In Japanese the word “TEN” means “Heaven” or “Sky”
Its the number of fingers we have, and the Roman Numeral X.
Its also the arbitrary number of shells that a government-limited magazine may hold.
Its also the number of anti-gun votes Linoge’s Poll has received.
Now is this limitation some legitimate destructive line in the sand, or is it an arbitrary number likely chosen out of bias towards the number of fingers we have (we call them digits for a reason)….or is it raw self-preservation?
I mean if there are TEN anti-gun supporters, and they have an international convention in an Oyster Shack, or an Arby’s, or maybe those handful of tables at the front of a wholefoods, a “Pro Gun Cultist” decides to wipe the world clean of anti-rights jerks, and they ONLY bring one magazine, they will only succeed if they get a perfect score!
…maybe 😉
“Ten” is also used in the word for “angel” (Tenshi) and “heavens” (Tengen). It’s more of a coincidence with the other languages, though, as the Japanese word for “ten” is “jyu”.
So, for instance, the theme song for Neon Genesis Evangelion, “Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze” is “Cruel Angel’s Thesis”, and the title of an anime by the same company is “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann”, which translates to “Heaven Piercing Gurren Lagann”.
As a side note, “sky” is pretty much always “sora” in Japanese. The character “ten” tends to be used for holy or celestial things, such as the examples previously stated.
And by “celestial”, I mean gods, angels, etc..
Thanks for that clarification. I took a semester of Japanese back in the day so I got most of the greetings and how to oder goods and services, as well as all the crazy counting systems they have.
Never got to the meaning of “Ten”, knew it wasn’t “10”, but didn’t know if it was just regular sky or specifically how we use the word “Heaven”. And on the Anime Geek side I get the “Tenchi Muyo” gag for “This way Up”
But, dood, they are up to twelve now!