Let's Learn Japanese

[takenoko]

Ah, that's right. Ei for A and Ji for G. I remember someone telling me that before.

[takenoko]

Katakana

チ Chi. Yeah, another weird exception. We get Chi instead of Ti (although some places romanize it as Ti). It looks a little like 千 Sen/chi,1000 just more of a curve. And hiragana Chi is ち (Think of it as a reverse of Saさ）

Thankfully, ヂ Ji isn't in common use. So I wouldn't worry about it.

Since this is an I consonant we can combine it with our usual suspects　ヤ　ヨ　ユ
チャ Cha
チョ Cho
チュ Chu

チャージ Cha-a-ji Charge

チョコ　Cho-ko Choco(late)

チューリップ Chu-u-ri-(small tsu)-pu Tulip. So this can take on a T sound.

魔法戦隊マジレンジャー

魔 Ma/Demon,Magic Remember this kanji?

法 Hou/Method,system

魔法 Mahou Magic

天上界 Ten-Jou-Kai Celestial World,Heaven. From the kanji for heaven-up-world. Might be a good idea to remember the kanji for world, Just looks like something on a pedestal to me.

地上界 Chi-Jou-Kai. Surface World. Chi means land, and up still means up. Chijou together basically means "above ground"

地底冥府インフェルシア Chi-tei-mei-fu I-n-fe-ru-shi-a Underground Hades Infershia. If jou means up, what do you think 底 tei means? Tei is the kanji for bottom. Chitei means "underground" or "depths of the earth". Mei 冥 is the kanji for darkness, but it's commonly associated with the underworld. 冥府 Meifu means "Hades, realm of dead".

Remember when we were doing planets at the beginning? What planet do you think this is: 冥王星 Mei-ou-sei /Pluto.

インフェルシア I kind of glossed over the "fe フェ" sound that comes from combining "fu" and a small "e". It's just one of those katakana they put together to make it easier to say Western words.

魔法使い Ma-hou-tsuka-i Magician,sorcerer. Tsukai means "user, practitioner, messenger".

Tomorrow the character names

[takenoko]

Katakana


ツ Tsu which is what you get instead of tu. Hiragana Tsu is just this curve つ

Remember Tsu is vertical while Shi is pointed at the line シ

Like Ji ヂ from yesterday, Zu ヅ isn't used that frequently either in katakana. So I wouldn't worry about this

ツイッター Tsu-i-(small tsu)-ta-a Twitter. Kind of hard to think of words for Tsu that don't use it in the small form. Since for western words that'd be it's main use besides filling in for the Tu sound.

ツイン Tsu-i-n Twin

小津魁 O-zu Kai. First, I hear their family name is Ozu because it's like Oz from the Wizard of Oz. The O just means "small" and Zu means "port" or something. Kai means "Charging ahead of others" just like that song implies


小津翼 O-zu Tsubasa. Tsubasa means "wings". If you look at the top, you'll see the kanji for feathers 羽. The middle kanji is Ta/Da 田 which means field (Super useful to remember and a common kanji in names. I mean, it's divided up like fields in shape anyway). And the bottom kanji Tomo 共 means "Together,both".

小津芳香 O-zu Hou-ka. The kanji for her given name can be pronounced Houkou 芳香 to mean perfume,fragrance.

小津蒔人 O-zu Maki-to. Maku 蒔 means "to sow". And we still remember "to/human"

ヒカル Hi-ka-ru Hey, that's katakana! But yeah, this is the kanji 光 which we learned from ShinkenGold. Makes sense since his name is MagiShine.


小津深雪 O-zu Mi-yuki. MagiMother's name. You might remember the first kanji of her given name as "deep". It's the same kanji as Fuka in GekiBlue's name Fukami.
雪 Yuki/Snow is a pretty good kanji to know too. The top part of the kanji means Precipitation/Rain 雨 and you'll see it all over weather kanji. The bottom radical is just a backward E like katakana Yo.


小津勇 O-zu Isamu. Isamu is a pretty cool kanji, it means "brave". Its alternate pronunciation "Yuu" is commonly heard in stuff like "Yuusha/hero,brave man". The bottom kanji is super useful, it's the kanji for "man" 男. The top part is just the incomplete triangle like the katakana Ma.

If you have trouble remembering man 男, remember the top part is Ta/Field and the bottom part is Chikara/Power. The Man is Strong so he works the Field.

リン / 天空聖者ルナジェル Rin / Ten-kuu Sei-ja Ru-na-je-ru. Rin/ Heavenly Saint Lunagel. Kuu means sky. You should know the other kanji in that title. Remember Ja means "person" in the context of an occupation.


者 Sha/Ja Person in an occupation. It's basically Land 土 and Sun 日 with a line through them. The People from the Land of the rising Sun speak Japanese?

天空大聖者マジエル Ten-kuu Dai-Sei-Ja Ma-ji-e-ru. Heavenly Arch Saint Magiel.

Not kanji but whatever:
ナイとメア Na-i to Me-a. Nai and Mare. Nai and Mare are written in katakana while the To/And is written in hiragana. If you wrote the whole thing in katakana Na-i-to-me-a it would spell Nightmare

And if you take the first part of all the MagiRangers' names in order of age (Makito, Houka, Urara, Tsukasa, Kai) it spells
Ma-hou Tsu-Kai Magician

[takenoko]

Katakana

テ Te. Sorta looks like a T doesn’t it? Hiragana Te is sorta T shaped too て

デ De de de cade. Actually, the first syllable is a Di which is just De with a small I:

テレビ Te-re-bi Televi(sion) TV

ディケイド Di-ke-i-do Decade.

