21, she/her, 日本語/English Dabi-centric BNHA Account Occasional manga spoilers, but mainly anime LEAKERS WILL BE BLOCKED All screenshots are credited by the respective anime production team pfp: ksk535 & bnha anime team
This is a BNHA account where I post translations, analysis, comparisons, and random thoughts. The majority of my posts are not that meaningful, but the ones I want to share are here on the masterlist.
Behind the Name Series
Series where I do my best to explain the meaning behind the names of Boku no Hero Academia characters beyond the direct translations as a native Japanese speaker
There's something about Dabi's phrasing here "the world doesn't care whether you're smiling or crying" to paraphrase that struck me as especially meaningful in regards to both Dabi and Toga's characters. They are people who both have a tendency to smile instead of cry when in great distress, and everyone around them uses their unusual expressions as evidence of their villainry.
Shigaraki, Toga, and Dabi all served the scapegoat role to their family to a certain extent, they were all problem children where their parents didn't see them as children, but rather as the problem-maker in their household. I once wrote a meta comparing the Shimura and the Todorokis basically saying that despite Touya literally dying, and coming back from the dead, and the whole family getting a second chance with him, the Todorokis basically view him the same way as they did when he was a child.
Even though Endeavor was the problem-maker in the household, Touya was unfairly blamed as the problem child. Rather than confront Endeavor those around him chose to instead, tell Touya to quiet down, and simply stop reacting to his father's ignorance of him. This mirrors how anyone in the Shimura household could have stepped up to confront Koutarou's unfair punishment of Tenko for wanting to be a hero just like any other kid his age, before it ramped up to physical abuse, but they instead tried to gently persuade Tenko to give up on his dream instead.
Therefore, nothing has truly changed and the Todorokis recreate the same unhealthy dynamic they always have had, Endeavor remains the hero, Touya remains the scapegoat to be blamed. Even though nothing that happened in his childhood is truly his fault.
So returning to these lines, people don't care whether or not you're smiling or crying. For Touya it's a reference to no matter how they choose to present themselves, people are always going to view them in a certain way. Touya is the scapegoat of his family. Even before he became a villain. When he was just a twelve year old, his family's perspective of him was very uncharitable.
Rei knew that Touya was just a child that wanted his father's attention, but that came across very differently in how she acted with him, following Endeavor's rules and trying to persuade him to give up on getting his father's attention, even acting afraid fo Touya when he resembles his father. In doing so she slides the blame on Touya.
I mean, just to illustrate my point if you look at the situation was Touya's perspective his behavior is completely reasonable. Touya was groomed, separated from other children, told he was special and he belonged in a different world. Told that he needs to practice and train to stop All Might. He was raised on those words.
He repeats those words to Rei later. Touya can't adapt to the change, because the change doesn't make sense in his mind. He was used to getting all this attention, but suddenly he's not getting it, it's like he's being punished when he didn't do anything wrong. He can't figure out what he's doing wrong so he tries to fix it, but in his attempts to fix it following everything he's been taught beforehand, training good, he's gotta work hard to get his father's approval, he was born to be a hero, that's suddenly no longer good any more and Touya's parents never put any effort at all into trying to bridge the gap to Touya or help him adjust to the situation.
Like I said, Touya's entire arc revolves around the idea of how his family views him. Almost everyone in the household, except Shoto who was too young at the time didn't know him. Fuyumi brushes off Touya's attempts to train like it's not a big deal to him, Natsuo doesn't get why Touya is talking his ear off about their father at night (they're also too young to properly comprehend), Rei at least tries to understand that Touya is just a child in need of attention from his father but her fear of endeavor reflected in her children makes her distant from all of them, and Endeavor has no intention of changing or course correcting. How unseen Touya's distress was in his own household, is brought up multiple times. Endeavor is just now, remembering that his son literally cried and pulled his own hair out in his attempts to get his attention. The memory was blurry for him before.
Touya mentioned his father never even bothered to notice or care, that he was crying his eyes out nearly every day about his father's neglect. We're even shown in the flashback itself, Touya acts confrontational and demanding with his mother, attention hungry with his father, but when he's all alone he's so overwhelmed by emotion he literally starts crying because that's how he feels about his neglect, abandoned to the point where it overwhlems him with tears.
