Name Analysis

Cast Name Analysis

A/N: So, I decided to do a little research on the names of the Theater Starless members. Donut has shown a lot of cleverness with their foreshadowing, so I thought maybe the names have some sort of meaning behind them.

I may be shooting arrows in the dark for some of these, and some of the names don’t seem to have a deep meaning (not that I can find at least). Also, may contain spoilers if you are not fully caught up.

One of the websites I found, Kei’s meaning was Katsura tree. These trees are a symbol of gods descending from the heavens and the joining of earth and sky.

The story of Theater Starless is based on Longherin, and the male lead, the Swan Knight, is portrayed by Kei. The main female lead, Elsa, is falsely accused of murder after which a mysterious knight, sent by God, appears to help her. This knight is not only powerful but also possesses superhuman charisma. The knight stands strong beside Elsa as her shield, and in exchange, only asks for one thing: for his identity and name to remain hidden.

Team K’s leader is the mysterious savior of Starless as he has not only protected members from being fired but has also polished a nearly broken Starless into what we are seeing now. Even Donut has portrayed Kei with angel wings in the Blackstar MV symbolizing him as the heaven descended angel that has come to save Starless.

What I am looking forward to is learning Kei’s real name and his identity, but what I don’t want is for Kei to leave just like Longherin did in the opera. Also I wonder if the MC is going to die at the end. Wouldn’t that make for heck of a plot twist…

For all those that hate Kei’s double hair color, I think it was inspired by the colors of the Katsura tree itself.

Sotetsu is a type of tree known as Cycas Revoluta.

The most notable, rather dangerous, feature of the tree is that it is extremely poisonous to animals and humans. Sotetsu’s character in the game can be seen as poisonous in the sense that he loves to cause trouble and lives to see drama. In various instances Sotetsu himself has said that when things get boring in Starless, he is tempted to start drama.

Also, Sotetsu has a job outside of Starless as an information broker. In exchange for top dollar, he provides information on people. Can we just call him a shady detective? The handsome man has not yet been given the spotlight he deserves, but I’ve a feeling that when the spotlight finally shines on him, all hell is going to break loose. He may reveal secretive information about someone, maybe even Kei or MC, and the tides in Starless may turn.

If you look at the penlight colors for the member, you can almost immediately guess why the cast has a certain color associated with them. Looking at Sotetsu’s color, green isn’t anywhere in his design, but the color may be associated with him due to the color of the Cycas tree.

Yoshino is a type of cherry blossom known as Prunus × yedoensis.

Cherry blossoms are famous for their beautiful flowers, but alas, the life span of these beautiful blooms is short. Yoshino’s hair color and height fit well with the flower. Most sites associated the Prunus × yedoensis with the term “short lived”. Is Donut trying to foreshadow that Yoshino’s career is going to be short lived or maybe even his life? In the latest chapter, the singer mentioned that he only has one year left in Starless, after which he will be leaving due to family reasons.

Gui has a lot of different meanings depending on the language. In French, the name means mistletoe, in Hebrew, it means valley, and in Germanic, it means wood and forest.

There is also one more meaning of the name, which I personally think suits Gui the most. GUI in the language of the computer means graphical user interface (GUI). A GUI is a means for humans to interact with computers; an interface that uses menus/windows/icons and can be manipulated using a mouse.

If you look at his character, Gui rarely shows emotions and always talks about his master. It also seems like Gui is an interface that is waiting for a master (the user) to give commands. At all points he is awaiting a master to give him directions. In the past, he had an unknown master who has disappeared, and currently, he has dubbed Kei as his temporary master. The comparison is a bit farfetched, but I can’t think of a better meaning for his name. Come to think of it, Kei is the master, and Ginsei is the user that teaches the interface Gui how to function.

Ginsei is a mineral known as Wavellite.

The mineral is not only extremely attractive but is also rare and a collector’s item. Ginsei is mainly known for his looks, even though he absolutely hates this about himself. The ikemen is straight up named for his looks. Way to add salt to his wound, Donut!

Yakou is a snail shell known as Turbo marmoratus. Snail shells are a mineral ingredient that’s mainly made of calcium carbonate.

