#having a blast with placeholder guy. go king. i think this is actually his time period

[ranticore]

some more horse guy fashions, specifically historical

erased the mandolin for this one goodbye mandolin i couldn't be bothered drawing you

so my thought process for this is like what would a society of, lbr, british ppl who are horses value and how would that translate into what they wear if they specifically don't have a taboo against nudity. these fashions are pre-florian conversion (florian was the guy who gave them all government-mandated shame) and considered traditional (the full coverage dresses are also traditional but to a post-florian period so those would be called like. idk. classical). they were still in use in the enclaves north of ironwall for quite a while. anyway returning to the point, the answer to 'what they value' is movement. in actual horses, herd hierarchy and social function is based off movement - free movement for animals for whom the flight response is so strong is an incredibly important thing. dominance in horses is expressed and reinforced by controlling and curtailing the movement of subordinates. for these people, free movement was enhanced by kinetic fashion - free-flowing garments like capes, loosely-pinned headgear with feathers and floaty cloth, and noise-generating devices like bells and chimes were all used to elaborate and enhance the appearance of somebody's gait. the overall look was mostly based off of morris dancers (pheasant feathers, bells on the legs, handkerchiefs) because i like the tie-in to suppression of folk dance by puritans. i think these guys would have some great folk dances

in much the same way trainers are just normal everyday footwear now, game kerchiefs/flags were worn in non-sports contexts because it suffused into the mainstream and became Cool. the flags were used in a game similar to tag rugby if you've ever seen that played (where snatching people's flags is used instead of full contact tackling, forcing someone who's been 'tagged' to stand still until the flags are returned). as i said before somewhere, centaur team sports go incredibly hard.

the tail ornaments were status symbols and in appearance a bit like the traditional show turnout of shire horses. woven grass and straw could be used for a temporary ornament like these, but metal or carved wood were really impressive, and very common gifts of favour between romantic partners. more flags could be hung there if you wanted to be really cool

variations of this style of mane décor were also employed (they loved their ribbons)

in the same time period, Ironwall fashion was a little bit different. These expensive caparisons were usually purchased secondhand after a real horse was done wearing them, with distinct front and back halves of different length. The garments would usually have the original liveries removed and replaced by generic religious iconography as few centaurs would ever have their own heraldry. Later, in the Georgian and Victorian eras, full coverage to the pasterns with a single undergarment was the only acceptable option (that's the classical style now) The rest of the picture is self-evident, but centaurs at the time wore additional... equipment on the withers which were called a variety of very colourful names but mostly referred to as gelding bars (as in, they will geld you if you sit on them). they were metal and spiked. these were introduced by the florian government to discourage the grossly inappropriate contact of one person's legs around another. previously there was no great taboo against riding on a centaur's back, it wasn't super common but nobody was like "this is basically public sex" until our pal centaur cromwell i mean florian came along and decided this was the work of the devil. young people were also made to wear these to discourage the homosocial behaviour very common to the mid-20s age groups of both sexes, and they also had a place in preventing stallions from wrestling (ironically increasing the danger of their fights because well now all we can do is stand back and kick). the wearing of these devices was mandatory. headcoverings were not strictly necessary, and neither were fully-wrapped tails, but some especially devout citizens took to it quite well.

[gyakutengagotoku]

GSvsAA - Spirit of Justice - Character Profiles

Following the AJ and DD ones, here’s the last of the second trilogy. From here, I’ll be jumping back to AAI and I’ll see how I’ll tackle it later. Perhaps it’ll be easier if I go in order of the files and work out the in-game sequence afterward. We’ll see.

Master post. I’ll update it later when I have time.

Since there’s already a thread for these names on Court-Records, I’ll be brief with the entries this time, unless I find some extra trivia to add. And while it’s atypical of me, I’ll share my speculation on the origin of some less obvious puns for the English names too.

Spoilers ahead.

Main cast

Rayfa Padma Khura’in (レイファ・パドマ・クライン) rei is “spirit”; while the reibana (霊花) is an alternate name for the higanbana (彼岸花), aka the Lycoris Radiata, an ominous red flower that grows in Buddhist Hell and is said to guide spirits into the next reincarnation. It’s frequently seen in funerals. Fyi, the higan refers to the "other side” of the Sanzu River, which is similar to the River Styx. padma means “lotus” in Sanskrit. Khura’in was taken from the Kurain we know, which in turn has been taken from the Klein Bottle. Trivia: Her Song of Ceremony is sung completely in Japanese. By that logic, we could have expected an English dub, but I guess Capcom US wasn’t interested, since they only gave us subtitles instead. A few internal game files have given her name as “Honfa”. I can only guess it’s referring to how she’s the central (hon) character to this game. Also, she’s the kind of girl who would be pretty “serious” (honki) about her roles.

