Kids Next Door premiered on Cartoon Network on December 6, 2022, and ran for 6 seasons. It even had a movie called Operation Z.E.R.O., and the finale was Operation I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S., where we find out what became of the main characters, Sector V, when they grew up. The show talks about a global organization comprised of children who fight adult tyranny. One might think that they are just a group of naughty children, but the jist is that they fight evil adults, not just any adult. Their enmity seems to be with every teenager, though. Throughout its run, the show amassed a large and dedicated fanbase, and the rich lore and vast world to be explored spawned many interesting characters whose codenames were equally interesting. Starting with Sector V, let’s take a look at what the codenames of some of the characters mean.
1. Numbuh 1
The de facto leader of Sector V, Nigel Uno, is the bald workaholic found by Numbuh 5 a few years before the beginning of the show. As we can already see, his family name is Uno. Uno means “one” in Spanish. He is also the only child in his family. To add to that, he is the only one who never teams up with another member of the KND in his solo adventures. Numuhs 3 and 4 teamed up once. Numbuhs 2 and 4 had the most team-ups. Numbuh 5 had many team-ups with Numbuhs 2 and 4. Nigel was always either on his own or with people who weren’t in the KND. It was a tough life for the leader.
2. Numbuh 2
The tech genius behind the technology of Sector V. He is among the smartest operatives in the KND. He is also prone to jokes…just not very good ones. They often annoy Numbuh 5 the most. He even had an episode where he was being targeted by a clown for cracking so many jokes. Aside from his love of jokes, he loves to fly. He is also the pilot of the team, and takes pride in his skills as a pilot…perhaps a little too much, as he once started a rivalry with another ace pilot over who the best pilot was and got countless aircraft shot down in his quest to prove his superiority. In the end of that episode in particular, we found that he could only be second best. He is also Hoagie Gilligan, Jr. Not only is he the second person to have the name in his family, but he is one of two children. See what they did there?
3. Numbuh 3
Numbuh 3 is the most amusing one of the group because she is mostly clueless about how serious the situations are. Although she does know when things are really real, she takes a very long time to realize it. It works out sometimes, because her latent reactions help distract enemies long enough for someone else to save the day. She is the team’s tactician and medic of Sector V. For a tactician, she is very happy-go-lucky, but can be scary when she gets mad. Her name is Kuki Sanban. She is Japanese. “San” means “three”. “Ban” means “number”. She is quite literally called number 3. Very clever, Mr Warburton. Very clever.
4. Numbuh 4
The team’s tough guy. The go-to guy when you need someone to undergo a dangerous experiment or tactic because he won’t be aware of it until he’s about to go through it. He is very passionate, very fierce, and very loyal to the cause. His biggest aspiration is to become the leader of the KND, although that was forgotten as the show went on. He took charge when Numbuh 1 was absent and made the team build a clam cannon. He was the one who gave the team the pep talk that motivated them to keep fighting when Numbuh 1 was turned into an adult. He was on to something in the beginning, but then it mellowed. He still wanted to be the leader, but it was played for comedic effect. Let’s also remember how he panicked when he was promoted to Supreme Leader of the KND in operation I.T. Anyway, his name is Wallabee Beatles. The Beatles are a very famous band: one of the most famous in history. They were so good at their craft that there are conspiracy theories that they were aliens. The Beatles was a band that comprised of four members. Get it? Get it?
5. Numbuh 5
Numbuh 5 is actually the most interesting member of the team. Aside from having the most epic solo adventures, she has the most enemies and the most consistent ones. She’s the second-in-command of Sector V, having abdicated from the position of leader after she failed to save Numbuh 1 from the Delightful Children From Down the Lane. Whatever she failed to save him from, it made him bald. She had such a hard time dealing with that that she didn’t want to be leader anymore and gave him the mantle. There is probably more to the story, but, unfortunately, we will never get to find out. Perhaps we could ask Mr. Warburton about it. Numbuh 5’s name is Abigail Lincoln. This one is cool, because she has the same surname as USA’s 16th President, who was known as a champion for Afro-American rights. Numbuh 5 is Afro-Aemrican. Abraham Lincoln is also on the $5 note. Coincidence? I think not!
