 If you are looking for a fun anime series that is more gag-based with wild & crazy antics coming from each of the characters of the series, “The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: Season One – Part One” is recommended.
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TITLE: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: Season One – Part One
DURATION: (12 Episodes) 300 Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16×9), Dolby TrueHD Japanese 2.0 and English 5.1, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: Funimation
RATED: PG
Release Date: December 26, 2017
Originally Created by Shuichi Aso
Directed by Hiroaki Sakurai
Series Composition: Michiko Yokote
Music by Psychic Lover
Character Design: Masayuki Onji
Anime Production: EGG FIRM, J.C. STAFF
Featuring the following voice talent:
Hiroshi Kamiya/Jerry Jewell as Kusuo Saiki
Ai Kayano/Tia Ballard as Kokomi Teruhashi
Daisuke Ono/David Wald as Riki NendÅ
Haruka Tomatsu/Jamie Marchi as Kusuko Saiki (Female Form)
Kenji Nojima/Chris Patton as KÅ«suke Saiki
Maaya Uchida/Megan Shipman as Chisato Mera
Masaya Matsukaze as Saiko Metori
Mitsuo Iwata/Chuck Huber as Kuniharu Saiki
Natsuki Hanae/Joel McDonald as Reita Toritsuka
Nobunaga Shimazaki/Micah Solusod as Shun KaidÅ
Rikako Aikawa/Morgan Garrett as Kurumi Saiki
Satoshi Hino/Kyle Phillips as Kineshi Hairo
Showtaro Morikubo/Austin Tindle as Uryoku ChÅno
Tomoaki Maeno as Makoto Teruhashi/TÅru Mugami
Yoshimasa Hosoya/Jarrod Greene as Aren Kuboyasu
Yukari Tamura/Jill Harris as Chiyo Yumehara
Saiki Kusuo is your typical 16-year-old high school student, except for one thing—he’s got psychic powers. Incredible ones. In fact, he’s so powerful, he could probably rule the world if he wanted to. Don’t be mistaken though, it’s really not as great as it sounds. After all, you wouldn’t want to hear the weird things people think or all the spoilers they know! And surprise parties? Forget about ’em.
No, this psychic genius is all about keeping a low profile. But high school isn’t about to let that happen. His quirky classmates and embarrassing parents just can’t leave him alone! He’s got the world at his fingertips, but the one thing he’ll never get…is a break.
Back in 2012, mangaka Shuichi Aso wrote and illustrated his gag manga series “Saiki Kusuo no Sai-nan” (The Disaster of Psi Kusuo Saiki). The series received a serialization in Shueisha’s “Weekly Shonen Jump” and a total of 23 manga volumes have been published.
The popularity of the manga series would eventually ensure an anime TV series in 2016 and since then a total of 24-compilation episodes have been released and each episode featuring six short episodes.
And now the series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Funimation titled “The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.”. And will be released in two parts, each release featuring 12-episodes each.
The series is produced by J.C. Staff and EGG FIRM and is directed by Hiroaki Sakurai and written by Michiko Yokote.
The series revolves around Kusuo Saiki, a high school student who was born with psychic abilities and lives with his parents Kuniharu (a father who keeps sucking up to his employers) and his mother Kurumi (who can get very scary when her husband and son defy her). Kusuo also has an older brother named Kusuke, who wears a “Telepath Canceler” on his head, so Kusuo can never read his thoughts. But the two often argue of who is more intelligent, the psi user or the the intellectual inventor.
While his parents are normal humans but crazy, they accepted Saiki’s abilities for his special abilties. Even though he was born reading and teleporting and being mature during the first year of his life as an infant.
As Kusuo became a teenager, he now wears two pink antennas on his head to limit his growing powers. He has to wear glasses at all times to prevent people from turning into stone.  He never talks to anyone with his lips, he communicates telepathically.
