At the meeting a week ago, I caught a two-part DVD special Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, which in better times would've been called "OAV". Weird stuff. It seems like humour for the sake humour, and a very heavy-handed presentation at that. So, not my cup of tea. On the upside, I am happy to report that screencaps lied. Yes, the pattern fill is a cheap trick, but it looks pretty good, and does not conflict with the motion. Unlike the paper cutout cartoons of my youth, Shaft allows character outlines to move over a static fill pattern. It can be used creatively to highlight folds of a yukata, for example.