#plus the fact that iwa got in trouble once for punching a stalker who was following him home???????

[kusanagihaku]

ahhhh realised i got so caught up in explaining alan's 五格 that i didn't take a look at his actual kanji!!

御堂 (midō) refers to a religious building, like a hall or a temple. 亜 (a) usually refers to a subordinate. i think this is interesting because without looking at the last character, it sounds like he is subject to the will of the gods. or secularly, being bound by circumstance.

we don't have many details on alan's history now, but i assume a child (especially someone like alan, from what we've seen of him) has no sort of innate inclination to just go about using super-strength to beat up an adult, and to beat that adult up so badly he goes to juvie. we'll probably find out more about it at some point, but it's cool how something so formative in his character set-up is embedded in his name!

his last character, 嵐 (ran), usually refers to a storm. it's also made of two characters, 山 (mountain) and 風 (wind) – something strong and solid, and something powerful. which is so lovely for alan, not just as a physical description mans is BUILT, but also as a character. he might cause as much intense and uncontrollable damage as a storm with his stigma, but he's solid and reliable as a captain and as a person.

i think it gets incredibly interesting when you put his name all together – the storm of his name (亜嵐) with the concept of his surname (御堂). i choose to interpret it as this: no matter what the gods throw at him, he's his own storm and he's strong enough to come out the other side. things may not go his way easily and he may need to work harder than most to succeed, but he will!!!!

Hey! I’ve been following your blog for a while now but I think I’m missing something. Your two most recent(?) posts about Taiga were about reading is 五格 and 地格/总格 (10,31) but I don’t really understand what these are or where it is that your finding them in the game. I figure it might be hard to explain what they are to someone who doesn’t understand Japanese culture or anything but could you try to elaborate in any way? Thanks!

五格 (five elements?) is a type of onomancy first written about by kumazaki keno. it’s a type of name divination that people use to choose a name for their children, company or stage/pen name.

because it works by calculating the number of strokes in a name, it’s used mostly to decide between kanji options when coming up with a name. depending on the total number of strokes, the luck that the name predicts you will have can be good or bad.

you calculate each number based on the kanji then combine them for interpretation, so you can't find it in the game! it's more of looking at the individual characters in their actual name. let's use alan's name as an example!

① 天格 (24) refers to his 'inherited luck', ② 人格 (18) refers to his 'main luck', ③ 地格 (19) refers to his 'early luck' (before he hits middle age), ④ 外格 (25) is his 'support luck' (from friends or partner) and ⑤ 总格 (43) refers to his 'later luck' (after he hits middle age). these numbers are derived by adding up the strokes of the kanji.

the resulting numbers correspond to an interpretation (there's a full list of 1 to 81 floating around somewhere), but the interpretation is usually read in relation to other numbers. i usually can't be bothered to count the strokes and scroll up and down to put all the numbers together lmao, so i use sites like this to help me add everything up!

1 天格 and 2 人格 can be interpreted together to read his relationship with his parents/mentors. for alan, his parents might be more old-school. at work, it might be hard for him to get approval or validation from his mentors... which sounds really vagastrom / tracks with what dante has expressed about vagastrom...

2 人格 and 3 地格 can be interpreted together to read his character. honestly i gasped cried a little when i read it??? he takes good care of his children/juniors - even though he may be overly protective (!!), he thinks about them all the time and can easily be negotiated with. his sense of responsibility is very strong, will care for others and he will work hard (!!!!!) which to me makes the mortkranken chapter even more lovely… the members of vagastrom will follow and defend their captain to the end and there’s good cause for that… (captain of my heart……..)

2 人格 and 4 外格 can be interpreted together to read his relationship with others. when he's in trouble he may have a lot of friends willing to come forward to offer him support (especially financial... certain vice-captain i'm looking at u!!!!). if he remains kind and down-to-earth, he will see success. (i am once again begging the universe to give alan a safe and normal life i love him)

2 人格 and 5 总格 can be interpreted together to read his work/financial outlook. things won't go his way easily; he will need to work harder than most to succeed. (i am once again begging the universe–)

3 地格 and 5 总格 can be interpreted together to read his relationship with his future family. he might be not be good at communication (!!) and may be stubborn (!!!). he might end up quite pessimistic, but this can be changed if he puts in effort to change his mindset. (i am ONCE AGAIN begging the universe PLEASE to give alan love–)

obviously i read names very much for fun and you can take it as seriously or as lightly as you want, but i think all the readings i've done so far for all the characters track very much with how they're presented in-story... which makes me wonder if some writer in the tkdb character design room has all their 五格 numbers and interpretations mapped out...

anyway, hope this is clear enough!! if I explained anything unclearly I found this site that explains it the most simply (web translate available)!