Touya's entire story is about how literally no matter what face he shows to people, even his own family is determined to characterize him in the worst way possible. Even when he was just a twelve year old so overwhelmed he was constantly crying and sad, nobody even bothered to look at his distress. Even before he was a villain, he was villainized for normal kid stuff, like... wanting his father's attention. This continues far into adulthood, when Dabi angrily accuses Hawks of murdering Twice, Twice questions if he's really sad about it because he shows a smiling face in that moment. Touya can't even feel sad for his friend dying even though Hawks witnessed him trying to protect Twice, without Hawks accusing him of villainy.
This is why Dabi tells Toga to not show anybody her tears, to smile instead of crying, because in everything Dabi's experienced so far everything's told him that nobody cares about his internal world or what he's feeling inside. People have already made up their mind about what he is and have decided to demonize him. This is also probably why Dabi doesn't bother to socialize with others, and has isolated himself for a long time in the first place. He says as much to Rei. Why would I want to play with normal kids? They belong in a different world than me? They don't understand me.
Why would Dabi think other people would understand him when his own family is so committed to misunderstanding him, when Dabi can make a live broadcast on television about how endeavor raised him in his household and people are just like "oh that Dabi is annoying an insane." Dabi doesn't open himself to others and only shows them a smiling mask because deep down inside he believes that no one will ever give him a fair shake anyway so why bother expose himself.
However, that's what makes his decision to open up to Toga just a little bit this chapter so meaningful. I think it's important for perspective to realize Dabi and Toga's relationship hasn't really been good so far, and that actually matters. Dabi from introduction has picked Toga out as a remorseless psycho. He characterized her rather the same way that others have characterized him. Even during team bonding moments like immediately after Twice's death when Spinner was trying to convince the group and Toga to stay together, Dabi screamed in her face he doesn't care and she can do whatever she wants. All of that matters because it's such a contrast to this moment. Dabi hasn't been acting like a good big brother around Toga so far, he's been acting like an asshole, she has almost no reason to think he's kind, or that he's doing anything but using her.
However Toga, the most emotionally intelligent character in the league. Who was able to see Twice's distress and empathize with him. Who was the first oen to see Shigaraki's faith in all his friends along with Twice. She's willing to see the kindness in his actions that his family isn't.
And this is specifically why Touya has avoided making friends until now, because he was convinced no one could even understand him if he tried. He simply belonged in a different world than others. His own family can't even recognize him with a little bit of hairdye, so why bother?
We're meant to draw a line between Toga's self reflection all this chapter and Touya's. It's actually clever, because we're not shown nearly as much and in detail of Toga's emotional abuse. We never see her get hit like Shigaraki, we never see her break down crying over it like Touya in his two flashback chapters. We only see the moment she snapped. However, everything in this chapter goes to suggest how little her parents cared to try to understand Himiko, and how quickly they gave up on her. They stopped measuring her height against the wall when she was three years old just before her quirk manifested. They literally tell her to her face no one will ever accept her the way she is. They threw away everything in her room, and let the whole place be vandalized. Did they even wait for their daughter to come home, or were they relieved she left?
Toga is different from Touya and Tenko, because she was younger when her villainry "started". As far as we know Shigaraki didn't debut as a villain until he was legally an adult during the UA invasion incident. Touya didn't debut as a villain until Stain's rise to power. Toga's first violent incident was in middle school. Even in our society, violent stabbing incidents between middle schoolers is a thing that happens sometimes, and while it's complicated legally in japan Toga wouldn't be tried as an adult, and even if she went to juvenile detention center that record would be sealed once she turned eighteen. However, the case seems to be different in Hero Society. Number one, we have in VIgilantes as teenage girl vigilante being labeled as a villain for her first offense, and having Endeavor go after her fully with the intent to kill. Aoyama was taken hostage under extremely extenuating circumstances, yet he's tied up in maximum security prison, and has been threatened with not only arrest, but evidence of his arrest showing up on his permanent record even if he changes sides and helps the heroes. We are given all indications that hero society isn't exactly lenient even on first offenses for children.
