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Manga / The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

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Does mutual sense also count as a psychic power? ^note Clockwise from the lesser: Kusuo Saiki, Kaidou, Toritsuka, Yumehara, Mera, Kuniharu Saiki, Kurumi Saiki, Teruhashi, Hairo, and Nendou. Not pictured: Kuboyasu, Yuuta, and Kusuke Saiki

Kusuo Saiki is an Ordinary Loftier-School Student...or at least he tries to be one.

He's actually a boy with Psychic Powers—an incredibly powerful male child with every imaginable psychic power. If he wanted to do so, he could wipe out humanity in only three days.

It sounds like he is perfect and has everything, right? Wrong! He tin can't shut off his powers, therefore his life is void of surprises, challenges, or sense of accomplishment. He also needs to avoid social interaction, both because he wants to proceed his powers secret and because he thinks of himself every bit too different to chronicle to normal people.

Unfortunately, life has other ideas.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (斉木楠雄のΨ難 / Saiki Kusuo no PSI Nan) is a gag series by Shuuichi Asou, published by Shonen Jump since 2012. It follows Kusuo'south attempts in living quietly, hiding his powers and avoiding standing out. It'due south something that would be easier if non for his quirky parents and a number of quirky classmates who insist on being friends with him. Cue lots of inner snarkery.

The series concluded in 2022, followed past a short series of Yonkoma so two final chapters published in Leap Giga. Information technology has a couple of anime adaptations: a 2013 spider web-anime developed for the Bound LIVE app, and a TV anime for the Summer 2016 Anime flavor, this time produced by JC Staff and directed by Hiroaki Sakurai. A 2d flavor of the anime premiered on January 17, 2022. The concluding anime adaptation is currently licensed by Funimation in the U.S. and is divided in four infinitesimal "shorts" that are aired daily during the weekdays, and collected in twenty minutes "episodes" every Sunday. This anime wrapped up with a special roofing the last few capacity of the manga, released in 2022. The final anime series, titled The Disastrous Life of Saiki Thou. Reawakened was produced by Netflix and adapts chapters not covered by the first three seasons, as well as the epilogue.

A live-action moving picture adaptation was released in October 2017, starring Kento Yamazaki as Kusuo Saiki.

This serial features examples of:

Abased Pet in a Box: Finding a cute puppy in a box is discussed as a cliché method of humanizing Japanese Runaway-type characters when the truth about Kuboyasu's past comes to lite.
Affectionate Parody:
- Saiki'southward main friends are all a parody of a recurring anime and manga trope.
  - Nendou is a parody of the Dumb Is Good Bumbling Sidekick type whose positive demeanor won't shine through The Stoic chief grapheme.
  - Kaidou'southward advent and the set-up of the Jet Black Wing is is a deliberate cliché direct from the Boxing Shounen genre.
  - Teruhashi parodies the archetype of the sweetness beautiful girl who causes the boys to be Distracted by the Sexy, also as the "hot daughter seeks a mysterious loner" type.
  - Yumehara is a parody of a typical lovesick Shojo protagonist.
  - Hairo'due south a parody of hot-blooded, sports manga protagonists.
  - Despite not existence a major grapheme, Yuuta also fits as a parody of the standard Tag Along Child rooting for the hero in a Saturday Morning Cartoon who normally just comes across as abrasive.
  - Saiko is a parody of fabulously rich jerks.
- The kickoff opening and endings of Flavor 2 parody Shounen and Shoujo. The opening is straight out of a boxing shounen, casting Saiki and friends as superpowered individuals (of form, it's afterward revealed to be a daydream of Kaidou's). The ending would non be out of identify in a shoujo romance, and is almost Teruhashi trying and failing to win Saiki's affections.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Saiki'southward parents, who deed lovey-dovey all the time as if they were even so teenagers... for his ain misfortune.
Agreeable Injuries: In full effect, thanks to Saiki brainwashing the entire world into seeing zippo wrong with injuries healing instantaneously. This is one of his changes which has the most dramatic touch on the world - thanks to the entire population essentially gaining a Healing Factor, doctors are most obsolete.
And the Risk Continues: The last regular chapter closed on Saiki and friends entering their third year together, and from the looks of things the wackiness isn't over withal.
Arc Number: Parodied. Saiki starts seeing and hearing the number 100 everywhere. It turns out to be because it'due south the manga'due south 100th chapter.
Art Evolution: Compared to the first season, the second season of the anime features more than fluid animation and smoother and less harsh outlines of textures, while using more detailed designs of characters and objects.