デケード De-ke-i-do. Decade. This is why writing phonetically is frustrating. Frankly, I think this is closer to how I’d pronounced Decade. Note how the dash replaces the I sound from the previous word

ディエンド Di-e-n-do Diend.

Kanji:

五星戦隊ダイレンジャー Go-sei Sen-tai Da-i-re-n-ja-a Gosei Sentai DaiRanger


五 Go/Five. 星 Sei Star. I guess you can remember Sei/Hoshi as a Sun 日on top of Life 生

中国 Chuu-goku. The Middle-Kingdom or China.

天に輝く五つ星 Ten ni Kagayaku Itsu-tsu Boshi. Shining in the Heavens are Five Stars. Note the Light kanji in Kagayaku, and on the right side is a covered car.

Also since we’re talking about number of stars, we use the counter which goes something Tsu. And the alternative pronunciation of five is Itsu, so it’s Itsu-tsu for Five Things. Like saying one apple would be Hito-tsu no Ringo, not “Ichi tsu”

天火星 亮 Ten-ka-sei Ryou. Heavenly Fire Star.
リュウレンジャー 竜/龍 Ryuu Dragon
龍星王 Ryuu-Sei-Ou. Dragon, star, king

天幻星 大五 Ten-gen-sei Dai-go. Heavenly Phantom Star.
シシレンジャー 獅子 Shi-shi Lion. The second Shi means child.
星獅子Sei-Ji-Shi. Star Lion. Note that Shishi becomes Jishi since it follows a kanji.

天重星 将児 Ten-Juu-Sei Shou-ji. Heavenly Gravity Star. Ji means child.
テンマレンジャー 天馬 Ten-ma Flying Horse. The second kanji means horse.
星天馬 Sei-Ten-ma

天時星 知 Ten-Ji-Sei Kazu. Heavenly Time Star. Kazu is the kanji for Knowing, Wisdom.
キリンレンジャー　麒麟 Ki-rin. Chinese Unicorn. Man, that's a complicated looking kanji.
星麒麟 Sei-Ki-rin

天風星 リン Ten-Puu-Sei. Rin. Heavenly Wind Star. No kanji for Rin, ironically enough. I suppose we should have romanized her name to look more Chinese, but eh.
ホウオウレンジャー 鳳凰 Hou-ou Mythical phoenix bird. Made from the kanji for male phoenix bird and female phoenix bird. They both have the giant cover things, I wonder if that's significant of something.
星鳳凰 Sei-Hou-Ou

吼新星 コウ Kou-Shin-Sei Kou. Howl-New-Star. I never realized this before, but Kou's name is probably the same Kou as in KouShinSei. That's kind of redundant.
キバレンジャー 牙 Kiba/Fang. If you watch Garo...
ウオンタイガー Wong Tiger.

白虎真剣 Byakko-shin-ken. Byakko is made of the kanji for "White" and "Tiger. Shinken is same as from Shinkenger, "True Sword".

道士嘉挧 Dou-shi Ka-ku. Dou is Road, Shi is Gentleman/Warrior (Remember the top line is longer). Basically a Doushi is a Taoist, literally a person who Follows the Way/Tao/Dao.

亀夫 Kame-o. Kame = Turtles, of course! O 夫 is common in men's names, it means "Man, Husband".

大神龍 Dai-Jin-Ryuu Big, God, Dragon

気力 Ki-Ryoku. Ki Power.

気伝獣 Ki and Jyu (Beast) we know. Den means Legend.

大連王 Dai-Ren-Ou. Big and King we know. Ren means "To link up"

牙大王 Kiba-Dai-Ou. Noticing a lot of repeat kanji in this series? Also, if you switch the order: 王大牙. King in Chinese is "Wong". Dai can be pronounced Tai and Kiba can be pronounced Ga. Wong Tai-ga.

[takenoko]

Katakana

ト To. Looks kind of like a magic wand to me. Hiragana To と looks like a real toe to me.

ド Do

トドロキ To-do-ro-ki The oni name: 轟鬼. Have you ever noticed how friendly a katakana Ro is? It's just a box.

Kanji

特捜戦隊デカレンジャー Toku-sou Sen-tai De-ka-re-n-ja-a Tokusou Sentai DekaRanger


特 Toku/Special. If you’re a fan of the stuff we release, you should have no excuse for not knowing this kanji. The left radical is a simplified version of the cow kanji: 牛. The right side you should know already, it’s temple 寺 which you should know from samurai 侍, to wait 待, and time 時.

特捜 Toku-sou. Sou means “to search, investigate”. The left radical for sou is the hand radical. There are a few shows we’ve done with sou in it. So tokusou just means “Special investigation”.

特命 Tokumei Sentai Go-Buster. Mei means “life, orders, commands, mission”. So Go-Buster would be the Special Mission Sentai. By the way Shimei 使命 means mission.


命 Inochi/Mei, Life/mission. Just remember it as having a roof, a box on the left and an open box on the right

特撮 Tokusatsu/Special effects shows. Satsu means “to take a photo/film”. The left radical is hand and the right one is Sai 最 which you might remember from one of the earlier posts as meaning the most extreme of something. 最高Saikou/best, 最大 Saidai/biggest.

By the way, Tokusatsu is an abbreviation for a longer term.

I remember when I first started, I got the radicals for Hand and Cow confused. Just write it out and memorize the difference.

Deka isn’t kanji, but its slang that means “Detective”

First, all the DekaRangers’ names are references to types of tea.

赤座 伴番 Aka-za Ban-ban. Aka means red. Za is the suffix for constellation names, which you might notice from watching

戸増 宝児 To-masu Hou-ji. Hou宝 means jewel. Ji 児 means child. Houji tea.