However, Toga could have been saved much much earlier. If on her first violent incident she got the help she needed, b/c her freakout in middle school was very clearly a cry for help and attention. Like. This is pretty obviously a metaphor for self-harm.
Touya and Toga even follow a similiar pattern with their quirks. At first they only harm themselves, Toga biting her wrist and sucking her own blood, (like such an obvious metaphor for slitting her wrists do I even need to point him out) and Touya at first all he did was burn himself while practicing with his quirk in an attempt to bring attention. When that wasn't enough, only then, did they start lashing out and using their quirks against others in desperation.
However, the labeling of Toga as a demon child happened before she even started harming anyone, by her own parents. While it may be reasonable to call Toga a demon child for now being a serial murderer with several kills to her name, it was the act of labelling her a villain in the first place,t hat not only got the ball rolling, but also prevented her from getting help every single opportunity she needs to.
So another thing with Toga and Touya both being given the worst possible least charitable interpretations by not only their own families, but also the heroes around them, is that it's clearly had an affect on Toga.
Uraraka characterizes Toga's actions as entirely superflous, her motiations as spur of the moment, and she also jumps to assuming that Toga just killed that old lady when she could have sucked her blood and left her alone. Characterizing her with the worst interpretation possible. However, when looking at the situation from Toga's perspective, why she did this, why she transforms into others and even why she kills.
After witnessing Jin's death, Toga seems to confirm in her own mind what she's been suspicious of for awhile. That heroes won't come and save a person like her. It goes all the way back to Toga's fight with Curious. Out of all the villain vs villain matchups, Toga is the only person whoa actually kills her counterpart on the MLA. Shigaraki even spares Re-Destro. So wy, only Toga, why does she only kill her clear foil on the MLA. You could say it's because HOri didn't want to write another female villain, but considering the actual context of the fight itself, Toga's decision to kill is motivated very specifically by one thing.
She was terrified for her life. Toga suffered the most mortal wounds in her fight. She was literally surrounded by a crowd of people who all turned against her. Toga while running away in the crowd, murmurs to herself repeating to a psychotic extent she has to do all of these things so she doesn't get caught, she has to blend in, she has to be sensitive to how other people behave and transform herself. All to protect herself. All to keep running away. So, we arrive at the answer of why did Toga kill Curious?
Because she was fucking terrified for her life and in that situation she was convinced it was kill or be killed.
Toga is uniquely a child in the League of Villains, and more than that, a runaway child with one violent incident who started ramping up shortly after she joined the league. If she was caught after running away before she joined the league, in a normal society, she'd most likely wouldn't even be tried as an adult. However, this is hero society where Toga has every reason to believe that since she's been labeled as a villain and hunted down like a villain by heroes, that heroes like Endeavor are going to come after her with lethal force and burn her alive. THis is once again, something Endeavor did literally onscreen, and burned a bystander and got no punisment for. This is something Heroes are allowed to do, so Toga is completely reasonable in her belief that no hero is going to come save her, and if they do corner her they're just as likely to go for the kill as the arrest.
So Touya is characterized by this prevasive belief that he's always going to be going through whatever he is going through alone, because no one will understand him. Touya himself is so isolated he can't even accept that he might have burned Toga's house down as a gesture of kindness. He insists he isn't kind, he's just using Toga, that she's wrong about him, because that's all Touya knows about himself. Touya has only ever been seen as Endeavor's son and nothing else, so even while being cast away from his family he still characterizes everything he does as to get revenge against Endeavor and be Endeavor's villain because the way he was raised he has no other way of seeing himself.
While Toga believes deep down to her core, that she's going to be killed and eradicated for being born with the quirk she was born at. Like the dream wasn't subtle,s he dreams of a red bird piercing her through the stomach and dancing in the blood. I wonder what that was a metaphor for. Maybe, Hawks gutting Twice with the knife? Toga says that her motivation for killing people is to love and become them, but if you analyze her actions, she's a runaway girl desperately afraid the heroes are going to hunt her down for her deviant quirk, so she has to do anything she can, even transform herself into other people, to pass herself off as normal and keep hiding.