Looking at the metaphysical meaning, T.marmoratus is known to have the ability to solve problems that continue from the past. After Yakou made his appearance in Starless, he was able to finally help Sinju overcome his past with the idol agency. Since Yakou is gathering people to work as Haseyama’s agents, fans are speculating that a new team will be created. Yoshino joined Yakou/Haseyama after he lost the VS event against Ginsei. Maybe Yakou will help Yoshino overcome his issues, and in some sense, he has already helped Yoshino by giving him a singer seat for the new team (assuming the team will get created).

The T.marmoratus snails have been hunted for years on out and have been enlisted as endangered. Is Donut hinting at something here? The reason these shells are sought after is due to their popularity in the mother-of-pearl trade. Also, if you look at the shell, you can see a pearl-like effect. Yakou…your obsession with Sinju is showing lol.

Kokuyou is an igneous rock known as obsidian.

This rock is known to have sharp edges, so in the ancient times, the rock was used to make powerful weapons. The Mayans prophets used this rock to tell the future, and the Mexican culture referred to this stone as Itzli, meaning the God of Stones. At one point in ancient times, the value of obsidian was higher than that of gold.

As we have all seen in most of the chapters, Kokuyou is known to have sharp edges. Donut does comedy well lol jk. It was hinted in Borderline that Kokuyou’s past plays a major role in Starless and maybe even MC’s past. If obsidian was used to predict the future, then is Kokuyou going to be the one to determine the future of Starless? Also going back to the “God” wordplay, Kei and Kokuyou are the faces of Starless, and they both have God connections associated with them. Too farfetched?

Akira means crystal as well as bright, sunlight, and wisdom.

Can I draw a parallel and say Akira is the light to Kokuyou’s dark past? The singer is a bright character, someone who always smiles, flirts, and is playful in general. Due to his laidback attitude, people misjudge his intelligence. Akira is much sharper than he leads on! He notices a lot of things that the others neglect, like he was the one that predicted Yakou will be the one to destroy Team P. As we saw in the last chapter, Yakou overturned the team by snatching Rindou’s spot.

It’s said that people have been obsessed with crystals throughout history, so did Donut foreshadow that Akira would be a popular character? Confirmed: Donut has the ability to see the future.

Takami is a gemstone known as hawk’s eye.

Since the beginning of the story, characters have said that Takami is very intelligent. Also, Takami is the only one who can fully decipher Sin’s riddles. Taking his name literally, a hawk possesses extremely sharp eyesight for hunting purposes. Is Takami there to hunt someone, maybe Kei? I said this a while back, but Takami gives off a cop/detective vibe. Maybe Takami is at Starless to investigate the incident that happened a few years back or he’s there to investigate the disappearance of the Mikis and Nekome.

Taiga is a gemstone known as tiger’s eyes, the same family as Hawk’s eye. Tiger’s eye is also known as the “all-seeing, all-knowing eye”.

Taiga is similar to Takami in the sense that he also watches everything and has an eye on everyone via his hacking skills. We don’t know how much information Taiga knows about everyone, but it seems like he has attempted to learn the background of a few people. Taiga may as well be the one to get the missing information that will connect the past to the future. Taiga needs to hack everyone’s background and tell us about their past. We’re dying to know about these characters…Taiga plz!

Sin’s name isn’t readily associated with any mineral names but looking through a list of minerals, I would say maybe his name comes from the Sincosite mineral. The color of this mineral is similar to the color of his penlight and left eye.

I am going to take this to the extreme by saying that Sin is the third person in Starless that has the word “god” attached to his name. In Judaism, Shin is another word for Shaddaia which means god. Shin knows everything that is going on and seems to be one of the characters that is foreseeing a lot of things.

Looking at another word associated with his name, Sin can also be seen as committing a sin. In borderline it was hinted that Sin burned something in order to destroy evidence—maybe evidence that could put him in danger or evidence that could expose the truth about blackcard or the missing people. He also pushed MC to remember a dark memory that Kei is desperately trying to keep hidden from her.

