Title
"Bean Throwing Gonnoshin" (豆まきごんのしん mamemaki gonnoshin) is a pun on the fantasy novel "Watering Gonnoshin" (水まきごんのしん mizumaki gonnoshin) by Ariko Wada(?) (和田安里子)
First appeared in Shonen Magazine on January 27, 2010.
Page 1
Setsubun
The holiday of Setsubun (Feb. 3), is accompanied by the act of mamemaki, or throwing beans to expel bad spirits from the household. Traditionally, this is done with soybeans, but some parts of the country use shelled peanuts instead. One prefecture that commonly uses peanuts for mamemaki is Ishikawa Prefecture, which coincidentally (or not) is where Ryouko Shintani (Nami's seiyuu) is from.
Page 2
Bean Trivia
Little tidbits of trivia are known as “bean knowledge” (豆知識 mamechishiki) in Japan.
Page 3
Backgrounds (Panel 1)
- The Founder
- The Main Family - Great Knowledge - Decision
- Variety Knowledge-sama
- A pun on the quiz-show “Variety Knowledge King” (雑学王 zatsugaku ou)
- Bean Knowledge Lecture
- A reference to a program that appears on several JR trains in Tokyo, "60 seconds of variety knowledge”.
- The buried gold lies in Gunma!
- Towards the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, supporters of the regime began moving gold into abandoned mines around Gunma Prefecture (a Tokugawa stronghold) to prevent it from being used by the Meiji Reformists. While most of this gold was eventually recovered, there are still legends of large caches located throughout the prefecture.
- Grumbling Kid
- つぶつこ (butsubutsu ko), a pun on "Grain Kid" (こつぶっこ kotsubukko), a real sweets brand
- In French, it's called Mamelon!
- Nipple.
Page 4
Zetsubou Sensei Bean Trivia!
- The school has sold its naming rights?!
- A callback joke to the subject of [szs-chapter-1|Chapter 1]. It's actually a running joke in the series, which is more apparent in the anime. That's why the school frequently appears with a different name every time it's shown.
- There are 32 students at this time.
- Which means there have to be three (unnamed) new students since two students had been promoted one year before and one (Shun Honoi) had transferred schools.
- Hometown
- Nozomu's hometown is listed as Kuraizawa, Shinshuu prefecture. Kuraizawa is a pun on Karuizawa, a town located in the Kitasaku District of Nagano Prefecture. Nagano Prefecture used to be called Shinano Province, which was abbreviated as Shinshuu.
- His neck is trained, making it stronger than the person!
- See Chapter 109, where it's revealed that Sensei trains the muscles in his neck to prevent his neck from breaking when he hangs himself.
- Does he really use it everywhere he goes?
- The one he uses in Chapter 4 looks awfully similar, as does the one in Chapter 208, so I think it's a safe bet to assume that he does.
- They sell all of those at Nebatakanamono.
- A fictional store in the Golden Ginza Shopping District.
- EN - Best
- Refers to Sensei's "Best of Enya" CD for stategic use during (or for) suicide. (Also appears in Chapter 4 {page 6, panel 5})
- A loincloth is a hand-me-down from the eldest son!
- The loincloth says "Zetsuen", which means "to break off relations with". It's a reference to the pun that Enishi Itoshiki's name forms.
- Does he have a soft spot for this woman?
- Too bad that's Kafuka in her college disguise. It'll all end in tears, I'm sure.
- Mysterious travelling history
- The picture shows spies from a "mysterious country" (actually North Korea).
- Uropen
- "Has a slight beard?" - One chapter showed him shaving.
- "Has a rank higher than Chiri Kitsu." -In Chapter 83, Chiri is the "Split-in-the-Middle Shogun", while Uropen is an Emperor Penguin.
Filler (Panel 2)
Nozomu refers to the preceding panel as "filler for not having a chapter last week". The week before this chapter was published, no chapter of SZS appeared, and there was a note in the index of Shonen Magazine announcing that Kumeta had gone to America to gather material.
Page 5
Hippo Sweat
They do appear to sweat a red substance, but it's actually a mucus.
Mori Ougai
Mori Ougai was a doctor turned novelist who wrote during the early 20th century. Mori enlisted in the Imperial Army after getting a medical degree at Tokyo University, after which he was sent to Germany (the busiest center of medical studies at the time), where he studied under Max von Pettenkofer. Mori's grandson, Max, was named after von Pettenkofer. In kanji, "Max" is written 真章 ( makusu).