They are two people whose families and the people around them have committed to interpreting them and their actions in the worst way possible, while turning a blind eye to their inner distress. Touya is just the villain of the family, even Endeavor whose directly responsible for creating him can't separate seeing his son from being a villain, and Toga is a just a pleasure killer who kills on a whim.
However, Touya's original reason for stating he didn't want to connect with people was that he lived in a different world from them, and normal people would never understand the feelings inside of him and what he was going through. It seems slowly but surely, just by opening up a little bit to Toga, that Touya is backing off on that stance. While normal people would never understand, or even care to understand, what's going on inside Toga and Touya's head no matter what face they show the outside world. The truth is Touya and Toga's situation has changed somewhat since they found each other in the league. Touya is now able to see that Himiko has a heart underneath her psychotic actions. Toga is the first person to describe Dabi as kind. Even if their families views on them haven't changed one bit, Touya's views are slowly starting to change as he realizes there are people in the world who suffered the same way he did when he was under Endeavor. For the first time he seems to look past his own trauma, and see that just like him, Toga was a child that was ignored that she's doing all this for a reason. And Toga as well, receives reassurance from Touya for the first time. He actually tries to comfort her when she's faced with the fact that no one, no normal person, will probably ever try to understand her. He tries to give her an answer to what her parents told her "No one will ever accept you the way they are."
And his answer is, well, laugh anyway. Even if they don't accept you, you're here laughing with us in the end. Touya's insistence was that he could never make friends because being from a different world they would never be able to understand him, but now he's finally found people who do understand. So I'm excited to see where we'll go from here.
The surname Todoroki in Japanese is written as one kanji 轟
The meaning can vary but is generally a derivative of "to spread/expand," more so in feeling rather than in number. So if you're talking about a sound "todoroking" than it means it will resound (expand into large area)
If an information is "todoroking" than the information is going to spread worldwide/nationwide/etc. If your chest "todorokes" than your heartbeat is getting faster and louder. But the most common use of it is for sound (loud engine, lightning, bomb, loud sounds)
As for the meaning of why Horikoshi sensei used it for the family's surname is most likely a combination of two reasons:
1. Katsuki's name was originally Gougou Katsuki and the first "gou" was the kanji 轟 (todoroki can also be read as 'gou' phonetically). He found a better, more fitting kanji with a easier-pronounced name but Horikoshi didn't want to scrap the kanji so he used it for the Todofam
2. He found the resounding meaning able to fit with the Todoroki family's fame. And more importantly, since the kanji is an old (not so commonly used everyday) kanji and sounds sophisticated, in a way in japanese aesthetic, fitting for an "old money"-like traditional family.
Either way, the kanji itself is not /that/ important in the meaning for the family since it was reused from Katsuki's original name.
In fact, if I'm not mistaken, Shoto is not included in the set of characters Hori first came up with, and imo I think Shoto is not the first of the Todoroki family Hori came up with, but was created in order to incorporate it somehow in the storyline with Deku (a UA student).
Enji's name 炎司 (read 'En ji') has two kanji's 炎 (read 'en' or 'honoo') which means 'flame', and 司 (read 'tsukasa' and 'ji' in names) which means 'regarding to the government'. I mentioned in a previous thread I did that bnha names are not realistic in kanji but are-
realistic phonetically and the respective kanji refer to their quirks. The 炎 (en) part of enji's name is just that. It refers to his quirk. The 'ji' part, while in meaning (regarding the gov) sounds weird, it's actually a kanji pretty commonly used in names.
Rather than the literal meaning of work/devote to gov, it's more of a nuanced meaning of righteousness and responsibility. Kanji used in Japanese names usually go one of two ways: nature (pretty sounds and imagery) or moral (deep meaning). We take moral very seriously.
Enji's name in that right is very fitting for a hero not just with a flame quirk, but one with the most number of cases resolved. Very workaholic, very strict, very disciplined, that kind of thing
Rei's name written in one kanji 冷 means "to cool" in a way close to freezing in a cold temperature. It is one of the kanji's used in the word refrigerator (冷蔵庫) and means "to cool down" when used as a verb 冷やす (hi ya su). Standalone with no verb conjugation it's read 'rei'
Rei was actually considered more of a "masculine" name until recent years where androgynous and one-kanji names have become more popular and common. This "boy"-like name in a woman makes people think of a cold, cool (rather than cute), beautiful lady.