江成 仙一 E-nari Sen-ichi Sen means hermit, its kanji are made of “person” and “mountain”, guess hermits in Japan are similar to western ones. Ichi is one, of course.

礼紋 茉莉花 Rei-mon Ma-ri-ka. Lemon?! Rei means gratitude. The Ka/Hana at the end means “Flower”. The three line radical at the top of that kanji is the “plant” radical. And of course her nickname Jasmine is a reference to Jasmine Tea.

胡堂 小梅 Ko-dou Ko-ume. The second Ko 小 means small. Ume 梅 means plum. The left kanji is Tree and the right one is Mai/Goto 毎 Every. I almost put down 海 Umi/ocean because the kanji are so similar

姶良 鉄幹 Ai-ra Tek-kan. Ai means Good Looking, Ra/Rou means Good. Tetsu means Iron, and Kan means Trunk. Obviously his nickname comes from the Iron part of his name.

白鳥 スワン Shira-tori Su-wa-n. Shiratori Swan. Shira means white, and Tori means Bird. Shiratori means Swan. So her name is Swan Swan. Bella Swan?! Also, remember Shiratori Yuriko 白鳥百合子 who played Hana on Den-O?


鳥 Tori Bird. Maybe remember it as White on top, a Line in the middle, and that thing that looks like a Wing on the bottom?

星人 Sei-jin. Sei means Planet/Star and Jin means Person. It basically means “Person of this planet.” Normally you’ll hear a planet name in front of this. So Kaseijin would mean Martian.

The grunts:

アーナロイド A-a-na-ro-i-do Aanaroid. Ana 穴 means Holes.

バーツロイド Ba-a-tsu-ro-i-do Baatsuroid. Batsu means X and means “No, negative, fail.” Its opposite is Maru O which means “Yes, positive, true”. Think Japanese button style like old Metal Gear games for an example of this.

イーガロイド I-i-ga-ro-i-do Iigaroid. Iga 毬 means burrs, like spiky chestnuts. They’re named after the pattern of their heads.

[takenoko]

Katakana

チャ Cha
チュ Chu
チョ Cho

チャージ Cha-a-ji Charge

チューブ Chu-u-bu Tube

チョーク Cho-o-ku Chalk

Kanji:

仮面ライダーオーズ Ka-men Ra-i-da-a O-o-zu Kamen Rider O’s. It’s written as OOO because it’s more stylistic.


仮 Ka which means temporary. Made up of Person radical, that overhang thing, and the Again radical

面 Men/Omote Face, mask, surface. Like you can use it to describe a surface of a coin or a mask. Looks like a box with the kanji for Eye in it with a hat on top

火野 映司 Hi-no Ei-ji. 火 Hi is fire of course.


野 No is a common last name which means field. The left side is Ri 里 which is made of Field on top and Land on the bottom. You’ll see this a lot like in Sailor Moon. TsukiNO. HiNO. MizuNO. KiNO. AiNO. Ai isn’t gold/metal by the way. I believe the explanation for this inconsistency is because Sailor V was made before Sailor Moon. Can you write out those names in kanji based on what you know of those characters/kanji sounds?

アンク A-n-ku Ankh. The symbol of life, a name that’s somewhat ironic given the revelations about his character at the end of the series.

白石 知世子 Shira-ishi Chi-yo-ko. Shira/shiro means White and Ishi is Stone, so her family name means “white stone”. Chi means knowledge (made of the kanji for Arrow+Mouth). Yo世 means world, and Ko子 means child. Remember that Ko is a common suffix for girl’s names. Her first name is fitting since it means “girl who knows the world”.

鴻上 光生 Kou-gami Kou-sei. I’ve never seen Kou鴻 before, but I guess it means Great, Large Bird. Gami上 ue means Up of course. Kou is light. Sei生 is life. Guess we know why he gets along with Ankh, eh? Also Kousei 高声 loud or high-pitched voice

後藤 慎太郎 Go-tou Shin-ta-rou. Shin 慎 means Prudent, Humility. Tou/Dou藤 is a common kanji in names, so it’s good to know.


郎 Rou means son/counter for sons.

太郎 Tarou is also a common kanji in Japanese guy’s names. Ta just means Fat. It's the kanji for Big with a dot, easy to remember


真木 清人Ma-ki Kyo-to. Do you recognize most the kanji in this name? Kyo 清 means Purity. It's simple to remember too, Water radical on the left, Blue on the right. Just remember that most things with the Blue kanji in them tend to have a Sei sound. (Seiryuu?!)

伊達 明 Da-te Akira. Remember the first episode title for Shinkenger? Date Samurai. Date means Showy, Dandy, Stylish. (The kanji for Te達 is -tachi btw). Akira/Mei you should also know, it’s sun/moon which means Bright.

恐竜 Kyou-ryuu You know the second kanji means Dragon. The first kanji means Scary (Heart is on the bottom, the kanji appears often in emotion kanji). So a Scary Dragon is... a Dinosaur, this is the word for Dinosaur.

手Te Hand/Skill.
手が上がる Te ga agaru. Te sometimes means skill, so this phrase means “One’s skill improves, lit. goes up”

手が届く Te ga todoku. To make one’s hand reach.

手を繋ぐ Te wo tsunagu To hold hands

腕 Ude Arm. Flesh/Moon Radical on the left.

[takenoko]

In case it's not obvious, the series I do are the completed ones most recent going back in time. So with Gokaiger more or less done, I think it'd be okay to cover it here before moving back to Kamen Rider.

