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Kinematics · 2007-05-03, 18:05

On the number 4

There have been various points during the initial threads where people refer to Clare's team who went to fight the awakened male as the "Fab Four" or some such. While at this point it's a bit tenuous to call them a team, they're definitely all tied together, and thinking of them as such seems natural.

However a well-known Japanese superstition revolves around the number 4. Since one of the ways it can be pronounced sounds like the word for 'death', it's considered a bad or unlucky number ("You have a most unfortunate face."). In pretty much every other anime I can think of, teams are comprised of two (Gunsmith Cats, Dirty Pair), three (Steel Angel Kurumi, Read or Dream) or five (Sailor Moon, Voltron-type shows) members. The only case of 4 that I can think of is Bubblegum Crisis.

While there are parallels that can be drawn with the Bubblegum Crisis characters (Miria seems very similar to Sylia, and likewise Helen to Priss; Clare is somewhat similar to Linna, but any similarities between Denev and Nene seem tenuous at best), the more overarching idea seems to be a deliberate use of the secondary concept of death, and perhaps bad luck in general, that the author wants to convey. We don't have any "defeat the bad guy and go home for a cup o' tea" moments here, and such is very unlikely to happen given the atmosphere of the story.

However, to return to the idea of a magical girl team analogue (or any team, really), we already have enough of an idea of the characters to fit them into pretty easy-to-identify roles:

Miria: Leader; intelligence gathering and strategy.
Helen: Aggressive, reckless direct power.
Denev: Defensive; the shield. Potentially the 'comic relief', if such can be applied to this world (cf: tends to hassle and make trouble for other Claymores).
Clare: Wild card; unusual power that can potentially trump whatever the enemy throws out, but difficult to use and train.

On name origins

Curious about the names, I was looking up the meanings and origins. Bit of peculiarity: St. Clare of Assisi is the patron saint of Televisions.

2007-05-03, 18:05	Link #27
Kinematics Let's play a game! Join Date: Sep 2006	On the number 4 There have been various points during the initial threads where people refer to Clare's team who went to fight the awakened male as the "Fab Four" or some such. While at this point it's a bit tenuous to call them a team, they're definitely all tied together, and thinking of them as such seems natural. However a well-known Japanese superstition revolves around the number 4. Since one of the ways it can be pronounced sounds like the word for 'death', it's considered a bad or unlucky number ("You have a most unfortunate face."). In pretty much every other anime I can think of, teams are comprised of two (Gunsmith Cats, Dirty Pair), three (Steel Angel Kurumi, Read or Dream) or five (Sailor Moon, Voltron-type shows) members. The only case of 4 that I can think of is Bubblegum Crisis. While there are parallels that can be drawn with the Bubblegum Crisis characters (Miria seems very similar to Sylia, and likewise Helen to Priss; Clare is somewhat similar to Linna, but any similarities between Denev and Nene seem tenuous at best), the more overarching idea seems to be a deliberate use of the secondary concept of death, and perhaps bad luck in general, that the author wants to convey. We don't have any "defeat the bad guy and go home for a cup o' tea" moments here, and such is very unlikely to happen given the atmosphere of the story. However, to return to the idea of a magical girl team analogue (or any team, really), we already have enough of an idea of the characters to fit them into pretty easy-to-identify roles: Miria: Leader; intelligence gathering and strategy. Helen: Aggressive, reckless direct power. Denev: Defensive; the shield. Potentially the 'comic relief', if such can be applied to this world (cf: tends to hassle and make trouble for other Claymores). Clare: Wild card; unusual power that can potentially trump whatever the enemy throws out, but difficult to use and train. On name origins Curious about the names, I was looking up the meanings and origins. Bit of peculiarity: St. Clare of Assisi is the patron saint of Televisions.