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Answerman - How Do Lucky And Unlucky Numbers Factor Into Anime?


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hinugundam



Joined: 09 Apr 2011
Posts: 57
Location: USA
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:35 pm Reply with quote
In JoJo’s bizzare adventure Guido Mistaspoiler[ is superstitious about the number four being bad luck. So much so that it affects the appearance of his stand, Sex Pistols. Sex Pistols consists of six small stands with a printed number on their heads, but they are numbered 1-3 and 5-7.]
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Shiflan



Joined: 29 Jul 2015
Posts: 418
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:54 pm Reply with quote
I'm quite curious about how/if the fear of "13" exists in Japan.

The superstitions around the numbers 4 and 9 make sense like Justin explained. (I was taught the same thing when I studied Japanese in college). However I don't know the background for 13 in Japanese culture. Is it something that came in from the west (13 is typically shunned because of The Last Supper)? Or does it come from 4 + 9 = 13? Or something else entirely?
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 1:30 pm Reply with quote
So does that mean having max stats in most RPGs means you went through a lot of suffering (long hours of grinding) to hit Level 99 and have 9999 HP and 999 MP?
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 1:47 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Seven is also supposedly the largest number of items that a human brain can easily identify visually without having to count them.

Surely the identification of a full eight items is easily within our capacity though! The fighting game community's choice of instrument demonstrates this, I think.
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Mhora





PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:03 pm Reply with quote
Shiflan wrote:
I'm quite curious about how/if the fear of "13" exists in Japan.

The superstitions around the numbers 4 and 9 make sense like Justin explained. (I was taught the same thing when I studied Japanese in college). However I don't know the background for 13 in Japanese culture. Is it something that came in from the west (13 is typically shunned because of The Last Supper)? Or does it come from 4 + 9 = 13? Or something else entirely?
It's probably taken from western culture. Friday 13th, the 13th floor, Last Supper, etc. Pretty wide-spread.
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ICO44



Joined: 28 Aug 2015
Posts: 103
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:36 pm Reply with quote
I guess it was spoiler[9S destiny to suffer]
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 6:48 pm Reply with quote
Zin5ki wrote:
Quote:
Seven is also supposedly the largest number of items that a human brain can easily identify visually without having to count them.

Surely the identification of a full eight items is easily within our capacity though! The fighting game community's choice of instrument demonstrates this, I think.


While this varies from person to person, my understanding is that people tend to perceive eight as two groups of four.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:10 pm Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:
So does that mean having max stats in most RPGs means you went through a lot of suffering (long hours of grinding) to hit Level 99 and have 9999 HP and 999 MP?
I'd imagine this has more to do with the fact that older programs liked to keep numbers in binary-coded decimal format(meaning each byte represents two separate digits). It also neatly fits the allotted space without any waste, giving 10^x - 1 a certain visual appeal 2^x -1 can never have.
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Shiflan



Joined: 29 Jul 2015
Posts: 418
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:44 pm Reply with quote
Polycell wrote:
belvadeer wrote:
So does that mean having max stats in most RPGs means you went through a lot of suffering (long hours of grinding) to hit Level 99 and have 9999 HP and 999 MP?
I'd imagine this has more to do with the fact that older programs liked to keep numbers in binary-coded decimal format(meaning each byte represents two separate digits). It also neatly fits the allotted space without any waste, giving 10^x - 1 a certain visual appeal 2^x -1 can never have.


I assumed belvadeer was making a joke.

The numerical values a variable in a computer program can store vary by powers of two. Those do not have a jump at 9999 or 999. You go: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024.....8192, 16384.... In practice though you have a big jump from a byte (0...255) to an Integer (0..65,534). In most games a PC's HP and MP would be stored as integers, typically having a range of 0 to 65584. The limits at 999 or 9999 are entirely aribtrary and set by the programmers. The most likely reason is screen space (resolution), especially dating back to the 8-bit era.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 8:10 pm Reply with quote
Shiflan wrote:
I assumed belvadeer was making a joke.

The numerical values a variable in a computer program can store vary by powers of two. Those do not have a jump at 9999 or 999. You go: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024.....8192, 16384.... In practice though you have a big jump from a byte (0...255) to an Integer (0..65,534). In most games a PC's HP and MP would be stored as integers, typically having a range of 0 to 65584. The limits at 999 or 9999 are entirely aribtrary and set by the programmers. The most likely reason is screen space (resolution), especially dating back to the 8-bit era.


I was indeed making a joke based on the information in the article regarding the number 9 and suffering, though your informative post is good to know about too.
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Gemnist



Joined: 10 Feb 2016
Posts: 1754
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 9:43 pm Reply with quote
Suddenly the nickname "Nines" became a whole lot deeper...
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CaptainAvatar



Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 381
Location: Saint Louis, MO
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:47 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Generally, if you see the numbers 4 or 7 come up in a conspicuous way, I would look a little closer to try and analyze if there's any nod to those numbers' alternate meanings.


Oh great! My birthday is 4/7
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Nodz



Joined: 29 Dec 2013
Posts: 523
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:32 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I know that both 4 and 9 are considered "unlucky" in Japan because in Japanese.


Something's missing in the question.
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MaxTurtle



Joined: 31 Jul 2018
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 6:30 pm Reply with quote
Seems like the name of Major's protagonist "Goro Shigeno" wasn't randomly chosen.
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Errinundra
Moderator


Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:56 pm Reply with quote
I work for a health insurance company and once got a call from a new member who requested we change his member # as it had multiple 4s in it. As he pointed out to me - having something resembling the symbol for death on a health insurance policy was most inauspicious. We happily gave him a new number without any 4s.
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