Title
"The Right Answer Thirty Years Later" (三十年後の正解 sanjû nen go no seikai) is a pun on "The World Thirty Years Later" (三十年後の世界 sanjû nen go no sekai).
First published in Shonen Magazine on March 4, 2009.
Title Page
Kafuka's pose seems reminiscent of Richard Dawkins, host of the American game show Family Feud. Another one of Dawkin's well known roles is that of Damon Killian in the movie The Running Man.
The figure standing on Sanosuke's desk (second from left) is Hitoshi-kun, mascot of the game show "Hitachi World Mysteries Discovery"
Page 1
Backgrounds (Panel 1)
The cup says "Strange - Kanken". 変, meaning "strange" or "to change" was selected as the Kanji of the Year in 2008 by some obscure vote. The Kanken is a test designed to show a person's mastery of reading and writing kanji. To pass the highest level of the Kanken, one needs to know approximately 6000 kanji.
One of the books on Nozomu's desk reads "Study Instructions", but it is the "study" of the room sort.
Chiri's test (Panel 3)
The items "Unheard of" and "Frequent" are two words that former Prime Minister Taro Aso misread in a speech. He's known for making a large number of reading errors, which suggest that he may suffer from dyslexia.
"Sprout Platemaking" (双葉 futaba) was probably supposed to be "Double-sided print" (二葉 futaba).
Page 2
THE QUIZ SHOW (Panel 3)
There actually is a television show called "The Quiz Show".
TV Teikyo
A pun on TV Tokyo. Teikyo means "Capital of the Emperor".
Page 3
Contestant Names (Panel 1)
"Obama/Kobama" are an actual Japanese comedy duo. They don't actually resemble Barack Obama, though. "Don Buriko" is the name of another comedy duo.
Monkeys (Panel 2)
The saying "Even monkeys fall from trees" is the Japanese equivalent of "pride comes before the fall" or "even Homer sometimes nods".
Floating (Panel 4)
"The Kappa flowing down the river" (河童の河流れ) is indeed another phrase with the same meaning.
Page 4
Contestant Names (Panel 1)
"Ujiie Hajime" is a mashup of an actor's name and his character in the film "Nippon Musekinin Jidai”. "Aojima Shunsaku" is the name of the main character in the drama series “Odoru Diasôsasen”.
DAIGO (Panel 3)
DAIGO is a Japanese singer, who is the grandson of former Prime Minister Takeshita Noboru.
Page 6
Han-class submarines (Panel 1)
"Han", as in Han-Chinese.
Highest secretary (Panel 2)
Takeshita Keiko is an actress.
Submarine (Panel 3)
A submarine, almost undoubtedly of Chinese origin, was detected deep within Japan's territorial waters on September 18, 2008. News story.
Jong-Nam (Panel 7)
Kim Jong-Il's eldest son. The incident referenced here took place in May 2001, when he botched an attempt to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Page 7
Makudaneru (Panel 2)
The Katakanized version of "McDonald's".
Posters (Panel 4)
"Pokkemura" is a village in Monster Hunter Portable. "Londalchia" is a village in Dragon Quest II.
Despair List
- If you produce Calpis with the right ratio, everyone will call it fake
- You pay the regular fees when going by plane and feel like you've lost
- Flying by plane, no matter how cheap the company or how many discounts you get by booking early, is still a fairly expensive means of transport.
- When you correctly pronounce it Jagwaa, you're asked if you're trying to show off
- When you marry your beloved dutch wife, no one says anything and just looks at you with curious eyes
- Although wikipedia suggests that dakimakura may also fit this definition
- When a transsexual enters the right toilet according to the family register, everyone is frightened
- The right toilet being the sex they were born as.
- In the old days, there were proper civil servants who said “Black-market rice is evil” and therefore only survived on the right rice and died of starvation.
- The profit when you escape from the present road traffic act
- Presently, in Japan, drunk driving is punishable by either 5 years in jail or a 10 million yen (~$100,000) fine.
Nameplate (Panel 6)
The nameplate of the special director says "xxx xyuki", a reference to Tetsuwa Naoyuki, the special director for Zan SZS.
Nameplate (Panel 7)
"Ko Seitei, SZBH lyricist" - Ko Seitei wrote the theme song for SZBH.
Gondola (Panel 12)
It's interesting to note that Nozomu's gondola is #4, as 四 is pronounced the same way as 死 (death).
Page 8
Up-Down Quiz
"Up" is written in English, with furigana beside it that says "loud". "Down" has furigana beside it that say "depressed".
Page 10
LASIK (Panel 6)
In December 2008, Hata Kenjiro (author of Hayate and also Kumeta's former assistant) had LASIK surgery. Hiroshi Kamiya (Nozomu's VA) also had LASIK some years back. The "you can get popular, too" part of the ad is probably due to the fact that Hayate generates great sales (bettering SZS most times), and Kamiya is a fairly well-employed voice actor.
Page 11
Pinboard (Panel 5)
Reads "Destruction of evidence 2nd Generation Anjo - Lineage". Anjo is the name of the family that the drama series "The Policeman's Lineage" is centered on.
Page 12
Midoriyama Studio
This is the location that the TV station TBS broadcasts from.
Page 13
Emperor
"But the Emperor is naked!" is a line from the fairytale "The Emperor's New Clothes"