Rindou (Gentian) is a flower that represents confidence, victory, sincerity, a strong sense of justice, and lonely love.

Since the beginning of the game, we have seen Rindou being sincere and having a sense of justice. Though he’s calm, if presented with a challenge, Rindou will take the challenge head-on. He is respected by quite a few cast members and loved by the fans, but despite this, he still has a sense of loneliness about him. Rindou is also like a flower, beautiful and delicate.

One notable trait about the Gentian flower is that the roots are said to be very bitter. Cast members in the game have hinted that Rindou has a bitter past, something about him once being a famous idol but “falling” from that place. They have even called him a “Fallen Idol”.

The victory symbolism has to do with being able to overcome illness. Rindou has two sisters, and one of them is in the hospital. There have speculations that his sister’s condition may have something to do with Blackcard. Maybe Rindou’s sister will overcome her battle, or maybe Rindou himself will over the battle to save his sister. Also, since the Yakou VS Menou event, Rindou has been pretty down because of Yakou taking his spot (with Haseyama’s help). Maybe Rindou will overcome this battle and emerge as the victor.

Menou is a stone known as agate.

If you look at the stone, you’ll notice that what you see on the outside, is not the same as the inside. That kind of seems to be the case with Menou. He seems so calm on the outside, but we’ve yet to learn what he’ll like on the inside. In the Yakou VS Menou chapter, we saw that Menou has a very unusual way of interpreting the characters he takes on when acting.

Fans who came to see their performance in that event actually got scared of Menou’s acting. We saw a new side to Menou, showing that he has a bit of a deranged side to him. Kokuyou has also pointed out that sometimes Menou’s reactions are out of the ordinary. Who knows maybe Menou is the calm before the storm.

Sinju means pearl. The most notable symbolism of the pearl includes purity, generosity, integrity, and loyalty.

Sinju is the perfect pearl in every which way. First and foremost, he is extremely loyal to Rindou and looks up to him as a role model. Through the chapters, he has stood up for Rindou, especially when it involves Rindou keeping the leader position in Team P.

Sinju is also very pure and is always seen with an innocence about him. Sinju is from a poor family and is doing everything in his power to help them out. He really seems like a misfit for a dark place like Starless. We don’t know too much about his background, aside from him wanting to be an idol. (Sinju tried out for an idol agency and almost made it, but the concept of the group was “prince” and being from a poor background, the agency kicked Sinju out of his trainee group.) Let’s just hope that Sinju stays the same way he is…even when things get dark which we know they will.

Maica’s name is derived from a mineral called Mica, specifically the Lepidolite Mica.

The stone is extremely beautiful and has feminine charm to it, explains why Maica looks the way he does. The word Mica is influenced by the Latin word micare which means to glitter. Today the mineral is used to add shine value to clothes, buildings, and such. It’s almost like Donut saw the mineral and thought “wonder what this would look like as a person”.

Mokuren means magnolia. The flower symbolizes Yin (the feminine side), endurance, long life, eternity, self-respect, and self-esteem.

Mokuren suits the flower very well. They are said to be androgynous, so their gender goes well with the representation of Yin. In the Mokuren VS Kokuyou chapter, we saw that Mokuren wasn’t willing to fit their style to Kokuyou’s style and wanted the freedom to express their style. They hold high respect for their dance form and have confidence in their dance skills.

Purple magnolias are said to represent gifted people. Remember when the characters were first introduced? Donut said that Mokuren is a “natural born dancer”, so they’re naturally gifted.

Wonder if magnolias are also associated with eternally hungry people. 😂

So, the meaning behind Qu’s name has not been revealed yet, but I looked through a list of plants and minerals to see which name fits Qu. I found a flowering plant by the name of Quesnelia, and wow, the flowers are VERY beautiful. The meaning behind the flower also seems to fit Qu’s character well.

Quesnelias can survive in harsh conditions and are a symbol of endurance and hardiness. At the age of 8, Qu got separated from his family and was taken in by Maica’s family. He has worked as a drag queen but left the shop shortly after Mokuren left. He has hinted that he faced a hard life, but regardless of all he has been through, Qu is strong, beautiful, and positive.

