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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Comments

Hello! I am finally updating again 😆✨

I hope you have all been well!
Enjoy the new story 🌈💞
I am looking forward to reading your comments ❤️🧡💓✨
allucinator said…
This unnerves me. It inspires paranoia, being alienated, feeling like the whole society is tormenting you. The extreme pain of frustration. The way his confidence corroded... His desperation to know the meaning of the word.

Felt like it happened in one of my past lives.
Well, at least in this life you know what Zundoko-Veroncho is. You know it, right?😆⭐⭐⭐

Thank you so much for your comment!🙏✨
Anonymous said…
my god, the pain must be too much to handle, but what does it even mean though? Im pretty sure he could have suicided cuz of that. This tells us that even if you do great in everything, failing in one can make you lose everything you have.

-that one anonymous
That's an interesting way of looking at the story!✨🌈

For me, it feels like he got punished for having too much pride!😆⭐

I wonder if he wasn't so full of pride, he would have simply asked someone for the meaning, or was he destined to remain ignorant of it?

I think this story is creepy as well as funny!

Thank you so much for your comment 😊🙏🌷✨
allucinator said…
Perhaps Hehehehe 😂
GailTheGemini said…
Thanks for the interesting story again Saya.
My take on it was that everyone around him was in collaboration to destroy Mikami's confidence with a made-up word as they are fed up with his attitude. But you never know I guess
George V said…
I think he was already losing it and created the word in his own mind for things he did not know. So every time he heard a word he did not understand, his own mind replaced it with Zundoko-Veroncho. As time went on, he bought more and more into the delusion, until he was hearing it all the time.
welcome back, Saya-san~ <3
thanks for this interesting story!!

and... i think i agree with the comment above, the word is just a gibberish and Mikami is starting to lose his mind.
Ekky Sanyotho said…
In other words, his mind created some kind of mental block that disallowed him to learn what the actual words is. since he always hears zundoko-veroncho as replacement.
Anonymous said…
I preferably think he was destined to remain ignorant of it till it hurt him enough

-that one anonymous
Second Sun said…
Sayaaa-! おかえりなさい!!

Thank you for the interesting story translation! Before I finished reading, I thought it was a plot by his colleagues to get revenge for his boasting and insults but it's actually worse LOL

Hahaha well he won't ever be arrogant anymore. It's always better to be humble and it costs nothing to be polite!
Perhaps!😆🌷⭐Thank you so much for your theory #
Wow, a very interesting theory! Sometimes I think people who look down on others have secret fear that they might be looked down on by someone else.😆✨Thank you so much, both of you, for your comments!
Thank you so much for welcoming me back😄💕✨

Maybe he was having hallucinations like the one in the post "Great Commander Syndrome"!

Thank you so much for your comment!
Thank you so much for your kind words!😊🙏🧡❤️💖✨

Yes, if you watch the actual drama, not only his colleagues but every random person he sees is talking about Zundoko-Veroncho, and also it's used on TV too! So it's either his hallucinations or it's actually happening to him!

I am so glad you enjoyed it! It makes my day🌼💞✨

Thank you so much for your comment!
Anonymous said…
*Insert meme, "at this point, I'm too afraid to ask" 😆

Poor Mikami, he must be gone mad..
Somehow I imagine the story in Junji Ito's drawing. (are you familiar with him ? Horror mangaka)
The madness and horror Mikami went through.. yet amusing at the same time lol !

I read the wiki about Tales of the Unusual, seems interesting !
I know Junji Ito, but I never read him or Kazuo Umeo. Their drawings are too terrifying 😆⭐

It is quite amusing, actually!

I will be posting more stories from the Tales of the Unusual in the near future! I hope you will like them too😄🌸💕✨ Thank you so much for your comment!
Anonymous said…
I guess it is similar to the Sugma and Ligma variant, of which those who don't know will be ridiculed greatly. Also there are Chokonma, Gobolma, Sawcon, Suchondis... and many more

yeah, the internet has ruined us all.

Now back to the topic, this is quite similar to psychological torture used by east German police back then.
I must be considered an ignoramus then, because I don't know any of that stuff 😆🌼✨

Really?😆⭐ That must have been terrifying!

Thank you so much for your comment!
Anonymous said…
i see, Zundoko Veroncho huh
Finally I get a comment from someone who knows about Zundoko-Veroncho as much as I do 🤣⭐
Anonymous said…
Maybe the Zundoko-Veroncho are the friends we made along the way?
Anonymous said…
You definitly don't want to know about Ligma or Sugma.
What!? LOL
You clearly don't know what it is! Shame on you!🤣🤣🤣✨✨
I probably don't 🤣🤣🤣🌼✨