The same kind of thing is going on with the Tokyo Skytree, the tallest building in Tokyo. When it was completed, the story around Japan was that it’s exactly 634 meters tall, corresponding to the name of Miyamoto Musashi. Mu (6) Sa (3) Shi (4)
In the Kateikyou Hitman Reborn! fandom characters are refered to as numbers (and single letters) based on this word play. It’s called 語呂合わせ.
37564
It’s called 語呂合わせ and it’s based on the (many) possible readings of numbers in Japanese. The wordplay is rooted in the use of pagers, which were limited to sending only numbers. So, 4649 becomes よん, ろく, し, く, which in turn become よろしくfor example. English had similar “codes” with pagers (143 for the number of letters in “I love you”), but the Japanese ones are far more robust.
As for a list, there’s a few you can find but none are anywhere close to exhaustive, since the readings are often stretched or based on the receiver’s personal knowledge.
It’s why a lot of NicoNicoDouga videos have strings of 8888888888 at the end of them in the on screen credits. It’s meant to be read “PachiPachiPachi” which is the onomatopoeia for applause.
Another case is [the characters’ nicknames](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Darling_in_the_Franxx_characters) in the *Darling in the Franxx* anime. The story is set up with them all being given code numbers as designation (to sort them by ranking and dehumanize them), but they are basically all (conveniently) readable as regular names with goroawase substitution. 15 goes to “Ichigo”, 214 goes to “Futoshi” etc.
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It’s associated with the readings of the numbers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay
こ(ご), ろ(ろく), さん
4649!
My personal favorite: 39, I.e. サンキュウ (thank you)
42-42-564 from Soul Eater
The same kind of thing is going on with the Tokyo Skytree, the tallest building in Tokyo. When it was completed, the story around Japan was that it’s exactly 634 meters tall, corresponding to the name of Miyamoto Musashi. Mu (6) Sa (3) Shi (4)
In the Kateikyou Hitman Reborn! fandom characters are refered to as numbers (and single letters) based on this word play. It’s called 語呂合わせ.
37564
It’s called 語呂合わせ and it’s based on the (many) possible readings of numbers in Japanese. The wordplay is rooted in the use of pagers, which were limited to sending only numbers. So, 4649 becomes よん, ろく, し, く, which in turn become よろしくfor example. English had similar “codes” with pagers (143 for the number of letters in “I love you”), but the Japanese ones are far more robust.
This is a bit shameless but I’ve written about them a [couple](https://lostinlocalization.com/sh2-containers/) [times](https://lostinlocalization.com/live-a-live-akira/) [before](https://twitter.com/lostinloc/status/1563996674170953728), and the other guy who writes for my site is gonna post a huge breakdown of the pager codes in Yakuza 0 tomorrow that will teach you everything you need to know about it.
As for a list, there’s a few you can find but none are anywhere close to exhaustive, since the readings are often stretched or based on the receiver’s personal knowledge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay#Numeric_substitution
It’s why a lot of NicoNicoDouga videos have strings of 8888888888 at the end of them in the on screen credits. It’s meant to be read “PachiPachiPachi” which is the onomatopoeia for applause.
Another case is [the characters’ nicknames](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Darling_in_the_Franxx_characters) in the *Darling in the Franxx* anime. The story is set up with them all being given code numbers as designation (to sort them by ranking and dehumanize them), but they are basically all (conveniently) readable as regular names with goroawase substitution. 15 goes to “Ichigo”, 214 goes to “Futoshi” etc.