Written by Misty of Myu Corner

The following are errors that I found in the first printing of Volume 10 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, Mari Morimoto, 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

• In multiple places, the Inner and Outer Senshi are referred to as “Solar System Sailor Princesses.” This is an awkward construction, even if it is an accurate description of what the Senshi are in Princess form. Besides, typically in the Sailor Moon canon, our solar system is referred to as the “Sol System” (taiyoukei in Japanese) by those from outside our solar system, such as the Sailor Starlights, the name coming from the old Latin name for the sun, Sol. (This is used outside of Sailor Moon as well; in Doctor Who Earth is referred to as “Sol III” by the Time Lords and most other alien races in the show. It is implied that only Earthlings refer to it as Earth; The Doctor, however, is an exception and generally refers to our planet as “Earth”). The term “Sailor Princesses” is not one I have seen used in Sailor Moon canon before. While the Inners and Outers were Sailor Senshi in their past lives as well, nowhere have I ever seen them referred to as “Sailor Princesses” before this. So not sure why this term was used. “Sol System Princesses” might be a more appropriate term.

• Miss Dream also uses “Solar System Sailor Princesses,” so this may be a change made to the shinsouban versions by Naoko-san. Tokyopop uses “Sailor Princesses of the Solar System.”

Honorific Issues (Oddly Used, Not Needed)

None in this volume!

Inconsistencies/Continuity Errors

None in this volume!

Miscellaneous

• This isn’t an error so much as a note: I noted that on page 12, when Sailor Saturn introduces herself, the translator renders her guardian name as “guardian of ruin and rebirth.” I find this great news, because traditionally Saturn is called the senshi of “destruction and rebirth,” which is not exactly an accurate translation of her Japanese title, hametsu to tanjou no senshi, which more accurately translates as “soldier of ruin and birth.” (However, unlike my colleagues at Miss Dream, I am not fluent in Japanese; therefore, I may be completely wrong on this…the Miss Dream translation uses “destruction and rebirth.” Tokyopop skips this entirely and simply writes, “Under the protection of the Silent Star, Saturn”).

• Menaeds: Translator Mari Morimoto chose this romanization for the name of the guardian priestesses of Elysion’s temple. Her explanation for this is thus:

  Menaeds (page 64):

  The translator first chose to Romanize the Elysion maidens’ name/title as “Maenads,” which is the name of Dionysus’ wild female followers. However, the discrepancy in attributes between the original Maenads and these gentle-seeming Elysion maidens caused the translator pause. It turns out that the “Mae” in Maenads is pronounced “mee,” not “may” like the original katakana. In addition, some deeper digging revealed the existence of “Menai” or “Menae,” the 50 goddesses of the lunar months who were daughters of the Moon goddess Selene and her great love Endymion, which seemed a lot more apropos, and thus the spelling “Menaeds” was chosen instead.

   

• I applaud Ms. Morimoto for being willing to research this further. I agree with her; the traditional attributes of the Maenads in mythology (living in the woods, indulging in drunkenness, ending up in drunken frenzies where they tore people apart, etc) do not appear to be present in these gentle guardian priestesses. Also, Helios refers to them as “priestesses that serve this sanctuary,” and the Maenads were not priestesses in the traditional sense, but rather mere followers or disciples of Dionysus on his travels throughout Greece to establish his worship.

• I did a bit of research of my own and found that Morimoto is correct; there are indeed lunar goddesses in Greek mythology referred to as the Menae. They were 50 in number, the daughters of Selene and Endymion, and represented the fifty lunar months in the 4-year Olympiad. Not much is known about them, though they are mentioned by the Greek writer Pausanias and by scholars studying the origins of the Olympic Games. [Source] Their association with the moon – and with Selene and Endymion in particular – is definitely “apropos,” as Morimoto puts it, to Sailor Moon, and thus I can see why she chose that translation.

• Ian Miller of Dies Gaudii also covers this romanization briefly in his article on the romanization of Helios’s name; he states in a footnote that the katakana used here is Menādo (メナード). He also points out that the two women are referred to in the text as miko, the Japanese term typically used for a priestess of a Shinto shrine, and states that the Japanese sometimes use the term miko to refer to the Greco-Roman Maenads. He also says the term derives from the Latin word Maenas, which according to his source means “an inspired prophetess.” However, his source also states that “Maenads” comes from the Greek word mainomai, meaning “to be inspired, rave” (which is technically true of the Maenads, since they became “inspired” and “raved” as a result of the wine involved in the worship of Dionysus, the god of wine; as Edith Hamilton points out in her Mythology, the Greeks were aware of this contradictory nature of wine’s effects:

  The ideas about Dionysus in these various stories seem at first sight contradictory. In one he is the joy-god…In another he is the heartless god, savage, brutal…The truth is, however, that both ideas arose quite simply and reasonably from the fact of his being the god of wine. Wine is bad as well as good. It cheers and warms men’s hearts; it also makes them drunk. The Greeks were a people who saw facts very clearly. They could not shut their eyes to the ugly and degrading side of wine-drinking and see only the delightful side. Dionysus was the God of the Vine; therefore he was a power which sometimes made men commit frightful and atrocious crimes….This truth did not blind them to the other truth, that wine was ‘the merry-maker,’ lightening men’s hearts, bringing careless ease and fun and gaiety….The reason that Dionysus was so different at one time from another was because of this double nature of wine and so of the god of wine. He was man’s benefactor and he was man’s destroyer [71, 72]).

• At any rate, while I accept his point about the priestess/prophetess connection, Morimoto’s choice, to use the “Menaeds” translation for Menādo, makes more sense to me. Not sure if it matches the katakana as well as “Maenads” might do (based on the way we typically pronounce the word, which according to Morimoto is incorrect), but logically it makes more sense. Sorry, Mr. Miller. (And my Miss Dream friends, who also used “maenads,” with an explanation in a footnote of their association with Dionysus. Tokyopop, on the other hand, does not name the priestesses at all, simply referring to them as “shrine maidens”).

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.