Very fitting for her as she is very beautiful, comes from a good/traditional family, and was described as being "like ice" by enji when they first met.
And speaking of traditional, Rei's maiden name, Himura 氷 ('hi' 'hyou' or 'koori' meaning ice) 叢 ('mura' or 'sou' meaning field or place where things crowd/gather). The first kanji is simply the noun for ice, but the second if I remember correctly is the older/complex kanji for the verb gather (群がる read the same way is preferred and commonly used).
The old/complex kanji coming from Chinese (especially in family names) can associated with old, traditional families. Which makes her seem all the more a "traditional arranged marriage bride". Although I don't know how much this applies to the bnha world. I'm just talking about the vibe.
I have a separate post for Touya/Dabi. I just want to include that he has the most thoughtful name, which makes sense because he is the firstborn. The fire/light meaning in his name with the "rising" nuance is intentional of Endeavor’s wish.
And parents' wishes do go to the first born boy (regardless of who actually makes true of the dream). It is common for things to be this way in Japan, albeit it being considered old-fashioned and biased in other parts of the world.
Another thing I didn't mention in the Touya/Dabi thread because that one was exclusively for comparing the opposites, is that the name Touya can be written as an ice-related name with the same phonetic sound, just a different kanji. It could have been 凍 (to cool - the 'to' in Shoto is more correctly read 'tou') or 冬 (winter - the 'fuyu' in fuyumi) for all I know. I'm hc that EnjiRei chose his name phonetically and made it so it's versatile for both ice and fire and then waited for which hair color he's born with to assume his quirk.
Onto Fuyumi, in two kanji: 冬 ('fuyu' or 'tou' meaning winter) and 美 ('mi' or 'bi' meaning beauty). This is not necessarily referring to her most-likely ice quirk, but because she was born in winter. Half the names in japan, the ones with nature, are based on the season born.
Flower name girls are most likely from the season that flower flourishes, some kids with one of the four seasons 春夏秋冬 in their name is almost 100% born in that season. As for 'mi', it's a common ending for a girl's name. Like -a for alphabet names I suppose. Mayumi, Hiromi, Ami, the list goes on…
Fuyumi has a very traditional Japanese, beautiful name. Realistic both phonetically and in kanji. It plays on both the nature and moral (traditionally beauty being expected in girls) type of names. I personally think that she fits the Todoroki surname the best.
Now Natsuo, written 夏 ('natsu' or 'ka' meaning summer) and 雄 ('o' or 'yu' meaning male). The deal with Natsu is the same as Fuyu in Fuyumi where it's the season he's born in. The 'o' although in a literal sense means male, in names, it doesn't mean it in a animalistic way but rather in a nuance way referring to big and strong (in a healthy sense), brave, excels in talent. All the things traditionally wanted in a boy. This is also a realistic name phonetically and in kanji. It plays on both the moral and nature type names as well.
I think that many people play off Fuyumi and Natsuo to have simple middle child names = no interest by endeavor, but I don't think so. Maybe it may sound so because it's so common for the bnha characters to have quirk related kanji, but realistically their names are not a lazy chosen name. For example, Present Mic, 山田ひざし Yamada Hizashi doesn't have to do with his quirk. Meaning wise it moreso has to do with the Aizawa-Mic-Shirakumo trio.
Finally to the youngest baby Shoto. His name is really not realistic in either a phonetic sense or a kanji-combination sense. It is written 焦 ('shou' or 'koge' meaning "to burn") and 凍 ('tou' or 'kooru' meaning "to cool/freeze"). One of the main reasons it's not realistic is because that second kanji can't be read as just 'to'. Reading it as such is kind of forced.
His name also, while being the golden child only refers to his quirk (no nature, no moral, not even phonetically realistic, really), which is why I think he was a character created as a medium in the story to be able to incorporate a complex family like the Todoroki's as well as the notion of quirk marriages for the sake of worldbuilding. I don't even think that Shoto was the first or even second character in the Todoroki family that Horikoshi sensei created (that's just my opinion though, Idk).
