So, I was think we didn't really have a single thread for this, so lets do it:

Thinking Caps people Haruka believes she is too good for a thinking cap as they're not stylish enough for her

This thread is for questionin' and discussin' terms and such used in Sailor Moon that we go "i kinda get it" move on and never really think about it. There are alot of in-universe terms and ideas that pop up that I feel we just ignore becuase there seems to be too much to them, but I think we can break them down with logic and thinking. Everyone please do all the contribute. So lets get the ball running. I'll probably add stuff here when I think about it. So lets get the ball running:

Feel free to bring up anything, such as lyrics you find odd, the Japanese behind names and phrases, the etymology behind names and phrases, background references, terms that just don't seem to click with you, overarching concepts. Use of symbolism and themes so on, all your questions go here:

Mistress 9 & Master Pharaoh 90

Mistress & Master, complimentary terms for some sort of powerful dominating overlords, easy enough, Pharaoh, rulers of Ancient Egypt. Easy enough to understand for them, doubt anyone's confused. they're powerful beings looking to take over. By why are there random numbers tacked on the end? My best guess is that, Naoko is just incorporating the "science and research" theme she had with the Infinity arc (scientists, laboratories, genetic research abound), I get the feeling that 9 & 90 are something to do with "experiments" or "models" of something, like 9th in a line of "Mistress" beings, perhaps the previous eight were failures or the 9th merely surpassed them. This also goes for the 90 in Pharaoh 90. Thats the best I can come up with anyway, alien beings assigned a "production" numbers are not entirely unheard of. Its also in-keeping with the themes of creating "superbeings". Also it sounds cool which is the best reason for anything. What do you guys think?

Chikyuuiro wa Salad Time

Literal Translation: The Earth Colour is Salad Time, a song from SeraMyu with a seemingly ridiculous title that I've seen pointed out and mocked by confused people from time to time. However, my guess is this is a take on the English expression "salad days" (which originates from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra), it is a phrase which refers to youthful time in life. Completely in line with a song where they sing about their youthful dreams and aspirations for the future. Because the song appears to be written in the view of the Sailor Soldiers, adding the implied pronoun "our" it is possible to translate as "The Colour of the Earth is Our Salad Time", which makes for better English. This song's title no longer makes for giggles sadly.

Senshi / Soldier / Guardian / Warrior

What term to pick for a translation of Senshi? For outside the Sailor Moon series, I believe Warrior is the closest in meaning, though there's nothing really wrong with Soldier. The word Guardian moves away from the understood meaning of "senshi" though which is why it sticks out a bit. However, within the series, Naoko has absolutely every right to give unusual meanings or understandings to words and in the context of the series, there does not seem to be anything truly from with Guardian. Since they fight (as a Soldier of Warrior) to protect (or guard) the Earth. So I personally believe all three to be acceptable. However, when it comes to translating, I personally like to go with the official, for the original manga (including Codename: Sailor V and artbooks) as well as the original anime and SeraMyu. I go with Soldier, since thats the official title: PRETTY SOLDIER SAILOR MOON. As for the live action series and the rerelease manga (and apparently the new anime series), go with Guardian since its now called PRETTY GUARDIAN SAILOR MOON. So I would change it depending on the version you're watching.



So what do you think of mine so far? Got your own question or your own spin on a term/phrase put it here and yay discuss all the Sailor Moon:

{Here}

Houyou no Senshi wrote:

Mistress 9 & Master Pharaoh 90

Mistress & Master, complimentary terms for some sort of powerful dominating overlords, easy enough, Pharaoh, rulers of Ancient Egypt. Easy enough to understand for them, doubt anyone's confused. they're powerful beings looking to take over. By why are there random numbers tacked on the end? My best guess is that, Naoko is just incorporating the "science and research" theme she had with the Infinity arc (scientists, laboratories, genetic research abound), I get the feeling that 9 & 90 are something to do with "experiments" or "models" of something, like 9th in a line of "Mistress" beings, perhaps the previous eight were failures or the 9th merely surpassed them. This also goes for the 90 in Pharaoh 90. Thats the best I can come up with anyway, alien beings assigned a "production" numbers are not entirely unheard of. Its also in-keeping with the themes of creating "superbeings". Also it sounds cool which is the best reason for anything. What do you guys think?

This was something I was thinking about the other night while we were watching Mugen Gakuen. My thing is do you think there is a significance in using the number 9? Maybe cause there are 9 Sailor Soldiers (minus Chibi Moon). Also maybe since that arc in the manga had some Christian references, and 9 is divisble by 3, which is then noted that the fact there is 3 talismans and often 3 is an important number in Christianity (hence the Holy Trinity) and so on.


You know, I was always curious about where Nehellenia comes from. Is that a mythology thing? I don't recall ever reading much on it. :/

Hmmm... maybe...

According to Google, the number 9 was considered sacred by Ancient Egyptians (Pharaoh anyone?) Apparently in some Western Occult Traditions, there is the "Magic Square of Saturn" which has nine squares and contains the first nine numbers. As you said before the number 9 (as 3 x 3) is also heavily associated with The Holy Trinity and divine will. There are an awful lot of references towards Christianity in the Infinity arc.

In Japan, from my own knowledge, the number 9 can be a bit of an unlucky number as one reading for their number 9 九, is the same of one reading for the character 苦 which means "pain" or "suffering". Meanwhile a kanji for zero 零 can be read as "rei", another kanji that can be read as "rei" is 霊 --- "soul" or "departed spirit"

There are more but those are the ones that stick out to me. Perhaps Naoko is aware of some of these and considered 9 a good choice, perhaps she just liked the ring to it or perhaps its all entirely a coincidence. But just something to think about.


