Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Kūsō Rumba (空想ルンバ)” by Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi - The same trippy stuff we got last time, with a few slight differences here and there.

Summary:

Chiri is alerted that Nozomu will be seeing her for a house visitation, but when he finally arrives at her house, Nozomu simply leaves after a glance. Chiri wonders if he wouldn’t be inspecting the house, but Nozomu confirms that he has certainly seen enough already. Chiri expresses her belief that the visit was made useless because of this when the two meet at school the next day, but this only brings Nozomu to discuss the various changes in attitude that Japanese people have as they grow older. This brings the students to recall many different things that Japanese society prefers, from Maria’s disillusioned vision of what men prefer in a woman to Kudo’s observation of what people like at the end of a story.

As the class visits town, they further confirm the Japanese’s love for their home after seeing things like Nami’s eating in a ramen house. Not wanting the students to simply observe, and wanting them to properly represent their home as well, Nozomu goes to Kiri in belief that no one wants to see a hikkikomori in their home. This makes him mention that there are occasionally times when people break out of their stereotype. Of course, this brings the students to suggest that even Nozomu have a change of pace. Chiri takes revenge on Nozomu, and the officers questioning her in the aftermath refuse to accept her simple excuses.

Chiri one day walks into Nozomu’s house to see him in a very sloppy state. Nozomu credits this to the news dealing with an earthquake, believing that leaving the house will not amount to anything. Chiri wonders if he actually believes something like this, but Nozomu then replies with his belief that everyone secretly believes it. Chiri is shocked to see the rest of the class in unrefined states afterwards, as they all refuse to do anything. Nozomu then states his realization that he does need to do something, just as many people in Japanese society do in different situations. This brings the students to all suggest their own need to do things even thought hey know it is in vain, such as buying tickets to an event that they know they will not actually be able to attend.

As many things will not be preformed, Nozomu and the students then bring up various pieces of material that they were looking forward to reading. As no one will be doing anything anyways, many possibilities of things that typically wouldn’t be possible are brought up. This even brings Kafuka to suggest that Nozomu practice love, and when a partner is searched for, Ai is chosen. Ai initially doesn’t have confidence, but she agrees anyways after being told that such things would not really follow through. Making her quite angry though, this brings Chiri to meet Ai in a very threatening way later.

As the reading of books has declined quite a bit recently, the library committee requests an opinion from Nozomu to see what he believes would increase the activity. With this, Nozomu suggests changing the titles of some books. Looking at various influences from different nationalities among other things, Nozomu begins to suggest very drawn out names. Upon Nami’s suggestion though, Nozomu begins to brainstorm simpler names. In the end, the committee wonders if it even matters what kind of name is displayed on the front of a book. This leads Kino and Kudo to have a challenge, leading the two to give different names to various books that Nozomu picks out. As the committee watches to see which books everyone picks out though, they find that no one will start reading a book simply because the name has been changed.

As Kino wishes to continue his challenge with Kudo, Nozomu leads the students to a change of location in the form of a video and audio rental store. As there are many deceiving titles which had previously failed to meet Nozomu’s expectations, Nozomu recalls the many cases where the label on an item would be completely wrong. When Kafuka appears, however, she decides that titles must wonderfully display what they are meant to represent. Chiri soon appears in annoyance that she was not called to such an important meeting, then mentioning that Nozomu has not been in despair recently despite the name of the series being “Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.” Of course, this leads to a misfortunate fate for him.

Impression:

I have to go to work, but Aroduc wasn’t going to leave me alone if I put this off any longer. I’ll put up a proper impression when I get back tonight, or later depending on how exhausted I am.

Notes:

• The words for the day were “katei”, “jishin”, and “henjo.” None have truly direct translations to english (as usual), making puns somewhat hard to come across to those who do not understand Japanese. (What’s new?)
• I absolutely loved the parody in styles, with the third segment being almost too pretty for me to take. Mmmm…prettiness.
• Seeing all the characters and their usual quirkiness never gets old.
• Lots of cameo appearances as usual, with Clannad, Lucky Star, Negima, and Zettai Karen Children parodies being very obvious among others.
• The ending that didn’t make its appearance until the end of Zoku, “Omamori,” finally made a second appearance at the end of the episode.
• Kafuka, you will always shine more brightly than Ranka.
• Naked Rin…..ogawd fap fap fap
• Yea, I was here since the beginning. What. Try to be more Shaft fanboy!!!

EDIT: As much as I would like to talk about things like national pride or what there is in a name, I put off revision for so long that I don’t feel like I can return to this post without putting in a considerable amount of time. Leaving the post as it is!