Katakana
ナ Na. Hiragana Na な. The katakana is the left side. When I was learning it, someone said to memorize it as a cross and remember it as na for nun

バナナ Ba-na-na

Kanji

海賊戦隊ゴーカイジャー Kai-zoku Sen-tai Go-u-ka-i-ja-a. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger

海 Kai means Sea. Water radical on the left, ?Mother kanji on the right

賊 Zoku means thieves.

海賊 Kaizoku Pirates

豪快 Goukai means Hearty, Exciting, Heroic, Splendid. You can pretty much replace every reference of Gokai in our subs with this and it’d make sense. In fact, if you look at the Japanese captions, they’ll have this part in kanji like this.

ハカセ Ha-ka-se which we translate as Doc. It has a kanji which is this: 博士


姫 Hime which means Princess. The left kanji means Woman 女 and the right one 臣 means Retainer (Remember the Go-Onger one, it’s the second part of Daijin/Minister)


伊狩 鎧 I-kari Gai. 狩Kari means To Hunt. This comes up in Garo since they Hunt the Horrors and in Monster Hunter where the catchphrase is something like Hito kari shiyou ze which means Let’s go on a little hunt. Gai/Yoroi 鎧 means Armor. Note the Metal kanji on the left side, Mountain in the top right, and Bean kanji on the bottom right. Like Kamen Rider Gai from Ryuki.

By the way, Ikari is a pun on the Japanese word for Anchor.

The lack of Japanese characters doesn’t mean we can’t hide Japanese words in the enemy names:
ザンギャック Za-n-gya-(small tsu)-ku Zangyack. 残虐 Zangyaku, cruelty, barbality.


アクドス・ギル A-ku-do-su gi-ru 悪怒過ぎる Aku-do-sugiru. Aku means evil, of course. Do is an amplifier, and sugiru means Too Much, Excess. So his name basically means Extremely way too evil.


It might be worth noting that Do 怒 is also Ikari for Anger/Rage and is commonly an amplifier when used as a prefix. Like when Marvelous says Let's be extremely showy, it's Do-hade ni iku ze. And remember GekiRanger? Rinki's power-up was Do-Rinki (Heh, Drinky). By itself it just means anger. Note that this kanji is composed of Woman, Again, and Emotion. Hmmmmm...

ワルズ・ギル Wa-ru-zu gi-ru 悪過ぎる Waru-sugiru. Almost the same kanji, ain’t it? Again, it means Way too evil.

ダマラス Da-ma-ra-su Probably from Damaru which means To be Silent.

インサーン I-n-sa-a-n. Probably from Insan 陰惨 which means Sadness,Gloom. I see one interpretation that it’s from Ensign, but that wouldn’t make sense for her character and it breaks the villain’s names being Japanese words theme.

バリゾーグ Ba-ri-zo-u-gu Probably from Barizougon 罵詈雑言 vilification; vituperation and -borg.

ダイランドー Da-i-ran-do-u Almost certainly from Dai-Rantou 大乱闘. Rantou means Brawl, fight, fray.

ザツリグ Za-tsu-ri-gu. Satsu-riku 殺戮 which means Slaughter,Massacre. The first kanji means To Kill, which is kind of useful.

ゴーミン Go-u-mi-n. Someone thinks it might be from Gomi/trash?

スゴーミン Su-go-u-mi-n Sugo is probably short for Sugoi which means Amazing, great, terrible.

ドゴーミン Do-go-u-mi-n Remember Do 怒 from Akudosu Giru's name? These are the Extreme Goumin.

ゴーカイオー Go-u-ka-i-o-u. Though the robot names are usually written in katakana, you can pretty much assume all the -ou suffixes mean King.

豪獣神 Gou-Jyuu-Jin. Gou 豪 means Powerful. Jyu 獣 means beast. And Jin 神 means God. Almost certainly an homage to ZyuRanger’s DaiZyuJin 大獣神

カンゼンゴーカイオー Ka-n-ze-n Go-u-ka-i-o-u Again in katakana. Kanzen 完全 means Complete/Perfect/Flawless.


You’ll probably remember Kan as The End 完 as the last thing you see in Japanese films or whatever. It’s also a part of Dr. Maki’s philosophy that the only thing something is Complete/Perfect is when it reaches its End 完. I actually never realized how the kanji fit.

全 Zen/Subete means Everything. Not to be confused with Zen/good 善 or Zen Buddhism 禅. Actually, this kanji also means Mattaku/Darn it which makes it one of the rare kanji that represent 4+ characters.

大いなる力 Oo-i na-ru Chikara. Grand Power. Literally the big power.

風雷丸 Fuu-rai-maru. Fuu we know means wind. Rai means Thunder, you can see that it’s Precipitation over a Field. Maru means Round and is a popular suffix for Sword names and Ships oddly enough. It's basically just the kanji for Nine with a line through it.

宇宙最大のお宝 U-chuu Sai-dai no o-takara. We know Saidai from before means Biggest/Greatest

宇宙 U-chuu Spaaaace! For some reason U comes up in names a lot.


宝 Takara/Hou, creator of Transformers. Means Treasure. King 王, Jewel/Ball 玉, Treasure 宝.
Boukenger bonus: Hihou 秘宝 means Secret Treasure/Precious. Secret 秘 is a useful kanji

It’s funny because the translation for DaiRanger’s Tenpou Rairai no Tama 天宝来来の玉 as Tenpou Rairai Orbs. Eventually Orbs was changed to Jewels since it came out that not all of them are sphere-shaped. Oh yeah, Tenpou = Heaven’s treasure. Rai means To Come, since these are used to summon the Kiden Beasts, it makes sense.