Dorsum for the Finale: To a ridiculous degree in the second season finale. Many small and oneshot characters (such as the baseball game team, Kaidou's mother and siblings, the kid who lost his prized signed baseball, etc.) show up throughout the episode (including characters whose stories weren't adapted). Saiki hangs a lampshade on it.
Embankment Episode: The series features some of them:
- In Chapter 12, Saiki reluctantly visits the beach with Nendou and Kaidou after existence threateningly persuaded by his mom to do so.
- During the Okinawa's school trip arc, in chapter sixty, Saiki'due south class goes to the embankment every bit function of their Form Trip schedule. The fanservice comes from the girls in Saiki's squad (Teruhashi, Yumehara and Mera), presenting their bathing suits to the balance of their classmates and usual beachgoers.
Betty and Veronica: In a parody of this trope, Teruhashi and Mikoto would be this respectively to Saiki'south Archie, except that Saiki is not interested in existence an Archie AT ALL. Teruhashi is the World'south Nigh Cute Woman that plays up a sweet and supposedly relatable side that makes people fawn over her, while the haughty Mikoto is a more traditional Ms. Fanservice with her revealing getup and voluptuous figure, while besides sporting actual psychic powers she uses for her ain ends. That said, in terms of social condition the two capsize this as Teruhashi is wealthy while Mikoto is from an average family unit, and besides because Teruhashi is popular and a Bitch in Sheep's Vesture while Aiura is a Overnice Girl. This is parodied in the 2nd credits music video from season 2 where Teruhashi and Aiura try to flirt with Saiki in their different ways, Aiura appealing to her psychic powers and Teruhashi to her innocence. Saiki doesn't care.
Altogether Episode: The first season finale. Saiki's friends programme a surprise party for him — just not simply does Saiki sniff them out immediately, they get the date wrong — information technology'south actually Saiki's father'southward altogether.
Biting-the-Hand Sense of humour: At the time that Nisekoi , Pajama na Kanojo and Koisome Momiji were all existence serialized, Saiki monologues about how lately everything has been about love and that romance isn't an interesting matter, simply clarifies he'southward not talking almost Shonen Jump . Twice .
Blatant Lies: When Hairo, Saiki, Nendou, Kaidou shaved their heads Hairo claimed they just wanted to change their look when reminded that they didn't accept to.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The 3 virtually major female students: Yumehara is the blonde, Teruhashi is the "brunette" (she has dark blue hair), while Mera is the redhead.
Bookends: Saiki's first and final lines (from the pilot and the terminal epilogue chapter, respectively) are the same description:
Saiki: My name is Saiki Kusuo, and I am an Esper.
Casting Gag: Jerry Jewell getting cast as Kusuo in the dub is a Funimation within joke, since he unremarkably excels in roles where he doesn't take to match lip flaps (most infamously his role as Happiness Bunny).
Chain of Deals: A variant. When Saiki realizes that he doesn't accept cash to pay for a snack he ordered, he uses his Apport ability ^note one that tin exchange an item for something of around the same value multiple times to eventually exchange his socks for a m-yen bill (ruining his friends' and begetter's 24-hour interval in the process). He even namedrops Harbinger Millionaire.
Christmas Episode: Multiple, due to Comic-Book Time, and usually followed by a New Years' Episode. One focuses on Nendou spending Christmas with Saiki's family, another follows Saiki dressing up as Santa for the neighborhood, and nevertheless another has the cast visiting him.
Clap Your Hands If You lot Believe:
- A bunch of unnatural phenomena ^note basic shonen tropes such every bit Globe of Technicolor Pilus, Muscles Are Meaningless, and Magic Pants all of a sudden became real because Saiki brainwashed people into thinking they were natural occurrences. Nigh were washed for his personal convenience.
- To prevent his pink hair from standing out in a state full of black haired individuals, Saiki brainwashed the entire world into believing that "pink hair is a natural hair color". Their belief in this argument resulted in the sudden existence of other unnatural hair colors.
- Saiki did the aforementioned with several other tropes. For example, he made it so "injuries that heal immediately are not unnatural" after arousing suspicion when he healed a kid who badly scraped his knee joint.
Class Trip: Saiki's class goes to a schoolhouse trip to Okinawa. And the disasters start to happen even earlier they all land in Okinawa. Nonetheless, they are mostly solved by Saiki (and some were caused by his psychic powers).
