Written by Misty of Myu Corner

The following are errors that I found in the first printing of Volume 8 of Kodansha USA’s English release of the Sailor Moon manga. They are divided into sections for writing errors (presented in a table), possible issues on multiple pages, honorific issues, inconsistencies/continuity errors, and miscellaneous errors (presented as bulleted lists).

I am not in any way affiliated with Kodansha USA, Del Rey, William Flanagan, or any other person or entity involved in the translation, production, or publication of the volume critiqued here. I also do not mean these critiques as libel in any way, shape, or form, and hope that the persons and entities involved in the translation, production, or publication of the volume critiqued here will not take it as such.

*Due to the ongoing investigation of Megaupload by the FBI, I was unable to download the file of the Mixx version I usually use from Neo Nobility. So, for this and possibly several future reports, I will be using the raw scans of the Tokyopop version from Miss Dream rather than Neo Nobility’s Mixx scans.

Possible Issues on Several Pages

• As in previous volumes of this translation covering the Infinity Arc, the Japanese term “Sankakusu” is used for the delta where Mugen Gakuen is located, instead of an English equivalent. “Mugenzu,” the Japanese term for the district itself, is also re-used from previous volumes, appearing on page 90. “Sakaue” (which was commonly used in lieu of an English term in volume 1) pops up again on page 175.
• Hoste is used instead of hostie again. (See my extended explanation of hoste vs. hostie in the volume 6 guide).
• In multiple places, the Holy Grail is referred to as the “Moon Chalice of lore.” For conciseness and clarity, it would probably be better to call it the “Legendary Moon Chalice,” or maybe even “Holy Grail” for consistency’s sake, since it has previously been referred to as such in volume 7.
• As in other volumes, the place name “Ichinohashi Park” is written as “Ichi-no-hashi Park.” (Brad of moonkitty.net, who lives in Tokyo, has pointed out this error – and other place name errors in this translation – on multiple occasions).
• Multiple times throughout Dream 1, the characters seem to be looking at the solar eclipse with their eyes unprotected. However, it is actually dangerous to look right at the sun on a normal day with just the naked eye, and the same goes during a solar eclipse. (See this article from space.com and this article from exploratorium.edu for more on this). Technically, this rule applies for watching any event in the sky during the daytime; I watched a live Google+Hangouts stream of the recent transit of Venus, in which some of the people involved in the hangout showed off their viewing apparatuses, and while varied, they all involved methods of not looking at the sun directly, such as through dark glasses or telescopes with solar filters.
• A similar change happened with the Amazoness Quartet as happened with the Ayakashi Sisters. Their balls are now called “orbs” and the Quartet themselves referred to as “orb-users.” Like “Spectre Sisters,” I assume these terms will be used throughout the Dream Arc.
• There are quotes around Chibiusa’s Time Key spell again on page 203 and 204. These quotes just seem unnecessary to me.

Honorific Issues (Oddly Used, Not Needed)

None in this volume.

Inconsistencies/Continuity Errors

• “Guardian of Silence”: On page 86, Sailor Saturn is referred to as the “Guardian of Silence,” “guardian” being this translation’s stand-in for “senshi” or “Scout.” Elsewhere in canon, however, Sailor Saturn is called the “Soldier of Destruction” (or “Guardian of Destruction” it would be if used in this translation). The “silence” association probably comes from the S anime, where Mistress 9 (who is housed inside Hotaru/Saturn) is called the “Messiah of Silence” (“Sovereign of Silence” in the English dub). Therefore I consider this a continuity error, though it’s possible “silence” was substituted for “destruction” here in this one instance. (Tokyopop uses “Scout of Silence,” while Miss Dream uses “Soldier of Silence”).
• Costume Change?: On page 116, Uranus and Venus exclaim “Our costumes…have changed?!” But the outfits shown there have not actuallychanged art-wise from the change they went through when Usagi first powered up to Super Sailor Moon back in Act 33. The brooches are still hearts, and the outfits themselves only look different because of the art style used in the panel. (Tokyopop makes the same error. Miss Dream translates this as “Her costume changed?!”, referring to Sailor Moon, which makes more sense).

