The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. is an anime that’s based off the manga series. The first season has 120 episodes, but each episode are short clips, such that they form 24 normal length episodes. The anime follows Saiki, who is someone born with psychic powers. He could talk within days of being born, and walk within months. He actually has so many powers that he could be classified as a god, since he can read minds, influence people’s minds and the world itself, teleport, psychokinesis and many more.
While his parents know about his powers, since having used his powers to help others when he was younger with negative social consequences, he has decided to not use his powers in front of people again. He is now a high school student, and as a result, he is constantly being placed into situations where he needs to use his powers… discreetly, in order to not draw too much attention to himself. That’s also where all the humor and fun lies in.
While in theory it sounds awesome be Saiki, having all those powers, he does try and explain some drawbacks. He has the ability to see through objects, but no way of “turning it off”, so he constantly sees people’s internals instead of their exterior appearances. Or how he has no choice by to hear people’s thoughts, so he can never be surprised, or how he always hears a person’s true thoughts, even if they’re negative. It does help in balancing his powers a bit.
The anime pretty much immediately hits its stride with its premise, and you’ll immediately love the interactions of Saiki with other characters. He doesn’t have any say in the friends he makes, or the situations that’s in. He seems logical, trying to go for the rational way out, but for a lot of the time, the rational choice isn’t necessary going to achieve the situation that you were hoping for. It’s hilarious at just how normal the situations that Saiki gets himself in are, and the ridiculous and over-the-top ways Saiki tries to diffuse the situations, and yet it still somehow makes sense.
The best parts are Saiki’s responses. For some reason, it’s usually the other characters that has some weird reaction and Saiki’s the normal one with his logical non-nonsense analysis. He’s humble when he needs to be, accepting that he doesn’t want to show off despite how easy it is, and yet he also knows that he’s the best at everything. Effectively, he shows off to the viewer, and it’s a good thing that it never crosses his mind to decide to do evil things otherwise the whole world will be in trouble.
Even though Saiki constantly reveals new powers, it never feels like he’ll pulling them out of nowhere, or just because it’s convenient to the plot. Well, that is true, but because Saiki himself has so much charisma, and we already know he’s effectively invincible, it’s not much of a stretch if he has many more powers we aren’t aware of. He also tends to use a few of his powers time and time again, so that helps especially when he uses them in a different way or scenario, so that it doesn’t feel repetitive.
By the time we are towards the end of the season, you will feel that you know Saiki really well and the limitations of his powers as well as when he can use them. It just feels natural. So it’s no surprise that the anime manages to keep up the quality with its content. Saiki likes to tease making it seem like he’s breaking the fourth wall but then still kind of makes it seem like he isn’t. It also naturally introduces new characters over time, then actually makes effort to integrate them, so that they become familiar before introducing the next one. It’s done really well here.
Since the season is comprised of clips and doesn’t have arcs as such, there isn’t the type of build up a season finale might get. Nevertheless, it finishes as strongly as it started, and the final episode shows that Saiki himself has definitely changed. While he’s still stoic most of the time, he can’t help but show that he does care for his friends (no matter how much of a pain they are), and he’ll do what is within his ability, and within reason, to help them which is quite heart-warming to see.
Overall, the first season of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. is fantastic. Saiki may seem like an overpowered person but it’s handled well here with some caveats to those powers. Not enough to severely gimped him but just enough to not make him too generic. His attitude is also great, he’s consistent in wanting to avoid attention and the problems it brings, but of course can’t help but still make friends. The best part is that the whole season is consistent with its quality, with each clip striking gold with its humor and twists and turns.
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