Boys on the Run There was an elementary school boy who was severely bullied and plotted a terrorist attack by making a small bomb. On the day of the attack, the protagonist sensed what was happening, rushed to the elementary school to stop it, and hugged the boy. Just then, the bomb activated. The protagonist threw it out the window, resulting in a massive explosion. The protagonist was arrested on the spot by the police on suspicion of bringing a bomb into the elementary school. Moreover, branded with various bad reputations, he was treated as a heinous villain by society. Several years later, when the protagonist was released from prison, the boy—now grown up into a professional boxer—came to welcome him, and invited him to become his manager, bringing the story to an end.
Meteorite It was a movie from somewhere around China or Korea, though I forgot the title. The protagonist lost a precious family heirloom and ordered the exact same thing through online shopping. Just then, the news reported that a giant meteorite was approaching Earth. When the protagonist looked closely at the footage of the meteorite, it turned out to be the very product they had just ordered online! It turns out the shopping site the protagonist accessed and purchased from was an alien website, and the item was giant, scaled to alien sizes. The protagonist desperately searched for a way to cancel the order, barely managing to decode the alien language in the nick of time and successfully canceling it. The canceled product changed its orbit and missed the Earth. However, the entire world had already fallen into absolute panic, and World War III broke out. The protagonist's family escaped to an underground shelter and survived. As the protagonist gazed sorrowfully at the radically altered surface of the world, their family said: "Did you see that frenzy? Humanity is foolish to begin with. Even without that meteorite panic, sooner or later, we would have walked the path of self-destruction."
The Taiyaki Shop A bank employee was living a smooth sailing life, but wanting some excitement, he opened a trendy white taiyaki shop at the time. It sold like wildfire, bringing in an annual income of 50 million yen. Getting carried away, he rapidly expanded his branches, but then the boom faded and the shops became deserted. Even so, he still had to pay rent, ultimately leaving him with 30 million yen in debt, a divorce, and unable to see his two daughters anymore. I wonder if there was a story like that before. -> It's just like Tamagotchi. Recently, due to the Demon Slayer craze, the post office released a collaborative Demon Slayer stamp, but apparently it didn't sell at all. Jujutsu Kaisen, called the next Demon Slayer, also bombed with its collaboration. The world is a tough place, isn't it?
Ushimata-san A story about Ushimata-san from "Shigurui." Aiming to become a master swordsman, Ushimata-san left his hometown, leaving behind the beloved girlfriend he had sworn a future with, and entered a dojo famous throughout the land. The training at that dojo was uncommonly harsh. Ushimata-san endured the agony of the training by thinking of his beloved girlfriend. No matter how tough things got, when he closed his eyes, he could feel the "red thread" in the darkness connecting him to the girlfriend waiting for him in his hometown. One day, the master swordsman approached Ushimata-san and bluntly declared: "I can see a 'thread' inside you. Cut it." That very day, Ushimata-san castrated himself with his bare hands, severed his feelings for his girlfriend, and vowed to live by the sword alone.
The Story of Yamauchi Kazutoyo This is a hazy recollection, but it's an anecdote from the Sengoku or Edo period. There was a daimyo who had been appointed to govern a certain province. However, a large number of samurai from the faction that lost the previous battle remained in that territory as ronin, and due to lingering grudges, the mood was far from welcoming the new ruler. While the daimyo was at a loss, his wife proposed: "The people of this country seem to fond of sumo. Why not hold a sumo tournament and deepen friendly relations with the ronin?" The daimyo heartily agreed with his wife's brilliant idea and hosted a sumo tournament. Many ronin gathered for the tournament. But something smelled strange. "It smells like Tanegashima guns!" the ronin realized, but it was already too late. As the tournament curtains lowered, matchlock-wielding rifle squads appeared. "Surrender quietly and submit to arrest!" The daimyo had tricked the ronin into gathering under the guise of a sumo tournament to capture and execute them, wiping out the rebel elements in one fell swoop. Upon seeing this deed by her husband, the wife reportedly collapsed in a faint. -> That's the story of Yamauchi Kazutoyo of the Tosa Domain. Though in Ryotaro Shiba's "Koumyo ga Tsuji," Chiyo (his wife) indeed fainted, I feel that part was Shiba Ryotaro's invention.
Taro The painting "Taro" by painter Rinjiro Hasegawa. Rinjiro Hasegawa was a painter known for being a slow worker. This was because of his temperament: "I can't paint unless I look at the real thing." If he painted a landscape outdoors, he could no longer paint it once the weather or seasons changed, so it took him years to complete a single painting. When painting fruit, if the fruit rotted halfway through, he had to start over from scratch. It was then that he began painting his pet cat, Taro, curled up and sleeping. But cats are fickle creatures, constantly changing their posture. Therefore, Rinjiro could only paint Taro during those brief, precious moments when Taro was "curled up and sleeping." Sometimes it took a full year for Taro to sleep in the exact same posture again. And when six years had passed since he began painting Taro, just as the work had progressed to the point where only the whiskers were left to be drawn, Taro passed away. Unable to continue the painting without Taro, Rinjiro reluctantly resorted to a method he was usually bad at—"painting from imagination"—and managed to draw the whiskers on the left side, but could not draw the whiskers on the right side. (By the way, those whiskers are strangely clumsy, vividly conveying the fact that he truly had a temperament that made him terrible at drawing things from imagination without seeing the real thing.) -> Oh, so this is it. Knowing the backstory gives it a simple flavor that indeed leaves a bad aftertaste.
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