Cliché Storm: In-Universe, Saiki discusses the fact that PK Academy'due south baseball squad is a hodgepodge of Sports Story cliches — from characters ^annotation an energetic helm, an aristocratic prodigy bullpen, an ace who's currently absent-minded, etc. to plot details ^annotation on the school squad chopping block, up against a powerhouse during the first game, etc.. Nendou and Kuboyasu joining the team derail the cliche plot, forcing Saiki to stride in. Saiki also argues that Tropes Are Not Bad, since fifty-fifty the nigh cliché baseball drama contains plenty of inspiration and character growth.
Cloudcuckooland: Played with. Saiki used his power to make people believe unnatural things were natural, essentially creating all the weirdness and then his own bizarre appearance blends in.
Comic-Volume Time: Bizarrely, justified. No thing how long the series runs, Saiki and his friends are still going to exist 2nd yr loftier-schoolers. The reason? He uses his time reversal ability to restore Globe'south life "a yr behind the present" to foreclose a catastrophic volcanic eruption that tin can destroy the entirety of Nihon and keeps repeating the process every yr until his powers are stiff plenty to fully neutralize the disaster. And then, he brainwashes the populace into thinking information technology is still the same year. As a outcome, fifty-fifty though memories of many of those past events and seasons remain, the fourth dimension spent doesn't modify at all .
Crash-Into How-do-you-do: Played With. Chiyo plans to prepare a romantic meeting with Saiki by carrying a bunch of books and "coincidentally" bumping into him. Saiki, enlightened of her plan and not interested in her scheme, uses his psychic powers to dodge her attempt.
Creator Cameo: Shuuichi Asou has a habit of showing upwardly wherever:
- In the last segment of Episode 20 (which is an adaptation of the 100th chapter), Shuuichi Asou voiced his author avatar god persona telling Saiki that information technology'due south the 100th segment and is ambulation on its 100th week, but for Saiki to right him stating that information technology's the 20th week.
- He does it again in the Season 2 finale, which is the adaptation of chapter 275. He tells Saiki that it's the flavor finale, but that it will be renewed for an anime conclusion special and afterward go on as a Netflix serial.
- He manages this once more in the live action movie adaptation, but this time as a student of PK Academy.
Cringe One-act: It would accept far less blench if you couldn't encounter the story from Saiki's signal of view. Having constant telepathy and X-ray vision sucks.
Crossover:
- In a one-shot affiliate, Koro-sensei (from Assassination Classroom ) and Saiki visit Iruma and compete over the concluding piece of "Irumanjuu", a local delicacy. Saiki somewhen splits it in half and shares it with Koro-sensei.
- There is a 2-page Jump special where Saiki and his dad visit Soma (from Nutrient Wars! ) at the Yukihara eatery for a bite to swallow. Unfortunately, Saiki'due south psychic powers grant him the ability to view every mental "foodgasm" at the eatery. He promptly loses his appetite after seeing what his father's looks like.
Vicious to Be Kind: One time Kuboyasu and Kaidou found out exactly why Saiko wasn't eating they wrestled him to the basis and force feed him.
Kuboyasu: If you lot're going to keep being stubborn, THEN WE'LL Accept TO BE STUBBORN Well-nigh MAKING You EAT!!
Cruise Episode: "The Saiko Conglomerate's Luxurious Cruise" episode starts with Saiko inviting Saiki'south friends to an extravagant cruise, but the ship gets wrecked and they all find themselves on a Deserted Isle.
Crying Wolf: In the April Fools' Mean solar day episode, Kaidou tells a agglomeration of lies that are speedily proven false, and so nobody believes him when Saiki carelessly uses his psychic powers to make a book float in front of him and later to move a falling camera away from him.
Debut Queue: The major characters are all added to the story in this way, with a segment introducing them and discussing their initial relationships with Saiki.
Deconstructive Parody:
- Each psychic ability is discussed, relentlessly torn apart, so taken to its logical and hilarious determination.
- Iridatsu Yuuta is a deconstruction of the Tag Forth Kid obsessed with the Saturday Morning Drawing, as he filters his experiences through his Cyborg Ciderman show that is as well an obvious ad telling him to drink an unhealthy drinkable.
- Hell, the comparison betwixt Saiki himself and Kaidou is a deconstruction of Chuunibyou tendencies; Saiki'south astonishing powers, how he uses them for everyday life, his aloofness, and even his internal monologues about why he tin can't use them all the time sound remarkably like chuuni heedless on newspaper— everything Kaidou already thinks he does. It's even telling that his closest acquaintances are function of the "losers" bracket. The key deviation is that Saiki keeps his oral fissure shut so nobody figures out while Kaidou blurts his delusions out for everyone to hear and shrinks when he has to back them upward.
