Part Six: Fourteen Entries

“Sailor Galaxia, in the anime, actually originally wore a sailor soldier uniform (like the ones that Sailor Moon and the others wear) when she sealed Chaos.”

     That idea came about from a flashback that we see in episode 194 when Kaky tells the other characters about the story of the Sailor Wars.  As she narrates the story, the flashback shows the legendary sailor soldier.  (The flashback also appears in episode 199.  During that flashback in episode 199, we can also hear Kaky’s voice.)  We see the sailor soldier holding a sword and sealing Chaos.  Notice that the sailor soldier in that flashback has long hair, but she does not have the pointed piece that appears on the helmet part of Sailor Galaxia`s metal armor.  That sailor soldier also has a pleated skirt that resembles the ones that Sailor Moon and the other sailor soldiers from our solar system wear.  It is crucial to understand that the first-time viewers of episode 194 and the sailor soldiers of our solar system are not supposed to know the identity of the legendary sailor soldier.

     In episode 198, Sailor Galaxia herself tells of the story of the legendary sailor soldier.  We then see another flashback.  Galaxia finally reveals that she is the legendary sailor soldier.  That fact surprises Sailor Moon and the Sailor Starlights.  The new flashback shows us a Sailor Galaxia who is wearing a uniform that is more like her metal one.  In that flashback, she has the pointed piece on her helmet.  We cannot see her long, flowing hair.  We do not see her wear the uniform that is worn by the sailor soldier who appears in Kaky’s flashback.  An abbreviated version of the flashback from episode 198 appears in episode 200.

     Someone may argue that Galaxia's uniform with the pleated skirt (from Kaky’s flashback) changed into her metal uniform (from Galaxia’s flashback) when she sealed Chaos.  However, both uniforms do not appear together in any one of the two flashbacks.  There are no indications of a transitional phase or a transformation process.  Consequently, we do not have any evidence to support the hypothesis that states that Galaxia originally wore the pleated skirt.

     Kaky’s flashback does not indicate that the legendary sailor soldier wore a metal uniform.  Galaxia’s flashback does not show that she had her hair out of her helmet when she sealed Chaos.  It also does not show her wearing a pleated skirt.  There is not enough evidence to say that Kaky’s flashback is the most accurate one.

“In the manga, Sailor Lethe and Sailor Mnemosyne use the English term star when they refer to the two celestial bodies that they represent.  Therefore, those two celestial bodies are really stars (self-luminous celestial bodies) like our Sun.”

     Sailor Lethe and Sailor Mnemosyne say Rete sut (Lethe star) and Munemoshune sut (Mnemosyne star), but we should not automatically assume that the celestial bodies that they represent are stars like our Sun.  The romanization sut is used here because the katakana characters sut appear as furigana above the kanji .  That kanji can refer to stars or other celestial bodies.  If those katakana characters were not above kanji , then the kanji would have been read as sei.

     A short time after those two characters introduce themselves and those two celestial bodies, Lethe begins to talk about their hoshi.  Although hoshi can mean star, the term is also used in the manga to refer to the planets in our Solar System and to Earth’s moon.  (That kanji can have the reading sei when it is in a compound and it is not used by itself.)  When Lethe mentions hoshi (not sut) in a certain panel, we also see two balls that are floating in space.  The two balls that are in that panel are surrounded by light, but the balls themselves are relatively dark.  They simply are not as bright as the Sun appears in other parts of the manga.  It is unlikely that those two balls are self-luminous.

     In the manga, when the proper names of celestial bodies are associated with the kanji in a compound, those celestial bodies are most often planets.  (Examples: Kinsei is Venus and Kasei is Mars.)  Translators may then use the term planet instead of star when the kanji seems to be ambiguous.  That is one of the reasons that the celestial bodies that Lethe and Mnemosyne represent are often referred to as planets.

“In the anime, Sailor Saturn does an attack called the ‘Omega Soldier Recovery.’”

