Rachel's Sailor Moon Translations: Notes

Some notes about my translations. Here are some general notes to start out with. Or you can jump down to some notes about astronomy and mythology.

Name Order: Names are now written in Western order (IE, given name, surname). This is in contrast to the way they are written in Japanese (surname, given name). Maybe some would consider that too localized, but most real Japanese people seem to romanize their own names in Western order, and I may as well follow their lead.

Honorifics: The big honorific suffixes (-kun, -chan, -san, and -sama) are left untranslated. In most cases, there's just no equivalent in English, and I figure people who would import Japanese books to read along with my scripts would probably know what they mean anyway. But I really just don't like to omit things that can't be translated. I do translate most of the easier suffixes (oniisan, senpai) though.

Sailor Moon vs Sailormoon: For the most part, this spacing style is done for aesthetic reasons. I think this will particularly be obvious when it comes to names that would otherwise be Eternalsailormoon, Sailorchibichibi, Sailorstarfighter, and Sailorheavymetalpapillon.

Odango vs Dumplings vs Buns: A dango (団子) is a ball-shaped Japanese dumpling. But it can also refer to bun hairstyles. In the first act, Usagi makes it pretty clear that o-dango (お団子) is her hairstyle, so they're probably not directly referring to the food. (For an English comparison, imagine that Usagi had a ponytail instead. Mamoru, Haruka, et al. then call her "Ponytail Head," but it would be a little strange to assume they're referring to actual tails of ponies.)

Mythical Silver Crystal: Maboroshi (幻) can refer to phantoms, illusions, and similar spectral things. So I originally chose "Phantom Silver Crystal" as a fairly literal translation of that, and I'd heard "phantom" even has a mineralogical relevance. But since then, I had learned that maboroshi's meaning was a little more broad than that: it can also refer to fantasy, dreams, legends, myths, etc. So I eventually decided on "mythical" as a term that gets across the fact that the crystal seems unreal (and maybe even famous?), but isn't particularly ghostly. (It also makes Death Phantom's dialogue sound a bit better.)

Soldiers vs Guardians: 戦士 senshi is a word referring to fighters, warriors, soldiers, etc. Normally I'd probably prefer "warrior," but I think "Sailor Soldier" has a much better ring to it. The English subtitle for the reprints implies that the term should be translated as "Guardian," but A) that's not entirely accurate, and B) there's already a lot of dialogue about guardians and protectors, so things would get redundant really fast.

Serenity vs Selenity: I chose Serenity, due to things such as the mention of Mare Serenitatis, the elongated vowel in Selene, and because it seems like a leap to assume the intention was a made-up word over an existing one, especially since Japanese readers would have no way of distinguishing this anyway. On that note, I will admit that the connection between Serenity and Selene in their Japanese approximations can't be coincidental, at least in this story's case.

Metallia vs Metaria: Metaria may have been written in romaji in the new cover editions of the manga, but given the choice between a form of a relatively obscure Latin term that kind of relates to the character, and the mineralogy pun that is a theme among most of the other villains in the series, I chose the latter. And yes, I'm well aware of the hypocrisy of this in comparison to the Serenity vs Selenity blurb.

Chibi: In reference to Chibi Usa or Chibi Chibi, I choose to leave this untranslated. This is for the sake of consistency, since I have no desire to attempt to change or translate their names. But in uses of the word not relating to those two characters, it will be translated, since there's no reason not to. For your reference, Chibi is a colloquial and sometimes derogatory term that refers to a small person or a child.

Four Weird Sisters vs Four Ayakashi Sisters: あやかし ayakashi can refer to a type of ghost or creature associated with shipwrecks. But it can also refer to the strange and bizarre. When I saw the latter definition for the first time, I instantly thought of the Weird Sisters from MacBeth, who were a trio of witches with the power of foresight. I doubt Takeuchi actually intended to make a Shakespeare reference, but "Four Weird Sisters" does work perfectly as a literal translation (since these four have nothing to do with shipwrecks), and has a bonus of being similar to the three witches from MacBeth.

Mugen vs Infinity: 無限 mugen refers to the unlimited, neverending, infinite, etc. Of course, it's a term that pops up frequently during the third arc. It's not particularly hard to translate, but I bring it up because it's also used in place names, like Mugen Delta and Mugen Academy. So like with chibi, I leave it as is when it's a name, but translate it otherwise. The main reason, however, is that I don't translate other Japanese place names, like Juuban and Hikawa.

