⁴⁵
Ayakashi no Yon Shimai
Four Weird Sisters
In the anime and manga, Koan and her older sisters call themselves the Ayakashi no Yon Shimai, but many English-speaking fans refer to the four women as the “Ayakashi Sisters.”  The kanji can have the reading ayakashi ()⁴⁶.  That kanji can mean strange, weird, or supernatural⁴⁷.  When the four sisters are connected to those meanings of ayakashi, they may conjure up the idea of the Three Weird Sisters (goddesses of destiny)⁴⁸.  Shakespeare used the term weird sisters for the three witches in Macbeth⁴⁹.  Those witches “lurk like dark thoughts and unconscious temptations to evil.  In part, the mischief they cause stems from their supernatural powers, but mainly it seems the result of their understanding of the weaknesses of their specific interlocutors”⁵⁰.  Since the kanji can mean weird or supernatural, it is relevant to those witches.

     Ms. Takeuchi connected the four sisters with weird, supernatural, and paranormal phenomona in the Bishjo Senshi Sr Mn manga: Koan is the head of the supernatural phenomena club, Berthier is a dowser, Petz sends out Droids that act as doppelgangers and they use a flying saucer, and Calaveras is a channeler.  Calaveras and the spirits of her defeated sisters perform the maneuver Spirit Energie Attack ( Supiritto Enerug Attakku) ⁵¹ in that continuity.

      Ayakashi no Yon Shimai can be translated into English as Four Weird Sisters, which is analogous with Three Wierd Sisters.

()⁵²
Suekko (Yonjo) Kan
Youngest Child (Fourth Daughter) Koan
“Cooan” is by far the most popular spelling of Koan’s name, but it is misleading.  Contrary to what many English-language sources claim, “Cooan” is not the Japanese name of the mineral Kermesite.  Whenever a c is used when romanizing a Japanese word, an h invariably comes after the c.  If “Cooan” were really Japanese, and the c represented the k sound in kit, then a k would have been used instead of the c.  Since “Cooan” does not orthographically resemble a Japanese word, people are more likely to pronounce the vowel sound in the first syllable like the oo in cool.  The katakana characters Kan show that the vowel is actually more like the o in coal.

     Red Antimony is another name for the mineral Kermesite⁵³.  The Japanese usually call the mineral Kermesite Kank,⁵⁴ which is a close translation of Red Antimony.  Note that the kanji an usually means peace⁵⁵, but in the name Kank, that kanji acts as an abbreviation of the word antimony.  The final k in Kank means mineral⁵⁶.  When it is removed, Kan remains.  The two kanji and the katakana characters represent Kan.  So Koan’s name sounds like an abbreviation of the common Japanese name for Kermesite.  Moreover, in the manga, Koan uses the name Koan Kurozuki ( Kurozuki Kan)⁵⁷.  The Kurozuki means black moon, and name Kan is an abbreviation of Kank!

     In the anime, Koan wields a special power called Dark Fire ( Daruku Faiy)⁵⁸.

⁵⁹
Sanjo Beruche
Third Daughter Berthier
Fans who write Berthier’s name as “Beruche” are not necessarily writing her name incorrectly, but the katakana characters Beruche represent a non-Japanese name.  Therefore, there is no reason to leave Berthier’s name as “Beruche.”  The katakana characters that are used to write her name ( Beruche) can also be found in the name Beruche-k, which is what the Japanese often call the mineral Berthierite⁶⁰.  So Berthier’s name is an abbreviation of Berthierite.  Berthierite was named after the French chemist and mineralogist Pierre Berthier ( Piru Beruche)⁶¹.

     In the anime, Berthier wields a special power called Dark Water ( Daruku Wt)⁶².

⁶³
Jijo Karaberasu
Second Daughter Calaveras
Many sources still write Calaveras’ name as “Karaberas,” but that seem to be more like a compromise between Calaveras (the etymological spelling of the name) and Karaberasu, which is the romanization of the katakana characters .  Calaveras’ name derives from Calaverite, and the Japanese call that mineral Karaberasu-k⁶⁴.  Calaverite was named after the Calaveras County in California.  (Mark Twain made Calaveras County famous in his short story Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.)  Calaveras means skulls in Spanish⁶⁵.

     In the anime, Calaveras wields a whip called the Dark Beaut ( Daruku Byto)⁶⁶.

⁶⁷
Chjo Pettsu
Eldest Daughter Petz
Petz’s name is related to the mineral Petzite.  The Japanese call the mineral Pettsu-k⁶⁸, which contains the katakana characters that are used to write Petz’s name ( Pettsu).  Petzite was named after the Romanian mineralogist De W. Petz⁶⁹. It has been claimed that the katakana characters that are used to write Petz’s name, , are to be romanized as Pesshi.  However, that claim is mistaken because pesshi would be the romanization of .  The tsu and the shi look similar, but they represent different sounds.

     In the anime, Petz wields a special power called the Dark Thunder ( Daruku Sand)⁷⁰.

⁷¹
Burakku Redi
Black Lady
Black Lady is an evil version of Chibi Usa with an adult body.  She wears the black crescent moon on her forehead, which is the sign of the Black Moon.  She calls herself the queen of darkness and the planet Nemesis.  Luckily, she eventually turns back into her Chibi Usa form.  The Black part of her name most likely derives from the Black part of Black Moon, and the Lady part of her name most likely derives from the Lady part of Small Lady (which is the name that Chibi Usa was given before she goes to the twentieth century; Chibi Usa has the full name of Usagi Small Lady Serenity⁷²).  “BLACK LADY” appears in the title of act 22 of the original version of the manga and in the title of act 24 of the new version of the manga.

© 2002-2008 Ian Andreas Miller. All rights reserved. Those statements refer to all of the original content on these Web pages. All of the other works that are mentioned on these pages are the properties of their authors.