The Quesnelia flowers bloom in the winter and can even grow in dunes. Generally, flowers bloom in the spring, but this flower seems to like challenges. Qu, similarly, is the flower that blooms through a crack in the concrete.

There are many different types of Quesnelia flowers, but the one below caught my eyes. As soon as I saw the flower and immediately thought of Qu (seriously, not joking). I.AM.IN.LOVE.WITH.THIS.FLOWER.

Kasumi is a flower known as baby’s breath. The flower represents pureness, innocence, freedom of outside influence/corruption, self-discipline, and fidelity.

Though we have our doubts that Kasumi is hiding something, we know that he’s a sweet guy who seems very pure and has an innocence about him. Kasumi is also pure at heart. He is very self-disciplined because that man works more than one job; imagine having to practice for performances, perform, work as floor staff, AND work a 9 to 5 type of job.

Also, as an understudy in Team W, he didn’t even complain once. He was loyal and supportive of the members of Team W and went out to get cigs for Kokuyou all the time. Even if he is hiding something, most of us can agree that this man has a golden heart.

Zakuro means the gem Garnet (no, not the one in Steven Universe lol).

The word garnet is derived from the Latin word granatus, meaning seed or grain (a reference to seeds of a pomegranate). Garnet is also worn for protection since the ancient times. Zakuro has lost his memories, or has he? If the former is true, then maybe Zakuro knows something…something that could protect OR destroy someone. He may be the key to protecting MC or held the key (in his memories) to protect MC. If the latter is true, then maybe Zakuro is a seed planted in Starless to keep an eye on one or more of the members. He may also be the seed that could have started everything in the past. DONUT give us more info!

Garnet is seen as a carbuncle (blood-red cabochon-cut gem), a word also derived from the Latin word cabunculus, which means small, hot coal. Zakuro is a cabunculus,and if anyone tries to mess with him, they’re going to get burned.

Lastly, garnet is a symbol of love and friendship, but the connections are more sinister (due to the myth associated with the gem/pomegranate). Well, Zaku’s friend needs to be careful.

Hari means glass.

Glass is translucent and lustrous, and that fits Hari well. He has not hidden anything about himself; he told everyone in Starless that he’s the son of a well-known politician. Lustrous can be taken as he’s from a wealthy family and has a “glossy finish” to him. Glass is also very sharp (be it the edges or when it breaks), and we have definitely seen that Hari is smart.

When I was looking at pictures of glass to put below, I found green glass, also known as Green Obsidian. Black Obsidian = Kokuyou. Obsidian is a naturally forming volcanic glass. Oddly enough, obsidian is usually dark-colored, and the green-colored rock contains impurities.

So, Kokuyou and Hari have the same name meaning, with the difference being Kokuyou is the pure obsidian while Hari is the impure version. Donut, what are you trying to get at? 🤔

Mizuki means Dogwood flower. This flower symbolizes rebirth, durability, purity, affection, and strength. Also, orange Dogwood symbolizes energy, positive attitude and happiness. Sounds like Mizuki~.

Donut once again shows us their naming power. When Mizuki was part of team P, he was a different person that would cause trouble for the members, but when he became the leader of Team B, he had a rebirth. He became more mature and dedicated.

Mizuki is also a durable boy; he spend his whole life on the street (be it that his parents abandoned him or they passed away) and has managed to survive. He’s a pretty tough kid. Despite Mizuki’s wild personality, he’s a pure and affectionate boy, just that he doesn’t like to show it much or is too shy to show it. Not to mention he adores his teammates.

One of the articles wrote a few lines that describe Mizuki perfectly.

The Dogwood flower is also a symbol of durability and being able to endure various difficulties in life. This flower might seem gentle and small, but it can survive very hard conditions.

The Dogwood tree is also linked to Christianity as it is believed that the cross Jesus was crucified on was made out of Dogwood. Haseyama has been talking about getting rid of one of the team, so is Mizuki going to be a sacrifice? If nothing happens to Team B, then does this mean that Mizuki is going to get hurt by someone else.

