Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

さよなら絶望先生

Nozomu Itoshiki is a high school teacher so chronically hopeless that the kanji of his name can be read as "despair," earning him the nickname Zetsubou-sensei. His first attempt to hang himself is interrupted by Kafuka Fuura, a relentlessly upbeat student who refuses to accept that anything is wrong. He flees to his new homeroom only to find Kafuka and a class of equally extreme girls waiting. Each chapter takes a Japanese phrase, custom, or anxiety and pushes it to its bleakest, most literal conclusion.