     One of the fan subs claims that Sailor Uranus says, “Omega Soldier Recovery” in episode 125 after Sailor Saturn awakens.  However, Uranus actually says, “Horobi no senshi... fukkatsu” (... ), which means soldier of ruin... revival.  The phrase “Omega Soldier Recovery” never appears in the Japanese anime and manga sources.

“The official name of the harp that Sailor Mercury receives is Mercury Lyre.”

     Someone may think that the object has the name Mercury Lyre because the god Hermes is said to have made the first lyre (a string instrument).  However, Mercury Harp is its official name in the manga.  It probably also has that name in the anime.

“The daimon in episodes 101 and 102 (the Usagi birthday episodes of the S series) is named Persian Cut.”

     Unfortunately, this misconception is so common that even the fan-translated version of the Bishjo Senshi Sr Mn Another Story video game refers to the character as “Persian Cut.”  The anime sources do not show the katakana characters Pjan Katto as the name of the character.  They really show the combination Senishienta, which approximates Cenicienta, the Spanish form of the name Cinderella.  The daimon was created from a glass slipper, and she has a glass slipper on her helmet.  A glass slipper is important to the Cinderalla story.  Incidentally, the Spanish version of Disney’s Cinderella has the name Cenicienta.

“In act 46 of the manga, Kakyuu mentions that the power and brilliance of the cats’ (Luna’s, Artemis’, and Diana’s) starseeds and the power of brilliance of the Sailor Crystals are the same, so the cats have Sailor Crystals, too.”

     She really says that the cats’ starseeds also have power and brilliance just like the Sailor Crystals.  Kaky’s statement contains the phrases ... ... maru de... no y na..., which indicate that her statement is meant to be figurative.  So, she is not claiming that the cats’ starseeds are Sailor Crystals.  Kaky does not specifically mention the power and brilliance of the Sailor Crystals in her statement.  The cats are never shown to have crystalline starseeds.  No crystals come out of the cats’ destroyed bodies.  No balls of light appear on Luna’s and Artemis’ chests when the cats fade away in the thirtieth century.  The members of the Shadow Galactica do not show any interest in the cats’ starseeds.  There is no good reason to think that the cats have Sailor Crystals, and there is not enough evidence to say that starseeds that have power and brilliance must be Sailor Crystals.

“There names Sense-Syonaru Jjyaga-Masuku and Dark Syu-Mail really do appear in Sanctuary of Love 10th Anniversary Musical.”

     Those spellings really do appear on several Sera Myu Web sites!  The names are really Sensational Jaguar Mask and Dark Sumer.  It seems that the people who first wrote the “Sense-Syonaru Jjyaga-Masuku” and “Dark Syu-Mail” spellings did not bother to check their work.

“The name Aurum Tiphreth appears in the The Seal of the Super Planet Death Vulcan (Sera Myu).”

     The spellings of character names on Sera Myu Web sites are usually atrocious.  (Ru Fei is not difficult to figure out, but fans still write it.)  “Aurum Tiphreth” should be Olam Tiphareth because Olam is one of the many names of God and Tiphareth is one of the Sephiroth in the Cabala.  (The Sera Myu writers seem to like using names from the Bible and from the Cabala.)

“In episode 44, we see the dead people from the Silver Millennium being taken to Earth so that they can be reborn there.  Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune actually do appear in two of the bubbles.”

     It is possible that Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were alive in the anime universe itself when the Silver Millennium was destroyed.  There are reasons to doubt that episode 44 actually show Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, however.  Unfortunately, there are some fans who claim that Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune really do appear in episode 44 as if that is a fact.  The claim has not been confirmed.

