Meru Zetsubouda

Overview

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“	"Until now, my heart had held naught but despair... but this... feeling... This feeling, love... is like a real-life fairy tale!"	”
—Meru Zetsubouda to Rentarou Aijou at Chapter 177

Meru Zetsubouda
Name
Kanji	雪 (ぜつ) 房 (ぼう) 田 (だ) 夢 (め) 留 (る)
Romaji	Zetsubōda Meru
Personal Info
Status	Alive
Girlfriend Order	29th
Age	16
Birthday	♐November 30th
Gender	Female
Species	Human
Nationality	Japanese
Social Info
Occupation	Ohananomitsu High School student Fairy tale writer
Affiliation	Rentarou Family (member) Sukisugi Town (citizen)
Relations	Rentarou Aijou (boyfriend) Himeka Saiki (classmate) Mentarou Ike (classmate)
Physical Appearance
Eye Color	Black
Hair Color	Black
Cup Size	B
Media Appearance
Manga	Chapter 177

Meru Zetsubouda (雪 (ぜつ) 房 (ぼう) 田 (だ) 夢 (め) 留 (る) , Zetsubōda Meru^?) is Rentarou's 29th girlfriend. She is the writer of a fairy tale book entitled Yume's Home in the Clouds. She is a first year student at Ohananomitsu High School in Class 1-6.

Appearance

Meru has long, wavy black hair, and black eyes. As a child, her eyes were bright and sparkling - but after learning about how the world was filled with despair and calamity, her eyes are drawn without their shine.

Meru also tends to have a small - albeit somewhat creepy - smile as her default expression.

School Uniform

Meru wears the standard Ohananomitsu High School girl's uniform, with a lilac necktie and black mid-calf socks.

She also wears a lilac beret - which tends to get blown away by the wind easily.

Personality

Meru is defined by her depression and cynicism. She sees the world as irredeemable, believing that it "oozes despair from every pore". Meru considers hopes and dreams to be a falsehood that only exist in the hearts of children, and in fairy tales, hence her profession in writing fairy tales herself. Meru claims to do so to find salvation, implying that she feels guilty for something.

Despite this, Meru is also a very selfless and noble person. This was more apparent in her childhood, where she was shown helping an elder to cross the street and was called a teacher's pet as an insult. Meru's experience with bullying led her to learn about the world's misfortunes, believing that understanding another person's misfortune was necessary to save them from it, showing that she was more eager at the time. Even in the present day, Meru has dedicated herself to writing fairy tales to "save" others.

Abilities

Fairy Tale Writing

Meru writes fairy tales to save others from despairity.

Perception of Despair

Meru views the world as filled with despair and irredeemable aspects, leading her to immerse herself in the creation of fairy tales. She believes that while the world may lack hope, it resides within the hearts of individuals and can be nurtured through storytelling.

Despite her cynical outlook, Meru is inherently selfless and noble, dedicating herself to understanding others' misfortunes to better assist them. This empathy drives her to write stories that resonate with the struggles and hopes of her audience.

History

Meru was once a hopeful child. She did everything that she could to help mankind, examples being helping an elderly woman cross along the street and also being the volunteer for her teacher. However, as an innocent child, it was all deemed unimportant and she ignorant to the true nature of the world.

After growing up, she realized the true meaning of the world's sorrowness, as it was all about the misdeeds and the evil works of mankind that mattered, which made her to realize that she cannot save somebody else if she does not know what suffering they have been a victim of. With this realization, she had learned everything about the world that has to offer regarding on the suffering they face.

After six months of learning about the world and its dark nature, she finally thought that there is no hope left of this world, but rather in the heart of newborn, innocent children and in fairy tales. Her discovery for fairy tales caused her to write them. However, since she has come to learning the despair that is in this world, the more she sees it, the more she yearns on writing them.

One dusking day in Ohananomitsu High School, Aijou Rentarou and the Rentarou Family are heading home from the school roof, where Meme Kakure was holding on the fairy tale book called "Yume's Home in the Clouds", suggested by Shizuka Yoshimoto. Hakari Hanazono and Eira Kaho, testified that they have read the fairy tale and commended it for the beautiful message while Aashii Kedarui, and even to the likes of Karane Inda cried while reading it. Meru then was walking up to the school rooftop, and Rentarou was curious why she was going up to the rooftop at a late time like this.

Meru was then looking up on the edge of the school rooftop, overlooking the scenery of the town. Rentarou went back up to the school rooftop and saw Meru, who she was wallowing in despair. Rentarou was confused, asking Meru why, to which she responded that the world "oozes despair from every core". Rentarou then brought up the aforementioned fairy tale, in Rentarou's surprise, she turns out to be the author of the story.

Rentarou decided he wants to listen to all of her misfortunes and is willing to share his burden with her. In response to that, Meru didn't accept, hating to snuff out that hope that Rentarou still has. Rentarou then said that there is also love that is left in this world, but Meru refutes that love is only smeared with the greed and concession of man, leading to her believing that it is a concept that they should work on themselves to deserve it, and it is a joy that can save lives.

Rentarou is not ready to say goodbye to her and wants her to live in the life of joy and laughter, holding hands with her. Meru now realizes that love is like a real-life fairy tale and asks Rentarou to go out with her.

Etymology

• Zetsubouda means "Snow" (雪 (ぜつ) ), "Room/Chamber" (房 (ぼう) ), and "Field" (田 (だ) )
  • Zetsubou is homophone of kanji 絶 (ぜつ) 望 (ぼう) means despair/hopeless.
• Meru means "Dream/Fantasy" (夢 (め) ), and "Detain/Halt" (留 (る) ).
  • Meru is derived from Meruhen/Märchen (メルヘン) means "fairy tale" in German.

Trivia

• Meru has kissed and been kissed by Rentarou at least 4 times as of Chapter 180.
• Meru's birthday, November 30th, is celebrated as Picture Book Day in Japan (絵 (え) 本 (ほん) の日 (ひ) , Ehon no hi^?).