Demoted to Extra: Soul Shout (the musician having trouble selling his CDs) appears in the anime in a nonspeaking cameo so Saiki can identify him equally the musician who was simply in the manga.
- Teruhashi in the Reawakened episodes has a notably reduced role, having less screen fourth dimension than she did in the outset 2 seasons.
Eagleland: In one episode, Saiki is cleaning out a filthy flat when he panics and teleports himself away because he saw a cockroach. He ends up in El Paso, Texas, which is depicted equally a wildly anachronistic, stereotypical Wild Westward town.
Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: During the schoolhouse festival, Toritsuka and his ring play the anime's first opening theme "Seishun wa Zankoku ja nai".
Don't Try This at Home: When Nendou gets distracted and starts reading a manga while Kaidou is explaining to him how to play a certain card game, Kaidou gets mad and gain to hit Nendou with the stack of cards, then Saiki emerges from the background to say this.
Kaidou: There's another rule. When someone isn't listening, you can stab him difficult in the eyeballs!
Saiki: Don't try this at home.
Kaidou: [stabs Nendou from behind] Listen!
Early-Bird Cameo: Of a manner. Saiki's grandparents show upward in the first opening credits, nonetheless they don't appear until long later on the opening had already changed.
Early on Installment Weirdness: In Saiki'south kickoff appearance equally Kusuko/Kuriko, he still used his male vox while speaking to the audience. Subsequent appearances of Kusuko/Kuriko would give her an bodily female voice.
Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Played with in that it's not actual bedwetting, only Saiki having issues with Power Incontinence when he was asleep until quaternary class. To Saiki'due south annoyance, however, his parents describe it very much similar bedwetting, describing occurrences every bit "accidents" they had to clean upwardly afterwards, and going then far every bit to call it "onecho", a Portmanteau of onesho (bedwetting) and chonoryoku (psychic powers).
Evolutionary Levels: Saiki thinks he's different plenty to be considered a different species, the next pace in the human development. He also thinks Nendou is beneath the modern man and above the neolithic one.
Verbal Words: Class 3 bet that if they lost to Class ii in the school festival they would all become Buddhist Monks and shave their heads. Though they lost the last issue they still had more points so class 2. Unfortunately in all the excitement Hairo, Nendou, Saiki and Kaidou forgot that and concluded up shaving their heads anyway.
Faceless Masses: When Saiki puts the Germanium ring on and cancels his powers, everyone turns into a Nendou clone. He even goes on to telephone call them "Nendou #[X]" when he refers to a person in his monologue.
Family Theme Naming: All of Saiki's family members take the name Saiki ^notation his mother's maiden proper noun is too Saiki, and a kickoff proper noun that starts with "Ku".
Fan Community Nicknames: In-Universe, members of Teruhashi's fanclub call themselves "Kokomins", and members of her brother Makoto's fanclub telephone call themselves "Mugamians" (afterward his phase name, Toru Mugami).
First-Person Smartass: Much of the humor of the series comes of Saiki mentally snarking at everyone else's craziness.
Follow the Leader: Invoked. Saiki's dad is a manga editor and when hearing a pitch from an author of a realistic sports drama, he tells the author to just "bring me something like Naruto ".
Nutrient Cease: Discussed Trope as a common backwash of Sports Story games. Equally part of the In-Universe Cliché Tempest almost the baseball game team, they all get out to consume yakiniku, and Saiki not only emphasizes that it's a cliche ending, he also points out numerous other cliches used with this trope (eg. the server turning into an Angry Chef, the aloof character refusing to socialize, running into another squad, etc.).
For Want of a Blast:
- Saiki prevents an explosion at a gas station simply by kicking away a pebble. He explains that a daughter tripping on this pebble could have caused a truck driver to crash the truck into the station and points out that had certain circumstances not all converged at the same fourth dimension, the explosion wouldn't accept happened. Said pebble later kickstarts a chain of events that almost causes an explosion at schoolhouse, which Saiki stops at the last minute.
- The butterfly effect is mentioned when Saiki accidentally travels back in time, modifies his parents' first meeting slightly, and winds up in a Bad Hereafter where his blood brother's invention inadvertently started World State of war III.
- When trying to prevent Akechi's by cocky from suspecting he has psychic powers, Saiki keeps changing small things in the past. The futures he jumps back to range from other mail-apocalyptic Bad Futures to Close Plenty Timelines (eg. Akechi now wears spectacles and has Shonen Hair, the other students hang out at his firm every day).
Foreshadowing: The school song lyrics that everyone sings at the graduation anniversary in season 2 episode three, contain lyrics like "Our everlasting school" and "Our everlasting youth" foreshadowing the catastrophe of the series.
