Sailor Aluminum Siren

If one is going to call the second member of the Sailor Anima-Mates “Sailor Aluminum Siren,” then he or she should also call the final member of that group in the manga “Sailor Heavy Metal Butterfly.”

The word English siren is never heard in the second member’s name!

The Japanese often approximate the sounds of non-Japanese words with their written characters.  That process is called transliteration, which is not the same thing as translation.

When the Japanese want to transliterate the English word siren (pronounced "SIGH-rehn"), they use the katakana characters .

However, when Naoko Takeuchi wrote the name of the character, she actually wrote .  The first part () is the English word sailor, the second part () is the English word aluminum, and the third part () is clearly not the English word siren.

That third part is actually approximating the ancient Greek word Seirn (), which means Siren.

Therefore, the character’s name is really Sailor Aluminum Seirn.  In the anime, when the characters mention Seirn’s name, they never say “SIGH-rehn” like in English.  They say something like “say-RAIN.”  Listen to what they say and you will see what I mean.

If Takeuchi meant “Sailor Aluminum Siren,” then she would have written the name as .

Sailor Iron Mouse’s section introduces the anime information first, Sailor Aluminum Seirn’s section introduces the manga information first.  It would be a good idea if the author stayed consistent by introducing the same continuity first in each section.

The Japanese phrase ayatsuri ningy means marionette or puppet.  There is absolutely nothing in that phrase that suggests a “victim of circumstance.”

What exactly does the phrase victim of circumstance mean?  The name Aya does not help us in understanding what that phrase means because it has nothing to do with victims or circumstances.

When the author wrote “first name,” she probably means personal name.  Seirn’s Earth name is written in Japanese as , which means that Aya is meant to be seen as the surname, not the personal name.

In that name, the kanji that means child () represents the sound ko, but the rei part is written in hiragana ().  The rei part () could mean spirit in Japanese, but it has many other meanings in that language.

Personally, I find this part ridiculous. The o in the term ningyo that means mermaid is short.  The in the term ayatsuri ningy is long.

The Sirens were often described as women who were part bird.  Mermaids are often described as people who are part fish.  However, Chaucer first used the word mermaid as equivalent to the siren of the ancients.  The Greeks themselves did not refer to the Sirens as mermaids.