kanji-radicals-wordplay-zetsubou-sensei-ch01.png

Translation

• Context: a character's nickname is a wordplay on the components of his name. It's particularly obvious when written horizontally. Although in this case the series focuses on it, generally this sort of wordplay about how Japanese text is written is easy to miss if you never bother learning to handwrite text.
• Itoshiki Nozomu
  糸色　望
  (character name.)
• zetsubou shita
  絶望した
  [I] gave up all hope.
  [I'm in despair.]
  (suru-verb in past form.)