I do admit that I do not know much about the etymology behind Nehelenia, from what I know its an alternative spelling of a goddess called "Nehalennia", because of her. There was an asteroid named after her in the 60's. It is also the genus of damselflies, perhaps coincidence, maybe why Zirconia does have an insect-like nature rather than just being portrayed as old and ugly. The goddess herself is linked with the protection of travelers, in particular those at sea. (The Dead Moon Circus arrives in a ship). Apparently "Nehelenia" has been also equated as a variant of the goddess Hel, whether coincidentally or not, a possible derivation comes from Hel's Underground Kingdom -- Niflheim and her own name Hel, or Nif-hel, this version of Nehelenia / Hel is linked to the "Nether Moon" which seems to be the most connected to our Nehelenia. That's what I've managed to dig up, everything, as it seems often with Sailor Moon seems to fit together better than you thought it would. But remember I'm using the internet for this term so I may or may not be accurate, I've also avoided Sailor Moon websites to make sure I do not get biased opinions. In my opinion I think Naoko has probably taken the "Hel" variant of Nehelenia and then used others and mixed it in. But again this is speculation on my part.

This new information is making me want to put down a personal spelling of her name as "Nehelenia" to signify the presence of "Hel"

Also: analysis of Private Mystery Circle

A song labelled one of SeraMyu's "meaningless nonsense but fun songs"

Though it actual really does make sense when looked from a different angle. The song is actually seems to be talking about alien invaders who come and replace the bodies of people you love (think Body Snatchers)... odd because this song is ridiculously happy tones. Most parts of this song revolve around this idea, this crops up from the manga where the Black Moon Clan hides droids as human beings. Ufology was very heavy in that arc and it comes up again here in this song.

The title itself refers to what we might better know in English as "crop circles", this is also probably what the line "dry and moist" refers to. Other lines contain strange phrases such as "UFO" and "UMA", as most of us know UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object, UMA is a lesser known abbreviation but is still associated with supernatural phenomena ... "Unidentified Mysterious Animal". The first stanza, where they sing about "finding stars in eyes", later they say "maybe you have multiple personalities", these are again most likely symptoms of an alien being replacing their "beloved ones", their personality and eyes don't seem quite the same anymore. The word "Contacty" also appears, this is probably just a misspelling of "contactee" someone who has contact with aliens.

Houyou no Senshi wrote:

Hmmm... maybe...

According to Google, the number 9 was considered sacred by Ancient Egyptians (Pharaoh anyone?) Apparently in some Western Occult Traditions, there is the "Magic Square of Saturn" which has nine squares and contains the first nine numbers. As you said before the number 9 (as 3 x 3) is also heavily associated with The Holy Trinity and divine will. There are an awful lot of references towards Christianity in the Infinity arc.

In Japan, from my own knowledge, the number 9 can be a bit of an unlucky number as one reading for their number 9 九, is the same of one reading for the character 苦 which means "pain" or "suffering". Meanwhile a kanji for zero 零 can be read as "rei", another kanji that can be read as "rei" is 霊 --- "soul" or "departed spirit"

There are more but those are the ones that stick out to me. Perhaps Naoko is aware of some of these and considered 9 a good choice, perhaps she just liked the ring to it or perhaps its all entirely a coincidence. But just something to think about.

Well that also reminds me, in the manga, the academy buildings are also placed in the shape of a triangle, so three sides, three buildings. Yeah, she was definitely going for something with all the 3s and 9s. Its odd though that an arc that is as much about science as it is a reference to Christianity. It makes me curious if she was actually aiming for something or like you said, she just liked the ring to it all.

Quote :

I do admit that I do not know much about the etymology behind Nehelenia, from what I know its an alternative spelling of a goddess called "Nehalennia", because of her. There was an asteroid named after her in the 60's. It is also the genus of damselflies, perhaps coincidence, maybe why Zirconia does have an insect-like nature rather than just being portrayed as old and ugly. The goddess herself is linked with the protection of travelers, in particular those at sea. (The Dead Moon Circus arrives in a ship). Apparently "Nehelenia" has been also equated as a variant of the goddess Hel, whether coincidentally or not, a possible derivation comes from Hel's Underground Kingdom -- Niflheim and her own name Hel, or Nif-hel, this version of Nehelenia / Hel is linked to the "Nether Moon" which seems to be the most connected to our Nehelenia. That's what I've managed to dig up, everything, as it seems often with Sailor Moon seems to fit together better than you thought it would. But remember I'm using the internet for this term so I may or may not be accurate, I've also avoided Sailor Moon websites to make sure I do not get biased opinions. In my opinion I think Naoko has probably taken the "Hel" variant of Nehelenia and then used others and mixed it in. But again this is speculation on my part.

This new information is making me want to put down a personal spelling of her name as "Nehelenia" to signify the presence of "Hel"

Very interesting! Thanks for doing the research.

Nehalennia is a celtic or germanic goddess(people don't really know for sure). she is related to the Yule(or Winter solstice) =)

for some weird reasong, i'm going to a esbah honoring her on Sunday(I mean weird because they forgot to invert the dates according to out seasons of the year)

I think Naoko might have been attempting make a point on the subject of "modifying nature". Since all the messing with nature is something that is assigned entirely to the villains, it seems she uses references to Christianity to usurp the abuse of science. Its odd however that the Scientist Tomoe is coupled with the Magician (Witch / Magus) Kaolinite. So perhaps Ms. Takeuchi is intimating that neither a belief in pure science nor a belief in pure spirituality will be able to survive together, even in attempt to working together, each will destroy the other and true humanity is a mix of both? Perhaps Naoko is making a point about abusing and manipulating things that are best left alone?