Tama
Refers to a cat from the long-running manga/anime franchise Sazae-san. While in the comics, Wakame (Sazae's little sister) once had a cad named Mii, she later picked up Tama and raised it. Tama and Mii are not the same cat.
Lucky Direction (Panel 6)
Another part of the Setsubun holiday is eating Eho-maki, while facing in a "lucky direction", determined by the zodiac symbol of the year. In 2010, the lucky direction was West-South-West.
Page 6
Backgrounds (Panel 1)
- Senzu
- Magic bean from the Dragonball series.
- Jack
- Reference to the story "Jack and the Beanstalk".
- Ukulele class Watanabe
- Taken from a commercial for a snack called “Jack”, which contains peas. Peas are called "pea beans" (エンドウ豆 endoumame) in Japanese.
- It's nothing, Shop Azuki
- A line from the opening theme of the anime Azuki-chan. "Azuki" also is the name of a strain of red beans.
- Sashisuse-soy
- A reference to the "Sa Shi Su Se So" of Japanese cooking - the most common ingredients found in Japanese cuisine. Sa is sugar (砂糖 satou), Shi is Salt (塩 shio), Su is Vinegar (酢 su), Se is soy sauce (醤油 shouyu, originally spelled せあうゆ seauyu in Hiragana) and So is Miso (味噌). On SZBH, Kamiya and Shintani couldn't remember what the “So” was, so they came up with weird stuff like Soy (spelled in english) and Sausages (ソーセージ sooseeji).
Page 7
Ai Kaga Bean Trivia!
- Sometimes she doesn't have a mole!
- Kumeta forgets to draw it on occasion.
- Aluminum can
- Reads "Gomen Yo", a reference to old cans produced by Suntory, which had "Gomen Ne" written on the bottom.
- Email address
- Ai's email address, pj.en.omacad|usedniuraw-agihsataw#pj.en.omacad|usedniuraw-agihsataw, comes from the phrase "Watashi ga waruin desu", meaning "I'm the one at fault". Dacamo is a pun on the Japanese ISP/portal Docomo.
- Mobile Phone Number
- 090-510 is a normal beginning of an NTT Docomo Number. '510' can also be read as "go-too", a reference to Ai's seiyuu, Saori Gotou.
- 52 individual t-shirts with crabs and others
- She received them as a gift from Kino in Chapter 99.
- Debit card
- Ai's debit card comes from the Mitsuwi Sumitomo Bank (三ゐ済友銀行), a pun on the Mitsui Sumitomo Bank (三井住友銀行).
- Family crest
- Ai's family crest is derived from the Kaga Umebachi Crest.
- There are many cases in which she gets wet and stays calm
- For some reason, Ai usually gets caught in the rain.
- Her left breast is larger
- This is actually the case for most women.
Page 8
Pigeon Bus
A sight gag based on an actual company “Hato Bus” (translates to Pigeon Bus)
Page 9
Signs (Panel 1)
- Hatoya
- Shortbread
- Comes from a shortbread brand called "Hato", which is shaped like a pigeon.
- Specialized in moving
- The motto of a company named “The Moving Center with the Pigeon Mark”
- Pigeonwork
- "Hato" would sound like the Japanese pronouciation of "heart", making this a pun on the eroge Heartwork.
- Freedom for Pigeons
- Book
- One of the pigeons is carrying a book called "Complete Pigeon Collection", a pun on educational books for children published by Popura-sha.
Page 10
Pigeon Clock
In Japan, cuckoo clocks are referred to as pigeon clocks.
Tomimi.com (Panel 5)
A pun on hatomimi.com, a website set up by the Japanese government so people could complain about public offices.
Pigeons taking over government
A reference to Yukio Hatoyama, then prime minister of Japan. Hatoyama's family name literally means "Pigeon Mountain".
Page 11
Home of Friendship (Panel 1)
A reference to Hatoyama's Friendship Policy.
Bean-eating
Another Setsubun tradition is to eat a bean for every year you've been alive, to ensure continued good health.
Give us good wisdom!
Nozomu uses a pretty old fashioned term for "good", yoki (良き) instead of the more modern yoi (良い).
Welsh Onions
Apparently, they do keep better if you stand them upright!
Bean-shooter
"looking like a pigeon that's eaten a bean-shooter" is a Japanese phrase meaning "an astonished look". Bean-shooters look like this.
Page 13
Sign (Panel 1)
The sign reads "Loopy", a term that an American journalist used to describe Hatoyama. Read more here.
