Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan

I was a big fan of the Disastrous Life of Saiki K anime before I had ever thought to read the manga, so I will be attempting to separate the two mediums from one another. I only mention this because, having finished reading Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan, I find the anime to fare better overall. Animation, score, cuts, pacing, and vocal performance (jp) go a long way for Saiki's premises.

If you don't want to read my full thoughts, a quick takeaway is that if you want to read Saiki and you haven't watched Saiki, then just watch Saiki.

Saiki has moments where it is intensely funny, and moments where it is intensely difficult to finish reading. Much of this comes down to character; If a chapter's premise is dependent on a funny character, then it will most likely be a pleasant read. For example, I'd much rather read the worst Nendou chapter than the funniest Toritsuka chapter. Knowing this, the manga's quality becomes ridiculously volatile on a per reader basis, as new characters are introduced very frequently. Too frequently, I'd argue. It reaches a point where so many characters are introduced that, numbers-wise, some are going to be neglected. This is particularly felt with Iguchi and Suzumiya, who are introduced at a point so late in the manga that they have no chance to interact with many characters. Characters introduced earlier are not exempt from this, Imu, Matsuzaki, and even Hairou to some extent come to mind.

Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan is not just a "comedy" manga, it is a "gag" manga. Knowing this, do you enjoy meta-humor? Reading gag manga, you have to at least somewhat enjoy it, it's simply ingrained into the genre. I for one, enjoy a dose of meta-humor, but the level at which Saiki administered it began to grate on me. And when I say "Saiki" I don't mean the manga itself, I mean Saiki the character. This ties into a mournful issue I have with the manga, that being that Saiki's character somewhat loses shape over time. Initially, Saiki serves as a pseudo-narrator, explaining his powers, explaining character dynamics, explaining the plot. As the manga goes on, however, Asou-sensei gets a little too comfortable with Saiki's role as a window into the real world. There are many references, many many many references to real world IPs, that feel not only repetitive, but quite forced at times. The anime, predictably, cuts back on these references considerably for what I can only assume are legal reasons. The anime overall benefits from this, however, so I see no issue. There are many jokes in the Saiki manga that can stand on their own, yet are consistently finished off with Saiki dryly tacking on "What is this, (blank)?" On some level, it felt like Asou-sensei was a bit too self-conscious, that or he simply loves reference comedy. Sadly, I do not.

What I'd write as my final issue with Saiki is its resolution. The Saiki manga has a wickedly fast pace. While reading a certain chapter, I thought to myself "I know how this resolves in the anime, but the chapter is almost over, is it a two parter?" No. The chapter was "resolved" in its omake. How do you outpace the Saiki anime? Now understand, this is not a criticism, I like the insane pace, it allows for various scenarios in a small window. However I don't like when that same pace extends to points of the story that desperately need to breathe, parts like, oh I don't know, the ending. I'll just say now that I think the "original" ending of Saiki, with his powers being left on a cliff hanger, was awful. Again, Asou-sensei feels self conscious here, as if he couldn't possibly end Saiki with him losing his powers, that feels too extreme. But him keeping his powers, that doesn't feel like an ending either, so let's leave it as a cliff hanger. It seems no one was satisfied, as he would later on put out a continued ending for the Saiki manga, which I find better, but still not very satisfying. Twice we're teased with the idea of Saiki revealing his powers to his friends, and the second time seems like it could actually work out for the narrative. But both times, they're written out of relevancy to the plot, and instead the reader is left with "Saiki lost his powers, but then accepted them again". It's not like there was no change, as Saiki himself had to change as a person to accept his powers as a blessing rather than a curse, that is nice, but the multiple fake out reveals we're fed as readers just reach a point of exhaustion in my opinion.

This seems like a rather cruel review, but I only addressed what stuck out to me, which were the negative points. Saiki is still very very funny, and a very cozy read. I still feel biased by my having enjoyed the anime so much beforehand, as there were chapters where I could glaze my eyes, and still read every single text bubble. I'll try to avoid this with future reads.