Nozomu Itoshiki is depressed. Very depressed. He’s certifiably suicidal, but he’s also the beloved schoolteacher of a class of unique students, each charming in her own way: The stalker. The shut-in. The obsessive-compulsive. The girl who comes to class every day with strange bruises. And Kafuka, the most optimistic girl in the world, who knows that every cloud has a silver lining. For all of them, it’s a special time, when the right teacher can have a lasting positive effect on their lives. But is that teacher Itoshiki, a.k.a. Zetsubou-sensei, who just wants to find the perfect place to die?
>It’s Way Too Gross in This Sad Town Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei’s chapter titles are usually references to Japanese fiction, generally classics from the prewar period (in keeping with Zetsubou-sensei’s old-fashioned clothes). This particular title is a reference to Osamu Dazai’s 1935 short story Doke no Hana (“Flowers of Buffoonery”), which includes the line “Beyond this place is a sad town.”
>Gross-out test This chapter involves the traditional Japanese game of kimo-dameshi (“test of courage”), in which people dare one another to walk through creepy places like graveyards, while other people lurk in the shadows to jump out and scare them. However, Zetsubou-sensei and his sister turn it into a game of kimoi-dameshi (‘test of grossness”). Summer is the season of ghosts in Japan, so kimo-dameshi—either in professional “ghost houses” or just with your friends—is a traditional way to get the chills on hot, spooky summer nights. However, this story was originally printed in Japan in the autumn, not the summer, so the game is a little out of season—hence Chiri’s comment.
>Kira Yoshikage’s collection of nail clippings Kira Yoshikage is a character from Hirohiko Araki’s long-running manga, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. A serial killer obsessed with the human hand, he kept a collection of his own fingernail clippings, sorted by year.
>Nonburnables day In Japan, people separate their garbage into different types, such as burnable and nonburnable. Garbage disposal crews collect specific types of garbage on specific days, and may complain to the residents if the garbage is unsorted or left out on the wrong day.
>Assorted references The long-haired baseball player is a reference to Kei Igawa (1979- ), a Japanese pitcher who famously declared that he wouldn’t cut his hair as long as his team kept winning. “Gil” and “Rey” are Gilbert Durandal and Rey Za Burrel, characters from the 2004 anime series Gundam SEED Destiny. Fujiyoshi is a connoisseur of yaoi dojinshi, in which fans draw imaginary relationships between male characters from mainstream manga and anime, but evidently the thought of these two getting together is too much even for her. Otome Road (“Maiden Road”) is a nickname for a street in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district famous for its many businesses aimed at nerdy young women, such as the manga and dojinshi store K-Books. The Saibamen (known as Cultivars in the VIZ manga translation) are plant-based life forms from Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z. “Imprisoned prince” refers to an infamous incident in Japan in which a man imprisoned a woman in his apartment for two weeks in 2001. He received a suspended sentence, then in 2004, he imprisoned another woman for three months until she escaped, keeping her on a dog collar and referring to her by the pet name oji (“prince”). After he was arrested the second time, numerous “human pet”-themed adult video games were confiscated from his apartment. “Fuyuhiko-san” is an adult man with an extremely creepy Oedipus complex from the 1992 TV drama Zuto Anata ga Suki Datta (“I’ve Always Loved You”).
>Assorted references Kimokawa is a Japanese combo word made from kimoi (gross, disgusting) and kawaii (cute). Yoshiaki Murakami is the founder of the briefly famous investment management company M&A Consulting, aka the “Murakami Fund”; in 2006, after this manga was first published, he was indicted in an insider trading scandal and sentenced to two years in prison. (Koji Kumeta presumably thinks Murakami is kimokawa because of his goofy, boyish appearance.) Kuraki Papa is a Japanese TV show. “Yamahira’s sex book” refers to Japanese politician Taku Yamasaki (1936- ), who was publicly shamed when a former bar hostess, Kanako Yamada, wrote a graphic book about their ten-year-long affair during which she had two abortions. 326 is the pen name of Mitsuru Nakamura (1978-), a book illustrator and author (or, as he puts it, an “illust-writer”) with a distinctively funky art style.
>He received a suspended sentence, then in 2004, he imprisoned another woman for three months until she escaped, keeping her on a dog collar and referring to her by the pet name oji (“prince”). Why Prince though?
Juan Morgan
And that's all for today. Later start than I wanted, my apologies. What's the most disgusting image you have in an Any Forums related folder?
Funny chapter. I don't remember it in the anime, but its been awhile. Thanks OP.
Jayden Collins
Is there anyone who thinks such things are kimokawa?
Adrian Cook
>I don't remember it in the anime Because this chapter wasn't adapted in the anime. Until we get to maybe the 200+ chapters, where not being animated is more common, I had wanted to try and point out when a chapter wasn't animated, but I'll probably forget some days, like today.
