Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Volume 1 Comparison (Kodansha vs Kodansha?)

Salutations everyone and thank you for being here. What else can I say, but here we are again after just a few years. Today, I'll be taking a look at the newly released "eternal edition" by Kodansha USA and comparing it to their previous Sailor Moon release from 2011. This new release is based on the Japanese kanzenban release or "perfect edition" so it has a lot to live up to. Boasting a larger size and updated translation, as well, as being delayed twice, it's time to find out if it was worth all the blood, sweat and tears.

Did anyone think we would get another Sailor Moon release so quickly? When Kodansha USA announced that they were bringing the Japanese kanzenban edition to the west and releasing it as the eternal edition, I'll admit I was sceptical. My thoughts on the 2011 release have already been laid bare here. To make a long story short, something I promise I can do, I was none too pleased with the overly literal translation and stiff dialogue that I felt misrepresented the story and acted as a barrier to anyone looking to enjoy this series for the first time. It certainly did a decent job of repelling me when I read it, but I've already talked about my experience at length here. Over the years though, I've softened on William Flanagan's translation considerably. I'm still not happy with it but have grown to see it more as Kodansha's fault for rushing William to translate the story in a very short amount of time, before rushing it to the printers and not his lack of skill.

I honestly thought I was done with the Sailor Moon manga for a while and that it would take much longer to get an English equivalent to the Japanese kanzenban release, but for whatever reason, the manga gods have decided to smile upon us this day. 

So let us hope for the best and dive right in. If you're curious about how the 2011 release stacks up against the old Tokyopop release then I highly recommend checking SailorHell's blog on the subject. I will not be referencing the Tokyopop release in these comparisons.

Important Note: I want to preface this by saying that the eternal edition is a massive improvement over the previous 2011 release and the definitive way to read Sailor Moon in English. You might think the price is too high for what amounts to one extra chapter of content, but you are receiving beautiful colour pages never before released in English on white crisp paper. Combined with a brand new (unless you've read the bilingual edition) refined translation that really makes you appreciate Naoko Takeuchi's art and storytelling on a whole new level.

Basically: go buy it now, but if you're still not convinced then let's continue.

That being said, this new edition isn't perfect in my eyes and there are a few changes that were not to my tastes. Heck, do you think I'd be writing this if I thought everything was perfect? I must stress that this is nothing more than my opinion and shouldn't be taken as fact. This entire blog is the rambling of a pedantic nitpicker, who thinks he's smarter than a twenty-five-year-old story for little girls, shouting into the void that is the internet.

I won't be listing every line change as I feel that would spoil too much of it and it would make this post far too long. While I might occasionally reference the bilingual edition, where appropriate, most of the time it's irrelevant since the eternal edition uses the same translation.

Colour Pages

The vibrancy of these colour pages in the eternal edition speak for themselves, though I do mourn the loss of this drawing of Princess Serenity. It's probably the sole reason I'll have to keep the 2011 release on my shelf.

Size, Apparently It Does Matter

I won't bore you by lingering on this topic for too long as it has already been talked to death on social media. Suffice to say; it's big. As laid out in a recent ANNCast interview, this was done to bring the title more in line with Kodansha USA's other deluxe editions; namely "Ghost in the Shell" and "Akira". Along with this extra size comes extra content as the eternal edition contains seven chapters of the story while the previous release only contained six. I'll admit to having a love-hate relationship with this new size. I would have preferred it to be more travel sized like it's Japanese counterpart, however, this argument dies on my lips the instant I open the book and marvel at how fantastic the artwork looks at this new size. It's like an HD remaster but in book form. The translators have even joked that this larger size means more elbow room in the speech bubbles for more detailed translations. Speaking of which...

Translation

The eternal edition brings with it an all-female team that has already been working on bringing this release to the west for two and a half years at the time of this blog post. Their names may be familiar to longtime manga readers. Alethea and Athena Nibley translated "Fruits Basket" for Tokyopop back in the day, while coincidentally Lyes Blakeslee did the lettering for the Yen Press translation. Lauren has worked with the twins on "Devil Survivor", the upcoming "Land of the Lustrous" and all four of them have worked together on "Noragami: Stray God". There are far too many credits under each name to list so I would recommend checking each of their pages on Anime News Network for more.

Alethea and Athena Nibley have also gone on record saying their job was originally just to revise William Flanagan's original translation for the new release, but they made the decision to translate the entire story from scratch; checking their work against his along the way.

I think we're in good hands.