[takenoko]

Katakana
ニ Ni. Remember the kanji for Ni/two 二. Hiragana Ni に isn’t bad either.
ニャ Nya
ニュ Nyu
ニョ Nyo

ニトロ Ni-to-ro Nitro

Kanji

仮面ライダーW Ka-men Ra-da-a W. The subtitle writes it as ダブル Da-bu-ru which puns on the word Double.

風都 Fuu-to. Fuu means wind. To means Big city, Metropolis. It’s the same To in Kyoto 京都

地球の本棚 Chi-kyuu no Hon-dana. You might still remember Hon本 as Books and Chi 地 as Ground. Kyuu 球 means Ball/Sphere. So a ball of earth is the Planet Earth. Hondana means Bookshelves.

左 翔太郎 Hidari Shou-ta-rou. Hidari means left, of course. Right 右looks a lot like stone 石 doesn’t it? Shou 翔 means Flight. Shoutarou like Ishinomori Shoutarou, different kanji, but the homage is still there.

鳴海 亜樹子 Naru-mi A-ki-ko. 鳴Naru means to Bark, make noise. Umi海 means Ocean. A 亜 means Asia, Ki 樹 means Woods. And of course Ko means Child.

照井 竜 Teru-i Ryuu. Teru 照 means to light. I井 means Well, it’s a common part of names and it’s pretty easy to remember, it’s just a tic-tac-toe board. Ryuu is dragon of course.

園咲 冴子 Sono-zaki Sae-ko. Sono 園 means Garden. Saki咲 means to bloom, but it goes to z since it’s following a kanji. 冴 Sae means Clear, Cold. Huh, fitting. And of course her name ends in Ko.
You also know Sae from SAEjima Kouga 冴島鋼牙. You can try memorizing Sae 冴 by remembering that the left radical is for Ice and right is Fang and it means Cold/clear. So Kouga has two fangs in his name.

園咲 若菜 Sono-zaki Waka-na. Waka 若 means Young (top radical Plants, bottom kanji for Right). Na 菜 means Vegetables. There’s a lot of Na in girls’ names too, come to think of it.

See a pattern? Gardens? Blooming. Young plants.

井坂 深紅郎 I-saka Shin-ku-rou. Just another example of I and Rou kanji in names. Shin深 means deep and Ku/Kurenai 紅 means Crimson.

MOVIE大戦 Tai-sen. Big/great war. The kanji for War can also be to Fight or Battle.

2人で1人 Futari de hitori. Two people are one. Just wanted to point this out since Futa is the alternate pronuncation of Ni/Two and Hito for Ichi/One. When counting small objects, it’d go Hitotsu One Object, Futatsu Two Objects for example.

[V V King]

ゴーミン Go-u-mi-n. Someone thinks it might be from Gomi/trash?

Definetely from Gomi, which is why when they used the Goranger Hurricane in the first episode, it turned into a garbage truck.

[takenoko]

That makes sense. I honestly didn't know why it was a garbage truck in the first episode.

Katakana
ネ Ne. Kind of complicated looking thing ain’t it? Same with the Hiragana ね.
Well, you’ll just have to memorize it. It’s also useful since it shows up in kanji. Especially things related to God like Kami/God 神, or Sha/Shrine 社, or Fuku/Good fortune 福

ネット Ne-(small tsu)-to Net

Also, really briefly: Nu ヌ since I don’t run across it often. But that’s what it looks like if you ever see it.

ヌークリア Nu-u-ku-ri-a Nuclear

Kanji

仮面ライダーディケイド Ka-men Ra-i-da Di-ke-i-do. Kamen Rider Decade. Remember that a De デ with a small Iイ has a Di sound. Like I’ve said before, I’ve always thought this was a weird pronunciation of Decade. I mean, this is probably done since the first part is ディケイDecay.

デケイド De-ke-i-do Decade is how I would pronounce it

門矢 士 Kado-ya Tsukasa. All great kanji. Mon/Kado 門 means Gate, and it looks like a gate (It’s also the counter for cannons, when would this ever be used?). Ya 矢 means Arrow, like Saint SeiYA. You can try remembering it as the Arrow going through Heaven. Tsukasa 士 means Gentlemen/Samurai/Warrior (Remember the line on top is longer, getting tired of hearing me say that?). His last name is clearly a pun on the pronunciation of Card in Japanese.

光 夏海 Hikari Natsu-mi. We know Hikari is light from before, makes sense for a family who runs a photography shop. Natsu means Summer and Umi means Sea.

小野寺 ユウスケ O-no-dera Yu-u-su-ke. O is small. No we talked about recently, it means field and is common in Japanese names. Tera/Dera means Temple. Onodera is the birth name of Ishinomori Shoutarou, the creator of Kamen Rider, by the way.


海東 大樹 Kai-dou Dai-ki. Kai means the sea. Dou/Tou東 means East. Dai means big and Ki樹 means trees. Tokyo 東京 btw means the Eastern Capital btw.

鳴滝 Naru-taki. 鳴Naru means to bark/roar. Taki 滝 means Waterfall, not Dragon since it has the Water radical on the left.

仮面ライダーディエンド Ka-men Ra-i-da Di-e-n-do. The end?!

仮面ライダー天鬼 Ka-men Ra-i-da Ama-ki. Yeah, sometimes Ten天 is pronounced Ama, especially in names. A good example of this from history is Amakusa Shirou 天草 四郎. Back when we were talking about this rumor back when Hibiki was airing, we suspected that this name would be pronounced Ten-ki, which would be a pun on the word for Weather. But I guess this makes sense since her name is Amami Akira 天美あきら. It’s just Amaki isn’t a funny pun on anything.


