Names

I was tremendously entertained by Season Five, but I admit I am even more entertained by some of the speculations I’ve happened across while out browsing, frequently about their names. Some, of course, are simply the result of cultural confusion. When your ears say that the one with purple eyes is called Taiki Kou while your eyes say that he’s called Kou Taiki, and everyone seems to just use Taiki and ditch the Kou some confusion is bound to result. Arguments abound, some of them convincing some less so. The argument that Kou must be their surname because they’re not presented as Japanese and therefore Western naming conventions would apply is somewhat convincing, but since, visually, almost no characters at all are presented as Japanese and ‘historically’ we never do find out just how far away the Lights were supposed to have transfered from, it’s still pretty iffy. The most convincing part of this argument is the linguistic point that the manga include phonetic pointers in the Lights’ names, and even that seems a bit ambiguous, since most manga do that, even for clearly Japanese characters. Other characters in this series also have phonetic characters used to spell their names, possibly to support puns. The argument that it must be their surname because Japanese ads featuring idols use given-surname order is not convincing; even the manga is supposed to be a representation of dialogue not advertisements. And in the anime all idols we’re introduced to are named in sur-given order, even the ones with overtly Western names like Alice. (Both those arguments can be found through here, judge for yourself.)

Then there’s the one about titles; our threesome do not use titles when referring to each other. Since they certainly don’t appear to be lovers this leaves us with some kind of familial or similarly intimate or casual relationship. While I agree that there’s lots of room for debate on this one, as anime tends to ignore little things like genetic likelihood, their appearance doesn’t particularly support the idea that they’re related; in relationships where kinship is an issue, like Usagi and Chibiusa, some indication is usually given that they are related (like the hair balls). And the ‘rules’ about titles aren’t exactly carved in stone; for instance, Michiru frequently refers to Usagi without any title. I don’t take this to indicate that she’s actually Usagi’s sister (or mother), nor yet that they are childhood friends, but that their relationship is on a similar model.

I would also note that the lovely and useful name section of the online dictionary JEDI only lists Kou as a given name (assuming I’m reading the little notations correctly, which is by no means positive). At any rate, for now I am sticking with the interpretation that the given name comes second, on the simplest-explanation principle. If this is true, the Three Lights would not actually be brothers (even in civvies). They’re not even sisters, though I think that’s closer in a generic sort of way.

A note on name translations: I can’t find Kakyuu as a conversational word meaning fireball in any of the online dictionaries; according to those, kakyuu means junior, emergency and raising salaries. But if you break it down to ka (fire) and kyuu (urgent=sudden) it does seem to work out pretty closely. And Kakyuu is a given name. Taiki, as well as air, can indicate alert, standing by, waiting for an opportunity. That one seems to work on all levels. Curiously enough, I couldn’t find Yaten at all. And while (in language use as opposed to names which is often something different no matter what language you’re in) light is one of the meanings of kou, kou doesn’t seem to be one of the words that’s used alone to indicate light. I only found it meaning light as a part of longer words. On its own, the meanings I found for it include a hill or rise in the ground, entertainment or pleasure (that one works), a sentence, a lord/marquis/daimyo (including, if it’s used as a suffix, prince/public/companion/subordinate), the weather or season, happiness or luck, benifit or result or success, to be bent (no comment), filial piety, seventh, first, school or proof (used as a suffix), shell or instep, manuscript or version, body cavity, item/clause/paragraph/head/main (used as a prefix), threat or long ages, the same kind or comparison with, boorish or urgent, and box. Whether any of these (which are probably all written quite differently) are supposed to occur to us on the homonym-pun level I can’t say. Yes, you’re reading the page of someone who thinks of dictionaries as toys; take warning.

Takeuchi was obviously in an impish mood the day she decided on their names, whichever is supposed to be given. Remembering that this page is anime based, my personal theory is that they call each other by “last” name because those names are assumed identities in the first place and the “last” names are closest to their original identities (internal story logic), and to call attention to the fact that Kou is not so much a name as a clue, being so close to ko, the feminine name ending (external author/audience logic). Given how puns abound in this series, this strikes me as a reasonable reading. And it only works if you take the names in the spoken order, e.g. Yaten first and Kou second; I think the subtitlers made the correct choice in consistently transposing names for the Western audience, but a footnote might have been nice.

Gender

The really funny/alarming speculations, however, all have to do with the Starlights’ gender. There looks to be a fairly heated debate running about whether these three are “really” women or men. The fact that they are solely women (disguised as men) in the manga is only fuel to the fire. The concept of “both” seems to be giving people trouble. This is probably linguistically based, at least in part, since English, for one, doesn’t have a pronoun for both/either; so I am going to take shameless advantage of the fact that this is a written medium and use s/he, ignoring the fact that no one has come up with a way to pronounce it out loud.

Admittedly, Our Directors seem to want to play with our heads on this one. The first round of transformation footage is a good example. The color coding says that the Three Lights are men and the Starlights are women. So far, so good, unless you’re squeamish about that sort of thing. But take a good look at the body outlines

In the first round transformations, the only one who makes a really clear shift from male to female, in both outline and stance, is Seiya/Fighter. Taiki/Maker is fuzzier and Yaten/Healer still more so; in fact, Healer barely changes at all in outline, from male to female, only in stance. Maker’s male to female shift reverses this, changing outline somewhat but not stance at all. The fact that these scenes are something less than graphic doesn’t help in this case. I thought this was typical of how the three are presented throughout, though: Seiya is the only significantly sexualized one, the one, for instance, we see discreetly nude (Episode 184, definitely male) though we get all of them at least topless in swimsuits in 183. Taiki is almost asexual. Yaten is distinctly femme. So, on the one hand we have the simple surface (the color coding, the masculine school uniforms) and on the other we have the ambiguous details (the names, the eyes).

That reminds me: the eyes. This is another of those hints that says these three are women. Anime style eyes tend to be noticeably divided into women’s (have eyelashes) and men’s (don’t have eyelashes, at least not long ones). The Lights have significant eyelashes in both forms. This is not, however, entirely consistent. In Episode 176 (the musical) they don’t.

I suppose that’s the real trick. All of these points add up to contradiction; every time you think you’ve got hold of a solid clue it turns fluid. Of course, that’s why I think it’s fun.

All of this is complicated yet again by the fact that we meet our threesome, and see the most of them, in male guise. So the discovery that their original forms are female gets…well…complicated. Given that all of the Lights’ seiyuu are women it is very easy to see them as women even when they temporarily aren’t, but I suspect the fact that they are presenting male leads most viewers to ignore that. (C’mon people, what’s so alarming about being attracted to both their forms? Double your pleasure, double your fun.)

All the same, our threesome themselves don’t seem to be especially concerned with sex/gender issues. They certainly don’t take the wicked delight that, say, Haruka does in misleading people. If I had to guess on this issue I would say that Seiya likes women and Yaten likes men, regardless of which form they’re in, though I also have a feeling Yaten would prefer to return to female first–s/he certainly seems to react poorly to the suggestion that s/he’s gay, Episode 178. Taiki, I’m not sure of; like I said, s/he strikes me as rather asexual. But these are just gut feelings, mostly based on the fact that Seiya presents fairly masculine while Yaten leans more toward feminine, and, as the Gender page points out, Japan is big on sexual roles. Given the extent to which Our Directors play around with these three, though, it probably isn’t safe to assume that this means those two will be attracted to their “opposites”. Yaten could just as easily be attracted to women, as long as they aren’t drooling.

We have now reached the point where I can no longer gracefully avoid possessive pronouns (his/her). I think I’ll use hir. It isn’t as neat a solution as s/he, but, hey, nothing’s perfect. And this can also be used as a reference pronoun (him/her).

So, anyway, on to particulars. Since I like Yaten best (ah, attitude) s/he’s first.

Yaten/Healer

I’m starting to consider contradictory personalities a hallmark of this series; certainly our threesome all display marked opposing characteristics (internally, that is). Yaten’s contradictions, I speculate, are focused around a downright inability to not be empathic, ironic as that may seem at first glance. Yaten has definitely mastered the use of pointed words. S/he has a snide comment for every occasion, and no hesitation about discarding all conventions of courtesy to get people to leave hir alone. In some ways I find it very appropriate that Rei seems the one most drawn to Yaten–viciousness attracts, perhaps.

