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You Are Number Six / Anime & Manga

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You Are Number 6 in anime and manga.

  • Afro Samurai: The Empty Seven are all "Brother (Number)". Only one of them is actually given a name...one that roughly translates to "Sixth Brother".
  • Ah! My Goddess: The main character frequently uses "K-1". That is, Kei-ichi.
  • AKIRA: The military ESP researchers assign code numbers to the children they experiment on — Kiyoko is Number 25, Takashi is Number 26, Masaru is Number 27 and Akira is Number 28. In the manga, Lady Miyako used to be Number 15 and Tetsuo is designated Number 41.
  • Battle Angel Alita: In the second half of the Manga series, Alita is forcefully recruited by a secret organisation called G.I.B. which uses her as agent. To nail down the fact that she is just a tool for them she is only called A1. Later it's revealed that they used her as basis for 12 android copies all called AR followed by the number on their foreheads. In the sequel, Last Order, only AR-6, AR-11 and AR-12 are left and they now call themselves Sechs, Elf and Zwölf which are the German spellings of their numbers.
  • Battle of the Planets: 7 Zark 7.
  • Bleach:
    • Ichigo's name is written with the kanji for 'one-protect'. However, true to the author's love of puns, one of his name's alternative interpretations is "Ichi" (One) + "Go" (Five) and Ichigo himself puns his name with the number 15 as a result. His one sister takes this even further by calling him "Ichi-nii-san" ("elder brother Ichigo" which just so happens to also sound like "one-two-three").
    • Kenpachi is not a name, it's a title meaning "Eight Swords", a title reserved for the strongest shinigami in a generation who is usually the 11th division captain. Kenpachi Zaraki was nameless until he decided to give himself a name (Zaraki was the district he came from and he decided to apply the Kenpachi title to himself). Eventually, he gained official recognition by killing the 11th division Kenpachi and replacing him.
    • The name Nemu is actually short for her original name, Nanagō Nemuri, which means "Sleeping Number 7", since she is the 7th incarnation of the Nemuri Project, in which Mayuri aimed to create artificial souls. The other Nemuris follow the same naming pattern, including Nemu's successor, Hachigō Nemuri, the 8th incarnation of the project, seen with Mayuri 10 years after the Quincy Blood War.
    • Not to mention all the designations in the different societies, whether it's from 1-20 or A-Z.
  • In Brynhildr in the Darkness the villains' organisation refers to escaped witches by their numbers.
  • A minor example in Captain Tsubasa. Shingo Aoi heads for the airport to try and meet Tsubasa before he heads for Brazil. Much to his surprise, Tsubasa calls him "Nakahara Number 12" (the jersey he wore during their match), much to Shingo's delight as it means he does remember him.
  • Due to the sheer number of cells that live in the human body, many of the cells focused on in Cells at Work! don't actually have names; while they're more often than not referred to by their species, several of them have unit numbers on their uniforms to distinguish which one is which. Its spinoff Cells at Work! CODE BLACK continues with this tradition; the red blood cell the story focuses on is AA2153.
  • A Certain Magical Index gives us the Sisters, twenty thousand identical clones of Mikoto Misaka whose "names" are simply numerical designations in their order of "activation" (i.e. when each clone was finally released from Uterine Replicator incubation). Even after the horrendous Level 6 Shift Project experiments are finally stopped and they become relatively free to do whatever they want (so long as they stay out of trouble), they still stick with the numerals rather than adopt actual names; that being said, the most recurring and prominently featured Sister, Misaka 10032, is quickly nicknamed "Misaka Imouto" (literally "Misaka's Little Sister") by the protagonist Touma (since he rarely meets any other Sister), whether it's because her numeral is a big mouthful or he dislikes the dehumanizing nature of such "names".
  • Change 123: Hibiki, Fujiko and Mikiri (HiFuMi is a Japanese way of counting 1,2,3) and Zero are split personalities of Motoko, with Zero being the most dangerous and the one appearing least often.
