Written by Misty of Myu Corner

The following are errors that I found in the first printing of the second and final volume of Kodansha USA’s English release of the Codename Sailor V 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).

Note: I am proficient in but not fluent in French, so my translations of the Glénat version may not be 100% accurate. Also, I am using the Glénat version for comparison because I initially bought it prior to the Kodansha release thinking that it was the only Western-language official release of it out there (turns out it was also released in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland), and also because it gives me a third version to compare lines with, similar to how I compared the Sailor Moon volume to the Mixx version and Miss Dream’s translation.

I have, however, had my proficiency tested, by way of the Test d’Évaluation de Français, an official proficiency test administered by the Alliance Française on behalf of the French government. My level was determined to be a B1 (lower intermediate) overall, with a B2 (upper intermediate) in oral comprehension. I have a certificate to testify to this result and would be willing to produce it if anyone doubts my proficiency.

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.

Possible Issues on Several Pages

• On the table of contents page and throughout Volume/Chapter 9, the villain of Chapter 9 is referred to as deVleene. In the original, her name was Deburine. It’s possible that there was a romanization mistake made here, as the English letter “v” is usually romanized as “b” in Japanese (like in binasu, the katakana pronounciation of “Venus”) due to there being no syllable for “v” in Japanese. The letters “l” and “r” are also interchangeable in Japanese. That might account, in part at least, in the odd name change. Nonetheless, it is an odd name and could perhaps have been left the same, or translated in a less unusual way. This point was pointed out by Brad of Moonkitty.net.
• As in volume 1, Minako’s disguise phrase (Crescent Power, Transform) and transformation phrase (Moon Power, Transform) are printed with colons instead of commas before “transform” throughout the volume. You’d think they’d have learned their lesson from volume 1 about that. ^_^
• Ace Saijyo’s alter ego is named “Phantom Ace” throughout this volume. In the original, he is called “Kaitou Ace.” sassypants678 from Miss Dream pointed out on Twitter that, while “kaitou” is often translated “phantom” or “phantom thief” (particularly in series about thieves like Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne), that translation is inaccurate. It actually means “mysterious thief" and is often just translated “thief” for short. So a more accurate translation might have been “Mysterious Thief Ace” or “Mystery Thief Ace” or something like that, I guess.
• Throughout Volume/Chapter 12, Wan-Wan has very weird, antiquated dialogue, with a lot of “thees” and “thous.” This may, however, just be how Wan-Wan talks. Not sure.
• Throughout Chapter 9, the term “kilos” is used instead of the American equivalent, “pounds.”
• Throughout Chapter 15, Lin-Lin is given unusual broken-English dialogue, which seems rather similar to the broken English we Americans think Chinese people (like Lin-Lin) use. It sounds awkward if you don’t understand it’s broken English though, and almost stereotypical.

Honorific Issues (Oddly Used, Not Needed)

• In multiple places in Chapter 14 (as well as elsewhere, I think), Minako is addressed as simply “Aino” without a honorific.
• After Minako meets Natsuna in Chapter 10, she refers to her as onê-san or onê-chan. Technically, to use a ^ or circumflex symbol to reflect a long vowel is all right when romanizing Japanese (according to the Hepburn romanization system, the most widely used one as far as I know), but more often one sees this indicated by a macron, or line, over the vowel (“onēsan”) or with the long vowel spelled out (“oneesan”, “kaitou”), which is known as the Wapuro Hepburn system because it was created to allow romanization to be done on a QWERTY keyboard, such as one might find on a wapuro (word processor). Why Mr. Flanagan chose to use the circumflex here and not elsewhere, I’m not sure. (You can find out a LOT more on romanization in this helpful article by Matt Griffiths of Tenchi Muyo! Another Universe).
• “Kitty-chan” (p. 95): The -chan is not needed.
• “Minako-sama” (p. 100): The -sama is not needed, but Minako does seem to like to call herself “Minako-sama” for dramatic effect. This also appears on pages 182, 193, and 246.
• “Nyan-Nyan-sama” (p. 109): Again, the -sama isn’t needed, but Nyan-Nyan seems to be calling herself “Nyan-Nyan-sama” for dramatic effect. (She does claim to be a princess too).
• “Kitty-chans” (p. 110): The -chan isn’t needed. Just saying “kitties” would be fine.
• “Mr. White Cat”/”Luna-chan” (p. 123): This is an unusual case of a Western honorific (“Mr.”) and a Japanese honorific (“Luna-chan”) appearing in the exact same panel. I think Brad from Moonkitty.net noted this error as well. It is a bit odd.
• “V-chan” (p. 144): The “-chan” isn’t needed because Minako is talking about herself.
• “Manga pages-sama” (p. 146): The -sama is definitely not needed in this case. Of course, the panel shows that Baishaku is trying to talk to Marie, the mangaka he’s an editor for, but her face is buried in manga pages, so he accidentially addresses the wrong thing.
• “Mosquito-sama” (p. 172 & 175): -sama not needed.
• “Natsuna Sakurada-san” (p. 226): -chan not needed.
• “Miss Minako” (p. 230): A rare English honorific creeps in!

Inconsistencies/Continuity Errors

• p. 245 – “Gender: Unknown” (in Boss’s profile of Ace)

Wait, Ace’s gender is unknown? Based on the rest of the story, he sure seems like a guy to me.

• p.277 – “I never thought I’d meet…my gorgeous goddess of beauty and war.” (Adonis)

Elsewhere, however, she’s called the “goddess of beauty and love.” The “war” idea may came from the fact that Aphrodite’s Roman counterpart, Venus, was a goddess of military victory, and Venus’s close counterparts in Sumerian and Semitic mythology — Inanna, Astarte, and Ishtar — were all goddesses of war.