Edit: Added a link to the official source of “Kurain”.

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi (ナユタ・サードマディ) Previously, we thought nayuta was the Sanskrit word, meaning “myriad” (or in some East Asian languages, “10^26 or 27), but as it turned out, it’s just the name of someone Yamazaki knew from his university. It was originally a placeholder name, but Eshiro liked it so much it came to be. His last name is based on the phrase hotoke no kao mo sando made, “Even the Buddha will get angry if you brush his face thrice,” or in other words, “Even the Buddha has limits.” It also may come from the Sanskrit word samadhi, a state of meditative consciousness. Trivia: Throughout the game are scattered references to the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, and he gives us three. Three times he gets to bind a defense attorney, referring to the three disciples of Monk Tang, the novel’s protagonist. Apollo is bound on the head; Sun Wukong is restrained by a magical crown that shrinks when a certain sutra is chanted. Athena's arms are bound; Zhu Bajie has been bound several times throughout the story due to his lewd and disrespectful tendencies. Phoenix’s favorite arm is bound. While there aren’t any particular instances of Sha Wujing’s arm being bound (that I can recall), he’s always been the most responsible of the disciples and is somewhat gullible compared to the other two. :3

Ahlbi Ur’gaid - Bokuto Tsuani (ボクト・ツアーニ) His name comes to “boku to tsua- ni”, or “on a tour with me”.

Shah’do - Mitamaru (ミタマル) mitama is “soul”; maru is a common ending to a boy’s name. He’s a “soul[ja] boy”! I’m sorry, I won’t do that again. His English name, literally “shadow”, may refer to how he’s always tagging along by Ahlbi’s side. Trivia: Shah’do is in fact the only non-human character in the entire series to play the part of the main cast in a game. He even got his own character entry, complete with quote, on the official site! Sadly, I have no idea what he actually says.

Episode 1

Pees’lubn Andistan’dhin - Potdino Nikawas (ポットディーノ・ニカワス) pottode means “coming out of nowhere” and niwaka means “suddenly”, likely referring to how he appeared in the intro out of the blue to join this country’s religious practitioners. din in Arabic means “religion” or “way of life”. Also, DEEN, pronounced with a long e-sound, is the name of a well-known Japanese rock band. Trivia: According to a tweet from Eshiro, this guy’s name is officially “Nikawas”, but for the longest time he and some others mistook it as “Niwakas”, which made it into the final release.

Paht Rohl - Miima Waruhito (ミーマ・ワルヒト) mimawaru is “to patrol”, so his name becomes “patrolling person”. Aslo, waru can mean “bad”, so he’s also not such a good person as he seemed.

Episode 2

Bonny de Famme - Nanano Mimi (菜々野 美々) If you flip the kanji in her last name, they make yasai (野菜), meaning “vegetable”. mimi is “ears”. de Famme probably comes from “defame”, given her and her sisters’ machinations behind the scenes. 

Betty de Famme - Nanano Kiki (菜々野 輝々) Kiki is named like her sister, though kikimimi means “ears poised for listening”. Also, the sound a bat makes is often romanized in Japanese as a ki sound.

Roger Retinz - Shinoyama Kanenari (志乃山 金成) It’s custom in Japanese TV production slang to switch syllables of a name or saying around, so we switch his name around. Shinoyama becomes yamashino, and Kanenari becomes narikin (金 can be pronounced kin). Thus, yamashi no narikin means “a swindling nouveau riche”.

Mr. Reus - Mr. Menyo (Mr. メンヨー) menyou (面妖) is “strange” or “suspicious”. I’ve heard speculation from other fans that Reus can be switched around to make “ruse”, as he is a masterful magician. His real name, Manov Mistree, is originally Fushigi Naohito (伏木 直人). fushigi na hito means “a mysterious person”.

Episode 3

Tahrust Inmee - Marmer Ahtam (マルメル・アータム) marumeru is “to make bald” and atama is “head”.

