The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (斉木楠雄のΨ難, Saiki Kusuo no Sai-nan, lit. "The Disaster of Psi Kusuo Saiki") is a Japanese gagmanga series written and illustrated by Shūichi Asō. The series began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from June 2012. A television anime adaptation by J.C.Staff and EGG FIRM began airing on July 4, 2016. A live-action film is currently in development.
Plot
Kusuo Saiki is a high school student who was born with all manner of psychic abilities, including telepathy, psychokinesis, teleportation, and more. Despite having all these powers, Saiki faces all kinds of hardships and tries to avoid attention as much as possible. The story follows Saiki as he attempts to secretly use his powers to live a normal high school life while dealing with his less than ordinary classmates at P.K. Academy.
A high school student who was born with all manner of psychic abilities including, but not limited to, telekinesis, teleportation, telepathy, and invisibility. Because of his constantly growing power, he has to wear two pink antennaes on his head in order to limit his power. Because of the misery that comes from the attention he receives as a psychic, Saiki tries to avoid attention as much as possible, using his telepathy to read people's minds and try to avoid confrontation. He wears green glasses all the time because if anyone looked at his eyes directly without them on, he/she will be turned to stone.
He is Kusuo's elder brother, a super genius who likes to invent machines/devices. He is 2 years older than Kusuo. He wears his "Telepath Canceler" whenever he is with Kusuo so he won't be able to read his thoughts. He and his younger brother have always been fighting with each other in terms of their abilities and intelligence. However, being a psi user, Kusuo always win towards the genius Kusuke. Kusuo always thought that his brother hated him about it but Kusuke corrected him that he didn't hate him at all and it was the opposite as Kusuke was obsessed of Kusuo. Kusuke is both sadistic and masochistic towards Kusuo because even though he knew he'd lost, Kusuke will still challenge Kusuo.
A large and muscular student who has a mohawk style and a loud voice. He is the one student at PK Academy whose mind Saiki cannot read, simply because he is too much of an idiot. As such, Saiki often fears his overly friendly nature as he cannot predict his actions.
A chūnibyō who calls himself "The Jet-Black Wings" (漆黒の翼, Shikkoku no Tsubasa) and thinks that the world is ruled by an evil organization called Dark Reunion.[ch. 3] Although, while still so much attached to his delusional mind, he slowly builds a normal human relationship with his schoolmates despite his chuunibyou popping up.
A self-proclaimed "perfect girl" who is adored by everyone except Saiki, who is able to read her true thoughts. As such, she has become obsessed with making Saiki react to her, but lately, she began having feelings for Saiki.
An overly hot-blooded, energetic, passionate student who enjoys sports and is constantly trying to get other people motivated. He is also Saiki's class representative, but due to his nature, he is well-trusted by his classmates.
A romantic and dreamy girl who had lot of painful love experiences with boys, however, she has a crush on Saiki.
Reita Toritsuka (鳥束 零太, Toritsuka Reita)
Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese); Joel McDonald (English)
Another psychic and one of two people outside of Saiki's family to know of his abilities. He has the ability to see spirits and is haunted by the ghost of Nendou's late father, but is only interested in using his ability to attract girls.
A classmate of Saiki's who always appears looking either starved, or, hyped whenever food or money is being mentioned. She works as a part-timer in a cafe that Saiki frequently visit due to its great coffee jelly.
A transfer student who used to be a delinquent in his former school and tries to put his past behind him by being calm and collected, yet has a short temper when someone is being rude to him.
Aiura Mikoto (相卜命, Mikoto Aiura)
A soothsayer, also known as an oracle. She is another love-interest of Kusuo's and constantly fights with Reita.
Imu Rifuta (梨歩田 依舞, Rifuta Imu)
A supporting character who is overconfident and has strong desire for recognition and takes pride for her appearance to charm the boys which tends to resemble Kokomi.
A rich and smug decendent of the top-notch Saiko Conglomerate who later transfers to PK Academy, ends up falling in love with Kokomi, who declines his offer because she still likes Saiki. At first, he became to resent Saiki but latter just kind of hangs around and tries to make people jealous of how rich and great he is.
A street magician who performs with his partner Micheal. He rely on Saiki to help him with his magic tricks. He was financially poor, and was married but still associates with his ex, Nendō's mother.
A neighborhood boy who lives close to Saiki Kusuo and first met him after he helped him get his balloon back. From leaping, so high to get his balloon back, it convinced the boy that he was his favorite comic book hero, Cyborg Cider-man #2; because of this, He got attached to Kusuo and also knows about his powers.
A gym teacher and school guidance counselor. Saiki introduce him in terms of "good cop bad cop" and he usually plays as the bad cop, yet still respect him.
A frequent side character. He is somehow a delinquent with as seen when he fakes being sick to skip the School Year Opening Ceremony and then puts the blame on Nendō and Kusuo, and gets himself into convoluted schemes with his circle of friends; but overall he just is a nuisance to deal with.[4]
Media
Manga
The series began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on May 14, 2012. The first collected tankōbon volume was published on September 4, 2012, with 19 volumes released as of October 2016.[5]
On May 4, 2013, a light novel titled, Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan - Extra Story of Psychics was released, following with Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan - Extra Story of Psychics 2 in July 2014.
A flash anime series based on the manga began release on Jump Live from August 4, 2013, featuring the same voice cast as an earlier Comic adaptation.[27]
A television anime adaptation was announced in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine's 23rd issue of 2016. J.C.Staff and EGG FIRM are producing the adaptation, with Hiroaki Sakurai directing, Michiko Yokote handling series composition and Masayuki Onji designing the characters.[2] The series began airing on July 4, 2016 on TV Tokyo, with an episode airing every weekday morning followed by a compilation episode at the end of each week, the series will contain one hundred and twenty episodes in total, along with twenty four compilation episodes.[28] The opening theme is "Seishun wa Zankoku janai" (青春は残酷じゃない, Youth Isn't So Cruel) by Natsuki Hanae while the ending theme, also used for the short episodes, is "Psi desu - I Like You" (Ψです I LIKE YOU) by Denpagumi.inc. The series is being simulcast by Funimation, who began releasing an English dub from August 7, 2016.[29][30]
Kusuo also appears as a playable character in the Jump crossover fighting game J-Stars Victory VS released in 2014.[32] Its European and North American release marks the first release of Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan material outside Japan.