Fourth-Wall Observer: Saiki's inner monologue is specifically addressed to the reader. He's aware of the existence of his series (and the pilot manga one-shots, for that matter) and often makes snide remarks about his serial, his writer, Shonen Jump, and TV Tokyo.
Gag Series: The serial relies on parodying many shounen and piece-of-life tropes or playing them for laughs.
"Gift of the Magi" Plot: Saiki's parents have consecutive birthdays; his father gets a behemothic conduct so his mother can use her sewing and craft supplies on information technology; his mother gets a display case for his father'south action figures. It turns out that his mother got rid of the sewing supplies to make space for the display case and his father sold his action figures to pay for the deport.
Saiki: I guess information technology actually is the thought that counts.
Golden Snitch: Played for laughs in the trash pickup competition. Each team earns points based on the corporeality and kind of trash they option up - cigarette butts at 10 points each, bulk trash is 5 points per kg, etc. However, a tsuchinoko corpse is worth 900 1000000 points.
Halloween Episode: Has i; Kaidou invites the guys to his house for a small costume party.
Hero Stage Show: In the anime episode "Summertime Break! A Date With Teruhashi", Yuki Teruhashi invited Kusuo Saiki to the off-white grounds for a date. To keep it from becoming that, Saiki brings forth Yuuta, his neighbour's son, and then they can watch the alive performance of Cider-man Ramune going on there. The actor playing the monster L. Ginger kidnaps Teruhashi and brings her on-stage, merely tin't bring himself to set on her after she uses her charms to stop him. When the actor playing Cider-human being Ramune beats him, L. Ginger gets angry at looking weak in front of her and kicks him away. Saiki is ultimately forced to become Cyborg Cider-man No. 2 (because that's who Yuuta thinks he really is) and go upwardly onstage to beat L. Ginger, much to his chagrin.
High Schoolhouse: PK University is a pocket-size private loftier school which most of the characters attend.
Horrible Judge of Character: The "hero" who acts as a guest lecturer at the schoolhouse accuses Saiki's friend grouping of lacking specific heroic qualities. While that sounds accurate, he is completely wrong near which qualities they lack: saying that Kaidou lacks courage, Nendo lacks kindness, and Kuboyasu lacks strength.
Infectious Enthusiasm: Hairo causes this kind of situation with the rest of his classmates and Saiki plays the grumpy guy. Saiki doesn't become really infected, just ends existence dragged along anyway.
Innocent Innuendo: Nendou creates this kind of situation sometimes, verging into the Ambiguously Bi territory.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- The physical education teacher has the students play dodgeball considering basketball, kendo and volleyball are already beingness played somewhere.
- Chiyo is often aware of being in a manga/anime. This isn't unusual for a comedy serial, merely no other character comments on it, at to the lowest degree until Flavor 2 in the anime where it seems anybody is on their fictional status, but nevertheless can't grasp that they're in a gag series where Saiki is the main character.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Kokomi Teruhashi and Mikoto Aiura fill these roles respectively.
Loads and Loads of Characters: The manga has been steadily moving in that direction, with the introduction of many, many individuals who spice Saiki'southward "tedious" life.
Lucky Charms Title: The Japanese title is romanized as "Saiki Kusuo no Ψ Nan". "Ψ" is the greek alphabetic character corresponding to "psi" (pronounced as "sai"), and information technology's related to "parapsychology"... while it as well plays its role with the Pun-Based Title of the series.
Magic Pants: Saiki uses his powers to invoke this in-universe. Because it's much better for this trope to happen than to take the fabric between the legs tear during an activity sequence, right?
Medium Awareness
- Aside from his frequent Fourth Wall breaking, Saiki can read the captions with expository text.
- Surprisingly, Yumehara of all characters breaks the fourth wall more than anybody but Saiki.
  - One episode has her lamenting virtually how Teruhashi and fifty-fifty Mera get close-upwardly shots on their swimsuit reveals, and she doesn't.
  - Once she asks Saiki if she can become more screen time.
A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Since Saiki's power of telepathy cannot be shut off, he hears every thought within a 200 meter radius whether he wants to or non. Constantly listening to others' pointless, disgusting, or abrasive thoughts, also as existence robbed of any sense of surprise or excitement, has turned him into a perpetual snarker. It's rather hilarious.
Motor Mouth: Characters in the anime will sometimes speak a mile a minute, with Saiki'due south internal monologue often overlapping.
Mutually Diff Relationship: This drives much of the human relationship humor in the serial. Some of the other students all insist on befriending Saiki because their relationships with Saiki are something else entirely to what they really are. Saiki himself initially simply sees them as school acquaintances and just wants to be left lone, although he evidently does start caring most them.
