In most
Chinese languages and languages that borrow words from it, the words for "four" (四) and "death" (死) are written differently but pronounced similarly (somewhat like "
sì" in Mandarin, "
sei" in
Cantonese, "
shi" in Sino-Japanese, "tư" in Sino-Vietnamese, and "
sa" in Sino-Korean). As a cultural trope, East Asian works of media tend to treat the number in much the way Western writers treat the number 13 (a number that Arabian and European culture consider Magical,
and usually in a bad way).
As a similar point of reference, building floors and apartments are (mis)numbered accordingly
to omit the fourth floornote or substitute the numeral with an alternative sign, such as the letter F or 3A, and some Japanese people prefer to say "
yon" (the
kun'yomi for four) instead of "
shi" (the conventional
on'yomi). Apparently the Japanese word form
shi ni (four twos), which translates to 'death', gives
the number eight a related association.
Powerful, usually Villainous, groups of four are often given the name of Shitennō, a reference to the Four Heavenly Kings, Buddhist guardian gods of the four cardinal directions. When not directly translated into Four Heavenly Kings, localizations may call them the
Elite Four.
On an unrelated note, Christianity also has several examples of Four Is Death, with the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Four Last Things (Death, Judgment, Hell, and Glory). In Judaism, the number four is also prominent, some examples being the four worlds described in the Kabbalah,
the four sons
, the four horns of the altar in Daniel, the forty days of raining during the Deluge, and the four matriarchs (plus the
Tetragrammaton, or four letter name—the written name of God YHVH).
Compare
108,
13 Is Unlucky and the
Number of the Beast.
Note: This is not a repository for every time the number 4 just happens to appear in a work (or for series where the fourth installment was
particularly bad), this is for when the trope is consciously addressed.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Film
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Pinball
Professional Wrestling
Tabletop Games
Theme Parks
Toys
Video Games
Web comics
Web Original
Western Animation
Real Life
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