But if you watch closely you start to notice that Yaten never, ever, uses that viciousness on Taiki or Seiya. If they start crowding hir reserve, as, for instance, when Seiya wants to know what Yaten said to piss off hir co-star of the week so much (Episode 178), Yaten winds up lapsing into a rather cute sort of petulance: “I told her the truth,” s/he mumbles around hir thumbnail.

I would say that Yaten doesn’t simply have an ungovernable temper; rather, s/he uses hir temper deliberately to keep outsiders too far away to become insiders. Because if they become insiders, Yaten probably wouldn’t be capable of ignoring their needs and hearts, or of concealing hir own anymore. I speculate it isn’t just that Healer prefers hir own company, but that if s/he became too close to a large number of people their needs, pain, even joy would tear hir apart. Consider what happens when Yaten and Minako (post identity revelation) are finally thrown into proximity at the idol audition (Episode 192).

To start with, Yaten nearly hauls off and belts Minako one (I can sympathize with the urge), but by the second round of talking/yelling Minako takes time out from defending herself to try and comfort Yaten, specifically, Yaten’s waning self-confidence due to their princess’ continued absence. Lo and behold, Yaten looks around with the sweetest smile I think we ever see on hir face. And despite the fact that Healer has previously been the one most inclined to leave the Inners hanging out to dry when they get in trouble, s/he can’t quite manage it this time. Pretty fast turn-around for someone who’s allegedly so indifferent to them.

What really fuels my conviction that Yaten’s behavior stems from too much feeling rather than too little, though, is the violence of hir reactions combined with their irregularity. This is the person who very deliberately picks a fight with Makoto, the character best known, after Haruka, of course, for mopping the floor with anyone who annoys her. I’m not sure whether Yaten can be said to win, since Seiya interrupts them, but s/he certainly doesn’t lose (I’m rather fond of that snide touch, leaving one hand in hir pocket the entire time). For someone that size to succeed against Makoto would definitely take some extreme and concentrated temper. But Yaten doesn’t display it except when s/he might be in danger of sympathizing.

This also, at least to me, explains why Healer is focused so exclusively on Princess Kakyuu. If someone like Healer actually gives hir heart, s/he’ll go all the way with no room whatsoever for half measures…or anyone else. Whenever I write this timeline forward, in my head, I’m always tempted to create a lover for Yaten (someone appropriately perceptive, an artist perhaps), but the smoothest scenario I’ve been able to come up with involves putting the poor dear through a great deal of guilt until the princess decides it would be good for Healer to have someone else to focus on because I can never get Healer’s character to take that step on hir own.

Taiki/Maker

At first glance, Taiki appears a lot more stable than Yaten. S/he’s usually the one who restrains Yaten’s extremes, such as badgering Seiya or getting into a fight with Haruka for crying out loud. I have to say, one of my favorite lines in Season Five is Taiki’s comment to Yaten in Episode 181, regarding Yaten’s typically brusque phone manners: “You worry me.” Taiki seems like the calmest of the three; the one who focuses intellectually and works things through before acting, the one with the most contempt for emotional reasoning as demonstrated in hir go-round with Ami about the comet and romanticism (Episode 177). We get some of Taiki’s best supercilious expressions in this episode–that faint smile that says louder than words ‘my dear, you might actually amount to something if you used your brain’.

Actually, I would say Taiki and Ami have more in common than that episode implies; the card game in Episode 184 is a better example of their similarities, notably gleefully ruthless competitiveness. They both have a tendency to take the potential for a good deal of passion and sublimate it very thoroughly into intellectual activity. In Ami this compressed emotion emerges as an occasional tendency to soppiness. In Taiki, it comes out as a tendency toward both more intense depression and more intense optimism than either Yaten or Seiya. On top of that, s/he avoids situations that might call out strong emotions like the plague; s/he’s always the peacemaker, despite having hir own share of temper.

I find it significant that Taiki is the one who writes poetry, too. Poetry involves self-expression, certainly, and sometimes the evocation of powerful feelings, but it’s feeling contained in a frame; in order to write poetry well, one has to have enough distance from the feelings involved to describe/evoke them effectively. This habit of handling emotions with tongs leads to some curious moments of inconsistency along with the general front of stoicism; Episode 179, the exploding cake and Maker’s rescue of Sailor Moon, is a good example. In the course of this episode Taiki goes from angry enough to strangle roses and not notice the thorns have cut hir to giggling helplessly over what a mess everyone is after the cake explodes (now there’s an idea–Arm & Hammer Shortcake Attack!…on second thought maybe I shouldn’t give Our Directors ideas). Perhaps Taiki is more well balanced than the other two, but if so s/he’s balanced on a knife edge.

Speaking of balance, though, given the downright addiction to balances that Our Directors display in this show, I’m more than half convinced that they set up Maker as the one most afraid of hir emotional strength precisely because s/he displays the most conspicuous physical strength (even if I did nearly snarf my coffee the first time I heard Maker’s attack). Maker is the one who gets to show off, physically, toting other characters around with no apparent effort, succeeding in hand-to-hand confrontations, and generally kicking ass.

In some ways, I think Taiki and Yaten are drawn as balances for each other: Yaten’s emotional violence against Taiki’s emotional suppression, both for the purpose of defending emotional vulnerability. Yaten’s rather aggressive sensuality, and for all that I think s/he would almost prefer not to Yaten practically drips with it, against Taiki’s equally aggressive denial of any sensuality. We can note that, as Taiki, s/he’s frequently drawn looking rather uncomfortable with hir body, and much more squarely than the other two. While s/he’s graceful in motion it’s a rather cold and elegant kind of grace. And no way, no how, have I been able to write any scenario that gets Maker romantically involved with anyone at all; it demanded either a novel of buildup or deforming the character out of recognition. Aloof is definitely the keyword for Taiki’s personality, most of the time. An interesting note on that, to me at least, is that none of the girls ever address Taiki in the familiar form, despite the general convention that boys of the same age are -kun while girls get to be -san.

Seiya/Fighter

Seiya, on the other hand, gets ‘kun’ed immediately. In fact, Usagi doesn’t usually bother with any title at all for hir; she and Chibiusa both have that habit with boys they consider good friends (or, sometimes, pitiful as in Umino’s case). Though it could just as easily be a mild insult here–a way of getting back at Seiya for all those ‘Odango’s–especially when you consider that hir fan club girls tend to refer to hir as Seiya-sama. And s/he plays right into it, of course; I can definitely understand where a lot of viewers would want to smack Seiya one.

In one way, I see Seiya as the parallel to Yaten, around the balance point of Taiki; where Yaten projects femme, Seiya displays the more traditionally masculine profile. My favorite example is Episode 174, Seiya’s first close encounter with the football team. Seiya, after showing off how s/he can slip past the rest of the team is flattened by the captain. Much to Usagi’s surprise, this results in a bonding moment and an invitation for Seiya to join the team, which is accepted. Seiya, being Seiya, responds to her disbelief by telling her she’ll never understand.

Actually, that could be true. While Usagi might understand the willingness to get pounded on in order to be the best, I doubt she would understand the aspect of taking pride in how much abuse one can endure.

In another way I would say that Seiya and Taiki are established as the outwardly focused ones in contrast to Yaten. Overall, however, the dynamics of Seiya’s personality are, on the surface, quite different than the other two. S/he’s a good deal more flamboyant; the drawing styles reflect that. In the other two, you have to watch for their expressive moments or you miss them. No one is ever going to miss Seiya’s expressiveness. More than once, this leads to the other two presenting a united front of amusement, exasperation or disbelief.

I think the trick is that Seiya’s flamboyance is just as much a defense as Yaten’s prickliness or Taiki’s coolness. The moments you have to watch for with Seiya are when s/he drops the front and deals with matters of hir heart; at that point, s/he becomes abruptly and, by contrast, extremely hesitant and fragile. It’s this sort of shift that leads me to think Fighter is a good deal less sure of hirself than appearances suggest.

