime is a quick skit type of style a lot like Pop Team Epic, if you know that anime.

My synopsis and shows genres.

As far as the show goes it has an incredibly simple premise. Saiki K. is about the main character of the same name, and his daily struggles as an all powerful psychic. He has a plethora of abilities that can aid him in his life, but also cause strife as well. We, as viewers, are treated to these daily struggles in a comedic fashion, one that often used his psychic excuse to break the 4th wall. As far as genres go, this show is easily a comedy and slice of life anime.

Story and plot forwarding.

Saiki K. is a a bit different from your usual anime when it comes to plot forwarding and story. The story itself is the in the synopsis, just day to day struggles. Some of them have no meaning on the next skit in the same episode and some do full plot for that entire episode time. When it comes to this, I am in love with the quick form content that we get to see, but also happy that some episodes have a lot of meat to them.

When it comes to how they forward the plot and the pacing of the plot I am also a huge fan. The short skit format keeps the plot changing and evolving quickly, keeping you engaged. I love this because if there is a particular skit that is not landing, then you don’t have long to wait for it to get to a totally different day for the main character. When it comes to the times where the plot is more than one skit long, they always are great fleshed out plots for that episode. The longer plots in the first season at least never last more than an episodes allotted time, and adds to the feel of slice of life. No two days are exactly the same and I think that this captures that aura of life perfectly. Regardless, events that happen in one skit for the most part effect the overall plot of the show, like new characters or their interactions coming back up later on.

Characters and comedy.

I lump these two categories together because a lot of the comedy is character focused in this show. It usually comes from the personalities or interactions of the characters that creates comedy. This is not the rule however, as the main character creates some comedy by breaking the fourth wall often as well.

Obviously with a comedy show the comedy has to land and it absolutely does. Anime that are not specifically comedy always have jokes that fall flat to me, but every time the focus of the anime is comedy I have absolutely loved it. This show is no exception, whether it is breaking the fourth wall like I stated before, or the interactions with the characters, I find myself laughing really often!

The characters themselves, as I said are all written to enhance the comedic effect of the show and often feel like a tongue and cheek parody of anime itself. I had someone tell me before that all the side characters have main character energy, and I can agree with that to an extent. They clearly have a demanding presence of a main character, but are deeply written in a way that also aids the main character and stories comedy, meaning they are side and supporting roles. They all seem to have one distinct role that they support, like the lovable idiot, or the crazy love struck pretty girl.

Animation.

This is where we take a look at content that does not directly relate back to the original author. Many who choose to watch anime do so for 2 major reasons, the voice acting and the animation. They either prefer the manga format, or they watch to see a series they love come to life on screen. So with that said how does the animation hold up?

I say the animation holds up fine. There are many sections in the anime that show the signs of rush and budget, but for the most part it is animated well. It isn’t a fighting anime or an anime any crazy rush scenes, so they don’t have to go over the top that often when animating. When they do, they do a good job at doing so. It mostly is a quality drop in character facial structure and line art on certain frames.

Voice acting.

This is where I think the show surprised me with its quality. I felt that a lot of the voice cast had amazing ranges in their voice and played their characters stupendously. The main character is great at sounding apathetic, and the others follow suit. I was especially blown away by the main characters mother, who had a voice that was not perfect, but that added to the charm. It made her sound more human with the small voice cracks and shakiness in her voice and she is by far and away my favorite voice in the show.

Soundtrack.

I felt the soundtrack was amazing in this show. The music is nothing to crazy to write home about often, but is great at setting the mood of what is happening in the show at the moment. I did have one ost that sounded really great that I love personally, and it is used as a background song for sort of intense moments in the show. I myself do not have too much to say here but I like the soundtrack a lot, but it is slightly forgettable.

Closing.

The anime itself was an amazing first season. I am moving on the second season because of how much the first one sold me on the premise of this show. If I had to rate it I would give it an 8.5 out of 10. I personally think the comedy is to die for, and the characters are out of this world. If you can look past a couple really small issues like rush and budget with animation, I think the anime is an amazing watch and that you should definitely check it out.

Thank you all for reading this first season review of Saiki K I really appreciate it. I hope you all check out the show if you have not, because it really isn’t a typical shonen and has a lot of fun and subtle depth to it. If you liked this article please consider following me here and leaving a like. Also please consider following me on twitter if you have not yet and tweet at me there or comment over there as well. Tell me you thoughts and until next week, see you later!