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?
Chapter 30: The Musashino of Today Is Shrouded in Darkness
Previous chapter: Be mindful of first-timers; please use spoiler text for any spoilers. __________
>The Musashino of Today Is Shrouded in Darkness This title is a reference to Doppo Kunikida’s 1901 short story collection Musashino, which includes the phrase “Musashino of long ago...” Musashino, a rural farming village during the time of Kunikida’s life (1871-1908), eventually became urbanized and is now a suburb of Tokyo.
>Yaminabe Yaminabe literally means “dark hot pot.” It’s something of a potluck stew; friends come together and put mysterious ingredients in a big pot and cook the stew in the dark. Then each participant takes something from the pot with chopsticks, and once everyone has something, the light is turned (or kept) off and they eat what they took. Rules vary from place to place, but it’s all done for laughs and thrills.
>Champ magazine The hand-drawn manga magazine is a parody of the Japanese magazines Shonen Champion and Shonen Jump. With the dedication of a true fangirl, the young Fujiyoshi has painstakingly recreated the contents page, enthusiastic title pages, and cliff-hanger endings of an actual manga magazine.
>Assorted references Megumi Hayashibara (1967- ) is a popular Japanese voice actress and singer. Shoowatch, short for “Shooting Watch,” is a handheld game by Hudson where you try to push the button as many times as possible in ten seconds.
>Shimoyama Incident On July 5, 1949, the dismembered body of Japan National Railways president Sadanori Shimoyama was found on a railway track. The case was never solved.
>Assorted references Takako Matsu (1977- ) is an actress/singer/songwriter. Hiromix (1976- ) is a Japanese photographer. Hidetsugu Aneha (1957-) is a former Japanese architect sentenced to five years in prison for falsifying data on earthquake safety. He wore quirky glasses.
>Mongolian blue spot The “Mongolian blue spot” is a benign birthmark above the buttocks, most common among East Asians and Turks.
>Koji Kumeta The ingredient names for the seasoning mirin are made with glutinous rice, rice, and malted rice. The manga artist’s first name, Koji, is a synonym for “malted rice” (although the characters are different) and his last name, Kumeta, has the character “rice” in it. So, he’s sort of eating a yaminabe with a lot of himself in it.
>Pile of mail The letters are all hate mail with text like “It’s the No. 1 Most Boring!,” “I don’t understand the stories,” and “I just happened to read it but I can’t forget how sick it made me.”
>Botchan Botchan is a famous novel written by Natsume Soseki (see ). Botchan is a nickname given to privileged or wealthy young boys. However, Koji Kumeta writes the word “Botchan” with words that sound the same, but it has a totally different meaning—‘“dead little one.”