- Nendou thinks Saiki is his all-time friend.
- Kaidou thinks Saiki is his Bumbling Sidekick in the (completely imaginary) fight against the "Nighttime Reunion". In Kaidou's daydreams, Saiki is drawn with softer features and has a higher voice to emphasize this.
- Teruhashi is in denial that Saiki is immune to her beauty and charms, and is convinced that he's secretly in love with her like all other men. Similar to Kaidou, in Teruhashi'southward daydreams, Saiki is fatigued as a ditzy, bumbling love interest.
My Friends... and Zoidberg:
- Takahashi and Toritsuka frequently get this treatment in Saiki'due south narratives.
- As for Saiki's group, Kaidou and Nendou are the runoff, since nobody wants to exist near them because of their looks (Nendou) or personality (Kaidou).
Nebulous Evil Organisation: Dark Reunion, the secret, ominous organization that wants to conquer humanity and steals the unfathomable power sealed inside Kaidou's correct arm. At least, that's what Kaidou thinks.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Played for Laughs and for deconstruction purposes instead of a Deus ex Machina. Saiki always has the requisite power needed to solve the situation at hand, simply information technology ever tends to fall autonomously immediately after due to the circumstances.
New Transfer Student: Many of Saiki'southward classmates (and new headaches) are actually PK Academy'south new transfer students. People like Reita or Aren get introduced as such.
New Yr Has Come:
- 1 New Yr's Episode has Nendou, Kaidou, Teruhashi, and Hairo see Saiki at a shrine; they all wind upwards invited to Saiki's home.
- Another has Saiki attempt to purchase a new television set with his New year's day'southward money. The characters afterwards relate their new year stories.
- Saiki notices that his friends and family are showing up on television in another New Year'south episode.
Never the Selves Shall Run into: A caveat on Saiki's time travel powers (the other being avoiding the butterfly effect). His attempts fail if someone notices there are two of him, including his ain past self.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: In Chapter 79, Toritsuka tries (in one case over again) to make himself popular past summoning celebrity ghosts to possess him, and got himself... John Komatsu, Blue Scorpion Jr. and Sudou Monte Carlo.
No Fourth Wall: By season 2, information technology's clear that practically everyone is aware they are in a manga/anime. Even groundwork characters lament their condition and are able to notice things like speech bubbles. Yet, anybody is Wrong Genre Savvy and thinks they are in anything but a gag serial.
Only Sane Homo: Kusuo Saiki, who is by far the less normal guy in Earth.
Overly Long Gag: The manga's hundredth chapter is just i long string of sentences involving the number 100. Fifty-fifty Saiki thinks they're all forcing it too much.
Popularity Food Concatenation: Teruhashi and Hairo are at the top, and Nendou and Kaidou are near the bottom. Saiki is enlightened of said nutrient chain and has a power that tells him where he currently stands on it; he consciously makes an try to stay somewhere in the middle (also popular and he'll start to stand out, too unpopular and people will mistreat him).
Poverty for One-act: Mera'due south family unit's Perpetual Poverty is oftentimes Played for Laughs. She'due south portrayed equally a Large Eater who is e'er eating grass or water ice because she can't beget food, and when she comes into money, she loses it right away.
Product every bit Superhero: Cyborg Cider-Man, the mascot of a line of soda drinks.
Pilot: The serial had seven pre-serialization chapters that were later compiled as "book cipher". Saiki acknowledges the bulk of its events in the start serialized chapters of the manga. Some of these were added to the anime'due south timeline, as well.
Production Placement: One for the serial' Nintendo DS game, just they don't outright say information technology is, since it'south about The Disastrous Life of Saiko X. And Saiki most definitely doesn't ask the reader to play it after the chapter ends.
Pun-Based Championship:
- "Sainan" ("Disaster") is written as "Ψ Nan" ("PSI Nan"). The chapter titles get the same pun treatment.
- The English language official title of the serial, since the original title's pun would exist Lost in Translation, was opted to be "The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.", where "Saiki G." still serves as a pun for "psychic".
Punny Proper name: Many of the characters are named after specific psychic powers. Saiki Kusuo is named later on "saikikku", the Japanese discussion for "psychic", and many of his relatives use the same pun as well with their names ("Saiki Kurumi", "Saiki Kuniharu").
Psychic Powers: Saiki, plain, merely information technology's implied that there are other PSI users in the world. In Chapter 17, he meets Reita Toritsuka, a fellow who can encounter ghosts.