     The relevant scenes in episode 44 show bubbles that contain Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion, the four guardians of the princess (Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter), several figures as black silhouettes, and two mysterious people who resemble sailor soldiers with some visibles features.  Here are parts of the screenshots from the episode:

[Image One] | [Image Two]

     While the person in Image One resembles Sailor Neptune, the person in Image two does not resemble Sailor Uranus.  If we examine Image One, we should notice that the person’s hair is longer than anime Sailor Neptune’s hair.  In the anime, Sailor Neptune’s hair does not reach her skirt.  That image could not be depicting Sailor Uranus, either.  The hair of the person in Image Two is too dark to be Sailor Uranus’ hair.  (We should be able to see the blonde hair because we are able to see the light skin tone.)  Moreover, the boots of the person in that image are too low to be Sailor Uranus’ boots.  One could say that image depicts Sailor Neptune.  However, Sailor Neptune wears high heels that are attached to ribbons that criss-cross around her ankles, but we would not be able to make out a criss-crossing pattern of ribbons on the ankles of the mysterious person in Image Two.  The depiction of the person lacks clarity, and fans may misperceive the details as clear and distinct.  One could explain that misperception as pareidolia.

     Since the two mysterious people in the two bubbles lack many of the distinguishing features of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, they do not necessarily have to be Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus.  For all we know, those two mysterious characters may be unknown sailor soldiers who have not yet awakened.

     No known official source from the 1992-1993 era states that the animators intended those mysterious characters in the scenes to be Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune when the episode first aired in Japan.  We would not be able to cite an official source that states that the animators decided to link Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune to those two mysterious people in episode 44 even after the 1992-1993 era.  In other words when Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune finally are introduced later in the anime series, we are never shown the bubble scene from episode 44.

     Episode 44 aired on 13 February 1993, but the earliest known dated image that shows Haruka and Michiru indicates that it was drawn in November 1993.  (The image appears on page 33 of Volume 8 of the original version of the manga.)  The official sources do not indicate that Ms. Takeuchi (or anyone else) created Sailor Uranus (Haruka) and Sailor Neptune (Michiru) before the animators finished working on episode 44.  If we wish to entertain the possibility that the animators wish to include Sailor Neptune when they were working on the episode, we should at least provide evidence that they knew about the character at the time.

     If the animators intended Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune to appear in those scenes, we could ask several important questions.  Why were they on the moon?  Did they attempt to defend the Silver Millennium when they were on the moon?  If so, why did the animators omit such a scene?  How and when were the two characters killed?  Why are we not shown those bubble scenes when Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune later explain what they did for the Silver Millennium long ago?

     Saphir of the Genvid forums allowed me to use the two images.

“The subtitled episodes of the SuperS anime from Pioneer refer to the “monsters of the days” as the “Remless.”  That spelling seems to make sense because the SuperS series has to do with dreams, and REM refers to the stage of sleep where dreaming occurs.”

     Such an idea does not significantly explain the significance of the “less” part of “Remless.”  The “dreamless” idea may work for the Amazon Trio (because they evidently cannot have beautiful dreams), but nothing shows us whether the four Amazones cannot dream, too.  If the “monsters of the days” are “Remless” because they pertain to the idea that they are “dreamless,” we would not be able to explain why the three members of the Amazon Trio not referred to as “Remless” (i.e. “dreamless”).

     The katakana characters remuresu usually approximate the Latin term Lemures, which refers to frightening specters from Roman mythology.  Ms. Takeuchi and the animators used those characters to write the names of the “monsters of the days” in the SuperS series of the anime.  Those monsters are like frightening specters.  Furthermore, Ms. Takeuchi and the animators have displayed a tendency to use mythological names.  While Lemures is a widely-recognized term, “Remless” is not.  So, it is more likely that Ms. Takeuchi and the animators meant the term Lemures.

“Kaky is never a senshi in the anime.”

     The true starseeds in the anime are owned by the senshi (soldiers, fighters, warriors) with the powers of celestial bodies.  (Mamoru owns a true starseed, which is the starseed associated with Earth.)  Kaky has a true starseed (which most likely is the true starseed that is associated with the planet Kinmoku), so she is a soldier (senshi) even if she is not a sailor soldier.

     Incidentally, Kaky becomes a sailor soldier (Sailor Kaky, not Sailor Kinmoku) in the manga.

“In the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailormoon series, Sailor Mercury performs a maneuver named Mercury Aqua Beam.”

