A suicidal teacher and his students with worse problems than him sounds like a premise, but the show uses that darkness as a springboard for relentless absurdist comedy that tears apart Japanese society, media, and itself in the same breath. The visual gags are unhinged, censorship bars that become the joke, silhouettes that mock the medium itself, text overlays that interrupt their own punchlines. This isn't comedy that builds character or plot; it's comedy that exists to make you laugh at how broken everything is, including the show watching it.

Nozomu Itoshiki sees catastrophe in everything. He is a high school teacher so negative that even a trivial mishap, like paying a subway toll, can plunge him into despair deep enough to prompt a suicide attempt. Fate hands him a class of girls every bit as eccentric as he is: Kiri Komori, a recluse who will not leave the school; Abiru Kobushi, who keeps turning up with mysterious injuries; and Kafuka Fuura, a relentless optimist who is his exact opposite. Adapted from Kouji Kumeta's manga, this satirical slice-of-life comedy uses Nozomu and his students to poke fun at many corners of modern Japanese life and culture.