What's in a Name?
| "A rose by
any other name would smell as sweet..." But would a
Sailor Pluto by any another name be as cool? Below is the Kanji for Setsuna's name I've gotten from Ian Miller. Thanks for all the help! (Check out his Sailor Saturn shrine, Resignation!)
The first character is the Kanji for "dark." It is written as "mei" in romanji. The second character is the Kanji for "king." It is written as "ou" or "oh" (Either is correct, the -ou ending just tells that it's a long vowel sound. I use the -oh ending because when Kaioh and Tenoh are romanized in the anime, that's how they're spelled. It's mostly personal preference, like Sailorpluto and Sailor Pluto. See below for more.) The next three Hiragana characters spell out "setsuna." The name can mean "moment," "instant," or "juncture." The most commonly used translation for her entire name is "instant dark king" or something similar. Since it's not used as a adjective, "momentary" isn't really correct. The word as an adjective would be "setsunateki" and means "ephemeral." (Which, I guess, could work, too. 'Cept that's not the kanji.) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Below is the Kanji for the planet Pluto I've gotten from The Sailor Senshi Page.
As you can tell, it is similar to the ones used to spell her name, but is in fact used to spell the planet Pluto. Again, the first character means "dark" and the second means "king." The last Kanji can mean "star" or "planet" and the romanji is "sei." Together, the romanized form is "meiousei" and means "planet of the dark king." ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ More on the -oh or -ou argument. It really does not strike me as that important. I do not wish to offend any purists, but does it really matter that much? As long as a person understands the argument, and is consistent in their spelling, I think it is personal preference. I have seen more outer senshi shrines defending -oh than -ou, and the people I have discussed this with say it is just a matter of pronounciation. More than likely, I mispronounce a lot of Japanese words regardless of spelling. While it is not a powerful argument, Michiru's last name in anime Episode 93 (I think) is spelled K-A-I-O-H on her painting. I know this because I have it on tape. Haruka's last name is spelled T-E-N-O-H on the back of her racing suit. It is only logical that Setsuna's last name would be spelled M-E-I-O-H. However, the Japanese-English Dictionary I have (Random House New York © 1997 Random House, Inc.) uses the romanization o with a macron (bar) using the Hepburn system to indicate long vowel sounds. So which way should you spell it? Meioh? Meiou? It is up to you, really, as long as you recognize the other possibilities. Personally I use Meioh, and try to remain as consistent as possible. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ There is also a disagreement as to the romanization of the sailor senshi. Most manga purists will romanize them as Sailormoon, Sailorpluto, etc. More common are Sailor Moon, Sailor Pluto, etc. I use Sailor Pluto because, in the dub, there is a space between the two words. (In Japanese, there are no spaces.) Much as I hate to say it, I started with the dub and some habits are hard to break. Switching now would be a lost cause. It, too, is up to personal preference, I think. |