Written by Misty of Myu Corner

The following are errors that I found in the first printing of Volume 12 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 them 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

• The “Star Lights,” “Anima Mates,” and “Kakyu” errors mentioned in the the volume 11 guide are in this volume as well.

Honorific Issues (Oddly Used, Not Needed)

• None in this volume!

Inconsistencies/Continuity Errors

• Sailor Galaxia’s Sailor Crystal is referred to in this volume (primarily on page 100) as the Sapphire Crystal. Previously in canon, her crystal had been referred to as the Saffer Crystal, saffer being an Old English word for either lapis lazuli or sapphire. The actual Japanese name of her Crystal, however, is Seikinseki (青金石), which translates to “lazurite,” a mineral that forms the bulk of lapis lazuli. [Sources: Wikimoon, Wikipedia – Lazurite] Given that “Saffer” can refer to lapis lazuli, this may be the name that it was intended to have. The English word “sapphire” is written in Japanese as safuaia (サファイア). I checked the original Japanese version of the page in question (via Miss Dream’s raws) and, while there is furigana next to what appear to be the kanji for Seikinseki, the katakana characters shown for the furigana do not appear to be the ones for safuaia, though it is hard to tell because they are so small. It is possible the translator misread something and thus used “Sapphire” instead. (Miss Dream and Tokyopop also use “Sapphire Crystal”).
• On page 152, Sailor Saturn’s weapon is mistakenly called the “Silent Glaive.” It should be “Silence Glaive,” in keeping with the rest of the Sailor Moon series. (The name of this weapon is usually written in Japanese using the katakana サイレンス・グレイブ [Sairensu Gureibu], or the Japanese rendering 沈黙の鎌 [Chinmoku no Kama]). Miss Dream and Tokyopop both use Silence Glaive.

Miscellaneous

• A line on page 9 was changed from how it appeared in the volume 12 preview at the end of volume 11. In the preview, it read “so much greater than any of our previous foes'”. But in the actual volume 12, the word “foes” was changed to “enemies” instead.
• On page 200, a couple word bubbles in the exchange between Galaxia and Chaos appear to be switched around. The bubble which ends Galaxia’s sentence (“…Sailor Moon, who is boiling over with maximum power, to you!!”) should be with the other half of her sentence in the panel above, while Chaos’s word bubble should be moved to the panel below with Chaos’s other word bubble. This would make the exchange make more sense.
• The name of Sailor Lethe’s attack, Galactica Mysotis Alpestnis, has mystified fans for years. Ian Miller of Dies Gaudii wrote a whole article on this subject. Morimoto notes that it likely refers to the flower Myosotis Alpestris, also known as the Alpine Forget-me-Not, but does not know the significance of the spelling change. The proper romanization of the Latin term would, it seems, be Myuosotisu Arupesutorisu, according to Miller. Not sure why Naoko-san changed the spelling, honestly; maybe it was a typo. However, this spelling was in the original manga print run as well, so one would assume that Naoko-san would have corrected it in the shinsouban version. (Tokyopop, as noted by Miller, translates the name as “Galactica Myusotis Alpastnis”; Miss Dream uses the correct name for the flower, with a note indicating that it is the name for the Alpine Forget-me-Not).

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) © 2011-2013 Kodansha USA, Kodansha Comics, William Flanagan, and Mari Morimoto. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (Japanese) © 1992-1997, 2003-2004 Naoko Takeuchi.