#and also meti's building a bastard video for kusaka on youtube

[christine-ye]

Kamen Rider 555/Faiz character name meanings

I did mention in the tags of my Blade character name meanings post a while back that I'd tackle Faiz eventually so here it is (slight spoilers incoming)

🚫 Takumi Inui (乾巧)/Faiz 🚫

Inui (乾): drought, dry (could refer to Takumi's blunt personality and/or how the Orphnochs' gray/monotone color scheme makes them feel so devoid of life yet while not actually dead, something like a gray area between being dead and alive but not fully one or the other; also coincidentally sounds similar to the Japanese word for dog, which foreshadows Takumi being the Wolf Orphnoch)

Takumi (巧): adroit, skilled, ingenuity (could refer to Takumi's willingness to adapt in any situation, as is the case with wolves in the wilderness and even the Orphnochs' instinctual nature to survive rather than live in contrast to humans)

Faiz: based on the Greek letter phi (φ), his number code 555 loosely plays on both the letter's Greek pronunciation and the English 'five'

✂ Mari Sonoda (園田真理) ✂

Sonoda (園田): sono (園) - park, garden; da (田) - rice field, rice paddy

Mari (真理): ma (真) - true/truth, reality, genuineness; ri (理) - logic, arrangement, reason; both characters together mean 'truth' (could refer to Mari often being the voice of reason among the cast)

🧺 Keitaro Kikuchi (菊池啓太郎) 🧺

Kikuchi (菊池): kiku (菊) - chrysanthemum (has various meanings in the Japanese language of flowers including cheeriness, which ties into Keitaro's more cheery personality compared to both Takumi and Mari and their bond as a trio getting stronger); chi (池) - pond, pool

Keitarō (啓太郎): kei (啓) - disclose, open, say (ironically contrasts both how Keitaro initially didn't know Yuka's full name when they first met until later on and the main cast's constant miscommunication issues); ta (太) - thick; rō (郎) - common suffix in Japanese male names

🐴 Yuji Kiba (木場勇治) 🐴

Kiba (木場): ki (木) - tree, wood (represents strength, flexibility, and warmth as one of the five Chinese classical elements, could refer to Kiba's resilience despite all the tragic stuff he went through); ba (場) - location, place

Yūji (勇治): yū (勇) - courage, bravery (also could refer to Kiba's resilience); ji (治) - reign, be at peace (could refer to either Kiba becoming Smart Brain's president near the show's end or his initial goal of wanting peaceful coexistence for both humans and Orphnochs)

🕊 Yuka Osada (長田結花) 🕊

Osada (長田): osa (長) - long (as an adjective, could contrast with the Orphnochs' shortened lifespan), head, chief, leader (as a noun); da (田) - rice field, rice paddy

Yuka (結花): yu (結) - tie, bind (could refer to Yuka's bond to Keitaro despite their initial name misunderstanding or her wanting to sever her ties to her abusive family and past); ka (花) - flower

🐍 Naoya Kaido (海堂直也) 🐍

Kaidō (海堂) kai (海) - sea, ocean (could refer to snakes resembling/being analogous to dragons in most Asian mythologies but that's definitely a stretch on my part lmao); dō (堂) - hall, temple

Naoya (直也): nao (直) - straightforward (ironically contrasts how Kaido initially not being upfront/directly admitting that he doesn't want to hurt humanity like both Kiba and Yuka already did); ya (也) - to be (classical form), also a common suffix in Japanese male names

❌ Masato Kusaka (草加雅人)/Kaixa ❌

Kusaka (草加): kusa (草) - grass, rough/roughness, fake, not genuine (could refer to Kusaka's rough interior as part of his true personality or him hiding it from the rest of the cast); ka (加) - add, addition, beneath; both characters together could mean "a roughness beneath" (could refer to Kusaka's true personality that he hides from the rest of the cast)

Masato (雅人): masa (雅) - gracious, elegant, refined (could refer to Kusaka's "nice" facade he puts on when interacting with the rest of the cast while hiding his true devious personality); to (人) - person

Kaixa: based on the Greek letter chi (χ), his number code 913 loosely plays on both the Japanese reading of his name (kaiza) and the numbers used (ka -> 9, i -> 1, xa/za -> 3); coincidentally sounds similar to the German kaiser meaning 'emperor'