Nehalennia: "Nehalennia" seems to be one of the most prominent alphabet spellings for the name of the ancient Germanic (or Celtic?) goddess. There's even an asteroid named after her that uses that spelling. And ネヘレニア Neherenia (the spelling used for the Sailor Moon character) seems to be the most common Japanese spelling for the goddess's name, with the asteroid likewise using that spelling. ネヘレニア Neherenia is also the spelling used for the Sailor Moon character, so logically "Nehalennia" would correspond to that the same way it does for the goddess and asteroid.

Amazones Quartet: From what I understand, "Amazones" is an actual word: the Greek plural of Amazon (as in the female warriors). Dialogue in the series suggests that they're even related to the Amazons. Meanwhile "Amazoness" is a made up word that would be redundant if referring to the warriors, and very strange if referring to the river or jungle. As for "Quartet," Japanese カルテット karutetto apparently derives from Italian and isn't quite pronounced the same as English "quartet." But in Japanese it's often treated as though it is the English "quartet" (like "barbershop quartet" = バーバーショップ・カルテット), or at least a generic term for four people. So I tend to doubt it was chosen with an Italian flavor in mind.

Stars: Japanese has a single word, 星 hoshi, that generally means "star," but can be used to refer to pretty much any astronomical body (stars, planets, asteroids, satellites, etc). The third arc starts to really take advantage of this in dialogue, and the fifth arc pretty much revolves around it. I tend to use "star" or "stellar" when the meaning is more figurative or supernatural ("everyone has stars inside them," "stellar power," etc). But when the literal meaning is clear, I'm definitely not going to call Saturn or the Moon a "star." And there was one point where I just used "astronomical body," because the context needed something all-encompassing, and English doesn't have anything simpler (as far as I know).

From particular acts:

Pudding (from Act 2/2): The approximation for "princess" is プリンセス purinsesu, and the approximation for "pudding" is プリン purin.

Rabbit on the Moon (from Act 10/10): Obviously, the main character is named Usagi Tsukino (月野うさぎ Tsukino Usagi). Her name is a homophone for 月の兎 tsuki no usagi, which means "rabbit on the moon." This harkens back to an old Japanese tale about rabbits that live on the moon who make mochi.

Satan (from Act 10/N/A): The kanji for 悪魔 akuma ("devil/demon") is used, but uses サタン satan for furigana, which typically refers to Satan, or the Devil in Abrahamic religions. So it gives a double meaning of both devils/demons and Satan.

10,000 (from Act 11/11): マンション manshon in Japanese refers to an apartment building (though it is also an approximation for the English word "mansion," which is partially related to its etymology), while 億ション okushon is a term that refers to luxury apartment buildings. But, if you drop the shon from both words, you get man and oku, which are homophonous with 万 man (10,000) and 億 oku (100,000,000) respectively. In particular, man and oku are important units in Japanese numerals, which are based around every fourth power of 10 instead of every third power as in English. Thus, oku is the unit directly following man, similar to "million" following "thousand" in English. So Makoto's correction is doubly meant to imply that oku is greater than man, which she admits by saying you can't buy an okushon (luxury apartment) for man (10,000). (Side note: ¥10,000 is equally to roughly $100.)

Coke Bottle Glasses (from Act 11/11): Just for reference, "Coke" or any other brand name is not actually mentioned in Japanese, but this is the best English equivalent for what literally means "bottom of a bottle glasses."

Petit Étranger (from Act 13/14): Petit Étranger is French for "small stranger."

Kronos (from Act 18/19): Conveniently for the original text, クロノス Kuronosu can refer to either Kronos (Κρόνος) or Chronos (Χρόνος) of Greek mythology. Kronos (Saturn) was a scythe-wielding Titan associated with harvests, and the father of Hades (Pluto), among other famous children. Meanwhile, Chronos was the unrelated god of time. But Chibi Usa refers to this entity as both the father of Sailor Pluto and the god of time. It doesn't make a difference in Japanese, but in the Latin alphabet, I had to pick one. So I chose Kronos, because I think it's better to erroneously call him the god of time than to erroneously call Chronos the father of Hades/Pluto. And Kronos is just more significant anyway.

Underworld (from Act 18/19): It occurs to me that not everyone is a Greek mythology buff, so I feel compelled to explain that "underworld" refers to the realm of the dead (which was indeed thought to be underground). 冥界 meikai also refers to the realm of the dead, though not necessarily an underground one. Considering this is an epithet for Sailor Pluto, I think referencing the Greek Underworld makes the most sense. And nowadays, I don't think the term is necessarily restricted to underground places anyway.