Reality Warper: It'due south revealed that many of the outlandish anime and manga tropes that happen in this setting are actually the issue of Saiki's powers warping the world around him to suit what were originally supposed to be mundane acts of ability. When he was younger, he tried using Mind Command to make it then that his bright pink pilus wouldn't concenter attending, this having the unintended effect of making vivid, unrealistic pilus color commonplace. When he used his powers to heal another child'due south skimmed knee, this resulted in Toon Physics that allow people to shrug off things that would normally debilitate them (like a baseball to the face). Other furnishings include people thinking at an unrealistically fast footstep, easy Clothing Damage while the crotch remains censored (also as clothes becoming un-torn betwixt shots), Muscles Are Meaningless and knocking someone out with a cervix-chop.
Recursive Fiction: Saiki has volumes of his own manga on his shelf. No, not some series that looks like his, his actual out-of-universe serial.
Robinsonade: Played for Laughs. Saiki and friends go on a prowl on Saiko'southward cruise ship. Teruhashi takes out Saiki'southward Power Limiter while he is out with seasickness, so Saiki accidentally sinks the send and brings them all to a deserted island off the coast of S America. An unimpressed Saiki teleports back and along from Nihon with supplies and figures out a way to bring them back to Japan using his powers with them beingness none the wiser.
Sanity Has Advantages: Averted when the grouping was stranded on a deserted isle. They were all to scared to question the miraculous things Saiki was doing to proceed them all alive. However once they gained a slimmer of promise at escaping and started to think more rationally their decisions prevented Saiki from getting them domicile while still keeping his abilities hidden.
School Newspaper Newshound: The newspaper club is featured in the latter one-half of Season 2 Episode 7. They are not above telling fake stories; subsequently declining to get pictures of Teruhashi pooping while Saiki and co. were stranded on an island, they aimed to make such a photo themselves. Saiki foils them, however.
Send Tease: Despite Saiki having no interest in Teruhashi, the story deliberately tries to make her the master heroine of his life. Even considering all that, at that place are a few moments where there is 18-carat teasing of the ship; for example, the very terminal thought Saiki hears before returning to his daily grind after getting his powers dorsum in the terminal epilogue chapter is hearing Teruhashi regret her disability to brand Saiki charmed by her.
Sickeningly Sweethearts: Kusuo'south parents. That is, of course, if they aren't fighting with each other.
Slice of Life: A story about the everyday happenings and grievances of an insanely powerful psychic teenager.
Spoon Bending: Saiki bends spoons to prove to Aiura and Akechi, on split up occasions that he does have psychic powers.
Shirtless Scene: Played for Laughs more than often than not. Hairo'due south shirtless scenes tend to be just a bit also detailed (to the indicate that his torso looks out of place), while Kuboyasu's emphasize his vitrify, scarred ex-delinquent body for comedy.
Sneeze of Doom: Saiki gets pollen allergies in one episode, and his sneezes causes random objects in his line of sight to explode.
Silence Is Golden : This happens in Chapter 226 along with its anime accommodation in Season 2 Episode 20 until the end.
Condition Quo Is God:
- For the virtually function, the characters' situations don't change all that much despite the shenanigans that become on. Teruhashi will continue to attempt to win Saiki's centre, Mera will always be poor, Nendou will always be an unpopular idiot, etcetera. Lampshaded in the finale of flavour ii.
Saiki: This is a gag manga. No matter how much [the characters] change, they'll change dorsum after 1 day.
- Despite having his psychic powers pernanently removed by the end of the series, it is implied his nonetheless recovers them at the finish. This gets worse in the epilogue one-shot where his symptoms as worsening to the signal he tries to deny them, simply ultimately succumbs to it as they were needed to save a sudden impending meteor that could wipe out Nihon. It is confirmed they are fully recovered in the Netflix-original season, and he resumes his everyday life however with his friends being unaware he is a psychic.
Strange Minds Call up Alike:
- Nendou and Matsuzaki-sensei have similar ideas near first aid.
- In the Crossover, both Saiki and Koro-sensei travel to the city of Iruma to eat irumanjuu at the Sakurayama Observatory.
- During the Halloween Episode, both Hairo and Kuboyasu bring a squash to Kaidou's business firm for entirely different reasons.
- During the shipwreck arc, Kuboyasu, Kaidou, Teruhashi, and Yumehara all leave the same cabbage snack out for Saiko with the intent of luring him back, and pat themselves on the back for it.
Of a sudden Speaking: Played with. Saiki already has a voice, merely information technology'due south internal. He never speaks onscreen, and any he wants to say is represented past a narration box. The showtime time he speaks for existent is the final chapter. The anime has him speak in Episode 5, simply no attending is drawn to information technology since anybody talked at the same time.