     Some of the early synopses of the live-action series claim that Mercury Aqua Beam is one of Sailor Mercury’s maneuvers in that continuity.  Sailor Mercury performs Mercury Aqua Mist in the new version of the manga, so fans began to think that the maneuver that was referred to as Mercury Aqua Beam actually has the name Mercury Aqua Mist.  One of the new cards that pertain to the live-action series shows the katakana-character combination for Mercury Aqua Mist: Mkyur Akua Misuto.  The card was scanned by the owner of Three-Lights.net.

“In the original Japanese version of the manga, Phobos, Deimos, and Sailor Lead Crow all came from the planet that can be called Chronos, Kronos, or Colenis.”

     Those three characters came from the celestial body that has its name written in the Japanese script as Koronisu-sei.  Koronisu is specifically Coronis.  That celestial body has the name Coronis.  In classical Greek mythology, a woman named Coronis was one of Apollo’s lovers.  She had an affair with another person, and Apollo learned of it from his crow.  The god ended up sending his sister Artemis to kill Coronis.  Phobos, Deimos, and Sailor Lead Crow are associated with crows, so the Coronis myth is relevant to their homeworld.

     “Chronos” (Japanese: Kuronosu) “Kronos” (Japanese: Kuronosu), and “Colenis” are wrong.

“Pretty Guardian Sailormoon is the English title of the live-action television series that started in 2003.  The series has the Japanese title .  Therefore, the Pretty directly links up to the kanji , and the Guardian directly links up to the kanji .  It is more appropriate to render instances of in English as guardian than to render it as soldier.”

     That is the basic reasoning behind the common method of rendering instances of in the live-action sources as guardian in English.  Well, may mean soldier or fighter, but it cannot mean guardian.  means beautiful girl, but not pretty.  There is a correlation between the Guardian in the English title and the in the Japanese title, but it has not been shown that the two words are meant to be directly linked such that the meaning of is ignored in favor of the meaning of guardian.

     We must understand that Ms. Takeuchi has correlated kanji with non-synonymous English words before.  For instance, she associated desu ribn reboryshion (the katakana-character combinations that approximate Death Reborn Revolution) with the kanji shi sekai henkaku.  means death, and is the Japanese approximation of death; can mean revolution, and is the Japanese approximation of revolution.  However, means world, but approximates reborn.  It would be ridiculous to claim that means Death Reborn Revolution because those are the intended English words.  We would not attempt to link directly and such that the meaning of is ignored in favor of the intended English word.  If we did, then we would have to render instances of as reborn.  It is doubtful that the characters want to say that when Sailor Saturn brings down her Silence Glaive, the reborn will be destroyed.

     Another example of the correlation of non-synonymous kanji and English words is the Garnet Ball maneuver that Sailor Pluto performs in the manga.  Ms. Takeuchi associated Ganetto Bru (the katakana-character combinations that approximate Garnet Ball) with the kanji jik ju.  means ball, and approximates ball.  However, does not mean garnet.  Actually, means space-time.  It would be ridiculous to claim that means Garnet Ball because those are the English intended English words.  We should not attempt to directly link and such that the meaning of the kanji is ignored in favor of the intended English word.  It is doubtful that the Door of Space-Time is meant to be called the Door of Garnet.

     One could say “But Guardian is in Roman letters while Reborn and Garnet are both approximated by katakana-character combinations.”  He or she is right in pointing out that obvious fact, but the person is missing the point.  The Reborn and Garnet examples are designed to attack the reasoning that involves directly linking kanji with a non-synonymous English word.  If one is going to directly link with Guardian, then he or she can just as well directly link with , and with .

     Incidentally, the live-action sources (such as the lyrics for the opening song) make a distinction between gdian (approximating guardian) and senshi.  If the meaning of senshi has been ignored in favor of the meaning of guardian, then why would the writer of the song want to use the Japanese approximation of guardian?  He or she already has his or her own definition of senshi to use.

     More material will come!

[Main] | [Previous Page]

[Notes] | [DIES GAUDII] | [Contact]

© 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.