Beh’leeb Inmee - Sahra Ahtam (サーラ・アータム) sarasara is onom. for “silky” or “flowing”, in this case referring to her hair.

(Between these two, I can’t quite make out why they would choose these names, since they seem like very generic puns for witnesses in a case. Perhaps that’s the point?)

Puhray Zeh’lot - Ogam Mainiche (オガム・マイニーチェ) ogamu is “to worship”, and mainichi is “every day”, so it’s “pray every day”. His real name is Reehl Neh’mu, and its Japanese counterpart is Fon Myo, from honmyou, “real name”.

A’nohn Ihmus - Nanashiino Gonbe (Tent.) (ナナシーノ・ゴンビェ（仮）) Yes, the “tentative” is part of his name. nanashi no gonbee (名無しの権兵衛) is an anonymous or unidentified name, like “John Doe”.

Datz Are’bal - Datz Dinigel (ダッツ・ディニゲル) His complete name comes from datto de nigeru (脱兎で逃げる), or “fleeing as fast as I can”. Interestingly, his English name gets to keep the same first name, thus making “that’s a rebel” or “that’s horrible” (the latter probably regarding how he first looks on his wanted poster, but I’m not as sure about this one).

Lady Kee’ra - Torihime-sama (���姫様) It literally means “Bird Princess”, but it’s not an actual name. I was surprised to learn that she got a name in the English version. Her real name is Ihmsan, which is the same in the JP version. I’m not sure about the whole pun here, but imu is a verb meaning “to avoid, shun”, like a taboo. It’s supposedly taboo to say her name.

Edit: Okay, so it’s actually based on imu, 仏, in this case meaning, “a dead body” and the honorary suffix san. It’s referring to her killing spree. (The same kanji when pronounced hotoke is referring to the Buddha or someone with such imagery, though it applies less to her.)

Plumed Punisher - Torisaman (トリサマン) It’s an offshoot of Tonosaman, aka The Steel Samurai, but with tori for “bird”. Btw, Tonosaman comes from tono-sama, “lord”, and the word “man”.

Episode 4

Bucky Whet - Uchidate Susuru (内舘 すする) uchitate is “freshly kneaded”, while susuru is “to slurp”. His English name is from “buckwheat”, the kind of dough commonly used to make soba noodles. Interestingly, the embroidery on his lapel reads 上戸, ueto, but pronounced as jougo, it means “hard drinker”.

Taifu Toneido - Senpuutei Bakufuu (旋風亭 獏風) senpuu is “hurricane”; bakufuu is “blast”, like of wind or from an explosion. The tei (亭) is an honorary suffix that’s added to the pseudonym of a rakugo performer.

Geiru Toneido - Senpuutei Puuko (旋風亭 風子) I think Puuko was just chosen for its cuteness. The first kanji in her name is the one for “wind”, and ko is a common ending for a girl’s name.

Uendo Toneido - Senpuutei Bifuu (旋風亭 美風) bifuu, written as 微風, is “breeze”. His other personalities are named after rakugo characters. Kisegawa is the same in both versions. Her name is from the story Omitate (”The Choice”). Patches is Ippachi, and Owen is Sadakichi. Both appear in various rakugo plays and are well known stock characters; Ippachi as taikomochi (a male geisha) and Sadakichi as an apprentice. Trivia: Patches and Kisegawa speak in nonstandard dialects. I’m not quite sure which, though, so if someone could lend a hand, I’ll be happy.

Jugemu (ジュゲム) He’s named after the titular character of the rakugo play, Jegemu.

Episode 5

Dhurke Sahdmadhi (ドゥルク・サードマディ) It’s probably from Druk, the Bhutanese thunder dragon and their national symbol. There was even lightning behind him when we saw his silhouette in the anime prologue. Not to mention, Druk is also the “king” and “protector” of Bhutan; kinda like how this guy was nominal king of his country too.

Paul Atison - Kiyoki Masaharu (清木 政治) kiyoki means “proper” or “clean”; the kanji in his given name, when read as seiji, mean “politics”. It’s also this alternate pronunciation that makes it into his email. For comparison, in English, his full name is “Paul Atison Wimperson”, thus making his initials in his email “PAW”. (Coincidentally, he is kind of a “dog”, and not the kind I love. >:3c )

Archie Buff - Sanagi Fumiaki (佐奈樹 文明) sanagi is “pupa”; and the kanji in his first name, read as bunmei, mean “civilization”.

