Is Rei Hino / Sailor Mars Part Demon?

This can't be normal

This can’t be normal

While most of the Sailor Soldiers don’t seem to show any sort of magical aptitude outside of their post-henshin’d form, Rei (and, okay, Hotaru) is unique in that she has supernatural abilities even in her “normal” form. After all, shortly after Rei’s first appearance in the manga we’re already given accounts of her having mysterious powers.1

And that’s saying nothing of her fire reading abilities or stunning people with ofuda in both the anime and manga.

So we’re gonna take a look at the interesting possibility that this may be at least somewhat attributable to Rei being part demon. How, you ask? Read on and find out!

Continue reading

What Were Naoko’s Sailor Moon Comedy Comics About?

Oh, Naoko, you and your jokes...

Oh, Naoko, you and your jokes…

If we were to sit here and talk about everything I love about Ms. Takeuchi and her work on Sailor Moon, we’d probably be here for quite awhile. Since we neither have that kind of time, nor is anyone really interested in reading my open love letter to the creative force behind this series, I’ll spare you.

But there is one point that I’d like to highlight today, and that’s how often she was willing to step outside her comfort zone to try new things with her characters, both in her art and in her storytelling.

Today we’re going to take a look at when Naoko branched out into comedy strips starring our favorite soldiers of love and justice! If that interests you, stick around!

Continue reading

Are the Silver Millennium and the Moon Kingdom the Same Thing?

The Silver Moon Castle Millennium Kingdom

The Silver Moon Castle Millennium Kingdom

To all the Super Sailor Moon super fans out there, let me first apologize for the how seemingly obvious the question seems to be. Off hand, the Silver Millennium is the time in which the empire ran, and the Moon Kingdom is the empire itself.

But I wouldn’t be here today talking about this if the answer was so simple, now would I?

Stick around, because we have some interesting stories to tell today!

Continue reading

Where Did the Dead Moon Circus’ Lemures Get Their Names? (Part 3)

The Amazoness Quartet

The Amazoness Quartet

Well, here we are! We’ve finally made it to the exciting climax (??) of the three-part series into where the Lemures get their names.

Today, we’ll be talking about the Lemures that served under the Amazoness Quartet and, I have to admit, the names are quite a challenge to describe!

Since we’ve got a lot to discuss, let’s just dive right in!

Continue reading

What Are Some Difficulties Faced in Translating Sailor Moon?

What translating feels like

What translating feels like

One common theme that runs through many of the topics I end up discussing is that of the differences between Japanese and English nuance, and how much of that gets lost in translation.

I want to make it clear that I don’t mean this as an indictment against some of the translators who have taken on (or been assigned) the challenge that Sailor Moon has to offer. In fact, I’d like to take a look at some of the challenges people face when translating Sailor Moon – or really, any Japanese media with a sufficiently deep enough plot – into another language.

This topic may be a little inside baseball, but if you’ve ever been interested in the art of translation, this article may be for you!

Continue reading

Where Did the Dead Moon Circus’ Lemures Get Their Names? (Part 2)

♪ It's the eye of the tiger ♪ It's the thrill of the fight ♪

♪ It’s the eye of the tiger ♪ It’s the thrill of the fight ♪

If I were to compare the Lemures in Sailor Moon SuperS to any of the other Monsters of the Day, I’d say their closest match about probably be the early Dark Kingdom youma.

What do I mean? Well, the Lemures felt a lot like just lower-ranking members of the Dead Moon Circus, like they were simply lower on the corporate ladder than the Four Kings, who had already managed to secure positions as supervisors through long days at the office, countless unpaid overtime, and a little bit of corporate schmoozing.

Contrast that with the Cardians, Droids, and Phages, and you can see their role is pretty different.

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about, now is it? We’re here to continue taking a look into where the Lemures get their names from. Stick around as we continue with Part 2 of this series!

Continue reading

Where Did the Dead Moon Circus’ Lemures Get Their Names? (Part 1)

"Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!”

Bringing up the topic of the Sailor Moon SuperS anime in conversation can be about as divisive and unwise as discussing politics at the dinner table, religion over Thanksgiving, or subs vs. dubs in a comic book shop. You just don’t know where the other party stands, and no matter what their opinion is, they’re bound to be passionate about it.

But today we’re only skirting around the issue of whether or not the series has any merits, and instead are talking about something we can all hopefully get behind: where did the names of the Lemures come from? Stick around to find out!

Continue reading