Honorifics

One key element of manga translation that is guaranteed to divide fans is the inclusion or exclusion of the Japanese honorifics. I've seen opinions vary wildly not just from the readers, but also the companies that bring these releases to the west. Kodansha USA has now translated Sailor Moon for an English speaking audience twice and both editions have elected to leave the Japanese honorifics intact. While I'm not a fan of keeping the honorifics in Japanese, I don't resent their inclusion and will continue to buy any release in spite of them. There's also a rumour, which I haven't been able to confirm, that this decision is the result of someone on the Japanese side, possibly Kodansha Japan or Naoko herself, putting their foot down. Sadly, this remains unconfirmed.

That's not to say there aren't any differences to be talked about. Readers may be pleased to learn that in several cases honorifics have been removed to aid the flow of the story where the original translation kept them, often to their own detriment.

Sound effects

Kodansha's 2011 translation was often criticized for being inconsistent with its sound effects. As shown above, they would either be localized to their English equivalents or spelt out phonetically to the point of unreadability. While I have found the new translation to be a much-needed improvement, that same inconsistency is a part of the new edition, though they're fortunately spelt in a way that makes it much easier to understand what they're saying.

Also, for putting an end to gems such as "kyaaa", everyone behind this new translation has my eternal gratitude. I realise it's not technically a sound effect, but I still classify it as one on account of never having heard a living human utter that phrase convincing me it can't be done. Seriously, how do you say that?!

Improvements aside, I noticed something else that was odd whilst combing through the new translation's sound effects. Namely, the lettering. Don't get me wrong, the dedication shown here to match the style of the Japanese sounds effects is fantastic and further enhances the professional quality that the eternal edition exudes. However, as you can see above, at times the letterer will simply place the English sound underneath like the previous translation and at others, she will scrub out the Japanese sound effect entirely. I've counted many times where these two different styles have occurred in either the adjacent or the same panel without much rhyme or reason. I did wonder when the preview pages were circulating the internet whether sounds that came out of the character's mouths would be the only ones scrubbed out, but clearly, that is not the case.

Obviously, depending on the artwork in each panel, some sound effects would be easier to replace than others so why take the trouble to erase some of the more difficult ones yet leave some of the easier ones intact? It doesn't make sense to me.

Terminology

With a new translation, comes a new take on that mysterious MacGuffin, the silver crystal, which is apparently now "mystical" on top of everything else. A change I'm in favour of, not because "legendary" was bad but, because mystical just seems to fit the idea of the silver crystal being an ancient item of power. The twins have admitted they thought "legendary" was a little mundane.  Something else that can't be understated is how much of a relief it is to lose those unnecessary quotation marks. It's magic.

Then there's this one single panel where Zoisite foregoes "mystical" and calls it the "silver crystal". I can only hope that this continues throughout the series as beyond a certain point the adjective becomes well...pointless. I also recall reading in one panel in the bilingual edition, where it was simply called "the crystal", but can't find my scan of that page and it hasn't made the cut into the eternal edition so sorry, it'll have to be a vicious rumour on the internet. You're welcome!

Speaking of the generals, our precious plot sacrifices have had their titles changed slightly.

You might have noticed, in a previous picture, that the new translation refers to Rei as a "priestess" instead of a "miko" though the first appearance of the term clarifies that she's a "Shinto priestess." Our prayers, or at least mine, have been answered.

And the "Moon Stick" is now the "Moon Wand". As a fan of the DIC dub's "Crescent Moon Wand", this is definitely a change I can get behind and makes sense thanks to the translation notes at the back that explain it.

It's amazing how just switching a couple of words around can make it flow so much better. 

Lastly, another hot-button issue of the 2011 translation was the character's tendency to refer to Motoki as "bro" in volume one, which was subsequently reverted to "Onii-san" in reprints. This is the case of a Japanese colloquial meaning not having a direct English equivalent so there was worry about how this would be handled going forward. 

Weirdly, Usagi and the other girls don't refer to Motoki as anything except for this one panel, but by this point, she's actually learned his real name just a few pages back.

Place Names

For the most part, the names of the different locations, visited in volume one, remain the same. The only difference in the eternal edition was reverting "Hikawa Shrine" back to "Hikawa Jinja," but I can see why they did it. Up until this point and afterwards, every location name in the story has been left in Japanese and this change was simply for consistency. Not a fan of this change, but it isn't a deal breaker though I would've preferred a bit more localisation (Hikawa Shrine, Sendai Hill/Slope) because if the Japanese audience could discern that information from the name then so should we. I will say that it does make worry that, further down the line, we'll be getting "Mugen Gakuen" instead of "Mugen Academy" or "Infinity Academy".

The twins did say, in their own LiveJournal blog, that it might be "shrine" in the final version; needless to say it wasn't.

A Guardian's or is it Soldier's Speech?

