“High School Boys and the New Term” is the 32nd chapter of the manga.
Cover Page[]
End scene of Chapter 31. Yoshitake’s older sister takes a swig from a can labelled ‘Beer’.
Detailed Summary[]
Yoshitake walks into class and greets Motoharu and two other students (a brown-haired and a bespectacled one), who are the only ones in class. They discuss what they did over the winter break and Yoshitake says he played video games. When asked what kind, he says it’s the She*lock Holmes game on the NES and expects them not to have heard of it. The others instantly say that it’s an action game involving kicking, in which touching the townspeople results in instant death, and that it’s so bad that the trick to winning is hitting ‘continue’. Yoshitake is amazed they know so much.
Everyone else knows a lot about Yoshitake's game
The student with glasses wonders out loud why old games are so hard to clear, to which Yoshitake says it’s to feel a sense of achievement. The brown-haired student asks if anyone has played the Legends of **** game on the NES, but the others haven’t heard of it. Motoharu adds that most high-schoolers don’t play on the NES anymore.
Yoshitake then brings out a giggle from the others when he says the wind just made a noise like ‘miso coated tofu’. The homeroom teacher then enters, and the students greet her. She tells them there was a mistake in the flyers circulated at the end of the last term and begins writing something on the chalkboard. She continues that she managed to inform most people, but their group had been missed out.
The teacher flees the scene
Turning around, she reveals the message on the board - which reads “It’s still winter break. School opens tomorrow” – before fleeing the classroom laughing. The annoyed boys chase after her.
Characters[]
In order of appearance:
Notes[]
- The homeroom teacher is introduced.
- Megane and Chapatsu are given speaking roles for the first time. Megane means 'Glasses' in Japanese and Chapatsu refers to the particular hairstyle the character uses.
- The games the boys discuss are based on real NES games:
- Sherlock Holmes: The Kidnapping of the Earl's Daughter is a 1986 action game. The description of game mechanics is also somewhat accurate.
- The Legend of Kage is a 1985 arcade game that was later released on various other platforms.