Also Bless Orion The Mini Arc With Kidou - Tumblr Posts
Kidou vs Fudou names’ meanings analysis
There are quite few interesting facts about Kidou and Fudou’s names both in the original and the dubbed version that could help everyone understand them a bit more (thank you symbolism for existing).
ORIGINAL NAMES
Kidou: 鬼道 (hiragana きどう, romaji kidō) means “black magic” and from it derives the word 鬼道師 (きどうし, kidōshi), meaning “demon priest”.
Fudou: originates from Acala, whose Japanese name is Fudō Myōō (不動明王) and was invoked to “destroy the strength of demons”.
DUBBED NAMES
Jude: this is the hellenized version of the hebrew name Judah, meaning “praised” or “let him be praised”, but it’s also the name of one of the most famous betrayer of all times.
Caleb: another hebrew name meaning “faithful”.
The thing I’d like for you to focus on, is how both times we have meanings that clearly oppose each other, and how one is always negative while the other always positive.
“Demon priest” vs a” Demon hunting deity” and a “traitor” against a “faithful”.
What is really interesting is that everyone would think that the positive ones would belong to Kidou, since he’s a good guy and the negative to Fudou, given his bad boy reputation, but instead there’s a role reversal. In their names Fudou is the good guy who opposes Kidou negativeness, but not only that, their meanings are like two sides of the same coin, tying them together and giving all this a concrete meaning in the serie as well.
What meaning? Let’s analyse!
Starting with Kidou we’ve seen him falter and question himself many times throughout all seasons, he makes risky and questionable choices, all with good intentions? Yes of course, but on the negative side of the spectrum nonetheless and that’s what ties him to his names’ meanings.
He’s a “demon priest” because all his arc is about him trying to put aside his dark past, fighting his dark side which exist, we saw it at the beginning of the OG serie,
he almost got back to it during season 3
and ultimately it resurfaced in Orion.
So, if the “demon” thing has to do with his struggle with his shadows, what is the Judah deal? Well, it’s about betraying himself and what he wanted to be (aka a good person) which ultimately happened,
but is also about the possibility of him being a traitor to his friends as well. It won’t ever happen, of course, but given how much he doubt himself when it comes to his dark side,
and how it took basically nothing for Kageyama to almost change him back to his old self, even his dub name can be marked as a true symbolism. Plus, if we take into account any kind of betrayal, he did betray Kageyama in the first place during OG! This in particular ties with Kageyama’s quote “if you spit against the heavens”, a clear symbolism to a Judah betraying Jesus and having to face the consequences of his actions, and we saw that during Kidou’s arc in FFI!
We then have Fudou, the “bad boy” of OG and his very positive names, kind of a paradox you might be thinking, but is it? His longing to be strong in order to get back at people is surely very strong, but it’s a feeling that slowly fades away with him understanding what having a team and friends is, what sticks to him is, instead, his fierce hate towards evil doers and the more powerful they are, the more he hate. He personally tried to take Kageyama down without seeking help,
he’s one of the few who is shown to hate the “devils” with a certain passion through his play during the match,
has shown clear distaste for Garshield’s imperialistic and violent plan to take over the world
and even in Ares we can see he dislikes whoever doesn’t play fairly and is “evil”.
Plus, he’s the one helping Kidou getting out of his slump, freeing him from Kageyama’s control.
All this seems pretty fitting for a name that comes from man evil fighter god, doesn’t it?
And lastly “faithful”. What part of Fudou Akio can be considerate faithful? Well, he’s one of the most faithful members of the team, even if he lies low. After all he’s the one who kept on fighting FOR the team despite everyone looking at him as if he was still the bad guy, he even helped the one accusing him more harshly and was extremely offended when accused of betraying the team to work for Kageyama.
His faith is in Kidou,
and in Endou and in the team.
So yeah, he may be sassy and with a sharp tongue, but he never had a doubt about where he belonged or where his trust laid or for whom was he willing to fight.
In the end we have Kidou whom is like an unexploded bomb, always overthinking and questioning even himself, always lingering between good and evil, and then we have Fudou, a dangerous knife, sharp and attentive, with no doubts about who should wield him and who should he cut.
And everything we needed to know about them both already was in their names, truly fascinating!