鬼 Oni/Ki. So a a Field with a hat and legs with a small Mu katakana in the legs. I'm bringing this up because I get it confused with the following kanji:

塊 Katamari Means Lump/Mass/Ball of stuff even. Notice how it's just the Land kanji on the left and Oni on the right?
魂 Tamashii/Damashii/Damacy Soul. Oh hey... all these kanji are in a game. Left side is that Talk 云 radical and right is Oni again.


世界の破壊者 Se-kai no Ha-kai-sha.
Se/Yo 世 means Society/World.

Kai 界 is a more generic form of World and is often seen as a suffix. Like Tenkai 天界 would means Sky or Heaven World.

の Hiragana No

破壊 Hakai means Destroy. Sometimes you’ll hear attacks that go something something Ha, sometimes it’s this kanji.

者 Sha, stick at the end of a noun and it means the person who does that noun! Like a Ninja 忍者 is a Person who Endures. So a hakaisha is a Person who Destroys or Destroyer.

No is a particle that connects to nouns where one describes another. So the whole phrase means “Destroyer of Worlds”

通りすがりの仮面ライダーだ。覚えておけ!
Too-ri su-ga-ri no ka-men ra-i-da-a da. Obo-e-te-o-ke! "I'm just a passing-through Kamen Rider, remember that!"
通りすがり Toori-sugari means Passing Through/Passing By.
覚 is the kanji for To Memorize/Remember. It's an Eye kanji with a weird claw cap on top. Oboeru means To Memorize and the oke makes the whole line mean "remember that for later/next time"

大体分かった Dai-tai Wa-ka-(small tsu)-ta. "I've got the gist of it." The first two kanji you should know. It's Big and Body. What's a big body mean? Well, it's sort of a metaphor, like daitai is the Big Picture.

Wakaru means To Know/Understand. 分 is a useful kanji (It's Katana with two more lines). It's the kanji for Minute, as well as Portions. And in this case, it's used to mean "To Understand"

[takenoko]

Katakana
No ノ. Huzzah, one of the most important particles. And here’s Hiragana No の, kind of looks like a Loop, pretty easy all around.

ノース No-u-su North. Sometimes the Su sound fills in for English Th sounds.

Kanji:
仮面ライダーキバ Ki-ba Kiva. No kanji, but if it did have one, it’d probably be 牙 which we’ve seen a billion times by now.
イクサ I-ku-sa IXA stands for Intercept X Attacker. It’s also the pronunciation of this kanji by itself: 戦. Yup, the Sen from Sentai and the war from great wars can be pronounced Ikusa.


素晴らしき青空の会 Subarashiki Aozora no Kai. The Wonderful Aozora Organization.

素 Su is the kanji for Naked/Bare. Like Sugao 素顔 means “Face w/o makeup. Frank/honest”. It tends to have a Su sound.

晴 Hara means Clear like Clear Skies. You can remember it since it’s Sun and Blue like a Clear Sky.

Together they make SUBARASHII 素晴らしい Wonderful. The h in Hara turns to b, then add in shii which is a common suffix for adjectives. In fact, Subarashiki is just the adjective conjugated.

青Ao means Blue and 空 Sora/Kuu means Sky. Blue Sky. The Japanese word for Airport is Kuukou 空港 which literally means Sky Port.


会Kai means Meeting/Association/Group. I guess 云 means To Say, so imagine a roof over it, and you’ve got a Meeting. Au 会う means To Meet/To see, so this comes up often enough.

All pretty useful kanji.

紅音也 Kurenai Oto-ya Kurenai means Crimson, made from the radicals Thread on the left and Construct on the Right (Yeah, the giant I kanji means to construct). Oto means Music (Standing on the Sun Radicals?!) and Ya means Classical.

紅渡 Kurenai Wataru. 渡 Wataru means To Cross, like building a bridge between races, etc.

名護啓介 Na-go Kei-suke. 名 Na means Name. Go 護 means To Protect, which is fitting. Kei 啓 means To Disclose, To Say. And Suke 介 is a common suffix for men’s names.

麻生 恵 A-sou Megumi. Megumi means Blessing, Cross, Field, Heart.

嶋 護 Shima Mamoru. Shima means Island and Mamoru means to protect.

次狼 Ji-rou. Normally Rou is the kanji for son since it’s a common guy’s name, but in this case Rou is Wolf.

力 Riki means Power, it’s another pronunciation of Chikara. To say the strength of 100 men you’d say Hyaku-Nin-Riki for example.


真夜 Ma-ya. Ma means True. Ya/yo 夜 means Night. I’d just memorize it since knowing the kanji for Night can be useful

登 太牙 Nobori Tai-ga. Kind of weird having three kanji represent six syllables, doesn’t it? Nobori 登 means To Climb, To Ascend. Like you’d use this kanji in the verb to climb a mountain for example or to rise to heaven. 太Ta means Thick/Fat and Ga still means Fang. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised to see the Fang kanji come up a few times in this series.


I also found this picture while looking for a logo. It says "Congratulations. Heise Kamen Rider's lowest viewership. Kiva 26 + Momo's Castle 2"

[takenoko]

Katakana
ハ Ha. Looks like Hachi/Eight. Hiragana Ha: は which is just a line and that loop.

ハンター Ha-n-ta-a Hunter

With a “ it’s バ Ba.

With a circle in the top it’s パ Pa.