Kongou means diamond. Diamonds, as we all know, are durable and indestructible, but they can also symbolize purity and innocence. Green diamonds are extremely rare as they’re formed only when exposed to radiation. This specific diamond symbolizes youth, vigor, and life.

Kongou is a tough man (just look at those muscles) who, contrary to his buff appearance, is very kindhearted and innocent. He is a wrestler but doesn’t like fighting one bit, in fact, he is the type to break up fights and ask everyone to please get along.

So if green diamonds are formed due to radiation, did Kongou experience something toxic in his past? Maybe he wasn’t always like this but something made him change.

I may be reading into this WAY too much, but while researching, I learned that the Mitsubishi Motor’s symbol is made up of 3 diamonds. On their site, they explained that mitsu means 3 and hishi means water chestnut. This prompted me to look into the symbolism of the Chestnut Tree.

In some literatures, the Chestnut Tree symbolizes chastity, honesty, and justice but in an ironic way; hence, leading to betrayal. We were all wonder why at the end of season 1, Kongou was in the story where the characters closely related to MC appeared. Maybe Kongou has some sort of connection to MC, or he has a second face behind the kind one we are seeing. Hopefully not.

Heath is another name for a Heather flower that symbolizes admiration, good luck, independence, confidence, and protection. This flower can thrive under poor conditions. Heath also means a tract of wasteland, an area with poor coarse soil and drainage.

Donut has hinted that Heath had a bad past but he still manages to push through. On top of that, he is singing even though he seems to have a throat condition where he coughs up blood. Not to mention that he is confident enough to rap and does well on the stage despite his health. Team B is sure made up of tough guys! Oddly enough, Heath being a tract of wasteland is a symbol for Heath’s poor health.

We also know that Heath is very protective towards MC and admires her a lot. Maybe Heath has entered Starless to serve as a good luck charm for MC.

Ran is a type of orchid. Blue orchids are one of the rarest orchids (in the wild) and represent trust, uniqueness, luck, and strength.

Orchids can be associated with death, but in Japan, this rare flower is seen as a luxury since only the rich can afford it. “In Japan, orchids also mean luck is on its way or good fortune is on its way.” Seems like Ran came in as a good luck charm to Starless. Maybe he came to Starless to help MC or was even sent by someone that wants to help MC.

The color blue in the flower language means ambitious; “people who like to reach for the unreachable and wouldn’t leave any stone unturned to accomplish their goal”. Ran is definitely ambitious and will try to get his way even if it means setting things on fire.

So, orchids were used in China as a means to treat lunch infections, cold, and flue. Is Ran the cure for Heath’s condition?

Rico means Red Spider Lily. These lilies are also known as corpse flower, hell flower, poisonous flower, and the abandoned child flower. Wow, Donut…

Red Spider Lilies are associated with death because they’re found in high numbers near graves, hence their sinister image. They are also poisonous and can cause death but if soaked in water for a long time, they’re edible. In the past, these flowers were appreciated, but in modern day Japan, these flowers are disliked. Donut’s character designer was having a bad day when he created Rico. At least in the Buddhist text, this flower has a good meaning, “heavenly flower that does not exist on the ground”.

Rico has a good reason why he’s always so bitter; he is in debt due to a customer ran away without paying (in the host club he previously worked at). Granted that he has a huge burden, Rico’s behavior towards the members of Starless can get unnecessarily bitter. There are times where he isn’t good at expressing his feelings, so his words choices come out harsher than intended.

In all honestly, I don’t really know what to say about Rico’s past or future since his name has SO many negative meanings associated with it. Was he abandoned as a child? Maybe he didn’t receive love and was hated? Is something bad going to happen to him? Is Haseyama going to do something to him for not being able to pay his debt? Or…is he going to be poison for MC and do something to her (to possibly get back at Kei)?

Taking the one good meaning out of his name, maybe Rico was an innocent person who faced a lot of negativities in his life and was forced to change. Maybe he is a heavenly flower not meant to live in the tainted world.

Rico’s hair and height matches his flower.

References:

Cast Name Analysis

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