The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. 3 and Reawakened – Great Quarantine Binge

 

• Genre : Comedy, Slice of Life, Supernatural, Sci Fi, School
  
• Episodes s3: 2
• Episodes Reawakened : 6
  
• Studio: J.C.Staff, EGG FIRM

 

What possible problems could a guy that has almost unlimited psychic powers have? Well quite a lot really. First you have to develop the world’s most impenetrable poker face so that no one notices you’re accidentally reading their thoughts. It would be rude to react. And then when your friends get into trouble, which happens quite a lot when you attract every misfit around, you have to bail them out without them noticing. And what will happen when they find out? Is it ok to just erase their memories? How do you make sure your family doesn’t get over-reliant on your powers or deal with jealous siblings? These are all troubling questions every super powered psychic has to deal with. Oh and of course how do you stop the world from getting destroyed by an unprecedented calamity? There’s that one two. It can be a real pain. Fortunately, it’s fun to watch!

I’ve already watched the first two seasons of the popular Disastrous Life of Saiki K. If you’re curious, you can read my thoughts here: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. and here: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. 2. Super abridged version – I liked it!

When I heard that Netflix had decided to pick up this franchise for a little extra run, a lot of thoughts went through my head. One of which was definitely, I wonder how a Netflix budget is going to affect the show. And the answer to that is: not at all…

Season 3 of of Saiki K is a completely seamless continuation of season 2 in all production aspects. They are only two episodes and I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were made at the exact same time as the rest. As for Reawakened, I honestly couldn’t spot any differences. The cast may be a touch wider with pretty much everyone making at least some cameo appearances as well as new characters being introduced. And I guess maybe there were a bit more background mob characters so a few extra pennies might have gone that way but don’t hold me to it. It was in all appearance and sound, the good old Saiki we’ve all come to know and love.

For what that actually means in practice, feel free to read either one of those past season reviews. It’s honestly the same thing. And that’s not bad. The look of Saiki is a part of it’s identity. I’m glad they kept it.

But what about the actual…story is probably not the right word here. The Disastrous life of Saiki K has always been a series of quick sketches with a fairly loose connections to one another. Season 2 started setting up the end of the world scenario and that is the closest thing to an actual plot we have.

I’m going to talk about season 3 first because it’s a bit of an outlier. On top of my post there I have it as 2 episodes because that’s how it’s structured on Netflix which is where I watched. Two standard time episodes. However AniList has it as a single 1h episode which makes sense. It is really one continuous story. Or rather it’s a series of little adventures all leading to the same conclusion.

S2 left off with the revelation that Saiki has been trying and failing to prevent the end of the world due to an enormous volcanic eruption in Japan. As a result, he’s been resetting everything by a year over and over again for an untold amount of time. It’s sort of an endless eight situation.

S3 picks up right there and shows us his last and successful attempt which culminates in Saiki giving up his psychic powers once the world is finally safe. And I really liked it. A lot. It has all the trademark humour and punchy jokes but it’s a little softer, punctuated by some honest sappy shows of friendship and character growth. It was a beautifully fitting end to the series which even left a sliver of opportunity for a follow up.

I went into Reawakened wondering if they were just going to ignore the finale events of season 3 or quickly rest them. I also was particularly on the lookout for studio interference, trying to spot Netflix’s influence in any of the episodes.

Well I was in for a surprise. First Reawakened screws a bit with the timeline. The bulk of the events seem to be taking place somewhere around the middle of season 2. We know this mostly because Aiura is there. But season 3 has definitely not happened yet. Then the last episode of Reawakened catches up to season three and gives us what happens after.

I actually really loved this. It managed to perfectly respect the events of previous season and integrate them in a way I hadn’t foreseen. I also really did enjoy how it ended even if it was a cop out.

As for the tone or studio interference well… If you watch all three seasons in a role you will see a sort of evolution and softening from season to season. It becomes a bit more of an ensemble series. Saiki himself gets a bit more layered and nuanced as a character and steps away from the mildly cynical straight man role. The jokes also stat to be a bit more surreal or get more set up as they can base themselves on more past episodes.

Reawaken didn’t quite fit with that narrative flow, but I don’t think it was because it’s a Netflix series either. If anything, I think maybe there was a span of time between the production. I say this because in feel and delivery, Reawaken very closely resembled season 1. It was sharper, the humour was more quickfire, Saiki was presented much more in isolation rather than an integral part of a group. And it really really had the exact tone of that first season which is a fan favourite so it may have been quite intentional.

For myself, I would say I liked s3 a little more than reawakened. Because I’m a softy. But I really enjoyed both a lot. I thought the entire experience of binging through these episodes made for such a perfect light distraction that had me giggling and smiling and just left me relaxed and carefree. It was like meeting up with old friends and having one of those kind of useless dinners where you just chat about whatever and you don’t even remember most of the conversation the next day but you’re left with a vague sense of happiness that carries on for the rest of the week. Like that!

I would recommend it as a watch or even rewatch for anyone that isn’t annoyed by rapid paced sketch comedy and that is in some need of a distraction right about now.

Favourite character : Saiki Kusuo. It’s fairly rare that the lead ends up being my favourite but I noticed that I was really enjoying the episodes where he was by himself.

Beer is made of hops, hops are plants, therefore beer is salad

Suggested drink: a Clairvoyant

• Every time the 4th wall breaks – take a sip
• Every time Kaido freaks out – take a sip
• Every time Toritsuka dos something useful – gasp!
  
• Every time the gang is in street clothes – take a screenshot
  
• Every time someone(thing) pretends to be Saiki – take a sip
  
• Every time there is coffee jelly – get a snack
• Every time something goes wrong with Saiki’s limiter – take a sip
• Every time Saiki takes his glasses off – blush
• Every time we see Teruhashi’s fan club – cheer
  
• Every time we see one of the supporting cast family – take a sip
• Every time everything gets resolves offscreen – pfiou

You know the drill, tons of pics on Pinterest…