This would go some ways toward explaining Seiya’s more volatile moments. Of course, division of heart would explain some of that too. It’s clear that Fighter loves Princess Kakyuu deeply; just take a look at that sappy expression when s/he’s singing to her in Episode 194. S/he also appears to be the one who’s genuinely closest to her; Fighter is the one the princess speaks directly to upon reappearing, and the one who follows her as she leaves.

None of this, however, stops Seiya from falling in love with Usagi. I find it amusing, in a provocative sort of way, that Our Directors take some trouble to carry this emotion over from Seiya to Fighter–in Episode 188, where identities are revealed, Seiya assures Usagi as the plane takes off that s/he will protect her if anything happens; after transforming, Fighter turns to Usagi and says “I told you I would protect you if anything happened.” This causes a number of problems, and not just because the other two don’t think Seiya has any business taking hir attention off the search for their princess.

I’ve experimented with actually hooking Fighter up with Princess Kakyuu, but I have a hard time getting the characters to go that way; personally I think it’s because Fighter has a whole lot in common with Uranus. I mean, it’s obvious from the start that they won’t get along because they’re too much alike, not to mention both loving Usagi, but beyond that. Like Uranus, Fighter has a lot of identity invested in being the protector. So first off, I would say that Kakyuu is more aggressive than Usagi; I doubt the balance of protector/protected would hold in an intimate encounter between Fighter and Princess Kakyuu. By the same token it looks like the…business relationship I suppose…between Fighter and hir princess came first. I think Fighter is too much Kakyuu’s senshi to become her lover.

In some sense, Fighter does seem to be Kakyuu’s stand-in among the Starlights, though: the one who works to draw the three of them together into a unit, though not in any fashion one could call diplomatic. Did I mention the word volatile? Another curious contradiction, that the one with a leader’s charisma is also the only one we see actually loose control. S/he’s also the one who pushes for cooperation with and consideration of those outside their immediate circle; it’s one of the few indications I see to support Seiya’s blood type.

Vocals

I imagine the seiyuu for these characters were chosen to reinforce that particular dynamic. Niiyama Shiho’s (Seiya’s) voice is definitely the keystone of this trio’s musical synthesis. Together they manage an impressive combination, probably supported by a good tech on the mixing board, a real synergy, but Niiyama’s voice gives the group songs direction and motivation. (Virtual candle for Niiyama; I am immensely upset with the universe that it let the owner of such a lovely voice die.) It helps, in achieving this effect, that she has the clearest timbre and best support. Not to mention enunciation. “Ginga Ichi Mibun Chigai Na Kataomoi” (Seiya’s solo song) was obviously composed and arranged to show off Niiyama’s strengths and one of those seems to have been a very agile tongue. The vocal dynamics are also more dramatic than either Tsunoda Narumi’s (Taiki’s) or Sakamoto Chika’s (Yaten’s) solos. If you never thought Seiya had much sex appeal (and I didn’t used to) listen to it.

I’m fairly taken with Tsunoda’s solo, too, though. Of course, I’m a sucker for resonance; I’m always trying to write future stories that somehow redeem Dimando (yes, I know he’s dead, that’s never stopped anyone else, has it?) purely for the sake of his voice–rather, Shiozawa Kaneto’s voice. Another virtual candle for him. What I can’t decide is whether that’s Tsunoda’s natural timbre or whether she’s forcing her range. The more I listen the more inclined I am to think she’s forcing it (Akaiko Nozomi says she is; thanks for the tip!), because I hear everyone else doing the same thing; it produces a frog-in-the-throat effect whenever people hit the bottom of their registers. It’s most notable in Furuya’s (Mamoru’s) and Ogata’s (Haruka’s) voices. I can only conclude this is something they’ve been trained to do. I still like “Chikara wo Awasete,” though. Personally, given the huskiness of Tsunoda’s voice, I wouldn’t have leaned on the bass beat so hard, but I wasn’t the composer, and anyway I doubt there was a live person doing percussion for most of these. They have that unyielding precision that says drum-machine to me.

I find myself a bit conflicted over Sakamoto’s solo. I like the song, I think it has the best lyrics, and Sakamoto has excellent control and expression, but that’s the one I have the hardest time hearing the character in. I wonder sometimes whether that’s because, as the songs were written by Takeuchi, they may actually be the songs of different characters than developed in the anime. Perhaps Sakamoto is singing a different Yaten in “Mayou Naka Hitori.” Alternatively, perhaps her range simply isn’t low enough, singing, to consistently match the speaking voice she developed for Yaten without taking away from the integrity of the song itself (which I think Sakamoto is too much the vocal artist to do).

Light Links

So that’s my two cents worth. Now, about links. There are few specifically Lights-oriented sites I really like, but A Pity Shrine to Taiki Kou is hugely entertaining. Star of Creation (currently down) has an excellent section on mythology and astrology; while it’s focused on Maker it has links to the source sites so one can look up similar info on the other two. Of course, it seems to have been hijacked lately; if I find it again I’ll re-link. An interesting note that–the sites for Taiki/Maker tend to be more complex than those for either Yaten/Healer or Seiya/Fighter. The latter both tend to boil down to “aren’t they hot?” and an image gallery. An older site for Seiya, however, The Original Seiya/Starfighter Shrine, is quite good and also entertaining. And, though most of it is pretty boring, the bio section of Yaten’s Corner is very cute. As a curiosity, the historical explanation linked to this page, The Real History of the Sailor Starlights is also interesting; I have yet to track down the interview it’s said to be based on so I don’t know how many liberties of interpretation have been taken. Until I know, I reserve judgment; if it is accurate, it reinforces my sense of Takeuchi as a good artist and a mediocre storyteller. But if you want good, old-fashioned, blood-and-guts fairy tales, they’re there.

An Argument for Feminine Agency

The one point that particularly attracted my attention, and which kicks off this page, was the idea that the formula “Fill-In-The-Blank Power, make up!” is nothing more than a plug for consumerist/commodified femininity as espoused by Maybeline and Clairol. Now, by Season Three or Four, I suppose this reading has gained a bit more support–by that time the transformation sequences of the Outers and things like Venus’ attack sequence do highlight the appearance of lipstick. But during Season One, not only do the Inners not acquire any makeup at all during their transformations (barring some possible nail polish for Sailor Moon which is covered by the gloves in any case), the presence of noticeable lipstick and/or mascara is the signal that a formerly good character has been possessed by evil. A particularly good example of this is Mika, that little friend of Usagi’s brother, Shingo. So, while I agree that there are times when this story presents some distressing gender values, its not a simple or one-sided presentation.

I think the most outstanding example of this in Season One is actually the last lines of Episode 46; having once again lost her memory and once again hit Mamoru on the head while throwing away her horrible test and once again gotten off on the wrong foot with him, Usagi tells Naru that a man like that is most definitely not her type, that she has a dream of a future boyfriend/husband: someone who will always protect her. That was, of course, Tuxedo Kamen’s motivation that entire season, to protect Sailor Moon. And taken in isolation, it sounds like a horribly traditional helpless-female sentiment. But consider the all action that precedes it. Tuxedo Kamen always helps out, but it’s Sailor Moon who has to defeat all the monsters herself (or with the Inners’ help). And in the last crunch with Queen Beryl, it’s Sailor Moon who has to save him (before he kills her). Neither in Season One nor in any other so far does Tuxedo Kamen take part in the grand finale confrontation; he’s either dead (one) or wounded (four) or captured (five) or otherwise occupied (three) or only useful for moral support (two). This does not strike me as traditional in the least.

In some ways, I would say the dialogue and, to some extent, symbols in this show conflict with the action itself–the first supporting weak-woman stereotypes and the second denying it. Of course, there are times when it works the other way around. In the confrontation with Jadite (Episode 13), for instance, the dialogue is overtly consciousness-raising and pokes fun at chauvinistic attitudes as outdated (you notice, it’s always the bad guys who are explicitly chauvinistic that way?). But until Jadite makes the mistake of mocking them, Moon and Mercury and Mars certainly are dithering uselessly.