  • Code Geass: Is by definition, as a Japanese native, a Number. Ironically enough in R2, Suzaku Kururugi refers to Kallen by her prisoner number when he requests Nunnally, who is conversing with her, to allow him to interrogate her. A signal of his further descent, especially in that he, the nation and the fellow countrymen he fights for are Numbers.
  • In Cross Ange, Normas are assigned numbers upon being identified and sent to penal colonies like Arzenal. The titular protagonist is assigned the number #1203-77 immediately after her arrest.
  • Subverted in Cyborg 009. They refer to each other by their number.
  • In Darker than Black, all Contractors have a "Messier number" assigned to them. The protagonist, Hei, is BK-201, and is always referred to this way by the police who are hunting him. There's also the naming of the British agents, which always is based around months, but sometimes also includes dates — e.g. there's a November 11 and an August 7 — and this might hearken to James Bond, as this could be read as making them agents 111 and 87. However, November 11 is sometimes called by his (possibly real) name, Jack Simon.
    • The Cops only use Hei's Messier Number because they don't know his name.note  He was a shadowy figure that they had heard about but had no information on. There were rumors of course; those of a contractor so lethal that he was known as "The Black Reaper'' to other contractors.
  • In DARLING in the FRANXX, Zero Two is known by her numbered designation, whereas everyone else in Plantation 13 have actual names. Even so, those with names are only a very small step above this trope, as they are based on alternative readings of their respective numbers (invented by Hiro). It's later revealed that all Parasites are identified by their designation, and Hiro's group are an anomaly for having adopted nicknames — another team comments that such a thing seems pointless.
    • Episode 13 reveals that the above example is actually subverted, since Zero Two's name was also invented by Hiro. He briefly considered Oni as a name, but quickly thought better of it.
  • The numbers are alien, but the concept still holds. Ren in DearS gives her "confirmation number" as her name, "Ren", standing for "Zero" in the DearS language since she's defective.
  • Dragon Ball has the various Androids created by Dr. Gero:
  • The Seleção of Eden of the East, while having names, are most commonly referred to by the other Selecao by the numbers they were assigned, which are also prominently displayed in Roman numerals on their phones. These range from I to XII, with the main character, Akira Takizawa, being Number IX.
  • Nana from Elfen Lied is not actually named Nana (and might not even have a name), but is the experiment number seven. It was because of her Stockholm Syndrome on Kurama that she took it as a name and had everybody call her that.
  • The Eminence in Shadow: Except for their leader Cid/Shadow, Shadow Garden renames all their members. The first seven were named after Greek letters, the other members were numbered in the order that they joined with some being given Greek letters if they became Numbers. By the time Rose Oriana joined, she was given the number 666.
  • Fabricant 100: All Fabricants are numbered and named in the order they are created, from 1 to 100, with a corresponding tattoo somewhere on their body. The tattoo manifests even if the body part with it is replaced.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • The two guardians of the Philosopher's Stone are Nos. 66 and 48. Originally they were real people; they were just stripped of their names when they were turned into living armor, seeing as they were criminals who were, according to paperwork, sentenced to death. Lust always calls Barry No. 66 and it is in part this shabby treatment that prompts his (not really) Heel–Face Turn. In contrast, the heroes all call him Barry.
    • Also, Hohenheim was originally just #23, beginning his life as a nameless slave. He later uses this as part of a Badass Boast threat to the "son" who named him.
      Hohenheim: Tell him slave twenty-three is coming to see him.
  • The Diary Holders of Future Diary are each given a number based on the order they received their Diaries, and will often refer to each other by their numbers (especially before learning each other's real names).
  • Gundam:
    • Four Murasame from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, who dislikes her name, both because of the implications and because...well, she has a number instead of a name. Spinoff games like Gihren's Greed introduced her "big brother" Proto-Zero, AKA Zero Murasame.
    • There's also Elpeo Ple's clones, Ple-Two in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and Ple-Twelve aka Marida Cruz in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.
    • Every main character in Gundam Wing has a numerical name, each in a different language. Quite a few of the minor characters have number names as well.
    • Gundam 00 has Allelujah Haptism, Test Subject E-57.
      • When Tieria and Regene first meet, the latter calls them both "Base Sequence Pattern 0988" to his face. This is what finally clues Tieria in that Regene is his Innovade clone.
