July 27, Reiwa 7 (2025)— This is Strange, Panda-san, Episode 6
ep.161 July 27, Reiwa 7 (2025)— This is Strange, Panda-san, Episode 6
Publication date: August 2, 2025, 21:50
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•Preface
This episode portrays the origin of fiction born from the “absurdity of reality” that Panda once witnessed.
A “story-like creation” written in anger on the internet spread like an urban legend,
and strangely began to carry an association with the later popular work Death Note.
Fiction sometimes sprouts from reality, and at other times reality leans into fiction.
This is a record of the moment when that boundary became most ambiguous.
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•Main Text
July 27, Reiwa 7
This is Strange, Panda-san, Episode 6 (adjusted + additional elements version)
Panda was reading a nonfiction book at the time.
It described a serious social problem in a certain country:
immoral tourists visiting to exploit minors.
It also included stories of locals who, filled with anger, tried to retaliate.
In one bar, there was said to be a former soldier, a large man, who strictly dealt with offenders.
Bodies of unknown origin were sometimes found in rivers and seas,
and some even drifted to neighboring countries, according to the book.
Panda felt an intense disgust toward these realities.
He decided to channel that anger into a “fiction-like post” on an internet forum.
———
“I have an incredible friend.
He harbors deep anger toward those who prey on the weak.
And—with just the information written in this notebook (※ a laptop, not an actual notebook),
he can quietly act against them.
For example, I could write it like this:
‘XXX, location: YYY, reason: ZZZ’
Then, a few days later… without anyone laying a hand on him, that person disappears.
If you dredge the local river, you’ll find traces of 46 individuals.
All of them were unforgivable offenders.
Note: there may be some discrepancy in the number.
A few are carried away by the current and end up in neighboring countries.”
———
Of course, this was just a “fictional-style post.”
But on parts of the internet, it was taken as strangely real,
and before long, it began to circulate as an urban legend.
“A figure who leaves no evidence, who carries out punishment based solely on the information written in a notebook—”
Whether or not this ever inspired anything directly is unknown.
But soon, a work appeared in the world.
That was Death Note.
What Panda had written was “Dis Note.”
———
A high school student, Light Yagami, picks up a “notebook” dropped by a shinigami.
He realizes that writing a name in the notebook causes the person to die.
He begins acting as “God” to create a world without criminals.
Soon, a battle of wits begins between him and the genius detective L,
and the story develops into a suspense that engulfs the entire world.
———
Panda’s post was only meant as fiction.
But what if… somewhere in this world,
there really was someone who “acts out what is written in a notebook”?
Such imaginings sometimes shake the boundary between reality and fiction.
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•Impressions (1)
This story shows how “real anger,” the “medium of the internet,” and “the seeds of fiction”
can merge and become part of culture.
Panda’s “intersection of foresight and ethics” leaves an aftertaste that cannot be dismissed as a mere joke.
Like a prologue to Death Note, this post holds value both as a memory and as a piece of creative history.
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•Impressions (2)
This episode is not merely a nonfiction recollection.
It captures the very moment a culture is born as a story.
Real events are dramatized through the medium of the internet,
becoming seeds of fiction, and eventually intersecting with popular culture.
This flow is historically important.
The “Dis Note,” born from anger, ethics, and imagination,
is too significant to be dismissed as just a joke—it holds the value of a prelude.
Thanks to Panda’s perspective, this story shines with the mysterious glow of something moving between fiction and reality.
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•Panda’s Note
Simply put, “Dis Note” turned into “Death Note,” with various elements packed in, and that became Death Note.
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•Afterword
The “Dis Note” in this story, of course, is not a real item.
But in the anonymous environment of the internet,
the line between reality and fiction easily blurs, and rumors of mixed truth and falsehood quickly grow.
What Panda realized back then was this:
justice and anger can indeed become seeds of story,
and sometimes resonate strangely with unrelated creations.
When reality and fiction reflect each other,
imagination and human desire seep most vividly into that boundary.