This kind of contradiction, which pops up in lots of other places too, seems deliberate to me. At least it matches very well with things that have to be deliberate, like the opposing power models we see. On the good side we have Serenity (both of them) representing good rulers who are fair, just, open-minded, compassionate and all that good stuff. On the other side, we have a whole succession of bad rulers both male and female who have, to put it mildly, really bad management technique: Metallia/Beryl, Dimando, Pharaoh 90/Mistress 9, Neherenia and Galaxia. The majority of these are women, as if to say that just having a woman rule is not a guarantee of good rule. (Of course, other possibilities include the implication that women in general are more powerful/likely to rule than men or that, since we have only a peripheral example of good male rule in King Endymion, men generally make worse rulers than women.) But this tendency toward complicated ‘messages’ seems to run through the whole show; it occurs too often for me to easily dismiss it as accident, though I might buy subconscious.

Of course, another whole-show theme that crops up around gender issues is (my favorite) the humor–awareness of one’s own ridiculousness. Mamoru, for instance, is irrepressibly chivalrous; he just can’t seem to help himself. And, frequently, the objects of his chivalry are ironic to say the least. Consider Season Two (Episode 50) when some swaggering jock is coming on to Ann and Mamoru tells him to back off. Of course, the most obvious humor in this scene is when the jock, as he swaggers off, turns back to make the sticking-out-your-tongue face at Mamoru and then runs away around the corner. But consider, also, who Mamoru has just acted to protect; Ann is one of the (temporary) villains, after all, and perfectly capable of defending herself. Another example of this set up is in Episode 98, when Mamoru steps forward to defend Haruka against two men whose clocks she could clean very handily–as she proves shortly after. In a sort of reverse image of this, when Usagi (or any of the other girls) is being foolish about her romanticism (drooling, clinging, or, as Luna puts it in Episode 173, “totally kicking your heels”), Mamoru is always there to be embarrassed and highlight how silly she’s making herself look. I have to doubt whether little girls would really want to behave similarly after watching a few of those scenes. And then, of course, there’s always Episode 184 and the roach scene. Seiya, having shown up at Usagi’s house to be her bodyguard for the night, hears all the girls screaming in the kitchen and arrives to see them terrorized by a roach. In appropriately manly fashion, he offers to squash it. The last frame we get of this is the roach flying straight at him. Then the scene cuts to Chibi-chibi watching television. She’s watching some kind of melodrama in which a man is stabbing a woman in what appears to be a jealous passion. The dialogue is interspersed with further screams and crashes from the kitchen. The juxtaposition tickled me to no end. The possible implications I saw include that the man on TV is making as much of a stupid fuss over petty nothings as the girls in the kitchen over the roach; or that the TV man’s bluster was just as much a front as Seiya’s ‘heroic’ roach killing (which ends in everyone covered in food scraps just in time for Yaten and Taiki to arrive); or that the fear/helplessness of the woman on the TV is just as nonsensical as the girls’ fear of a little bug. Simply delicious. Of course, this is the same episode in which Luna lectures Usagi, warning her to be wary of Seiya, and tells her that “man is like a wild animal that lives on instinct.” Her interpretation, of course, is proven totally off base and Usagi winds up cutting Seiya off several times under the misapprehension that he intends to seduce her when, in fact, all he wants to do is tell her about his/her other identity (see the Lights specific page for more on the gender issues for those three). So Our Directors aren’t making fun of feminine stereotypes alone; masculine ones come in for the same treatment.

Cannon Fodder

Every episode includes cannon fodder: youmas or cardians or droids or daimons or lemures or phages who have no purpose but to get blown to bits, or, if they were originally human, pounded on a bit before being cured. “Lemures”, by the way, is a Roman word for the unhappy spirits of the dead–very appropriate to the Dead Moon Circus, as even Neherenia describes them as walking dead. Most of the rest of the category names are simpler, though I have to take the translators’ words for it that youma means demon. Cardians, of course, come out of vaguely tarot-like cards. Droid seems to have become a stock science fiction reference for mindless constructs. Daimon is probably a transliteration of the English word demon–youmas take two; the only interesting thing there is that the original Greek daemons were benevolent. These seem to be more in line with later Christianized use of the term to refer to evil spirits in general. And last we have phage, which carries the delightful implication that those lightning balls that extract star seeds are some kind of invasive disease.

At any rate, the naming conventions for them are usually quite simple: some word or phrase or onomatopoeia that refers to their attributes. Every now and then it’s a pun, as with Episode 26 and the priest (bokushi if I recall correctly) who gets turned into a boxer (Boxy); actually, that was another episode that had me in giggles. After running around for a while saying “I’m a champion!”, Boxy stops and says, in English and with great enunciation, “I am king of kings”. Sometimes the names are taken from classical mythology; Queen Beryl’s youma who gets herself toasted for Jadite’s sake in Episode 12 is called Thetis, but I think that was a slip of the tongue. This youma has power over sea water, and Thetis was the mother of Achilles and not associated with the sea in any way. I think it was supposed to be Tethys (an easy mistake), the Titan-generation sea goddess. News Flash, 6/14/01: A correspondent pointed out that Thetis was, in fact a Nereid, a sea nymph, and thus did have a water connection; she also pointed out that the pronunciation of this name is really somewhere around “Tetis” which gives us a name that, like Demando and Elusion which I mention further on, can be read two ways, as either Thetis or Tethys. Thanks to Abby!

Every now and then we get names that are holdovers from the manga, especially in the intermediate villains who are one step up from cannon fodder. In Season Five, the names of Sailors Iron Mouse, Lead Crow, etc. were all significant; the manga plot explained that these weren’t true Sailor Senshi but rather imitators of fallen Senshi from the cats’ planet or the crows’ planet and so forth. None of this appears in the anime, and, in fact, Princess Kakyuu tells us in Episode 195 that Sailor Tin Nyanko was once a true senshi, but the names are the same. (Actually, that holds true for Princess Kakyuu as well–in the manga, her planet’s name is written kinmokusei, meaning both ‘the planet Kinmoku’ and ‘fragrant olives’, which gives us her other title, Princess of Fragrant Olives. Thanks to the anonymous manga-translator for this explanation. The planet’s name is not specifically mentioned in the anime but we still get the title, and her scent is referred to several times as an identifier.)

Inner Sailor Senshi

As I said in the main discussion, Castle in the Sky does a good job of summing up the meanings of the senshi’s names, and while this is my personal take on how it fits together, that site is my source for translations. My other sources for translations, and for the elemental associations of the kanji in names are the Sailor Moon FAQ by Ken Arromdee and Sheer Lunacy: A Nitpicker’s Guide to the Sailor Moon Universe, particularly the page on puns. For another page on the names by someone who knows what he’s talking about and has done his homework, check Ian Andreas Miller.

The names of Our Heroines are mapped on both elemental lines and Greco-Roman mythological lines. Curiously enough, the element system here seems to lean more toward the Buddhist and Western one (water, fire, earth, air) rather than the Taoist and Shinto one (wood, metal, fire, water, earth), though there are undoubtedly linguistic nuances I’m missing because I don’t read or speak Japanese. This apparently Western arrangement may be due to the use of Western astrological symbolism which is based on the four-element system. The kind of attacks they use can slide toward either side of the elemental-mythological equation (and I will try to draw out the Asian elemental associations as I recognize them). For instance, Mizuno Ami translates as friend of water (if you go with the idea that her given name has a French origin; if you go with the Japanese translation it’s more like lesser beauty of water) and Ami’s attacks as Sailor Mercury are all water oriented despite the fact that the myths of Mercury don’t particularly associate him with water, nor does Western astrology. The kanji associated with that planet is also, I understand, the one for water. The deity Mercury is, however, strongly associated with cleverness and with science which is very appropriate to Ami. Similarly, Hino indicates fire’s (I think rei was soul) and Rei’s attacks as Mars are all fire attacks. Again, the kanji for that planet is fire linked And while Mars himself is only passingly associated with fire, he is certainly remarkable for a short temper. Minako goes the other way. Her Western elemental association is almost nonexistent until you get to her astrological sign (Libra, cardinal air); inside the plot, she can be assumed to have an air association only by process of elimination–because the other three have such associations and air is all that’s left for Minako. Her surname, Aino, seems to come out to either lovely or beloved (her given name is something like beautiful child), and her attacks as Venus are all exceedingly close to what Venus the goddess acted like–that is, using her beauty as a weapon. This is very little different from Minako’s civilian behavior. I would note that the attack, Venus Love-Me Chain, could be an elemental reference to metal; also the kanji for the planet Venus includes the one for gold. Kino Makoto fluctuates still more among her available associations. Her name translates, loosely, as faithfulness of a tree, which supports the Western elemental association to earth, and her third tier attack, Oak Evolution, is on the same lines. These are also the strongest association with a specifically Asian element–wood. Her first two attacks, however, are both more closely associated with Jupiter’s mythology, Jupiter being lord of the sky and master of lightning (Scott points out that Oak Evolution could also link to Zeus, as his tree was the Oak). Makoto’s character, however, is more closely associated with her element (either of them; note, though, that on the Asian system it’s the planet Saturn which is associated with earth)–grounded, stable. The only two associations I can make with Jupiter on that score are 1) her strength, since Jupiter was after all the strongest of the gods of Olympus, and 2) her tendency to trail after one crush after another, as Jupiter was notoriously promiscuous.

