My Hero Academia: Yaoyorozu Momo’s Name, Explained

My Hero Academia leans heavily into its inspiration from western comics by also using interesting motifs and puns in the names of characters and concepts. From “U.A. High” to “Hagakure Tо̄ga”, the series presents so many creative elements in the names of its characters, revealing a little more about them in a way that can be brilliant at times.

Class 1-A’s Momo Yaoyorozu (Hero Name: Creati) is one of the students with the most potential and an incredible Quirk that enables her to create objects and produce them from her sternum. When you look closer, there’s a very nicely hidden hint at this ability within her very name.

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About Momo

Class 1-A’s Vice President

Momo Yaoyorozu is a calm, level-headed person who can be described as diligent and prudent. To attest to this, she takes her responsibilities as vice class president very seriously. While she can be described as fairly cautious and aware of risk, she is also not one to panic in dangerous situations, qualities which make her a natural leader and someone who is highly respected in Class 1-A. She was a recommended student because of her stellar performance on the U.A. High entrance exams, earning herself first place in the Quirk Apprehension Test. Because of her Quirk, Create, which enables her to create any non-living object from her exposed skin through transforming lipid (fat) tissue, Momo’s hero epithet is “Everything Hero”.

The Japanese name for the Quirk is “Sо̄zо̄”, which means “Imagination”, most likely due to the mechanics of Momo’s Quirk, which requires her to understand the molecular structure of the object she creates. What makes Momo such an asset on the battlefield is not only her Create Quirk, but also her ability to hold her own with various weapons, her genius intellect, using her brilliant analytical skills to devise strategies and come up with contingencies in case of emergency. Her ability to think on her feet, coupled with the versatility of her Quirk make her an S-tier support teammate, and she is often at the heart of many of the victories she has had in team combat situations.

What Does the Name Mean?

Infinity, The Lucky Number

“Yaoyorozu Momo”, written in Japanese 八百万 百, is an interesting name because it leans on an idiomatic word or phrase. The “Ya” in “Yaoyorozu” is written with the kanji for eight, which is often pronounced “hachi” but can morph to “ha” or “ya” to more closely mimic the pronunciation in Mandarin Chinese, a reading referred to as “on-yomi“. The “-o-” is one hundred, and “yorozu” is ten thousand. Due to the fact that numbers are divided into blocks of four rather than three, the number “eight million” here is described as “eight hundred ten thousands”. “Yaoyorozu” is seen in the phrase “Yaoyorozu no Kami” from Shinto mythology, which translates to “the eight million gods”.

The number is not an exact number but rather hyperbole that describes the innumerable number of gods, with the number eight in the mix because it is a lucky number in East Asian superstition and mythology. “Yaoyorozu” is not a regular number, as “8 000 000” would be read “happyaku-man” – eight hundred ten thousands, so “Yaoyorozu” is only ever used in a figurative or idiomatic sense. How that fits into Momo’s name is that it is a figurative expression of a number used to describe the infinite, and that infinity is expressed through Momo’s Create Quirk, as well as her Hero Name, Creati, a portmanteau of the English words “Create” and “Infinity”.

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Release Date

April 3, 2016

Creator

Kōhei Horikoshi

MyAnimeList Score

7.85 (Season 1)