Title
"The Group With Confession Silk Crepe" (告白縮緬組 kokuhaku chirimen gumi), a pun on Kunieda Shirô's 1924 novel "The Group With Red and White Silk Crepe" (紅白縮緬組 kôhaku chirimen gumi).
First published on January 7, 2009
Page 1
Independent Training
Training without the coach
Page 2
Sign (Panel 1)
"428" - Reference to the Nintendo Wii game 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de.
Itoshiki Chiru
A pun on the comic Zettai Karen Children, which is often abbreviated to Zecchiru (which is what Itoshiki Chiru becomes when you crunch it together like all the other Itoshikis)
Page 3
Surrender Training
Pun on "independent training" mentioned earlier in the chapter. The kanji for jishu (自主, meaning "independent") are replaced with the homonym 自首, meaning "surrender"
Page 4
Newspapers (Panel 3)
"Goro Member" and "Insider Trading" both refer to SMAP member Inagaki Goro, and this incident in particular.
Page 7
Surrender Mark
自首マーク (Jishu Mâku) a pun on the JIS Mark, which is also pronounced Jishu Mâku
Page 9
Poster above blackboard (Panel 1)
"Note: Tatsuwa" - Tatsuwa is the name of the director of the SZS anime.
Page 10
Conan-san and Kindaichi-san
Refers to Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shonen.
Page 11
Magazine (Panel 4)
The text along the edge of the page says "It's Misamisa" - reference to Death Note
Despair List
- Aojiru explicitly saying it tastes bad.
- A brand of health drink. There's a commercial where a guy says "Ah…that tastes bad…one more glass."
- When you admit the cost of stuff like canned juice, no one wants to buy it anymore
- The contents of some brands of juice cost as little as 10 yen.
- In the old days they admitted it was black rice, and the sales came to a stop
- A reference to [search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn19970616b3.html this].
- The student who voluntarily left university after admitting his story was a lie
- Reference to this.
- Compulsory retirement after admitting the agenda in a document, followed by a trashing in the media
- Refers to former Chief of Staff of the JASDF Toshio Tamogami, who wrote an essay stating that Japan was lured into WWII by China and America, and that Japan's occupation of foreign territories brought prosperity to the people under its rule.
- Civil servants wanting to claim they were treated poorly effectively
- Refers to an incident in Osaka, where civil servants complained openly about their low salary.
- Admitting a game was fixed and then dying in the hospital under strange circumstances.
- Refers to two famous sumo wrestlers, Kan Konosuke and Hashimoto Seiichiro, who died in 1996. Their deaths occurred on the same day, after coming down with an unspecified illness around the same time as each other, leading most people to think they were poisoned. The reason that murder is suspected in this case is that shortly before they were hospitalized, the two published a book claiming to be an expose of the sumo world, sharing details of orgies, rampant drug use, and match fixing.
- You eventually admit there weren't weapons of mass destruction, and shoes are thrown at you
- Reference to GWB, the war in Iraq, and this incident.