The old man speaks in front of a blackboard lined with mathematic formulae.
Old Teacher:“The water level of the oceans rose, the Earth was thrown off its axis, and abnormal weather patterns throughout the world threatened the lives of all living things.”
Mr. Tines: Did the chalk monitor forget to clear the board at the end of the previous lesson — or previous day?
Dr. Nick: From Kiyone of ANF's collection of nitpicks:
In the original sketches for the classroom, shown in [Newtype 100% Collection], "blackboard" was originally going to be a white Liquid Crystal Display with the words appearing in black! (This would have been similar to the "blackboard" as seen in the opening theme song sequence to the first episode of Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, but that one was in colour.) In the end, they just went with a regular green blackboard.
Mr. Tines: The katakana ("Second Impact") give the subject of the current class, and have no relationship with the simple algebra that covers most of the board. (And what a difference a few years make — no chunks here of the introduction to 'C' programming like there was on the board in Serial Experiments Lain.)
Reichu: Note the bit about the Earth being thrown off its axis. This elaborates on what Weather Girl told us earlier about Japan losing its four seasons.
Mr. Tines: How old is the teacher? On the high side of 70, I'd guess by appearance. Which would mean old enough to have childhood memories of the immediate post-war reconstruction, if not of the war, in addition to having had to cope with 2I in middle age.
HeWhoPostsStuff: I guess that early retirement in a post-2I world really isn't much of an option…though supposedly teachers in Japan are paid better than they are around here. Then again, so are garbage collectors.