      • One of the manga spinoffs, Gundam 00P, reveals that Celestial Being employs a number of such people. Or, rather, A.I.s. The most prominent is Gundam Meister 874 — Hanayo.
    • G-Witch has Enhanced Person #4, aka Elan Ceres. Or, at least, the first one we meet.
  • Downplayed in Gunslinger Girl. The cyborg girls are shown to have a letter-number designation (Henrietta for instance is Experimental Cyborg XA14-03, while Petrushka is Experimental Cyborg XB11-01) but the name chosen for them by The Handler (as the memories of their past have been wiped) is the one that's used.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry has Professor Takano Hifumi and his adopted daughter/apprentice, Takano Miyo. (That's 1-2-3 and 3-4). Furthermore, Rena, queen of the merchandise despite not being the main heroine, isn't actually named "Rena"; her real name is "Reina" (0-7), referencing the creators of the original game, 07th Expansion.
  • In Himegoto, Kaguya nicknames one of his classmates No. 1. Her real name is later revealed to be Ichigo Ichigou, where the latter part actually means "number one".
  • Logos' henchmen from Hiiro no Kakera are named Ein, Zwei, Drei and Vier, which is German for One, Two, Three and Four.
  • Kekkaishi: Hiura was originally just referred to as Number 3. The Ougi siblings are all named by birth order (Ichirou, Jirou, Saburou, all the way to Shichirou).
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS:
  • Since the main setting of Maison Ikkoku is an apartment building, the main characters' names are Japanese puns based on numbers. Even the ones that don't actually live at Maison Ikkoku. The ones who do live there reside in the room of their "number". Including Kyoko, who lives in the manager's office (room "zero").
  • While it's written as "Sicks", the villain of Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro uses the numeral 6 has his symbol. To punny extremes, sometimes.
  • The prisoners in Nanbaka are called by their numbers by the guards. Their nicknames are also based on their numbers.
  • The tailed beasts from Naruto should count. No matter the term given, the number of their tails always precedes their name or their name is made up from a combination of a number and the tails they have in Japanese (Ichi, Ni, San, Yon, Go, Roku, Shichi, Hachi, Kyuu — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) — One-tailed Shukaku (Ichibi), Two-Tailed Monster Cat (Nibi), Three-Tailed Giant Turtle (Sanbi), Four-Tailed Monkey (Yonbi), Five-Tailed Dolphin Horse (Gobi), Six-Tailed Slug (Rokubi), Seven-Tailed Horned Beetle (Shichibi), Killer Bee's Eight-Tailed Giant Ox (Hachibi), and Naruto's Nine-Tailed Demon Fox (Kyuubi). There was also the Zero-Tailed Leech from the non-canon second Shipuuden movie (which had absolutely no significance to the main plot whatsoever and was just an extension of the original manga-based anime, mind you).
    • Also the very-much-canon Juubi (Ten-Tailed). All we know is that the Sage of the Six Paths was its host, and the other nine Tailed Beasts were created out of it — and not even all of it; the Moon was created to contain the rest of the Juubi. Lastly, we know it's so powerful, the Sage could barely seal it, let alone defeat or control it. Oh, and we know that Madara plans to unleash it and become its host.
    • It's later revealed that the numeric designations (One-tails, Two-tails, etc) are only code names used by shinobi to keep track of them. When they were created by the Sage of the Six Paths, he gave them each proper names: Shukaku (One Tail), Matatabi (Two Tails), Isobu (Three Tails), Son Goku (Four Tails), Kokuou (Five Tails), Saiken (Six Tails), Choumei (Seven Tails), Gyuuki (Eight Tails), and Kurama (Nine Tails). Most of these ended up being lost to history, because the only people who know them are the Sage (who is dead) and the beasts themselves. Only Shukaku is regularly called by his real name, for unknown reasons.note  Son Goku is rather annoyed when Naruto calls him "Four Tails," as he feels that it dehumanizes him as a mindless weapon, and not someone with feelings.
