By Koji Kumeta. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Del Rey.

This volume of Zetsubou is a particular favorite of mine, containing two of the best early chapters, and perhaps the iconic image of one of the characters. It also introduces three new minor characters. There’s a lot going on here.

In one chapter, Itoshiki goes to a hot springs only to find (of course) all his students there. Unfortunately, this hot spring advertises that it removes toxins from the body, and this proves to have an adverse effect on everyone. This is the sort of story that could only work playing off of the broad stereotypes of the cast, and we now know them well enough to be amused by Abiru without her injuries, or Harumi reading a nice clean kids’ manga.

Another excellent story plays off the idea of the dream ending. Ever since Tezuka said in an interview he hated the cheapness of ‘it was all a dream’ endings, they’d been unofficially banned in Japan. Of course, Kumeta goes all out with this, and we see the various characters becoming the opposite of themselves (because it’s all a dream). Again, it’s taken five volumes to really appreciate Usui being greeted by everyone, or Komori playing outside as a gag.

We see three new minor characters introduced in this volume. Itoshiki’s brother Kei and Ikkyu, an “old friend” of Itoshiki’s (in another chapter that’s essentially based around an untranslatable pun). And Mayo Mitama is a new student, even though we’ve seen her in the background since the very first chapter. She has mean-looking eyes, and everyone misunderstands her. Unfortunately, it’s hard to work her quirks into the story, so she mostly stays a minor student in future volumes.

This is also the volume where Chiri Kitsu pretty much completes her evolution. Starting out as a ‘precise’ anal retentive girl, we started to see bits of psychosis in Volume 3, where she beat Itoshiki into a coma with a gravestone. But by Chapter 48, Kumeta has realized that Chiri is funniest when she’s completely flipped her lid and gone ax crazy. Page 116 has the perfect example of what Chiri has become. All it’s missing is the shovel that becomes her weapon of choice in the future.

So, it’s a great volume in terms of content. Unfortunately, I found myself dissatisfied with Del Rey’s handling of the volume. The translator of the first 4 volumes has moved on, and they brought in someone new. I’m not sure if he just didn’t have time to go over everything before the deadline, or if it simply never went through a final editing stage (Del Rey does not credit their editors the way Viz or CMX do), but there are many examples of simple sloppy translation choice and editing.

For some examples, there is the footnote noting the reference to the character “Bejiita” from the manga “Dragon Ballz”. Now, at first I thought this was simply the typical Japanese policy of not referring to a manga from another company, but they’ve mentioned One Piece in earlier volumes, and talk about Shonen Jump here. It reads more like the translator didn’t recognize Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. An entire chapter talks about measuring a person’s ‘minotake’… without a single end note noting the origin of the word. Yes, he defined it in the text as “Measuring one’s value as a human being”, but usually if you’re going to use a Japanese word (rather than a translation) throughout a story, you should say something about its background, especially as I believe this is a Japanese pun based around measuring one’s height.

And some other problems are purely the fault of the editor. The contents page has the “these chapters were printed in Shonen Magazine Volumes 1-13” blurb at the bottom… which is the same as Volume 4. (In reality, they were Volumes 14-26). And consistency is also something lacking. When you have the same character saying the same thing in four straight volumes (“Don’t open it”), you don’t change it to “Shut the door!” in Volume 5 if it’s the same Japanese wording. This is not the new translator’s fault, but it’s something an editor not only should have caught, but it’s his job to look for!

(Del Rey is not alone in this problem. Almost every manga series, when it changes translators, finds itself reading slightly differently. Manga editors in general should be better at keeping the feel of the book consistent across all volumes, regardless of who is translating.)

These may look small, but they added up for me, especially since the previous four volumes were so well-done. And I admit, your mileage may vary, as Johanna Draper Carlson felt that the new translator, with fewer end notes, made things simplified and easier to read. But for me, it damages what is overall a great volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. I’m hoping that the quick 2-month turnaround time between volumes might have meant this was simply rushed, and that Volume 6 will see a more consistent approach.