If you want to use the Buddhist and Western five element model, which includes spirit as the fifth, then Usagi also fits in, though the proliferation of moon deities in this show makes her association to any one of them difficult. Possibly this is why her super identity was simply left at Sailor Moon rather than naming one of the goddesses in particular.

However…

Selene/Serena/Serenity

Episode 44 offers us a possible goddess association for Usagi. Her mother says that she is the incarnation of the moon goddess Serena, Queen Serenity. Since the el sound doesn’t really exist in Japanese r is usually substituted. (Actually, this is misleading, one of their r sounds is very close to our el sound, and anyway the strong distinction between r and el is a peculiarity of Germanic languages, English included; the Romance languages put those sounds much closer; but, anyway, the lay explanation is that Japanese doesn’t have an el sound.) This means that Serena is the same as Selena. Selene (which sounds very close to Selena) is a Greek goddess of the moon, specifically the aspect of the full moon in later versions. (Curious that Usagi’s deity is Greek, while the other Inner Senshi got the Roman versions.) As such she is not a virgin (like Diana/Artemis) and is eligible to be a mother. Part of her mythology also has her falling in love with a shepherd lad named, coincidentally enough, Endymion. This is one of those things that makes me think Usagi really is set up as the same person as her mother–after all, they’re both Serenities too. That aside, in the myth, Endymion gets put to sleep for a long time which may have been the inspiration for the first Queen Serenity’s action in sending the spirits of her dead people, senshi, daughter and prospective son-in-law to sleep for such a long time before being reincarnated. While there are multiple versions of the Selene/Endymion story, they all end with Zeus bestowing eternal youth on Endymion by keeping him eternally asleep, either to keep him out of everyone’s hair so Selene will get back to her job instead of making time with this shepherd or at Selene’s request so she can have her love with her for all time. Those details don’t seem to figure in Sailor Moon; really, most of the details of the Greco-Roman myths don’t. Considering how unpleasant most of them are, I can see why. Genealogically, though, Selene is senior to almost all the other deities used in this series. See the bottom of the page for the Greek genealogy of deities.

9/02: I now think that Usagi, or more precisely Sailor Moon and Serenity, is also performing a recognizable Shinto function: harae, or purification. Harae retrieves the one who is purified from the danger of tsumi, or sin, and restores her/him to what Christianity might call a state of grace, except that Shinto theory considers this the natural ground state for humans. Sailor Moon’s attacks are all purifications when directed at humans, and return the human in question to her/his original condition after being taken over by an evil spirit; this is a classic Shinto-esque conception of what causes sin and how one should deal with it. She even has a wand, though it doesn’t bear a huge resemblance to the haraigushi. It’s an even bigger stretch to consider her recitation of attack as a norito, the recitation of offerings and offer-ers that the priest makes for harae, but her attack names do seem to march with the idea of beautiful words. Basic Terms of Shinto is a wonderful site.

Villains, Seasons One and Two

The bad guys for the first two seasons are nice and straightforward. They’re all named after minerals, except for the Villain in Chief. Queen Metallia might be intended to carry connotations of coldness or simply inhumanity. Queen Beryl, Jadite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite are all named for green gemstones (though, actually, kunzite is pink; hiddenite is the green variety of that mineral; check out www.mineral.galleries.com; nevertheless, I agree that Kunzite makes a better name). Remembering that, in the manga, the four generals started out as Prince Endymion’s bodyguards/friends (and, in fact, return to that role albeit as spirits), this could indicate that the four of them are all corrupted or subsumed by Beryl–they’re all the same color as she is.

6/02: Apparently the Shitennou refer to Buddhist figures. For some more details see Aurorean or this art and architecture site. Starting in the East and moving clockwise they are Jikokuten, the guardian or watcher, who carries a sword; Zouchoten, the one who enlarges/grows (ideally wisdom), who carries spear and sword or halberd and sword; Koumokuten, the one who sees all, with brush and scroll or fist and three pronged spear; and Tamonten, who hears all things, with stupa and umbrella or halberd or spear, also sometimes a mongoose. Note that this is how they appear in Japanese iconography; their appearance in other traditions is different.

The second season has more variety, what with diamond, sapphire, emerald and ruby. Really, the gemstone associations for these four seem to work better with the anime versions of the characters. Diamond, for instance, implies extreme hardness (same root as adamant–hard, impervious–possibly from a+daman–unbreakable, untamable) and brilliance, as well as primacy–the most precious of gems. The unbreakable aspect is a bit more suitable to the anime Dimando who is killed but not suborned as is the manga version. Diamonds are also cold to the touch (being heat conductors), which certainly matches Dimando’s attitude. The fact that the anime Dimando wants primarily to help his people and is deceived though this desire makes me wonder if the more popular associations like purity and innocence might also come in here (though those associations are actually pretty long-standing; one Hindu myth explains diamond’s origin as the bones of a very pure and courageous sacrificial volunteer). Sapphire is associated, etymologically, with Saturn and, in folklore, with wisdom or clear thinking and healing; both of those latter are probably part and parcel of the Saturn association. Roman Saturn was a much nicer fellow than the Greek Cronus for all they got associated with each other. This matches far better with the anime Saffir, who seems to be the most thoughtful of all the Black Moon family, than with the manga Saffir, who was more of a mad-scientist character. Actually, many precious stones are associated with healing; emerald is as well. The interesting point about emerald is that it was also, traditionally, supposed to be of use both in childbirth and in the preservation of chastity. This could be why it’s popularly associated with love today. Thus, perhaps, Esmeraudo’s (a close match to the older French word) plot position as the one hopelessly in love with Prince Dimando. I have yet to find much interesting about ruby, besides the fact that it’s chemically the same stone as sapphire (corundum, the second hardest mineral after diamond), only with chromium instead of iron or titanium impurities coloring it. (The American Heritage Dictionary is a wonderful resource, as is the website of the American Museum of Natural History, and the online Encyclopedia Britannica.) Wiseman/The Death Phantom seems, again, to be a reference to something both unliving and inimical to life; that’s a common thread among all the Villains in Chief, to want to erase all that messy life from the universe.

Petz, Karaberas, Beruche and Cooan I have yet to figure out besides the fact that they’re obvious parallels to the Inners, thus supporting the idea that Black Moon is some kind of dark reflection of Serenity’s people. However, Arromdee, of the FAQ noted above, suggests the following mineral associations based on merchandising info: Cooan-kermesite, Beruche-berthierite, Karaberas (calaveris)-calaverite, Petz-petzite. According to mineral.galleries.com, these are all actual minerals. Kermesite is a red mineral, and berthierite a gray or brown one, both associated with stubite. Calaverite and petzite are both tellurides, that is ore minerals that bear silver and gold.