Oh, the H series is just the slightest bit more complicated. But hey, you’re learning all your H/B/P consonants at the same time.
バード Ba-a-do Bird
パーフェクト Pa-a-fe-ku-to Perfect.
Kanji


仮面ライダー電王 Den-Ou. From the kanji for Electricity 電 (Note the Precipitation Radical on top) and 王 King. This doesn’t necessarily make him the Electric King though, since Den is probably an abbreviation for Densha 電車 which means Train (Literally Electric Car, heh)

野上 良太郎 No-gami Ryou-ta-rou. So useful name kanji time, 野 No/Field and 太郎 Tarou are super common in names. 上 Ue means up, but in names it tends to be kami/gami.


良 Ryou means good. Note that a simplified part of it is a part of Rou 郎.

If you add the kanji for girl on the left it’s Musume 娘 which means daughter or little girl.

If you have water on the left side, it’s Rou/Nami 浪 which means Billows/Waves

ハナ Ha-na. No kanji, so it’s open to interpretation. One would think it’d be Hana/Flower 花. But Momo tends to call her Hanakuso onna, where Hana means Nose. (Hanakuso means Nose snot, and onna just means woman)

桜井 侑斗 Sakura-i Yuu-to. Sakura means cherry blossoms 桜 (Radicals for Tree, Claws, and Woman). I guess Yuu 侑 means Urge to eat? To 斗 is the Big Dipper, fitting for his character.

野上幸太郎 No-gami Kou-ta-rou. Kou 幸 means Happiness, otherwise it’s exactly the same as Ryoutarou’s name.

モモタロス Mo-mo-ta-ro-su. Surprise, it comes from Momo-ta-rou 桃太郎 of mythological fame. And are we seeing how popular Tarou is in names yet? We’re just getting started. 桃 Momo means... peach. Tree kanji on the left, that weird symmetrical thing on the right.


ウラタロス U-ra-ta-ro-su. A condensed form of Urashima Tarou 浦島 太郎. Ura 浦 means Bay. Shima 島 is pretty useful, it means Island and it’s just that White kanji on top of the Mountain one.

キンタロス Ki-n-ta-ro-su. 金太郎 Kin-ta-rou. Golden Boy.

リュウタロス Ryu-u-ta-ro-su. Ryuu means dragon, as usual.


野上 愛理 No-gami Ai-ri. Ai 愛 means love, super useful kanji.


駅長 Eki-chou Station Master. Eki means station, it’s got the kanji for horse in it. 長 Chou means Long, but it also can mean Leader/One in charge when added at the end of stuff. Like Arino from GameCenter CX is called a Kachou 課長 which means Section Chief. It’s a pretty unique kanji so it’s worth remembering.

カイ Ka-i. It’s katakana so I don’t know what it’s supposed to represent. Kai can mean “An answer”, or it can also mean “To disolve”, there are several meanings in Japanese. It could mean Chi in Greek which is a X to represent his non-existent nature.

[takenoko]

Katakana:
ヒ Hi. Kind of looks like a toe with the nail bent up. Hiragana Hi might be easier to remember just this bulgby thing: ひ

Bi ビ “
Pi ピ o

And since it’s an i word, all three can combine with Ya/Yo/Yu

Kanji

仮面ライダーカブト Ka-bu-to. Referring to the 兜虫 Kabutomushi, the horn beetle. Remember a kabuto is a samurai helmet 兜 (or the word for helmet in general).

天道 総司 Ten-dou Sou-ji.
天の道を往き、総てを司る男 TEN no MICHI wo iki, SUBEte wo TSUKASADOru otoko
Walking the path of heaven, the man who will rule over everything.

天道 Tendou. The sun, the celestial path.
Incidentally, Kusakabe 日下部 loosely means “Under the sun”


総 Sou/subete means Everything. Radical for Thread on the left, Public on the top right, and Heart on the bottom right

司 Shi/Tsukasa means to Admin, Official. It’s funny because I thought this was the kanji for Tsukasa’s name in Decade.

Souji with a different kanji means To Clean.

加賀美 新 Ka-ga-mi Arata. 新 Arata/Shin means New. Kagami is the Japanese word for mirror, but it uses a different kanji than in Arata’s name.
ガタック Ga-ta-(small tsu)-ku. Sort of an anagram of Kuwagata Stag Beetle

矢車 想 Ya-guruma Sou. Remember Kuruma means Car (k to g)? And Ya means Arrow, like a bee’s stinger. So that’s how you remember Yaguruma’s name, so don’t misspell that anymore. 想 Sou/Omoi means Thought/Belief. Note the Heart kanji on the bottom.

影山 瞬 Kage-yama Shun, Kage means shadow. Yama is almost always Mountain. The man who’s always in the shadow of the colossus, eh? Shun means Twinkle, Blink. Sort of fits with the temporary nature of his personality.

風間 大介 Kaza-ma Dai-suke. Kaze/Kaza means Wind, of course. 間 Ma means Interval, it’s Gate with a Sun inside, so it’s not too hard to remember. Dai and Suke you should both sorta recognize, -suke being a common suffix in a man’s name. Just imagine it’s an Up arrow.

神代 剣 Kami-shiro Tsurugi. Well, Kami means God. 代 Dai/Shiro means Era/Time as well as... Substitute. Tsurugi/Ken 剣 means Blade. Are you seeing how all the names fit into their Rider forms?
サソード Sa-so-u-do Combination of Sasori/Scorpion and Soudo/Sword

日下部 ひより Kusa-ka-be Hi-yo-ri. No kanji for Hiyori, but it could mean 日和 Weather. But I’m thinking it might be Hi Yori which would mean “From the sun”.