Talking Is a Free Action: One of the perfectly normal things that happen in this world, thank you to Saiki'southward powers.
- Averted during the time loop arc, where Saiki'south internal monologue directly leads to Nendou getting hit by a truck.
Tap on the Head: Saiki invoked the "karate chop to the neck instantly knocking someone out" variant of the trope as a child by brainwashing everyone into believing information technology could be done.
x-Minute Retirement: The epilogue chapter does this. Not long after Saiki gets rid of his powers seemingly for good, he gets presented with all kinds of situations where they would exist handy, which is only exasperated past the powers slowly leaking back. When the earth is in danger of an asteroid (again), Saiki decides to go dorsum to his usual.
Theme Naming: By style of Punny Proper name. The major characters have names that pun on sure Psychic Powers ^note for example, "Teruhashi" is a pun on "telepathy", "Shun Kaidou" is a pun on "Shunkan Idou", the Japanese discussion for "teleportation"; "Saiki K" itself is a pun on "psychic".
Toon Physics: Saiki is responsible for this trope via brainwashing the entire world down to their genetics.
Trademark Favorite Food: Saiki loves his java jello, and Nendou is always inviting his pals to consume ramen.
Tsundere: Done to the extreme by Saiki'south grandfather, of all people. He acts common cold, stern, indifferent, and even annoyed towards his family when they visit, so shows the audition how completely overjoyed he is just to take them nearby after he leaves the room, in a fashion that'due south obviously meant to parody your typical anime's immature girl tsundere. It'southward (thankfully) completely non-romantic, but that doesn't stop him from squealing like a schoolgirl at simply brushing past his grandson.
Two-Instructor School: Downplayed. PK Academy does accept other teachers, but the merely one who is shown doing any pedagogy is the PE teacher, Matsuzaki-sensei. This becomes even more impressive during the 10k marathon, as he is monitoring the race at every 2k marker.
The Earth Is Always Doomed: It'southward revealed that Saiki has kept the world resetting every bit otherwise a volcano will erupt that volition destroy Japan. The final chapters has Saiki successfully prevent the eruption just then a few days later, a meteorite will collide with the planet.
Globe of Ham: There's something seriously wrong when Saiki — a pink-haired boy with Reality Warper-level psychic abilities — comes beyond as normal compared to his family and classmates. Almost every main character is a Genre Refugee who'due south completely stupid, partially crazy, has the emotional stability of a sandcastle, the attention bridge of a wet-cracker or some combination of the iv. The fact that Saiki's abilities enforce Cosmic Retcons onto the world on a constant ground probably doesn't help in that regard.
World of Technicolor Hair: Some characters have unrealistic hair colors, including Saiki, who was born with pinkish hair. Justified Trope: he brainwashed the entire globe into thinking that "pink is non an unnatural hair color" in an endeavour to non stand out from his naturally black haired peers. The result? The mentality caused a genetic mutation that causes hair of every colour of the rainbow to now be a "naturally grown" pilus color in this earth. In the present, many of the supporting characters have unnatural hair colors. Kaido and Teruhashi have blue hair, Hairo and Mera have scarlet pilus, Kuboyatsu and Toritsuka have purple hair, and so on.
Wrong Genre Savvy:
- It seems that about all characters believe they are the heroes in a dissimilar genre (and demographic, in Teruhashi'due south case), while they're actually side characters in a comic Deconstructive Parody. Teruhashi thinks she is in a shoujo romance and goes through all the trappings (pretending to be the perfect woman is simply the tip of the iceberg), only information technology turns out that the homo she thinks might be her Love Interest is not interested at all. Kaidou wishes he was the called 1 in a Urban Fantasy battle manga, and Hairo thinks he is in a Hot-Blooded sports manga. Yuuta thinks he's either in a Sat Morning Cartoon or a promotional CoroCoro Comic manga. The but one who acts similar the gag manga character he is, unsurprisingly, is Nendou.
- This trope is taken to another level once it becomes clear throughout the serial that Saiki is not the only one that can interruption the fourth wall. Thus, Saiki'due south friends are quite literally this trope, knowing they are fictional, but incorrectly guessing the genre.

Alternative Championship(s): The Disaster Of Psi Kusuo Saiki, Psi Kusuo Saiki, Saiki Kusuo No Sainan, Psi Saiki Kusuo No Sainan, Chounouryokusha Saiki Kusuo No Sai Nan, The Disastrous Life Of Saiki Yard