Outer Sailor Senshi

The associations here are a lot looser than among the Inners, though the civilian names line up better with their super identities. Meiou, for example, translates as the underworld king–Pluto/Hades. Where the association with time came from I’m not sure (note the given name–Setsuna or moment-in-time). It is much more common for Cronus/Saturn to be associated with time but those two seem to be divided in any case for this show. Chibiusa calls on Cronus to guide her through the time corridor, but Saturn is someone else altogether. (One possibility that strikes me as horribly likely, supposing an appropriate saying exists in Japan or that the English saying has migrated: Pluto is the god of wealth; and, after all, time is money. Thanks to Brian for this appalling suggestion.) Pluto’s attack, however, Dead Scream, works very well with her associated mythology, Pluto the god being in charge of the dead. The all-inclusiveness of Hades’ realm, being the final destination of all life and containing both options of reward and retribution might, I suppose, be associated with Pluto’s post as watcher over all of time. Hades is also supposed to be a fairly contemplative, sober, even severe sort of deity, so Setsuna’s character may also match reasonably.

Similarly, Haruka’s tendency to be highhanded could be considered similar to the god Uranus’ (though very toned down), just as her surname, Tennou, is a nice clear reference to the sky king (probably why it’s also the title of the Emperor, but that’s a different line of symbolism and I haven’t seen any sign of Amaterasu in this series yet excepting the use of her traditional treasures as the three Talismans…come to that, where is Sailor Sol?). It’s possible to equate Uranus’ attack, World Shaking, to part of the mythology of Uranus (who kept his offspring mewed up in the Earth, causing her to shudder frequently in discomfort), but I’m more inclined to think Our Directors just couldn’t come up with a sufficiently viscerally powerful attack using air (curious for people who live with ocean storms). It is the wind that Haruka hears whispering, so I don’t think a permanent earth association was intended. Haruka’s given name, which comes out to distant, seems more related to her general personality.

With Neptune, of course, they had more latitude. Poseidon/Neptune wasn’t all that often featured in classical tales, so the lack of significant links between Michiru’s character and her ‘patron’s’ is easily overlooked. I suppose the fact that Poseidon was a rather sharp-tempered fellow could match up with the edge of temper Michiru shows every so often. And, after all, her attack matches just fine. Though it’s a curious point that it’s Poseidon who’s called The Earthshaker, so that Uranus’ attack might more classically be associated with Neptune. The thing that interested me about these three was that more effort seemed to be made to link them to the attributes of their physical planets than to their mythological antecedents: Neptune and the “sea of sand” for instance. As seems appropriate, since they’re a pair, Michiru’s name also relates to her overall personality, meaning complete or full (as in a tide).

Then there’s Saturn, the odd one out. Again, if we delve a little into the mythology there is precedent for her powers of destruction; after all, it was Cronus who initiated the tradition of throwing down the preceding generation of gods to take their place. For the most part, though, her attributes seem more connected to the Roman Saturn, who tended to get associated with wisdom and time and, sometimes, healing (especially of hangovers for some reason–possibly the result of so many of them following his early festival, the Saturnalia). Thus, perhaps, her ability to power up the other Outers, and to prophecy, as well as to heal. I was also greatly entertained by Hotaru referring, at the beginning of Season Five, to Haruka as “Haruka-papa” since Uranus is, indeed, the father of Cronus. I hesitate to take that too far, though, since the next one down the line is Zeus/Jupiter and that just doesn’t work at all. Saturn’s civilian name is also an odd one; Hotaru means firefly and Tomoe comes more or less to rising from the earth. This could be an Asian elemental reference (earth being the element of Saturn) or a rebirth reference if we read firefly as a metaphor for the spirit.

The Nines

I have no idea whatsoever what to make of Pharaoh 90 and Mistress 9. I suppose there’s the tradition in Christianity that three threes make a particularly holy number, and certainly Season Three is rife with Christian imagery, but I can’t get that line to go anywhere. And why Pharaoh? Is this an Egypt (land of slavery for the Children of Israel) reference? An astronomical reference, perhaps?

I can’t make much of the mid-level villains either, unless we go back to minerals again. Kaolinite is a mineral, but I couldn’t find any information on it. Eudial matches with eudialyte, a fairly rare mineral that comes in a variety of colors. Mimete might be a simple reference to mimicry, as in someone who doesn’t have much in the way of her own ideas or someone with an obviously false front. I really don’t think it could be a reference to Mimir, the Norse god in charge of the waters of wisdom, but mimetite is a yellow mineral which would at least give us a color match. Teruru is another blank; the only possible mineral there is tellurium which, as noted above, is an ore bearing mineral, usually white. Viluy might possibly be based on Vili, another of the Norse gods; he was one of Odin’s brothers, and was responsible for giving reason to the newly created humans. This would fit with Viluy’s scientific orientation, and the Norse root might help explain the snowflake motif in her costume. There don’t seem to be any mineral matches. Correction 9/02: Rachel Brewster tells me there is a mineral called Villiaumite. Cyprine and Puchirol are also blanks for me. The only mineral reference I can come up with is citrine. Correction 9/02: Rachel also points out the minerals Cyprine and Pucherite; thanks to Rachel! At this point, the minerals seem to have lost any particular significance to the characters. But we, once again, have a parallel to the Inners. Eudial, red, fights with flame. Mimete, gold, is the vain one who wants to be an idol. Teruru, green, fights with plants (similar to, say, Oak Evolution). Viluy, blue, is the intellectual one.

Nehalenia/Nehrenia (and Zirconia)

This villainess I have a precedent for, but it’s really far out. Nehalennia is the name of a Gaulish goddess (thanks to Scott for finding this at a now defunct site). She was one of those earth-mother types who provides abundant harvests and was particularly associated with watching over travelers (as in the traveling circus?). The symbol for this latter attribute was dolphins, and in a very loose chain of association we might consider the water surrounding the dolphins to be the source of Neherenia’s fascination with mirrors. Like I said, it’s far out. On the other hand, she definitely has some Snow White Evil Queen touches. In the last few episodes of Season Four, especially, there are bits that sound an awful lot like variations on “mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”. I think looking for mirror associations is more likely to bear fruit with this character than casting about for name references; certainly her distaste for having the pure of heart look at her resonates to the idea of the eyes as ‘mirrors of the soul’. As an aside, I was impressed by what a sophisticated account of narcissism we have in Neherenia. Her story, in Episode 172, of how she was lonely until she found her mirror and then became her own companion, of how using the mirror to save herself from loneliness meant she had to be beautiful forever, of how she was cast back into loneliness upon losing the mirror, is a bit chilling.

Now, with Zirconia, we’re back to the meaningful minerals. I was entertained by this choice, which implies falseness (Genuine Cubic Zirconia!). There are also the interesting hints we get that Zirconia is somehow a part or extension of Neherenia herself; recall Episode 166, where a new Zirconia extends out of Neherenia’s body? So, is Zirconia the false side of Neherenia (the side presented by the mirror to frighten her–remember that it’s many Zirconias we see reflected with Neherenia after she’s possessed or whatever by her mirror), or a true reflection, turning Zirconia’s name on it’s head, and possibly implying that it’s Neherenia herself who’s a false jewel? Trivia fact: Zirconia’s flying eye, Zircon, is named for a genuine gemstone not a synthetic, though the name cubic zirconia did probably come from the fact that zircons are very similar to diamonds and have been used as diamond substitutes.

The Amazon Trio

These I can’t find specific precedents for. The idea of animals turning into humans pops up in just about any culture’s folklore, but I have never run across any story that seems to match these particular ones. If they were foxes or racoon/badgers, now, that would have made sense (kitsune and tanuki–shapechangers). But a hawk, a tiger and a fish I don’t know about.

There do seem to be some parallels between them and the Inners. Fish Eye is associated with water and the color blue, just as Mercury is. Tigers Eye could be connected with Venus via the color gold and general vanity. Hawks Eye doesn’t fit as well, though his pink could be aligned with Mars’ red and they both attack with fire. On the other hand, he’s the one who tends toward physical confrontations which is more in Jupiter’s line. It isn’t a very good fit, though.

