We all know that ONI in the Halo Universe stands for the “Office of Naval Intelligence”. However, did you know there is a much deeper meaning to ONI than just that acronym?

One source of the term Oni (not all caps) comes from the Japanese language. It’s a term that can have a few meanings. However, the most prevalent meaning is that of monster, more specifically and Ogre, though it’s also been translated to mean demon, devils or troll.

An Oni in Japanese culture is a rather hideous creature. It’s depicted as having shape claws, horns growing from their heads possibly extra eyes, fingers and/or toes. Skin colors vary, but often it’s shown as either red of blue. Hmm, making any correlation here to Halo?

It can also be shown to wear tiger skinned clothing. Tigers are fierce animals, as O.N.I. from Halo can be a fierce organization.

A traditional Oni with kanabo

Often an Oni is shown with a club. This club in Japanese is called a kanabo. An image of an Oni with a club is called “oni-ni-kanabo’ which can be translated to mean ‘invincible” or “undefeatable”. Again, does this perhaps sound like the ONI of Halo?

Not so traditional Oni

In the Halo Universe, O.N.I. is regarded as an organization that is not to be trifled with. Some think it’s “undefeatable’. Certainly Admiral Parangosky during her time as the head of O.N.I. thought so.

The fact that an Oni is shown as a monster also relates to O.N.I. from Halo as many believe that they are an organization behind some of the worst atrocities in the history of the human/covenant war. Thus, they are like monsters in that respect.

China also has a form of an Oni, which is translated as a ‘demon gate’. This is actually refers to the zodiac animals and the 12 cardinal directions. The northeast direction is that which leads to the demon gate. The direction is also known as the Ox Tiger direction which also gives way to it’s similar depiction of having horns, fangs and claws.

In Japanese culture, some building may have an “L” shape indention built into them that faces that northeast direction to ward of any Oni.

Oni in modern popular culture are often shown as masks or just the heads. These have been implemented as tattoos across various cultures.

So is it all coincidence that Oni in the earth’s history and ONI in Halo history are both regarded as evil? I doubt it’s a coincidence at all. The acronym was just an easy way to hide the true meaning of O.N.I. (Hmm, which again is something very O.N.I. like, huh?)

-Sal