"Guardian" has long been the accepted translation of "senshi" since it was introduced in the 2011 English release though many would argue it debuted in the live-action remake in 2003. Ever since the bilingual edition was released in Japan last year, giving us an early preview of this brand new translation, this topic has been a point of contention for many Sailor Moon fans. Many citing that Sailor Moon introducing herself as both a "guardian" and "soldier" is inconsistent and that the manga would be better off if they simply chose one or the other. "Soldier" being the prior and, some would argue, the better translation of "senshi". Personally, I don't see it that way. To me, it's more of a loving nod to a prior term they're not allowed to use anymore. It's possible they won't use it after the beginning arc, but if they do then I'm not worried. Guardian is still the translation of senshi and this release doesn't change that as guardian is still used when referring to the other girls. According to their blog, the Nibley twins state they turned to Darkwing Duck for inspiration for scripting the speech, another character who breaks up his declarations into short statements beginning with "I am..."

Other Thoughts

Translation Healing Escalation!

And just on the second page, I've noticed a change that's a welcome improvement over the previous translation. Dummy?! Did anyone talk like this at fourteen or at any point in their lives? You're probably going to be hearing me say that a lot.

I realise not all jewellery has actual jewels in it, but this sentence still feels far too redundant. If I could sum up Kodansha's 2011 translation, it would that it takes the scenic route to explain something very simple. Ladies and gentleman, I am a nitpicker and I may have a problem.

Sadly, I think this is one case where William Flanagan's translation wins by choosing to more specific about the where exactly Luna's patch spot is.

Can I just say how much I appreciate the Nibley twins getting rid of the majority of instances where a character, usually Usagi, says "eh?" as a response to a statement or question. That's one of my biggest pet peeves in manga translation and I'm so glad the eternal edition avoided it.

Teenagers that actually sound like teenagers. It's a miracle. Kodansha USA's previous release had every character talking in a very stiff and somewhat formal tone causing each of their personalities to become distilled. The only remaining character to speak in a more refined tone is Rei and the new translation makes that more readily apparent, making her stand out.

Sassy Mamoru? I love it! It really goes a long way to make me love these characters. It's amazing how simply reworking some dialogue so that the characters sound more natural makes me feel like I'm reading this for the first time.

Not to mention, the different ways he addresses Usagi might not be as accurate to the Japanese, but I get a kick out of them.

Here's where I once again have to give praise to Mr Flanagan's 2011 translation just because I personally feel like "water and wisdom" has a better ring to it then"water and intellect". This word choice also makes the Nibley twins translation look inconsistent as the very next sentence starts talking about...you guessed it, wisdom!

Up until this point, the eternal editions translation has been identical to the bilingual edition, however, I have come across one difference between the two. Which of these will come down to each individual's preferences and tastes though I won't deny one is funnier whilst the other is probably more faithful? In their blog, the Nibley twins mention how Makoto speaks in a much more vulgar dialect in the original Japanese so this might have been an attempt to replicate that before it was changed the editor (Lauren Scanlan) for the eternal edition.

I must confess: I gifted my copy of the bilingual edition to my niece last Christmas so I only have a dozen scans I took beforehand to go off. As such, there may be other more subtle changes between the two translations I haven't picked up on. If anyone has noticed anything else, please let me know. Ben Applegate has mentioned to me on twitter that are many changes between the two, but so far, this is the only one I've come across.

The Nibley twins mention how much they enjoyed the DIC English dub growing up and you can hear them talk about it in more detail in the ANNCast. The panel below is a missed opportunity for another DIC reference though what they came up with is perfectly serviceable and far better then what came before in the 2011 translation.

You could make the argument that Sailor V is an urban legend at this point in the story and so mythical makes more sense. However, we already know from the newspapers that police consider her to be real, not to mention that she's a front-page headline. "Mythical" has always indicated to me something or someone that might not exist or only existed long ago and while we haven't met Sailor V at this point, this term doesn't seem to fit. The term describing Sailor V should be familiar to anyone with knowledge of the Japanese version. It's our old friend "maboroshi"; the same adjective used to describe the silver crystal that was adapted into "mystical".The 2011 edition's "Phantom" is a more direct translation, something I'm not usually in favour of, but feel it works better in this case though "elusive" might have worked better indicating it's difficult to prove she's real.

This just makes me laugh and I don't think that was the point. Wouldn't "meddling insects!" have worked better?

Conclusion

I'm sure there are things I've missed. In fact, I know there are, but I've said my piece on this volume and I'm now looking forward to hearing what others have to say. Sailor Moon is a twenty-five-year-old story that is arguably firmly a part of its time, now with a new translation that is firmly a part of our time. This volume was almost everything I was hoping for and I can't wait for volume two. While dropping the honorifics and localising the locations would've made this perfect, I can't say I'm unhappy with what we've got and it was definitely worth the wait.

That's it for now, guys. See you in November where we'll hopefully see Beryl relinquish her title of "princess" forever!