  • In Negima! Magister Negi Magi constructs all bear a number for their given name. Fate, the most prominent of them, is actually 'Tertium,' Latin for the third. There were two Averruncus constructs before him, and three after, but he's the only one of the six who dislikes being referred to as a number, possibly because he's more of a complete entity than they were and finds it dehumanizing. There are other non Averruncus constructs. They follow the same naming scheme.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion has a small pool of numbered individuals.
    • All of the pilots are referred to as "The ___ Child" (original, "children"), based on the order in which their pilot eligibility was discovered. Asuka uses the terms derisively often — "third child" for Shinji (later supplanted by "baka-Shinji"), and "first" for Rei; the rest of Nerv uses it as per procedure, when saying "the pilot" does not easily discern which pilot they are talking about.
    • Evangelion units are numbered in order of development, usually as "unit <number>" (e.g., "Shogoki" in Japanese, read as "unit one," written as "Unit 01" or just "01" in English). The only Evangelions that subvert this are the Mass Production ("MP") types, only ever referred as "mass production units" collectively, though they are numbered.
    • A sad application of this trope involves Ayanami Rei, the first child, whose name can also be read as "zero." There are three distinct Reis, referring to the number of times her soul has been put into a new clone body; however, even devoted fans of the character only distinguish them as "Rei I," "Rei II," "Rei III" (originating from episode titling).
    • The MAGI supercomputers are named and numbered. With the three portions of the computer having distinct famous names, however, the fact that they are numbered is easily forgottable. Caspar-3 is the one that matters anyway.
    • Seele's holographic monoliths are numbered, at least from the perspective of them we always see. 01 is Keel.
    • A somewhat dark invocation of this occurs in the third Rebuild film: Misato refers to Shinji as "Specimen BM-03", and is quite cold about it. Just... watch the movie (or visit the Rebuild of Evangelion page) to get an idea as to why.
  • In One Piece, all of the male Officer Agents and Frontier Agents of Baroque Works have numbered codenames, in descending numerical order of power, starting with their leader, Mr. Zero. (Their female partners have Day Of The Week Names instead.)
    • What's odd about this, though, is that Mr. 6 and his partner are never actually seen (and just as well, too; from what we've seen of the lower agents, especially Mr. 7, he probably looks ridiculous.)
      • Hardly any of the agents below number 9 show up, with the exception of the "Unluckies", Mr. 13 and Miss Friday, whose codenames were presumably given to fit their theme.
    • At Enies Lobby, Sanji makes fun of Zoro being identified as 'Luffy's henchman.' Zoro calls him "Unnamed Pirate A" in kind, then switching to Pirate B.
    • The Vinsmoke family children were all deliberately named in this manner by their tyrant father Judge, as Ichiji, Niji, Yonji, and Reiju can attest. Sanji, as we find out in the same arc they debut in, follows the pattern.
    • Baby-5 was abandoned by her own mother for being useless and an unwanted mouth to feed, and going by her appellation was never named properly. She has tremendous self-esteem issues as a consequence, to the point that she'll do anything for anyone who shows her even the slightest affection (even blatantly fake such).
  • Sayaka Suzuki, more known as Rokugou, "number six", in Pani Poni Dash!. The nickname was originally given to her because she was the sixth girl in the school named Suzuki.
  • Due to their status as human cattle, every farm child in The Promised Neverland is given an ID code, with the format and location varying between farms. However, it's only the demons who refer to them by those numbers. They are given actual names, and the non-demon characters refer to them by those names.
  • In Psyren, all of the children from the Grigori Project. Amagi Miroku is Number Six, and his elder twin sister Nemesis Q is Number 7. Grana is Number 1, and Junas appears to be number 5.
  • Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica may be a partial example. Though his name was first thought to come from the word "cute" and was later revealed to be a fragment of "Incubator" instead, the introduction of a second similar creature named Jubey in one of the manga spinoffs would seem to hint that the species' names may all follow the pattern of "(number)bey" (kyu being "nine" and juu meaning "ten"). Then it turned out that Jubey was created by humans... and the name also had nothing to do with numbers.
  • Puni Puni☆Poemi: The Aasu sisters are numbered one to seven. The oldest is seven and the youngest is one.
