Zundoko-Veroncho

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(Translated and arranged by Saya)

You don't know what Zundoko-Veroncho is? Seriously?

⭐This is a plot summary of a famous episode from the TV drama series "Tales of the Unusual ( A film version of the series is on Wikipedia)." 

The story takes place in the Bubble Era (1986-1991). 

The protagonist is Shuji Mikami, an elite businessman married with a wife and a daughter. 

Mikami is a highly intelligent and well-read man, and takes advantage of every opportunity at work to show off his broad knowledge, especially of words. Everyone around him is in awe of him. 

Mikami himself boasts that "there's nothing I don't know under the sun," and looks down on his co-workers for not knowing the sophisticated words he uses, condemning them to be stupid and useless in his mind. 

One day, Mikami overhears his co-workers talk about "Zundoko-Veroncho," a word completely alien to him. 

His co-workers talk about it like it is familiar to them all, and they even say to one another that if you have never seen Zundoko-Veroncho, you cannot call yourself an expert in their field of work. 

"Have you seen it, Mr. Mikami?"

One of them suddenly asks him.

Mikami replies, "yes, of course, I have. It's not bad at all. In fact, I'm pretty impressed by it," although he hasn't got a clue as to what it is. 

"This is disgraceful! How can there be something I don't know?" 

Mikami immediately goes out to buy the latest magazines about TV (he thinks it is something that was shown on TV) and even goes to a library to peruse various kinds of dictionaries in search of information about Zundoko-Veroncho, but try as he might, he cannot find it.

Before Mikami knows, "Zundoko-Veroncho" ("Zun-Vero" for short) becomes a new trend, and the word is on the mouth of every person he meets.

Even his wife and daughter are talking about Zundoko-Veroncho. Mikami strains his ears while they talk to each other in an attempt to catch the meaning of the word, but fails to do so. If he asks them to tell him what it is, he only succeeds in making his daughter cry and his wife unhappy.

Naturally, other people around him often draw him into conversation about Zundoko-Veroncho, but he feels he has already lost the opportunity to ask the meaning of it, and he resigns himself to nodding and uttering noncommittal replies. 

But sometimes, his responses miss the mark, resulting in incurring the displeasure of the people around him (for example, he once gets into trouble with one of his superiors because of it). 

Mikami tries to guess the meaning as best as he can, but none of his guesses ever comes close to the actual meaning of the word. Not only that, but also its usage seems to be different in every conversation, which confuses Mikami even more. 

After overhearing his wife and daughter's conversation, Mikami comes up with a guess that Zundoko-Veroncho might be a "children's favourite cartoon character" and draws, rather obsessively, numerous pictures of Zundoko-Veroncho by his own hands. 

He then goes to a toy store and asks for Zundoko-Veroncho, but somehow his request causes the store to raise the alarm and a security guard grubs him and yells at him. He runs but ends up getting chased by the police.

No matter what he does to try to find out the meaning of the word, he inevitably fails, and he slowly begins to lose his mental stability.

He also blunders away several chances to fully grasp the meaning. 

Meanwhile, the corporation Mikami works for, unaware of the turmoil he is in, decides to launch a big project called "The Zundoko-Veroncho Project," and Mikami is promoted to be the chief manager of the project.  

 

A grand announcement is made within the corporation building, which states "Shuji Mikami has been promoted to the Chief Manager of The Zundoko-Veroncho Project! If you have any queries regarding Zundoko-Veroncho, ask Mikami! Leave it all to our Zundoko-Veroncho Mikami ! Banzai (Long Live) Mikami! " 

A great cheer goes up around Mikami as the announcement is made, with his superiors and subordinates alike clapping their hands, pulling crackers and shouting Banzai. 

 Mikami, feeling trapped and cornered, finally breaks down and mumbles out, "Please tell me..., what is... Zundoko-Veroncho?" 

Everyone suddenly falls silent and looks at him incredulously.  

As the cheering is replaced by voices of utter disappointment and dissaproval, Mikami shouts, "Please tell me ~~~!!!"

END

🌈[The 2015 Remake Version]

In the 2015 remake of the drama, Mikami is the CEO of an IT venture company, and is a famous figure in the world of business endowed with the epithet "the man who knows the world more than the internet does." 

Like in the original drama, he looks down on people who don't know as much words as he does, and when at the beginning of the drama his subordinate tries to search a certain word on the internet, Mikami exclaims, "you are googling for that?" 

But later on, when he is faced with the unknown word Zundoko-Veroncho, he googles for it himself, only to find a very complicated, indecipherable definition full of specialised terminology. 

He also searches for the pictures of the Zundoko-Veroncho on the internet, but the search results only show him many different kinds of pictures that seem totally unrelated to one another.  

At the end of the drama, Mikami is appointed by the prime minister to become the ambassador of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but at the inaugural ceremony, Mikami finally breaks down and asks "What is... Zundoko-Veroncho?" 

As the ceremony is aired on TV, this causes Mikami to become the target of widespread criticism, particularly on the internet where tons of memes ridiculing Mikami are created. Also the incident gets covered by the news media all over the world. 

In the last scene, Mikami is seen on the stage at the inaugural ceremony, and in the midst of frenzied crowds who shout and throw things at him, Mikami screams, "Please, someone tell me! What is Zundoko-Veroncho ~~!!"

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Note:

⭐You can watch the original version of Zundoko-Veroncho on YouTube from here (low quality, no English Translation)