Miscellaneous

• The error I noted with the volume 8 preview in the volume 7 guide was apparently fixed as the line isnow different. The line in the preview is “This space is being rent with abnormalities…?!” while the line in volume 8 itself is “…There are abnormalities happening all through the space around here…?!”. Most likely this error was caught in editing, not from my guide, as it seems Kodansha USA has only recently become aware of my error reports (though they were aware of Sailor Hell’s), as shown by this Twitter conversation I had with Kodansha editor Ben Applegate (page linked to is missing some of the tweets in the conversation, but provides the gist of it).
• The chapter subtitles in the Table of Contents and the chapter pages have the word “infinite” in their title as opposed to the actual chapter titleswhich say “infinity.” The specific kanji used for that chapter subtitle (無限大) means “infinity.”
• On page 86, Sailor Saturn’s planet is called the “Planet of Ruin,” even though (as stated above) she is usually called the “Soldier of Destruction.”Technically, though, this is not wrong, because in Japanese Saturn usually introduces herself as “hametsu to tanjou no senshi.” This phrase is usually translated by fans as “soldier of destruction and rebirth,” but literally means “soldier of ruin and birth.” (Tokyopop and Miss Dream use “planet of destruction”).
• On page 184, Chibiusa mentions that her mother would tell her stories “about an empire that sank into the sea.” This isn’t an error necessarily but arather interesting point. The reference could very well be to the mythical Atlantis, first written of by Plato in about 360 BC, which Plato writes sank “in a single day and night of misfortune.” If it is, it suggests that Princess Serenity lived for an unusually long period of time, since, while Atlantis’s sinking does not have a definite date (given that most people believe Atlantis never existed to begin with), Atlantis is said to have conquered much of the world around 9600 BC. [Source] The Kaguya Shima Densetsu musicals already suggest Serenity was alive at least 5,000 years ago. To know about Atlantis personally, she would probably have to have been alive at least 8,000 years ago (going off the date of Atlantis’s sinking from the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which may or may not be accurate). It is possible, however, that Neo-Queen Serenity was merely telling Chibiusa a story she herself heard from someone else (like her mother) and is not actually speaking from experience. Interestingly enough, the musicals also refer to Chibiusa hearing stories of an empire that sank; in the Shin Kaguya Shima Densetsu song “Chibiusa no Umi,” she sings “When I couldn’t sleep, Mama always told me…about the stories of the country that sank into the sea…and the island that floats in the sky” (the floating island possibly being Laputa, a location in Gulliver’s Travels made famous among anime fans via the Studio Ghibli film Laputa: Castle in the Sky). [Lyrics Source]
• On page 185, Chibiusa talks about a legend about not looking into a mirror on the night of a new moon because you will be drawn into the pitch-blackworld on the other side of the mirror. Mamoru asks if that is some old European legend. I tried doing some research to see if there is really such a legend/superstition but could not find anything. Maybe Naoko-san made it up for the story?
• I noticed when I read through my volume that it did not contain any translation notes or next volume preview. The lack of translation notes did nottrouble me much, as another volume also lacked translation notes. But the lack of next volume preview did seem very odd. In response to my post about this on Twitter, Kodansha USA responded with this tweet:
  
  Now the only reason I can think of for this is that it was a printing thing. In book printing, pages are normally printed in what is called “signatures,” that is groups of 16 pages that have been folded together in preparation for binding. (At least for yearbooks; I first heard the term when I was on yearbook staff in high school…”signature” is an actual general publishing term, however). It is possible that, not having enough content to fill whatever signature the translation notes or preview would’ve been on, Kodansha just decided to leave them out. But this sounds ridiculous; there are things they could’ve put on the otherwise blank pages. They could’ve sold ad space (to advertise other mangas either from them or from their parent company Random House), maybe included some omake stuff like they did before, maybe even put in those four-panel comics from Naoko-san they have left out the whole series long. After all, Kodansha did promise us exclusive extra content or whatever, didn’t they? I sure haven’t seen it. So all I can say is, Kodansha’s explanation sounds like an excuse to me. No offense.

Credits: The lines from the Tokyopop English translation come from scans I obtained at Miss Dream. The examples given from Miss Dream’s translation belong, naturally, to Miss Dream. Tokyopop English manga (Sailor Moon) © 1996-1998 TokyoPop. Kodansha English manga (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon) © 2011-2012 Kodansha USA, Kodansha Comics and William Flanagan. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (Japanese) © 1992-1997, 2003-2004 Naoko Takeuchi.