Miscellaneous

• “My favorite chocolate is ganache” (p. 7): Hikaru-chan may like ganache, but ganache isn’t a type of chocolate. It’s actually a type of glaze, filling, or icing made from chopped dark semisweet chocolate and heated cream, with liqueurs or extracts added if desired, used to glaze, fill, or ice pastries and cakes. Just what the ratio is of chocolate to cream depends on what you’re using it for. [Ganache on Wikipedia]. This error jumped out at me because I used to work in the bakery at my work, where we used chocolate ganache as a cake filling. It has a consistency similar to fudge but tastes kinda bitter, like dark chocolate. (In Glénat’s version, she says the slightly more appropriate phrase “J’adore le chocolat” (I love chocolate)).
• Artemis’s noises (p. 33): As noted with volume 1 by Brad from Moonkitty.net, Artemis says “Mya” on this page, rather than something more normal for a cat, like “Meow.” This is also somewhat true of Nyan-Nyan throughout Chapter 11, who keeps saying “nyan” (the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat’s meow) rather than “meow.”
• Several of the page numbers noted in the translation notes are incorrect.
• Some cultural things throughout are not explained in the translation notes or even in a footnote. Thus, I will try to define them here:
  • Teacher’s Question (p. 50): Minako’s teacher asks her to “tell the class the name of the military commander of the Takeda clan who fought in the battle of Nagashino on May 21, 1575”. The answer is Takeda Katsuyori. (His biggest rival was Oda Nobunaga, who is referenced in the first volume of CLAMP’s new series, Gate 7, which is also translated by Mr. William Flanagan).

    Actually, according to Miss Dream’s translation, the answer is Oda Nobunaga. Oops.

  • Taiyaki (p. 51): A fish-shaped cake filled with various fillings, most commonly red bean paste, which is used as a sweet filling in many things in Japan. [Taiyaki on Wikipedia] Assumedly, the shape is in reference to the tai, or sea bream, an expensive fish that is often a feature of osechi ryori (special food made for Japanese New Year). [Savory Japan]
  • Artemis and a poem (p. 92): On page 92, Artemis says he does nothing “but stare at my hands,” then comments, “‘Stare at my hands’ was a quote from a poem by Takuboku Ishikawa that my intelligence unexpectedly provided.” Takuboku Ishikawa was a Japanese poet from the Meiji period (1868-1912) mainly known for tanka poetry, a poetic form dating back to the 7th century A.D. (late Asuka period) that became the primary poetic form at the beginning of the 10th century A.D. (early Heian period) and was a predecessor of the haiku, though he also wrote “modern” or “free-style” poetry. [Ishikawa on Wikipedia, Tanka on Wikipedia]. The poem in question goes:

    I work

    and work still my life

    continues

    to be the same as ever

    I look at my hands

  [Thanks to this page for the poem text]

• Boss’s lines on p. 162 (“Mina! Artemis! Your next orders” and “Well excuse me for still being alive!”) seem switched. The second line is clearly an aside on Boss’s part, but would be better suited at the top of the speech bubble.
• In at least three places, Sailor V refers to laws and/or documents to justify her point. The first time is on page 173, when she cites the “Bleeding and Blood Donor Supply Service Control Law.” The names of these laws and documents are followed by the year the law was supposedly made in parentheses (in this case, like so: “‘Bleeding and Blood Donor Supply Service Control Law (1956)'”). The second is on page 206, when she references the Copyright Act, and the year 1899 is given afterward in parentheses. On page 251, when she references Mao Tse-tung (usually romanized as “Mao Zedong”)’s “On New Democracy,” both the year (1940) and Zedong’s name are given in parentheses. I’m not sure why those are there, and I think they break up the flow, personally.
• Ace and the dahlia (p. 230): After she wins the part of the leading lady in his movie, Ace presents Minako with a dahlia, her “birthday flower,” claiming that it means “fickle” in the language of flowers, which he follows up with an admonishment to be true to him. However, though Ace seems to know a lot, what he doesn’t know is his floriography. First of all, the “birthday flower” for Minako’s birthday, October 22, is in fact not the dahlia, but the red primrose. [List of birthday flowers] The red primrose in the Western “language of flowers” (a.k.a. floriography) stands for “unpatronized merit,” and the primrose in general refers to young love and the sense of “I can’t live without you.” The dahlia, on the other hand, represents diginity and elegance in Western floriography, as well as the sense of “forever thine.” [several sources] In the Japanese “language of flowers” (hanakotoba), the primrose (sakurasō) means “desperate” while the dahlia (tenjikubotan) means “good taste.” The only explanation I can think of for this error is that Ace is thinking of the evening primrose, which does indeed mean “inconstancy” in Western floriography. Coincidentially, the Glénat version, which is based on the original print run of Sailor V, makes the same error, so maybe it was an error on Naoko-san’s part all along?

***

Now that Sailor V is over…

It does seem like there are definitely less errors in volume 2 than there were in volume 1, just as with Sailor Moon volume 2. I think this is because there was less of a rush to get it finished and out on time, so there was more time for editing. Hopefully, this positive trend will continue as the Sailor Moon manga re-release goes forward.

It’s been fun to re-read Sailor V for the third time (my first read-through was the Glénat version, my second Miss Dream’s), even if it did involve reading it for errors. Hope all of you enjoyed reading it as much as I did!

Credits: The examples given from Miss Dream’s translation belong, naturally, to Miss Dream. French Glénat version (Sailor V) © 1998-1999 Glénat, Anne Malevay. Kodansha English manga (Codename Sailor V) © 2011 Kodansha USA, Kodansha Comics and William Flanagan. Codename wa Sailor V (Japanese) © 1992-1997, 2003-2004 Naoko Takeuchi.