Is the Sailor Starlights’ Kinmokusei a Planet or a Star?

Where are Kakyuu and the Starlights from??

Where are Kakyuu and the Starlights from??

As a translator, one of the most difficult issues to deal with is that of trying to figure out what an ambiguous word means when you don’t have enough context. This issue becomes infinitely harder when you’re working within a fantasy setting and there quite simply isn’t any further information for you to look up.

The debate surrounding Kinmokusei is one such problem. In Japanese, it could just as easily be either a planet or star (but thankfully not both).1 But depending on which one it is, that kind of changes our perception of where the Starlights come from.

Today, we’re going to see if we can try to unravel this mystery. Get suited up, it’s gonna be a rocky flight!

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How Many Twins Are There in Sailor Moon?

Technically not "twins"

Technically not “twins”

If I’ve learned anything from researching every little detail about the world of Sailor Moon, its’s that every time you end up asking the question “how many…,” the answer is almost always much more than you’d imagine. Even something as seemingly obvious, like the sheer number of Sailor Soldiers, is mind-boggling!

Today we’re going to take a look at the series and see how many sets of twins appear across the five story arcs. If this is something you’ve ever wondered about (and, let’s be honest, this is a question probably no one has ever asked…), now’s your chance to find out!

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Is Rei’s Grandfather From Her Mother or Father’s Side?

You've got some 'splaining to do, Grandpa Hino!

You’ve got some ‘splaining to do, Grandpa Hino!

With how many articles I end up writing about Rei Hino, you’d think I should have named this blog Sailor Un-Mars’ed. But to be fair, it’s not entirely my fault that between the anime and manga, there are so many riddles about this Christian school-attending Shinto priestess who suffers from split personalities.

Today I’d like to take a look at trying to unravel the mysteries of Rei’s family tree and, specifically, which side Rei’s grandfather lands on.

I hope you join along, it’s going to be an interesting ride!

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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!

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How Did Sailor Moon’s Disguise Pen Work?

It's Morphin' Time!

It’s Morphin’ Time!

Among all of the special items that Luna gives Usagi and all of the other Sailor Soldiers, I’ve always felt that the Disguise Pen was one of the most interesting, and yet also the most under represented. How is it that you could have a pen that could turn you into whatever you wanted to look like (and typically allow you to look like a grown adult despite being a fourteen year old girl…) and yet so rarely ever use it? In fact, out of its 11 appearances in the anime and six appearances in the manga,1 all but two of them in both the anime and manga occurred in the the Dark Kingdom arc.

What particularly interests me, though, is how more often than not Usagi manages to use the pen wrong and all the while still gets a semi-satisfactory result. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s take a look!

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