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?
Previous chapter: Be mindful of first-timers; please use spoiler text for any spoilers. __________
>Ah, silence... Ah, Mugon... (“Ah, silence”) is a reference to Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel, Les Miserables, originally translated in Japanese under the title Aamujô (“Ah, cruelty”).
>Setsubun This festival is celebrated on February 3. One of the main rituals is the “mamemaki ceremony” (literally, bean-throwing ceremony) to drive away the evil spirits. People scatter basedbeans out the door while shouting, “Demons out!” and basedbeans are thrown in while saying, “Good luck in!” Roasted basedbeans are also eaten as a good-luck snack. Another ritual related to Setsubun, ehomaki, is described on the following page.
>Anatahan Island This refers to a famous incident in which a dozen Japanese merchant seamen were shipwrecked on the barren volcanic island of Anatahan in 1944. They found a man and a woman living there alone. By the time they were rescued in 1951, five men had died in fights over the woman. The story became the basis of a 1953 movie, The Saga of Anatahan.
>Real intentions toward other countries The head on the left looks suspiciously like former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi (see notes for ).
>Clairvoyance When Kafuka uses the word “clairvoyance” after Chiri starts magically seeing things beyond her realm, Usui snidely remarks, “I bet you set up this whole scary scene just so you could make that pun!” () In Japanese, senrigan (“clairvoyance”) is written with three characters that can also be read as Chirigan (“Chiri’s eyes”). It’s all because the kanji for “thousand” can be read as either sen or chi. A similar senchi pun appears in the name of the heroine of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime Spirited Away.
>Assorted references “T.A.” is short for Ami Tokito (1987- ), a former child actor and J-pop idol. She is often photographed wearing glasses. “The anchorwoman” is Yuko Aoki, a Japanese TV announcer who, in 2006, was rumored to be living with a married TV producer. “What's inside the soup” refers to a plotline involving drugged soup in Yasei Matsui’s 2005 manga Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro (Demon Detective Neuro Négami). The “person who knows how to read the Poneglyph language” is the historian Nico Robin in the manga One Piece. “Princess Knight” (literally, Ribon no Kishi, “Knight of Ribbons”) is a reference to Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga of the same name, about a princess who disguises herself as a boy.
this chapter has 1 Tsunetsuki, 1 pantyshot, 1 Uropen, 1? Amakudari-sama, 2 Miss Yoshiko Sakurai, and 0 eye of darkness. This time kumetan has a question next to Amakudari-sama. I'm not convinced myself sensei... sugoi...
