Everyone seemed to like the last post I made about LL's protagonist Minami Aikawa (AKA Bow-chan), so I'm adding a few more things I've noticed about her name. Before I get into those things, I'm gonna toss out a quick disclaimer: I'm not Japanese; I just have some knowledge of the language and how to not make shitty names for Japanese characters.
One crucial aspect of the Japanese language, besides its three main writing systems, is how kanji (borrowed Chinese characters) can usually have many different readings. The two basic ways to read kanji are the on'yomi (Japanese) way and the kun'yomi (Chinese) way. So that means that the kanji of Minami's first and last name have several unique pronunciations attached to them. This also goes the other way; the pronunciations of Japanese names can have all kinds of kanji attached to them. There are a few first and last names out there that have few-to-no other different kanji/pronunciations attached to them other than their most common forms, but like I said, those are rare cases.
Now before I discuss my observations of Minami's name, I'll go into an example of how a Japanese name can be rendered in several unique ways. Let's look at the first name "Hana". It's simple and very cute. It's commonly rendered in kanji as "
花" (flower), but can also be written in hiragana (phonetic pronunciation of Japanese words and phrases) as "はな". Many girls' first names in Japan in recent times are written in hiragana rather than kanji as to not cause confusion as to how their names are intended to be read, but there are still girls out there who have their first names written in kanji. There are ways to remedy this issue; for example, it is required for Japanese citizens who want to travel overseas to have romanized versions of their names printed in their passports. Going back to the example of the name "Hana", this means that, in addition to being rendered in the way I mentioned earlier, it can also be rendered as "端" (edge), "羽菜" (feather + vegetable), and "彩那" (to color/paint + what?), among a myriad of other ways. The last example of kanji rendering I mentioned, "彩那", has a second kanji character ("那", "what?") that may seem odd, but it's actually a common ending of a girl's name. Other examples include "first character + '子' (child)", "first character + '美' (pretty/beautiful), and "first character + '乃' (yes). This isn't to say that all girls' names in Japan are constructed in the ways that I mentioned in the previous sentence, but they're just simply a few of the many ways that a girl is named.
Finally, after giving some quick background on the basics of Japanese language and discussing an example of the many different ways to render a name into kanji, it's time to get into Minami's name! Now on my last post, I said that her name in kanji would most likely be written as "愛川 南" (last name, first name) based on what her original artist said that her name would mean in English. One thing about anime is that, besides the names of characters often having meanings relating to their personalities, characters' names often have more than one meaning beyond their simple kanji renderings and meanings. I would give some examples here but I don't want to further elongate this post, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Below are some of my observations. Keep in mind that if Bow-chan's first name is officially rendered in hiragana as "みなみ" as opposed to kanji, the things I've noticed about her first name won't matter:
- Other kanji that can be read as "Minami" include "美海" (pretty/beautiful sea), "優花" (to excel/kind + flower), "皆美" (everyone + pretty/beautiful), and "実七海" (fruit, to bear fruit, reality + seven + sea).
- Other kanji that can be read as "Aikawa" include "合川" (to unite, join + river), "四十川" (four + ten + river), and "淡川" (thin, pale + river).
All this stuff I found can help clue us in as to who Minami is as a character (besides being a batshit-insane yandere). The original kanji for her last name ("愛川") essentially meaning "love river/river of love" goes without saying, but if we look into some other kanji renderings, there's even more signs that point to who Minami is. "合川" could refer to Minami's ultimate goal of being together with Senpai. "淡川" could refer to how pale her skin is. The original kanji for her first name ("南") meaning "south" could possibly mean that, over the time that Minami's spent obsessing over Senpai, her mental state has gone "south" and into dark territories. The other kanji readings of her first name also could give us clues about her character. "優花" could refer to how Minami excels in academics and sports and overall appears as an ordinary girl, but is actually harboring an unhealthy obsession for her dear Senpai (like how yanderes are supposed to act!). "皆美" could refer to how she acts normal around everyone or how she appears to be this beautiful girl in front of everyone, but she's disguising such a sick and twisted other side of herself. Now if the Love Letter devs realised all of this while naming the protagonist for their game, I would commend them for that, but it's highly unlikely that they're that talented.
I could go on, but it would make this post way too long. I found my observations off of this site called Kanshudo, which has a
name searcher tool.
And of course because this post took so long to make, in the midst of me composing it, the thread reached 2,000 pages! Congrats guys; may Alex continue to screw up and provide us with more laughs.