6. Numbuh 13
If you thought that it would end with Sector V, you were wrong. The list goes beyond Sector V. While no name has been given beyond his KND codename, he is still very well-known as the accident-prone klutz of the entire organization. There isn’t a single operative in the KND that doesn’t dread working with Numbuh 13. Even his own sector is happy to get rid of him. Wherever he goes, chaos is spread. He is innocent and caring, but he is just very clumsy. Things go horribly wrong whenever he is involved. It’s noticeable that even though everyone was running away from the responsibility of being the Supreme Leader of the KND, when Numbuh 13 was chosen, everyone around him fought to make sure that it wasn’t him. Nobody wanted to be the leader, and the feeling was even more intense when it came to making Numbuh 13 the leader. As a lot of superstitious people know, 13 is an unlucky number, and that seems to have reflected on the nature of this character.
7. Numbuh 86
Ah, yes. Everyone’s favourite misan-I mean misunderstood KND operative. Numbuh 86’s real name is Fanny Albright. She is the head of decommissioning in the KND. In other words, she wipes out your memories of the KND once you turn 13. Hers is the last face you’ll see as an operative, and you’ll see her very happy. She really loves her job, as she’s willing to decommission just about anybody whose name comes up, no matter who they are or how old they are. As long as the name comes up, she’s ready for it. That’s what happened when the names of all of Sector V popped up at her desk. She wanted to decommission all of them despite being the same age as them, simply because she was told that they were old. There’s an old saying that’s mostly forgotten, resembling the loss of memory. They say that you have been “86’d”. That’s where her name came from.
8. Numbuh 101
He doesn’t appear much throughout the show, but his codename is a very cool one too, because it relates a lot to what he is. His name is Matt, and he is a huge Sector V fan. He knows a lot of history, about legends and myths. He knows more about that stuff than Nigel and Abigail do, combined, and their adventures and personalities often go on about how much they know or believe in. That’s what made Numbuh 1 the main character of Operation Z.E.R.O. He believed in Numbuh 0, so he got to find him. Now, seeing as Numbuh 101 knows a lot about a lot of things, we related his codename to being related to the number used for “general knowledge”, which is “101”. You’ll see a lot of people use the term when they are referring to general knowledge or just basic knowledge. It was clever to give him that name.
9. Numbuh 20,000
Numbuh 20,000 is just about the most extreme character in the organization. This guy doesn’t take risks. He has an explosive personality and is willing to risk everything to get the mission done. Being the leader of the aquatic forces of the KND, you can understand this. Being the leader means that you have to be willing to risk a lot of things. The only problem is he doesn’t even wait for it to be the last resort. He just goes straight to blowing things up or destroying them to make sure that the mission is a success. This always leads to arguments with Numbuh 1, whose approach is to wait until the very last possible moment to make those kinds of decisions. We saw this in Numbuh 20,000’s debut episode when he wanted to blow up his own base in order to stop the cooties from spreading, sacrificing Sector V and some of his team. He tries it again when he wants to blow a bridge up in a mall in order to a shop with horrible children’s clothes from opening, trapping Sector V and another stranded KND operative there. His codename is a shoot-out to the book “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne. It’s the book with Captain Nemo in it. Captain Nemo is a guy who has an underwater vessel. Numbuh 20,000 is the leader of the aquatic forces of the KND and has an underwater base.
10. Numbuh 10
Come on. We had to. Numbuh 10 is known as the most beautiful girl in the KND. We can see that. She’s very easy on the eyes. Numbuh 2 fancies her…and we’re sure Numbuh 5 has something to say about that. She appeared first as a news anchor, and then it was revealed that she was the leader of her respective sector when she was on vacation with Numbuh 1. Not that they ran away. It was a sector leader’s retreat and they were hanging out with each other. She is very attractive. One might say that she is a 10. And that’s more than probably where her codename came from. Finish the line for us. Is she from Tennesse? Because she’s the only…
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