This Week in Sailor Moon (January 28- February 3, 2018)

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Time for some Sailor Moon news!

Time for some Sailor Moon news!

Well, January has come to a close, 2018 is already 1/12 over, and we’re rapidly speeding toward Valentine’s Day. More importantly, it looks like we all survived another week of work, school, life, friends, family, and more. I say that deserves a self-congratulatory pat on a back and — depending on what the weather is like where you live — a cup of hot cocoa. Aussies, you may want to swap that out for something cool and refreshing.

Join along as I take a look back over the latest Sailor Moon news. It’s been a wild ride!

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What Information Did Naoko Share With American Sailor Moon Fans?

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Naoko Takeuchi at San Diego Comic-Con 1998

Naoko Takeuchi at San Diego Comic-Con 1998

I am what you could reasonably call a longtime Sailor Moon fan — a “lifer” if you will. I was there when the series was taken off the air, came back on the air, and was taken off again. Yours truly remembers when “new” episodes of Sailor Moon meant the last part of the Sailor Moon R anime that DiC never bothered to get around to dubbing.

And then there were the misguided Sailor Moon / Pop-Tarts campaigns.

Today we’re going to talk about something a little different: we’re going nearly 20 years into the past to talk about the time that Ms. Takeuchi addressed American Sailor Moon fans and answered some of our burning questions. It’s gonna get interesting, so stick around!

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Is Sailor Mars Left-Handed?

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Flaaaaaaame Snipeeeeeeeer!

Flaaaaaaame Snipeeeeeeeer!

This is another one of those interesting fan theories that I occasionally see bouncing around the internet. I especially like it because, in a series that is frankly lacking in diversity, the idea that any of the characters would have anything remotely different about them is interesting to me.

Not like being left-handed is much of a big deal anyway, but that’s about as close as we could hope to get.

So today we’re going to take a deeper look into the theory about our (possibly…) favorite left-handed Sailor Soldier!

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This Week in Sailor Moon (January 21-27, 2018)

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Time for some Sailor Moon news!

Time for some Sailor Moon news!

What a week it’s been, huh? One of the greatest things about being a Sailor Moon fan nowadays is that, with the start of the 20th anniversary campaign, so much energy is being put into the franchise that there’s always some new announcement being made.

As sappy as it is to say — it’s a great time (for a Sailor Moon fan) to be alive.

In what I’m hoping will become a weekly feature, I hope you join me for this look back over the past week’s worth of news!

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Why Did Naoko Start Writing Sailor Moon Attack Names in Kanji?

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Sailor Moon and the Holy Grail

Sailor Moon and the Holy Grail

While I’m well aware that the majority of the audience who reads this blog probably watched/read Sailor Moon in translation, I think it’s sometimes informative to take a look at the more in-depth Japanese linguistics issues that, even though they don’t have a substantial impact on the series as a whole, they still would stand out and affect the interpretation of a native Japanese speaker.

And besides, I live for this geeky Japanese interpretation stuff.

I hope you join along for this trip through the bizarre world of the kanji wordplay! If we’re really lucky, maybe we’ll have even learned something at the end of this!

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

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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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What Kind of Sailor Moon Events Will Be at Universal Studios Japan?

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Sailor Moon comes to Universal Studios Japan

Sailor Moon comes to Universal Studios Japan

If you’re anything like me, the moment you heard that there was going to be a real, live Sailor Moon attraction opening up at Universal Studios Japan (USJ), you were probably overcome with excitement. This is very likely the one and only time that we’ll ever be seeing the Sailor Soldiers in a theme park setting, so we’re going to need to make the most out of the experience.

Now that we’re only two months out from the unveiling of Sailor Moon: The Miracle 4-D, it’s about time that we take a look at what USJ has in store!

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