Him (from Act 24/27): Third-person pronouns are normally pretty rare in Japanese, but in this case (and many lines after it), the word for "he/him" (彼 kare) is definitely used to refer to Haruka.

Horror Eclipse (from Act 34/38): Just a homophone gag. Chibi Usa hears kaiki nisshoku (皆既日食: total solar eclipse) and thinks of a different kaiki (怪奇: horror, strangeness, etc).

Adopted Husband (from Act 36/41): This is a specific concept that doesn't really exist in the West, but I didn't want to leave the term completely untranslated. From what I understand, a 婿養子 mukoyoushi is a man adopted into a family as their son (taking the family name, which would be Hino in this case), and as a husband to their daughter.

Pudding (again) (from Act 37/42): Another pun involving プリン purin, meaning "pudding" of course. But this time the other word is 不倫 furin, which refers to adultery/infidelity.

Geniuses (from Act 44/51): A Minako-ism. She used the word 天才 (tensai, meaning "genius") rather than 天災 (also tensai, but meaning "natural disaster"). The actual proverb is about disasters occuring when you least expect them.

Sagittarius A Star (from Act 48/56): In the real world, there is an area/phenomenon at the center of the galaxy called Sagittarius A* (pronounced "ey star"), or いて座A* (Iteza Ee Sutaa) in Japanese. But in Sailor Moon, the galactic center is referred to as いて座A・スター (Iteza Arufa Sutaa). Since the "A" there is read "alpha" instead of "ey," it's hard to just assume it's the real Sagittarius A*. Nor do I want to assume it's an error, since the concept's already been bent with Zero Star and all that. So I picked "Sagittarius A Star" as a compromise, where one could read the "A" however they want. Also, I worry that using "Alpha Star" would create confusion with Alpha Sagittarii.

Myosotis Alpestris (from Act 48/56): Myosotis Alpestris is a species of forget-me-not, which has an obvious connection to Lethe. But the actual kana used (ミュソーティス・アルペーストニス) is not an accurate approximation of that name (with some altered/missing vowels and consonants). There are valid reasons for the aforementioned Sagittarius issue to be an intentional change rather than an error, but in this case I can see no benefit from an intentional change. I don't want to be disingenuous to the original work, but I've already "corrected" a few other obvious typos (most of which were also corrected in the reprints, though this one was not). So, I've also treated this one as though it was written with accurate kana.

Lilika Hubert (from Chibi Usa 1/Chibi Usa 1): Unlike most characters, Lilika has a name natively in Western order, so Hubert is her family name. Furthermore, it's not pronounced like the usual English name "Hubert." It's a French pronunciation that sounds like the English words "you bear," written as ユベール Yubeeru in katakana. Lilika's given name is written in katakana too (as リリカ Ririka), implying it could be foreign, though Ririka is also a native Japanese name. But I figured it could have something to do with lilies, since she's very white and likes flowers.

Shinken Zoshinkai (from Exams 2/Exams 2): I believe this is a reference to the name of two real testing/prep/cram companies. 進研ゼミ Shinken Zemi, and 増進会 Zoshinkai (or Z会 Zkai).

Subtraction (from Exams 2/Exams 2): The actual phrasing is simply an emphasis on the pronunciation of 見参 (appear, arrive, etc). It's often read kenzan, but in this case it's genzan. Genzan is also a reading for 減算, which refers to subtraction. Considering how much math has been a factor (pun not intended) in this chapter, I don't believe this is a coincidence. So I tried my best to adapt the possible pun accordingly.

Mercurius (from Exams 2/Exams 2): Since this joke relies heavily on the Japanese writing system, it doesn't translate easily. Especially when I have his real name in Western order (as I do with everyone else). But メルクリウス (Merukuriusu) really is just 数理くるめ (Suuri Kurume, スウリクルメ) backwards. Incidentally, it's also much more distinct from Mercury (マーキュリー Maakyurii) in Japanese.

Giraffe Sashimi (from Kaguya/Kaguya): A Minako-ism, of course. It might be based on a real proverb (夫婦喧嘩は犬も食わぬ) that literally means "Not even a dog would eat a marital spat," but the figurative meaning is "Do not get involved in lovers' quarrels."

Hime/Samurai (from Kaguya/Kaguya): The hime (姫) in Himeko's name also happens to be a standalone word that means "princess." So "Hime" as her nickname is practically the same as calling her "Princess," which this line references by saying she's more like a samurai (and the following line calling Kakeru the princess).

