3

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is focused on the students of the class 2-H. Is there a hidden meaning to that class name or is it just a common class name in Japan?

I recently saw some other, possibly related anime, also with students in class 2-H, but I can't remember which one.

Hakase
  • 9,477
  • 12
  • 57
  • 110
  • 2
    Do you mean other than the year/grade (2) and the division within that year (H)? "H" may be a little high for the number of classrooms for a given grade, meaning there are at least 8 year-2 classes. – Jon Lin Jul 02 '13 at 01:27
  • I would assume it's what Jon Lin said because that's how they give class numbers. There probably isn't any sort of hidden meaning. – kuwaly Jul 02 '13 at 13:06
  • Is there anything in particular that makes you suspect that there's a meaning behind it? – Toshinou Kyouko Jul 02 '13 at 18:49

1 Answers1

2

I'm not sure where you got the information that the students are in class 2-H. Wikipedia lists Nozomu's class as 2-へ (2-He). Here, the number indicates the year, while the character indicates what class in the year they are in. Since へ is the 6th character in Iroha order, this would correspond to class 2-F. Incidentally, 2-ふ would be the 32nd class in year 2, which is far more than most Japanese high schools would have.

There's nothing really unusual about having 6 or more classes in a given year. It is a bit unusual that they're labeled in Iroha order, which is pretty old fashioned. It's more common (in my experience) for classes to be labeled with letters in the Roman alphabet or with numbers. I don't think there's any deep meaning to using this though; it just conjures a sort of old-fashioned feeling.

I can't think of any hidden meaning to 2-へ, but I have not read to the end of the manga so there could be something revealed at the end. If there is such a meaning, though, it isn't obvious and it certainly doesn't apply to other anime which have this same class name. The name is a pretty normal one, if old fashioned.

Logan M
  • 28,313
  • 27
  • 141
  • 225
  • Wikipedia is not the coolest source for [that kind of information](http://i.stack.imgur.com/mHp2l.png). This particular manga has a reason to be old-fashioned. – Hakase Jul 03 '13 at 07:08
  • 1
    @user1306322 For legality reasons, links to fansubs or scanalated manga aren't allowed here. With that said, I also don't always trust the translations for a series like this (fan-made or official). I've seen enough errors and poor translations that I'm wary of using them unless I check the accuracy myself. Wikipedia, while not perfect, is at least editable so that any minor errors I can fix myself. – Logan M Jul 03 '13 at 18:18
  • You're correct though that this manga does have an old-fashioned atmosphere, so the use of Iroha order makes sense here. – Logan M Jul 03 '13 at 18:19
  • I wonder if some translations assumed (or otherwise decided) to just shorten he to H (the first letter of he in romaji being H). H vs F could just be a matter of translation style since there isn't really a way to convey the old-fashioned part in English. – atlantiza Jul 07 '13 at 17:00