日下部 総一 Kusa-ka-be Sou-ichi. Wait, didn’t we see all these kanji already? Tendou’s dad so their names are almost the same. If dad’s Souichi the first, then with certain kanji replacements Kusakabe Souji could mean the second. (Both Ni 二 and Tsugi/Next 次 can form a Ji sound)


岬 祐月 Misaki Yu-zuki. Misaki/saki/zaki 岬 is a useful kanji since it shows up in a lot of names. If it’s in the second place in the name it’s usually -zaki, but the whole thing is misaki and means geographical cape, like Cape Cod. Speaking of which, see how Tsuki 月 becomes -zuki here?

間宮 麗奈 Ma-miya Re-na. Even though she wasn’t a super major character, her name has some useful kanji. We see the Ma 間 kanji again. Miya is a common suffix in family names: 宮. Re/Urara 麗 means Beautiful, it’s the name of the second sister in MagiRanger. And Na 奈 is a common kanji that appears in names.

[kiyominai]

My sensei's son who watches Kamen Rider with his kids told me that he writes 兜 over Kabuto's helmet....kinda fits.

Thanks Takenoko.

[takenoko]

That's cool, I'm glad people are finding it interesting. You guys should ask more questions about stuff so that there's more back and forth between updates.

Katakana
Fu フ. Heh, pretty easy. Wait, aren’t we doing H sounds this week? That’s the thing, I guess some linguists say that this has a mix between a Fu and a Hu sound. I dunno, it’s always sounded like a F sound to me. Hiragana Fu ふ is a bit complicated, but not too bad. Kind of looks like the kanji for small.

Fu actually takes some small vowels after it. I think they created these since some English words can’t be pronounced without them

フェ Fu and small E is Fe.

フェイク Fe-i-ku Fake.

フォ Fu and small O is Fo

トランスフォーマー To-ra-n-su-fo-u-ma-a Transformer.

Anyway, you get the idea.

“ ブ Bu
o プ Pu

Kanji:

仮面ライダー響鬼 Hibi-ki. 響 Hibiki Echo/Rhythm actually can form this sound all on its own, but in this case 鬼 Ki/Oni is doing the part for the last syllable. A lot of the Oni names are puns.

Hibiki’s original name was 日高 仁志 Hi-daka Hito-shi. Sun-High Virtue-Hopes, a very nice name. Then he changed it to ヒビキ Hi-bi-ki. And he transforms into Kamen Rider Hibiki, with the kanji. Hmmm, not exactly easy to convey. Just to save myself some time, all the Oni’s have changed their pedestrian name to the katakana version of their Oni name.

I don't remember if they ever call him a Kamen Rider, but on the Hibiki webpage the Oni are referred to as 音撃戦士 OnGeki Senshi. On being Sound, Geki being Attack, and Senshi meaning Warrior.

響鬼紅 Hibi-ki Kurenai. Hibiki was the only Oni to have multiple forms. Seems like kind of a weird exception. From Kiva and other places, we know Kurenai means Crimson/Deep Red and is made of the radicals for Thread and Construction.

アームド響鬼 A-a-mu-do Hibi-ki. Armed Hibiki.


安達 明日夢 A-dachi Asu-mu. Tachi 達 means a bunch of people. Asu/Ashita 明日 means Tomorrow. Mu/Yume 夢 means Dreams, useful kanji with a unique shape.


イブキ / 仮面ライダー威吹鬼 I-bu-ki. Ibuki 威吹 means Majestic Breath. And the Ki is Oni, all the Oni names end in Ki/Oni

天美 あきら Ama-mi A-ki-ra. You might have remembered this from the footnote in the Decade post. We always thought her Oni name would be Tenki 天鬼 which would be a pun on Tenki/Weather 天気. Mi/Bi 美 means Beautiful, it’s the first kanji in Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (It’s the kanji for Sheep on top of Big, a Big Sheep is beautiful?)


トドロキ / 仮面ライダー轟鬼 Todoro-ki. Gougou? Todoroki means To Roar/Cry Out and it’s the sound of engines rumbling, easy to remember kanji since it’s Car three times. In Monster Hunter, the Tigrex’s title is a Gouryuu 轟竜 the Roaring Wyvern.


ザンキ / 仮面ライダー斬鬼 Zan-ki. 斬 Zan/Kiru, to cut/behead! Left side car, right side the kanji for Axe.

The other Oni names:


男女 Dan-jo. Literally Man and Woman. Used to describe the male and female human villains that exist in Hibiki. The male counterpart was called the Dou-ji 童子 which means Boy and the woman was called Hime 姫 Princess.

立花 香須実 Tachi-bana Ka-su-mi. Tachi/Tatsu 立 means to stand, and it comes up fairly often in radicals. Hana/bana 花 you might remember is flower. Ka 香 is fragrance/perfume. Su 須 is the same Su as the Go-On WIng’s surname Sudou. And Mi 実 means Truth/reality.

立花 日菜佳 Tachi-bana Hi-na-ka. Hi means Sun. Na 菜 is vegetables. And Ka 佳 means Beautiful, good, pleasant.

滝澤 みどり Taki-zawa Mi-do-ri. Ever notice how the second kanji in the surname usually starts with a z sound? It’s just the s sound kanji taking on a z sound since it follows another kanji. So Taki is waterfall (water dragon). I always forget that Sawa/zawa 澤 means swamp, despite the obvious water radical on the side. Midori probably Green?

仮面ライダー響鬼と7人の戦鬼 Kamen Rider Hibiki to Shichi-nin no Sen-ki. I think that’s the right pronunciation? Kamen Rider Hibiki and the 7 War Oni. It’s just funny since it’s pronounced Ki in the movie and in the translation you have to use Oni or it won’t make sense.