Ah, a note about the Amazon thing. One theory is that this is intended to link both the Trio and the Quartet to minerals (amazonite). Personally, I throw in with Doi’s idea that it’s a reference to the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. While the animals could certainly come from any sufficiently northern Asian ecosystem, the Quartet are shown running though what looks remarkably like a jungle in Episode 164 where we get the flashback to when they met Neherenia. Given that Brazil is one significant source of immigration to Japan, the presence of such a reference makes sense to me. Also note that the Quartet use “Amazon stones” and that Sere-Sere says one of her flowers is “born in the Amazon” (Episode 154).

The Amazoness Quartet

That CD whose title I still can’t recall, that I borrowed from Kay, suggests an origin for the Quartet that I find likely. It goes thus: Jun-Jun is Juno (Hera, the Queen of Olympus), though where she gets her tendency to gymnastics from I’m not sure. Hera is mostly famous for being vengefully pissed off over Zeus’ philandering. But the fact that Jun-Jun is the most independent and thoughtful of the Quartet would fit in. So would her somewhat nasty sense of humor (closing someone in with a bear to get him over the box horse, Episode 155). And I suppose one could take her hat as similar to a peacock’s tail, the peacock being one of Hera’s animals. Para-Para gets transliterated to Palla-Palla, as in Pallas Athene (Minerva to the Romans). This one is also a little strange, as Athene is supposed to be a goddess of wisdom as well as artisans. On the other hand, the part of her name that got used, Pallas, does come from an episode where Athene acted rather hastily; she was sparring with her friend Pallas and wound up killing her by accident. This was when Athene added her friend’s name to her own to honor her. And, when you get right down to it, Athene is also the war goddess. So, while her typical character isn’t very like Para-Para’s, she does have episodes that might match better with Para-Para’s rather psychotic nature. Beth-Beth is extrapolated as a reference to Vesta (the Greek Hestia), goddess of hearth and home. Again, where she gets the animals from, I’m not sure. I suppose, on a stretch, there could be a connection between Hestia’s particular emblem, fire, and the wildness of the animals; as Hestia tames and guards the fire (this was a very big deal in the days before matches), so Beth-Beth tames animals. The only one that I thought fit really well was Sere-Sere, or Ceres (Demeter to the Greeks) the goddess of fields and harvest. Sere-Sere’s way with plants certainly matches with the mythology here. These four names are also the names of the four greater asteroids in astrological computations (thus, probably, the Quartet’s transformation, see below) which lends considerable weight to this interpretation.

There’s also the level of parallels with the Inners. This seems to be mostly a hold-over from the manga, in which the Quartet become the Asteroids when they are redeemed. The Asteroids are then Chibiusa’s senshi and bodyguards just as the Inners are for Serenity (as the four generals were/are for Endymion; it all lines up). Our Directors do seem to leave this possibility open for the anime as well. At any rate, if you match up the colors, the personalities start falling into line in interesting ways. Beth-Beth, for instance, is the red one and matches up with Mars (and there is our fire reference for Vesta); they’re certainly both the hasty and hot-tempered ones. Jun-Jun, in green, lines up with Jupiter (one of the places where the symbolism really matches, Juno being the wife of Jupiter mythologically speaking); they’re both the physically active and strong ones and both have a more thoughtful, stable side that the rest of their respective groups tend to lean on. Sere-Sere and Venus both come up gold, though I found less personality match for those two. The only significant one I could find was that they’re both vain (which certainly matches mythologically for Venus, but not for Ceres that I ever heard). And then there’s the strange pair, Para-Para and Mercury, in blue. In some ways, I think their primary similarity is that they are both a little set apart from their groups–Para-Para because of her alternating childishness and psychotic violence, and Ami because of her intellectual approach. Both their titular deities are associated with intelligence, though. If you watch Episode 160, these matches are demonstrated. Para-Para can tell that the draped banner isn’t proportioned right while it’s Ami who knows what she means and how to fix it. Jun-Jun is the first one to leap out onto the catwalk, totally unafraid of the height, while Makoto is the one who cranks a falling sign back up (both demonstrations of physical prowess). And when the two sides start fighting, each of them matches up with her color partner.

Elios/Helios and Elusion

This was an easy one. Elios, of course, equates to Helios, one of the sun gods. Helios is the son of Hyperion (also a sun god) and one of his best known stories eventually got subsumed into Apollo’s mythology–the one about his son Phaeton. This story seems to illustrate parts of Elios’ character well. Helios had a son, Phaeton, with a mortal woman and, due to some taunts, Phaeton eventually seeks out his father to confirm his own origins. Helios, happy to see his son, assures Phaeton that Helios is indeed his father and swears to grant any request the boy cares to make in order to reassure him of this. Phaeton wants to drive Helios’ sun-chariot. While Helios is distressed at this, correctly believing that Phaeton won’t be able to control it, his oath compels him to agree. Of course, Phaeton loses control of the chariot and Zeus blows him out of the sky before he sets all the earth on fire. The idea of honoring one’s obligations certainly translates into Elios’ character.

I was also tickled by the name of Elios’ realm: Elusion. The same trick is played with pronunciation here as was used with Prince Dimando’s name (pronounced closer to Demando–demand and diamond at the same time). On the one hand, Elusion sounds like “illusion”, appropriate enough for the realm of dreams. And on the other, it sounds like Elysian, the name of the Greek paradise within Hades’ underworld realm.

The Starlights

These, I don’t have any good ideas about. If there were four of them I would suspect Christian archangel symbolism. As there are three I suppose, at a stretch, it could be trinity symbolism. I’m almost more inclined, though, to take them as the feminine threesome that pops up every so often, for example as the Fates: maiden (fighter?), mother (maker?) and crone (healer?). If you go with Western European color associations, their hair colors (white, red, black) match this configuration–though if we map it that way it reverses the order I just suggested. That’s really iffy, too, though. And they aren’t precisely set up in parallel with the Inners, via out-of-uniform color associations, like similar groups. Although Taiki is generally associated with blue (Ami), Seiya winds up with red and I don’t think s/he’s supposed to be Rei’s parallel–and those two swap colors in Episode 198. Yaten fluctuates between green and yellow but neither hir connection with Makoto nor with Minako is particularly strong (aside from getting into fights with both of them). The author of Star of Creation, Jennifer S., suggests looking in Hindu mythology; she could be right. 6/8/02: found a source that definitely suggests Hindu symbolism. Michelle Rogers’ site, Aurorean, notes the associations of the Trimurti, the Hindu trio who make up the prime godhead. In shorthand it goes thus: Shiva, the Destroyer, red, Fighter; Brahma, the Creator, blue, Maker; Vishnu, the Preserver, yellow, Healer. For the details follow the link, but I think this one is a pretty good bet. Michelle also found what looks like a solid connection to Shinto.

Galaxia and Chaos

With Galaxia, I’m inclined to think all the symbolism is internal. Having established that lots of stars/planets have guardian senshi, Our Directors simply introduce us to the one in charge of the whole galaxy. Chaos, however, could be another classical reference. After all, Chaos was supposed to be the initial state of things, and the first progenitor/creator. This would march with the idea the Chaos has always been present, though not with the idea that Chaos arises from the minds/hearts/souls of life unless we’re going with a pretty sophisticated view of myths and deities. That is, of course, a possibility. Certainly the ending, with Chaos going back into the minds/hearts/souls of life “where it belongs,” and the admonition Sailor Moon addresses to Galaxia-redeemed to trust in people to defeat it, is a pretty sophisticated view of ethics. As sophisticated, really, as the idea that shows up at the end of both Season Five story arcs, about going back and doing it over again. At first glance this sounds like fantasy wish fulfillment, but it’s based on a deeper truth. The nature of any mistake or trauma is to stop progress, to freeze. So not only is the past, at the point of the mistake, always there to return to, it is utterly necessary to go back to that point and live from it again in order to find a new way forward. Philosophically, psychologically, historically, this is a constant of life; and it’s beautifully expressed in Episode 200, and never fails to make me cry when I watch it.

Miscellaneous

Notes of interest–at least to me.