And even though he may have been a medium for the sake of the story rather than being a core characterization to move the story (if that makes sense), he's still a great character and deserves all the love in the world.
Back to his name though, there's not much to say other than it means "to burn" and "to cool", referring to his half/half quirk. Possibly the most meaningful thing I can say is that he was named to be the wielder of such power, as the verbs are used rather than the noun for ice (氷 'koori' 'hyou' 'hi' - the same one used in Re'i's maiden name) and fire (火 'hi' 'ka'). For all I know, his name could have been Hyouka (氷火) which idk could be androgynous with a feminine name on a pretty boy ig...
I think the verb counterpart is significant in his parents making him a holder of that power but not letting it become truly his, which moreso makes Deku's line about it being Shoto's power (he is the power, not the wielder of some power) even the more significant.
The significance of Touya’s villain name being Dabi
To start with, the meaning of those names are “ignited arrow” and “cremation” respectively, but that’s only a direct translation you might get on google translate so I want to explain a bit more. A lot of it comes from nuance rather than logic, but Dabi and Touya have opposite meanings which is why it’s significant and ironic that Touya dies to reborn as Dabi.
Touya is a combination of two characters 燈 (read ‘tou’ in his name) and 矢 (read ‘ya’ in his name). The first, 燈 (tou) stand-alone is read as ‘tomoshibi’ and it’s meaning is an ignited light that brings brightness to its surroundings. 矢 (ya) simply means arrow.
Often in japan, when giving names to children, parents put in thought based on how they want their children to grow up and characterize it in a VERY nuanced way (not direct logic), most often with nature related kanji. E.g. ひなた (hinata - kanji can vary) means “sunny place” but it doesn’t mean parents want their children to be a sunny place or live in a sunny place but rather want their child to grow up surrounded by warm people and become a person that can give happiness others too.
So, in the case of Touya, the ‘light’ related kanji and ‘arrow’ can give off an image of “going up” - become like an arrow arising, lighting up the people around him (like the sun!) It’s a beautiful name with a lot of hope and leadership. This actually corresponds to endeavors wish for him to become no.1 as a fire (main) user since the ‘tou’ 燈 part does not only mean light but is a “fire base” (fire containing) kanji. The kanji for fire 火 if you can see is the left part of the kanji 燈.
Now going onto the name Dabi. It is written 荼毘 and is a combination kanji that is exclusively used with the two together (read ‘da bi’) and not each character alone.
Now the thing with the translation “cremation”… it’s accurate but it’s not exactly correct either. It does not translate to the noun “cremation” but rather the verb “to cremate” which alone without hiragana for conjugation, I think google translate cannot account for. Most importantly, 荼毘 alone is not used. While technically, it can be used alone as in 荼毘される ‘dabi sareru’ (to be cremated), the complete “verb” to cremate is the entire phrase 荼毘に付す ‘dabi ni fusu’
This is why it is very difficult for non native speakers to completely grasp, but dabi’s line in s3-24 where he cremates some guys in the alleyway is VERY neat and significant to him as Dabi. The line is Japanese is:
付せろ ゴミならせめて燃えて俺の薪となれ
Fusero, gomi nara semete moete ore no maki to nare
It roughly translates to:
Lay low, since you’re garbage, at least make use of yourselves to become my firewood
The “lay low” part which is the ‘fusero’ part is phonetically meaning wise can mean lay low or duck down, but in dabis line it uses an different kanji (yes! The one from the phrase ‘Dabi ni fusero’, the one exclusively used with ‘Dabi’). He then follows up with MY firewood. All together it means duck down to become Dabi’s firewood. It is a play on the phrase that means cremate!!
Now going back from that sidetrack…
Nuance wise, death is associated with returning to the earth, which is “going down”. That’s the direction the name ‘Dabi’ gives. It’s the opposite as the direction ‘Touya’ gives. So ‘Dabi’ is not a name he chose only because it was villainy and associate with death by fire, but it was chosen to become the complete opposite of ‘Touya’.
Touya to Dabi = to be hero to villain = hair/outfit white to black = emotional boy to reserved and mysterious man
His identity shift is completely based on the idea of opposites. And those opposites go backwards as Dabi reveals in vol.30 and regains his name Touya again.
