Ryuu is dragon and Tora is tiger in japanese. These are strong beasts and names that contain them symbolizes strength and power.
Um....just wondering...you do understand the cultural setting of Japanese manga...right? So you're not actually being racist here right? Just ignorant?
Also, the English speaking world's names have traditional meanings...Felicity (the word LITERALLY means happiness), Gavin (Gaelic for white hawk), search ANY English name on a baby name site and it will give you its root, origin and meaning.
lol Racist towards who? The Japanese? The Asians? I'm Asian already, so I'll assume just towards Japanese XD I know Sodapop and Ponyboy are extremes, but "tora" and "ryuu" are both common words, compared to Felicity (which is SUPER rare for anybody to actually say...) and Gavin (which, in English, doesn't really mean anything). Just saying that if you think about it, their names are really tough sounding XP
I don't know why you would think being racist is something to laugh about, or you being Asian making it less racist, but okay.
You've lost me, what does their names being 'common words' have to do with them being tough sounding, again, its to do with the cultural background of the animals, and so the mangaka will often choose names (the kanji that make up the name) from those backgrounds.
Manga is made that way, names are chosen by the artist for these purposes. They're symbolic, its why some first children have 'ichi' in their name, or really bubbly, bright characters have 'sun' or 'light' in their name.
It doesn't necessarily work like that in real life, obviously, that's also why you'll hear characters say 'even though their name is [enter name]', for example, a name with 'truth' or 'honesty' or 'righteous' for the characters, and it turns out the person is a criminal or a cheater or liar, or something the opposite or less than upright.
Okay, okay. Calm your shit. I was just pointing out that their names sound really tough. Plus, your point about the names with "sun" or "light," unless you actually have the name 'light' (*cough* Death Note), the meaning of the words in your name aren't apparent until you write it down (-->Ichigo from "Bleach"). However, the "tiger" and "dragon" in the characters' names are very obviously tiger and dragon even without seeing the kanji. I mean, nobody pointed it out in the manga (where in Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai, Chikara Doumeki, who also has a super macho name, makes his boss laugh when he introduces himself). ┑( ̄Д  ̄)┍
lol I just noticed that the two brothers (from Shinobeba and Nirameba) have the names Ryuunosuke and Toranosuke...are these supposed to sound ridiculously tough and macho?