I was wondering...

[Roses Ablaze]

I realize I already made a post like this in the "Pokemon Characters" forums, but nobody was answering it and maybe I didn't make myself clear anyway...*deletes other post*

Okay, you know how the villains in the first season of Sailor Moon are called the Shitennou? Well, some people in that fandom (most people in that fandom, actually) think that they're based on the actual Buddist deities that went by the same name. At first I thought that wasn't the case, as I knew there were several other villain groups that go by that name in anime and manga. But then that lead me to wonder why a name of gods would be chosen to describe four ordinary but powerful/ important/ skilled/ whatever mortals. Then I started thinking about the Olympic games and how the Olympic athletes were striving to be perfect in ancient times - like the gods of Mt. Olympus. Anyways, my question: Does the word "Shitennou" in the "Big Four" sense somewhat have similar origins, in that people who have that title are expected to strive to be more god-like or that they choose it because they think they *are* like gods? Or are references to more spiritual beings like this common in the Japanese language? I don't know much about the Japanese language or culture...

I think too much, don't I?

 

[Argy]

An addition: In Slayers Gorgeous, Naga joined forces with three other people, and they called themselves shitennou.

 

[Dogasu]

Here's the Wikipedia page on the Shi Ten'nou (四天王).

At the bottom of the page is a list of various 四天王 throughout Japan. Apparently, there's a Shi Ten'nou of pro-wrestling, singers, a Hong Kong Shi Ten'nou, V-Cinema Shi Ten'nou, Idol Shi Ten'nou, Anime Song Shi Ten'nou, etc. So if nothing else, that at least lets us know that the term 四天王 is thrown around a lot in Japanese.

I think that in Japan, the term "Shi Ten'nou" is basically a way of singling out a group of four people who are really good at something. I don't think it necessarily has any religious connotations nowadays, but in the past that might have been the case.