Mansions Dave and the Etymology of all Club 24 Anime

Yoshihiro Togashi created YuYu Hakusho, Masashi Kishimoto created Naruto, Noriyaki Kubo created Bleach, Gege Akutami created JuJutsu Kaisen and the newest addition to that prestigious Club - Takeru Hokazono created Kagurabachi all in and around the age of 24

24 is puberty for World Building

Let's unravel all those brilliant names because obviously a lot of thought went into those names

So YuYu actually means Ghostly Play, with Yū being a homonym for both Ghost and Play and Hakusho means Dossier, further broken down Haku means White and Sho means Paper, so just as how White Paper means Technical Documentation in English that same combination of words means Dossier in Japanese as well

So that name really ties in well to the original premise of the Manga, where Yusuke Urameshi was little more than a Private Detective for Poltergeists or Yōkai, as they are referred to in Japan

So Naruto has an interesting premise behind it, Masashi Kishimoto; who is an avid fan of of Instant Noodles himself wanted to take a generic add on we all take with our Instant Noodles, especially in Japan where it is the most common add on; and name his whole Intellectual Property after it

Naruto is also the only title on our list that's eponymous with the main character of that Intellectual Property

So Naruto literally means Spiral but it's actually shorthand for Narutomaki, which means Spiral Roll which still doesn't actually convey what it actually is

Narutomaki is basically the candied fish cakes people add to their Instant Noodles

It seems highly nuanced if you're outside of Japan but in Japan they're in the fridges of every supermarket and cornerstore alike

So if you don't know what Narutomaki looks like it's basically a white spiral with a fluorescent pink or green underlining

The white part is the fish that has been stretched and washed to become gelatinous and the pink or green part is the flour based gum

That's actually not just aesthetics, there's functionality to that, that gum base gives the fish paste something to hold on to and the tension created in the spiral gives the paste it's integrity, without those things you'd just have a globule of fish paste that has lost it's integrity

Interesting enough Masashi Kishimoto dropped this philosophy of using Ramen Toppings as a name entirely when it was time to make Naruto's Sequel Series - Boruto

So Bleach is also an exception, it's the only title from our list that's in English

So when Noriyaki Kubo was conceptualizing Bleach he wanted to make the Soul a recurring motif in the World Building

The moniker - Bleach if anything expresses the concept of having total control over one's own soul and being

Moving on JuJutsu Kaisen is loaded so buckle up

Ju means Curse, Jutsu means Technique or Skill so JuJutsu means Cursed Technique, pretty on point given the Lore

Kai means a lot of things, if I were to give you all the definitions of Kai we'd be here all day, even if I just stuck to the nouns; we'd still be here all day.

Amongst the various and possibly contradicting verbs that Kai means is Revolving and that's the intended definition in this case

So Sen by itself means War but Japanese people hardly ever use that word standalone

You'll usually hear it in a compound word like Kasen, Kaisen or possibly Sengo

So Kaisen means Revolving Battle or Inescapable Battle but with great irony, JuJutsu Kaisen and even it's Sequel - Modulo was anything but that, they were very straightforward, linear and to get to the point - short

In fact Modulo is the uncontested shortest Action Manga of all time that was supposedly a mainline/ mainstream Manga

I think Gege Akutami realized that he's not actually writing epics as promised so he dropped that JuJutsu Kaisen moniker entirely for the Sequel Series

Corking off this discussion we have Kagurabachi which is arguably the most metaphorical title on the list

Kagura; without making it complicated means cultural or divine dance

Hachi means Bowl and Hachi used as a Suffix becomes aspirated to Bachi

So Hachi is an eclectic term and one of those definitions is in fact Fishbowl so you're probably wondering why Kagurabachi then

Well like I said this name is actually pretty philosophical and metaphorical

So the term - Kagura is being used here to describe the unique motion exhibited by goldfish when they swim to and fro

So Kagurabachi means Fishbowl all over again but in an extremely artistic way

So why the concept of Fishbowls at all? well the Main Character literally manifests his spiritual energy into ethereal Goldfish that swim about the battlefield, turning the entire battlefield into a literal Kagurabachi of sorts, that's why the name lands if you take the time to understand it