And because he can hear everyone’s thoughts, his special abilities have given him misery and he tries to avoid any attention because he is a psychic. He tries…
But somehow at P.K. Academy, he attracts the weirdest people.
- Riki Nendo is a large and muscular student but very stupid. So dumb that Kusuo can’t read his mind and it frustrates Kusuo because he can’t predict Nendo’s actions.
- Shun Kaido is a know-it-all, conspiracy-loving person who calls himself “The Jet-Black Wings” and believes that the world is ruled by an evil organization known as Dark Reunion.
- Kokomi Teruhashi is a girl who glows and considers herself “perfect” except by Saiki (who can read heer thoughts). She is obsessed with tryin gto get Saiki to react to her, which he doesn’t. And so it leads to her obsession towards him.
- Kineshi Hairo is an energetic, sports-loving student who loves to motivate people.
- Chiyo Yumehara – A romantic who always has painful experiences with guys. She has a crush on Kusuo.
- Reita Toritsuka – A psychic aware of Kusuo’s abilities. He can see spirits and is haunted by the ghost of Nendo’s late father.
Will Kusuo be able to find a way to stay under the radar and not attract attention?
VIDEO:
“The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.” is presented in 1080p High Definition (16:9). Colors are vibrant and backgrounds are extremely detailed. Character designs are well-done and is respectful to Shuichi Aso’s manga series. Background art is also well-painted for outdoor scenes but primarily the artwork is more focused on the characters and close-ups. I didn’t notice any banding issues while watching the series.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.” is presented in Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and English Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Featuring crystal clear dialogue and music, the series sounds good. Surround channels is used sparsely, mainly for action sequences but it’s primarily a dialogue-driven soundtrack. Both Japanese and English voice acting are well done.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: Season One – Part 1” comes with the following special features:
- Episode 1 Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by Jerry Jewell (voice of Kusuo Saiki), Micah Solusod (voice of Shun Kaido) and David Wald (voice of Riki Nendo).
- Textless Opening and Closing Song
I first discovered “The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.” when I first played the video game “J-Stars Victory Vs.”. I was curious about seeing this character with pink hair with antennas and he didn’t look like your typical Jump protagonist.
Fastforward a few years later and I finally got a chance to view the anime series and realized it’s probably one of the craziest mainstream Jump-related anime series I have seen.
The anime series revolves around a boy born with special abilities and because he can hear everyone’s thoughts, because he sees everyone past their true appearance and his powers can really endanger society, he tries to keep away from people and stay under the radar.
But unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Because he’s so aloof and quiet, he’s attracting the weirdest people at his high school and because he doesn’t give attention to the girls, a few of them have started to fall in love with Kusuo.
As for the series, these are episodes that contain six mini-stories each. Some of them are continuations of each other but for the most part, these are episodes where Saiki has to use his powers for the greater good, well more often for his benefit in trying to drive people away from him.
But a typical episode would be like this. For episode 11, the episode begins with a boy named Yuuta who believes Saiki is the superhero Ciderman No. 2 after seeing him use his special abilities, the next episode is about Kuniharu showing Saiki around his job at a manga editorial office, the next story features Yuuta and his family becoming Saiki’s new neighbor, the next episode features Saiki going to the summer festival and seeing one of the guys in school get pickpocketed, he becomes the next person to be robbed. And in another episode, Kokomi and Chiyo meet each other and both wonder if the other likes Saiki.
These episodes are quite short at around four minutes each, but I enjoy the fact that each of these episodes explore the characters even more. And yes, this is the first half of the series and character dynamics are important, but I did like how these stories build upon character introductions and mannerisms. And to explore how crazy each of the characters are.
It’s a fun anime series so far and I look forward to watching and seeing how the anime series progresses.
The series looks vibrant and colorful on Blu-ray and the dialogue is crystal clear. You get one audio commentary track and the opening and ending theme.
Overall, if you are looking for a fun anime series that is more gag-based with wild & crazy antics coming from each of the characters of the series, “The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: Season One – Part One” is recommended.