  • Played with in Rave Master. In Volume 6, a character steps in saying the the tattoo which Elie took her name from is actually the number 3173, a brand she received as a lab experiment, which she read upside-down. Later, it is revealed that the character was wrong, and the tattoo is merely the coordinates for a location significant to Elie, but the possibility weighs on her mind for some time.
  • Record of Ragnarok: As the first human, Adam was originally designated by the gods as FILE No.00000000001.
  • In Scryed, Native Alters imprisoned by HOLY are given designations that presumably all consist of two letters and four numbers, such as Kazuma's "NP3228". Kazuma is rightly pissed at this, to the point that he actively threatens to kill Mimori just to get them to remember his name (and to get Ryuhou to give his).
  • Sekirei has 108 (fe)male "warriors", each with an assigned number in order of "birth".
    • Which also usually indicates power, at least in terms of numbers 1-9, which are known as the "single digits". This is because when the spacecraft carrying the Sekirei was first found, there were 1 adult (who became #1 Miya), 8 juveniles (#2-9), and 99 embryos (#10-108).
  • Inverted in Sgt. Frog, with some given names being read as numbers deliberately. Natsumi translates into 723, which never really appears in-show except on her bedroom door. Kururu translates into 966, which appears on some of his inventions as a serial number. Saburo can be read as 326, which turned backwards is 623, which can be read as Mutsumi, Saburo's secret DJ identity.
  • Spy X Family has Anya Forger originally go by the name '007' as that was the number of subject she was a part of before being shunted into orphanages. In a similar vein, the dog Bond was 'Subject 8' in his experiment that involves creating intelligent animals. Both seem a lot happier with their 'proper' names.
  • The Story of Saiunkoku has Jyuusanhime, which literally means "Thirteenth Princess" because of her position in the Ran clan. She's shown complaining about it as a child, so Shiba Jin gives her the nickname "Hotaru" instead.
  • Z's name from Tenchi Muyo! is short for Z-0001332536893. It's not made clear if this was some kind of code name/service number (as he was a member of some kind of space military in the past), or if names like this are typical among his species.
  • In Terror in Resonance, the two protagonists' and the major antagonist's real names are unknown (in fact, it's implied that they may not even know them; they use fake names when dealing with other people): they refer to themselves and each other as "Nine", "Twelve" and "Five", which were the number tags they were given by the institution that experimented on them when they were children.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul, suspects being investigated by the CCG are assigned a number. For example, the Fueguchi family were #696 (Asaki), #723 (Ryouko), and #745 (Hinami). After being "erased" and imprisoned in Cochlea, the amnesiac Kaneki was simply known as #240 until being renamed "Haise Sasaki".
  • The Karlstein Agents in Valvrave the Liberator have their names replaced with codenames of a letter and a number when they start training as children. The numbers are pronounced in German — L-elf, A-drei, X-eins, H-neun, and Q-vier are the most prominent ones. F-sechs and K-zwolf also appear. Only L-elf has his name revealed in the series — his real name is Michael.
  • There's also a guy just referred to as Number 23 in Wolf's Rain... at least by Jagara.
  • Used to a One-Liner effect in the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: "Ichi(1), Juu(10), Hyaku(100), Sen(1,000), Manjoume Sanda!" ('Man'=10,000)
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
    • The Number cards each have a number from 1-100 in their names, and are referred to by their numbers in short form by fans. The second season introduced the seven Over-Hundred Numbers, which have numerical values from 101-107 and do not belong to the original 100 Numbers since they are only used by the Seven Barian Emperors. The final Big Bad Don Thousand has an own exclusive Number with the value 1000, fittingly. By the end of the anime, Yuya creates yet another exclusive Number that does not belong to the original 100 Numbers: the Number 0. For the curious, the actual Number 6 is OOParts Atlantal/Chronomaly Atlandis.
    • Three characters (who are brothers) are also known by numbers - IV (Quattro in the English dub), III (Trey in English), and V (Quinton in English). These are aliases given to them by their father; their real names are Thomas, Michael, and Christopher Arclight, respectively.

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