Sergeant Buff - Sergeant Sanagi (佐奈樹 軍曹) aka Armie Buff - Sanagi Philnelia (佐奈樹 ヒルネリア) Her name is probably from hirune, for “afternoon nap”. She’s a shut-in and is seen wearing her pajamas even well into the afternoon. (The colors are actually based on the Japanese air self-defense force uniform, but they look like pajamas.)

Ga’ran Sigatar Khura’in (ガラン・シガタール・クライン) garan is a Buddhist temple; namely, the “seven halls” that make up temple grounds. Her middle name may come from shi, kataru (死、語る), meaning “death speaks”.

Inga Karkhuul Khura’in (インガ・カルクール・クライン) inga means “karma” or “cause and effect”; karakuru is “to manipulate”. The rest of his name falls into the joke with Jugemu (wiki page linked above in Jugemu’s entry). (If someone could also help me break down his incredibly long full name in Japanese, that’d be great. I’m hoping it has a little more substance than “How could this name be any longer and more pompous than it already is”.)

Nayna - Baaya (バアヤ) Her name isn’t so much a name as it’s Rayfa calling her “granny”.

Amara Sigatar Khura’in (アマラ・シガタール・クライン) amala (阿摩羅) is a number, 10^23, and also a Buddhist term: Amalavijñāna, the highest level of “consciousness”. amara also means “immortal” in Sanskrit, having survived two assassination attempts. In her case, her middle name also refers to shi wo kataru (死を騙る), “faking a death”.

Jove Justice - Odoroki Sousuke (王泥喜 奏介) It’s almost the same as Apollo’s name, but the hou replaced by sou (奏), for “play music”. So, “Surprise! Here’s a music boy!” I mean, I couldn’t exactly use “play boy” since that sounds wrong...

DLC Episode

Ellen Wyatt - Outsubu Shizuku (大津部 雫) outsubu means “a large amount”, particularly of something small; shizuku is “a drop”. So, yeah, lots of tears.

Sorin Sprocket - Haguruma Raito (八久留間 来人) haguruma is a “gear”. Raito sounds like “light” as well as “Wright”, as in the Wright Brothers. (It has nothing to do with Nick or Trucy. Nick is forever earth-bound anyway.)

Pierce Nichody - Juumonji Kazuharu (十文字 一治) The kanji in his surname make up “character for ten”, which is 十, a cross. It’s likely referring to health organizations like the Red Cross. The kanji of his first name are “one” and “heal”, respectively; referring to his hard choice while he was still a surgeon.

Dumas Gloomsbury - Yonekura Seiji (米倉 静次) nekura is “gloomy”, “dark”. Perhaps his first name is from seijou (清浄), meaning “clean”; as in, he was innocent of the crash incident.

Edit: Okay, so Ash has told me that I made a wrong guess. The only other idea I can surmise is seji (世事), “ways of the world”, so that it works as nekura na seji to make “a gloomy world”.

Edit 2: And another wrong guess. Okay, I’m out of ideas. As I mentioned above, seiji as 政治 is “politics”, but the only connection I can make with him is how the Sprockets are indirectly tied into it and how he’s been made a scapegoat.

Selena Sprocket - Haguruma Hikari (八久留間 ひかり) hikari is “light”, to match her brother’s name.

Extra: Locations

Tehm’pul Temple - Ji-in Temple (ジーイン寺院) ji’in is “temple”, so the name is a repeat of the same word. Hence the English name.

Penrose Theater - Trompe Theater (トロンプ劇場) It’s from the French “trompe-l'œil​“, the art technique that creates 3D optical illusions from realistic 2D images. Penrose is likely from the impossible triangle, popularized by mathematician Roger Penrose.

Take-2 TV - Nidomi TV (ニドミテレビ) nidomi (二度見) is to “look twice” or “double take”, as in surprise. How convenient that in English, “take” has another appropriate definition.

Kurukurutei (来来亭) It means “Come Come Place” (the tei actually means “pavilion” in other contexts). Incidentally, that tei is also a suffix to denote a place as a restaurant. Trivia: Ash@C-R has noted that there’s a ramen restaurant chain in Japan with the same name but different pronunciation, but it’s probably a coincidence.

Alright, with that, I clean my hands for tackling AAI in the coming several days, but I expect delays over this weekend. I’ll be heading out of town for a day.