Our Directors seem to like games; of course decoding symbolism is always kind of like playing conceptual dominos, but in this case the authors are clearly setting some of it up really deliberately. For instance, the Elios-Peruru-Yaten chain. Both Elios and Peruru are love interests for Chibiusa, and Sakamoto Chika did the voices of both Peruru and Yaten. Elios and Peruru are both generally otherworldly beings in charge of guarding dreams. Peruru and Yaten both like cats and are both musicians. And, of course, all three look remarkably similar–short (relative to, say Mamoru) and silver haired.

It’s similar to the way Mamoru and Seiya are set up as equivalent. They’re about equally obnoxious when Usagi first meets each of them; they both take the liberty of calling her Odango which mightily annoys her to begin with; they’re both black haired and blue eyed (though Mamoru’s eyes are also drawn as grey).

And, speaking of parallels, from the start of the second arc of Season Five, Seiya’s earrings are crescent moons, echoing the ones Sailor Moon wears. In Episode 198, Uranus’ earrings, which are usually hoops, are drawn to look remarkably crescent-like and appear very similar to the crescent earrings Fighter is intermittently drawn as wearing (instead of her more usual stars). This is, of course, the episode in which Uranus and Fighter finally bury the hatchet (albeit on death’s doorstep) and acknowledge that they are both motivated by a desire to protect Usagi.

More on earrings: did you ever notice how much Tigers Eye’s earrings look like razor blades? I’m inclined to think this is deliberate, to reinforce the perception that what he’s doing is both violent and cruel. (Rachel Brewster confirms that they are supposed to be razor blades; info from the Materials Collection artbook. More thanks to Rachel!)

A puzzle: all the Sailor Senshi we meet are women. The explanation of the senshi is that they are each in charge of or the incarnation of a particular star or planet. So far, so good. The most common explanation for why there is no senshi for Earth is that Mamoru is Earth’s protector (it’s right there in his name, after all). But he sure doesn’t seem to be one of the senshi… (excuse me, I had to stop and pick myself up again after falling out of my chair laughing at the picture of Mamoru in one of those mini-skirted sailor suits.) But he does seem to fit into the same continuum, as it were. In Episode 197, Galaxia says that star seeds with eternal shine are those of senshi in charge of stars and planets; and she’s talking about Mamoru’s star seed when she says this. A curiosity.

And I really want to know why Minako’s character was altered so much in the anime. The first season she’s quite similar to her manga-self; she’s a leader, an initiator, and her romantic experience is referred to mostly as an indication of maturity–having lived through a little more than the other girls. But as the seasons go by she becomes less and less a leader and more and more unstable. That laugh of hers gets more unbalanced each season. But this also seems to be a source of strength for her; her bout of two timing in Episode 141 is a good example. She’s so pissed off over being deceived by Tigers Eye and Hawks Eye when she thought she was tricking them that it gives her the strength to break out of De Sade’s pool table. As Artemis says, “Scary!” So what’s the message here? There’s strength in mildly insane arrogance? Someone who really believes in the most destructive aspects of the beauty-and-marrige industry can conquer all? Or that one can win by taking advantage of the system while keeping its artificiality in mind? All of the above? I’m a little inclined toward that last, given the dramatic alterations of personality Minako can show, which seem to indicate that she really does have higher values than get-a-man… sometimes. But the girl is a little to fond of poison for my comfort. (Rachel makes the very good point that Season One Minako has been used to operating alone, and that it would be reasonable for her to relax from mature-and-serious mode once she finds the rest of the team and doesn’t have to do everything herself any more.)

Have you noticed the distinct populist slant of the morals in this show? We’ve already noted Sailor Moon’s admonition to redeemed!Galaxia to trust the people to defeat Chaos within themselves. It’s even more noticeable at the end of Season Four, Episode 165. The point that Prince Endymion makes to Elios, and Elios makes to Sailor Chibi Moon, and she acts on, is that the strength of the people cannot be totally crushed. And it’s the power of all those people we’ve spent the entire season seeing jerked around, clamped to pool tables and shot with billiard balls that activates the Golden Crystal and saves the day. Interesting, hm?

Dan Smith points out that, if you look at Saturn’s Glaive from a figure/ground perspective, the ground between the blades forms the shape of a rabbit. He suggests the implication that anyone facing Saturn has a choice: the cuddly or the edged. I would also suggest that this might have been a reference to the confusion between Hotaru and Usagi, as to who’s the Messiah. The rabbit, being very much Usagi’s symbol, could indicate that these two characters are conflated all through Season Three. Dan also notes that the characters’ colors, especially if you look at the Princesses picture, are lined up nicely according to a chromaticity diagram by wavelengths. In his own words,

Red, golden yellow, green, turquoise, cyan-blue, indigo, violet-purple, and magenta space out evenly (with white & black orthogonally representing Usagi & Setsuna).. …and not only do these colors space out evenly, but one finds that the saturation of each of these colors matches the way the scouts fit into the story. Minako(yellow) is closest to Usagi, with Rei(red), Makoto(green), then Ami(cyan-blue).. …Michiru(turquoise) a bit further.. …then Haruka(indigo) and Hotaru(violet-purple) the farthest away. (Chibiusa is a special case, as she`s really pink rather than magenta, making her somewhat indeterminate)####…another interesting parallel is that all of the colors from red to indigo can be uniquely characterized by specific wavelengths, whereas violet, purple, and magenta are composed of combinations of wavelengths . This singles out Hotaru & Chibiusa as different,somehow…####. (personal email)

This suggests to me that Takeuchi may have had more reason to make Chibiusa so terribly pink than causing nausea; a great relief.

Footnote: Genealogy

Here is one of the more common Greek genealogies, mostly based on Hesiod, so that we can all keep this straight.

Next tier

Next tier, now involving sexual rather than asexual creation,

There’s a lot of duplication here; for instance, both Oceanus and Tethys are ocean deities, and both Hyperion and Theia are sun deities. Most such instances seem to involve the deities being mates. Hyperion and Theia, for instance, produce Helios (another sun god), Selene and Eos (dawn). As a side note, Coeus and Phoebe produced Leto, who mated with Zeus and bore Apollo and Artemis.

Now, here’s one of the places it gets ugly; Uranus despises his children and hides them within the earth (Gaia) which pisses her off. So she makes a sickle and asks her children to help her by killing their father. Cronus agrees and, using the sickle, cuts off Uranus’ genitals (not precisely killing him but dethroning him) and throws them into the ocean. They mingle with the sea foam and produce Aphrodite (Venus). Cronus then mates with Rhea (I should point out at this stage that, just as Uranus and Gaia were the sky and the earth, so are Cronus and Rhea; this is not uncommon in early mythology, for one generation to merge into or overthrow and replace the preceding one) and that gets us the next tier.

Now Cronus learns from his parents that one of his own children is destined to overthrow him in turn and, apparently not having learned a thing from his own history, he proceeds to eat each of his offspring as it is born. This offends Rhea and she sets out to thwart him. She succeeds in concealing the last child, Zeus, giving Cronus a stone instead which he ingests. Eventually, Zeus overthrows his father and forces him to disgorge Zeus’ siblings (who are all hale and hearty, digestion being insufficient to destroy gods). At this point the next generation divide up the world. Zeus gets the sky, Poseidon gets the seas and Hades gets the underworld. Demeter kind of inherits Rhea’s place, becoming the goddess of land and harvest, Hestia takes charge of home and hearth, thus becoming the only one who seems to give a rip about the welfare of mortals, and Hera marries Zeus. Next tier.

Like I said, Zeus ran around a lot, so his other unions also produced:

This last, obviously, is an alternate origin for Aphrodite (Homeric, I believe); Hesiod’s version with the sea foam is more prevalent though the more squeamish versions leave out Uranus’ genitals. There were also a lot of other entities that resulted in Zeus’ profligacy, too many to list here.

So that finally gives us the fourteen Olympian gods that the Greeks and Romans had more or less in common, Greek names first, Roman names second: Zeus/Jupiter, Hera/Juno, Poseidon/Neptune, Hades/Pluto, Hestia/Vesta, Hephastus/Vulcan, Ares/Mars, Apollo, Artemis/Diana, Demeter/Ceres, Aphrodite/Venus, Athena/Minerva, Hermes/Mercury and Dionysus/Bacchus.