Names in 2.43
Because names in fiction often have meaning and can even be insightful, I decided to take a look at the names of the main characters of 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu. Note that I am not a native Japanese speaker (and am, in fact, still learning), and I relied on the imiwa? and Shirabe Jisho apps for many of the kanji meanings.
Kenritsu Nanafu Seiin Koukou [Nanafu Seiin Prefectural High School] 県立七符清陰高校
Nanafu is the fictional city where the school is located. It’s written with “seven” and a kanji that can mean “charm/talisman; tally; mark.”
‘Seiin’ is written with “(to make) clear; pure/purify; exorcise” and “shadow; darkness,” so it could be taken to mean “to clear away the shadows.” Seems pretty fitting for the dark horse, breaking out of obscurity.
As a whole, the school’s name has a sense of “the #7 charm that clears away the shadows” (thanks, @foodandfandom, for helping me figure that out), with 七 being a reference to Yuni’s uniform number. Chika may be the setter who starts to bring the best out of them as players and a team, but without Yuni as their ace, they never would have gotten to that point. Even if Chika had joined the team, he wouldn’t have gotten along with the other players, and it would have been a repeat of Meisei and Monshiro with no one to rely on. Yuni is the one who brings them together, his dependability as the ace once he steels his resolve the catalyst that allows them to evolve as a team, the charm that makes them capable of clearing away the shadows of an unknown name to step into the spotlight of the Nationals stage.
The city’s name is twofold, though. Along with lending the meaning of “the #7 charm” to the school name, 七符市 (Nanafu-shi, Nanafu City) is read the same way as ナナフシ/七節/竹節虫 (nanafushi), which refer to walking sticks/stick insects and fits the themes of all the towns being named after bugs (more on that later in the post).