Oozora (from Kaguya/Kaguya): Kakeru's surname is written 宇宙, which otherwise means "outer space" (and is pronounced uchuu in that case). The pronunciation of his surname, Oozora, is also homophonous to the word 大空 oozora, which means "(the) sky." So that's why Luna calls his name fitting for an astronaut.

General astronomical and mythological references:

Solar System: The Japanese term for the planetary system surrounding the Sun, the Solar System, is 太陽系 Taiyoukei, meaning "Solar System."

Sun: The Japanese term for the star of the Solar System, the Sun, is 太陽 Taiyou, meaning "huge sunlight."

Moon: The Japanese term for the planet Earth's lone satellite, the Moon, is 月 Tsuki, meaning "Moon." Usagi's surname, Tsukino (月野), likewise means "lunar plains."; Sailor Moon's name uses ムーン Muun, an approximation of the English word "Moon."; Selene was the Greek goddess of the Moon, with Luna as her Roman counterpart. Selene is approximated as セレーネ Sereene, while Luna is ルナ Runa.; Artemis was the Greek goddess of the hunt, also associated with the Moon, with Diana as her Roman counterpart. Artemis is approximated as アルテミス Arutemisu, while Diana is ダイアナ Daiana.

Earth: The Japanese term for the planet Earth is 地球 Chikyuu, meaning "earth sphere." Mamoru's surname, Chiba (地場), likewise means "earthy place."

Endymion: Prince Endymion's name uses エンディミオン Endimion, an approximation of the English (Greek) name "Endymion." Endymion was a beautiful young man in Greek mythology who became a lover of the Moon (Selene, and possibly Artemis).; Endymion is also the name of an asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. The Japanese name for that is エンディミオン Endimion, an identical approximation of the English (Greek) name.

Mercury: The Japanese name for the planet Mercury is 水星 Suisei, meaning "water planet." Water is one of the five classic Chinese elements. Ami's surname, Mizuno (水野), likewise means "watery plains."; Sailor Mercury's name uses マーキュリー Maakyurii, an approximation of the English (Latin) name "Mercury." Mercury was the Roman messenger god, also associated with commerce and travel, and related to the Greek Hermes.

Mars: The Japanese name for the planet Mars is 火星 Kasei, meaning "fire planet." Fire is one of the five classic Chinese elements. Rei's surname, Hino (火野), likewise means "fiery plains."; Sailor Mars's name uses マーズ Maazu, an approximation of the English (Latin) name "Mars." Mars was the Roman god of war, and related to the Greek Ares.

Phobos and Deimos: The Japanese names for the planet Mars's two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, are フォボス Fobosu and ダイモス Daimosu, respectively. They are approximations of the English (Greek) names.; Rei's crows' names use フォボス Fobosu, an identical approximation of the English (Greek) name "Phobos," and ディモス Dimosu, a slightly different approximation of the English (Greek) name "Deimos." Phobos and Deimos were twin sons of Ares (Mars), and personified horror and terror, respectively.

Jupiter: The Japanese name for the planet Jupiter is 木星 Mokusei, meaning "tree planet" or "wood planet." Wood is one of the five classic Chinese elements. Makoto's surname, Kino (木野), likewise means "wooded plains."; Sailor Jupiter's name uses ジュピター Jupitaa, an approximation of the English (Latin) name "Jupiter." Jupiter was the Roman god of lightning and king of the heavens, and related to the Greek Zeus.

Venus: The Japanese name for the planet Venus is 金星 Kinsei, meaning "gold planet" or "metal planet." Metal is one of the five classic Chinese elements.; Sailor Venus's name uses ヴィーナス Viinasu, an approximation of the English (Latin) name "Venus." Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty, and related to the Greek Aphrodite. Minako's surname, Aino (愛野), likewise means "love plains."

Pluto: The Japanese name for the planet Pluto is 冥王星 Meiousei, meaning "dark lord planet." Setsuna's surname, Meiou (冥王), likewise means "dark lord."; Sailor Pluto's name uses プルート Puruuto, an approximation of the English (Greek) name "Pluto." Pluto was the Greek god of the underworld, also known as Hades.; Though Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet, it was considered a normal planet when this story was written, and thus it will be treated as a planet here.

Nemesis: The Japanese name for the hypothetical star Nemesis is ネメシス Nemeshisu, an approximation of the English (Greek) name.; The Black Moon planet's name uses ネメシス Nemeshisu, an identical approximation of the English (Greek) name "Nemesis." Nemesis was the Greek goddess of divine vengeance, and related to the Roman Invidia.; Nemesis is also the name of an asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.