Sailor Moon Saturday #2!

Hello readers!

So, no new Sailor Moon episode this week. (Booooo.) Alas, we must wait until next week!

However, as I said last week, I will be occasionally discussing things within the 90s series/manga while we wait for new episodes!

Warning: This post is spoiler-heavy for those who have never seen the 90s show or read the manga.

Today, I will be discussing the character of Usagi Tsukino. Specifically, I'm going to be talking about some basic Moon mythology.

First, we'll start with some basic facts from the English translation of the series, and then we'll go into the more complicated parts of the Japanese translation.

In the English version of the anime, Usagi has instead been given the English name "Serena". Serena is probably an "updated" version of the name Selene.

Selene was, in Greek mythology, the goddess of the Moon. Her Roman equivalent is Luna (who we will, of course, discuss in another article), and one of her siblings was named Helios (who appears in Sailor Moon SuperS and I will probably discuss him at a later point). Selene is commonly associated with Artemis (which is perhaps why, in the manga, we are originally told that Sailor V is the Moon princess - her relationship with Artemis was perhaps a "clue", in a way).

In the manga, we later learn that in Mamoru's past life, he was Prince Endymion. In mythology, Endymion was Selene's human lover, and we shall naturally go into his background more at a later point. As far as I can tell, their relationship is first discussed within the third century BC writing of Argonautica, an epic poem by Apollonius Rhodius.

In both Hymn to Helios and Hymn to Selene, they discuss Selene's beautiful hair, which is perhaps why Usagi has such long and golden hair? And, according to the Wikipedia page (which I will not be citing because I am lazy and this is NOT a school assignment, heh)

Selene is commonly depicted with a crescent moon, often accompanied by stars; sometimes, instead of a crescent, a lunar disc is used. Often a crescent moon rests on her brow, or the cusps of a crescent moon protrude, horn-like, from her head, or from behind her head or shoulders. Selene's head is sometimes surrounded by a nimbus, and from the Hellenistic period onwards, she is sometimes pictured with a torch.

So, some grains of salt to consider from the Greek viewpoint.

Now, for the Japanese one.

Naoko Takeuchi, the manga-ka and creator of the Sailor Moon series, purposely gave Usagi the astrological sign of Cancer, as it is commonly ruled by the Moon (according to the Sailor Moon Wikipedia page for Usagi). (Also this is more of a Western note rather than a Japanese one, but shhhhh.)

Let us talk about Usagi's name.

Usagi's full name is Usagi Tsukino. I'll admit I had to look this up because I never learned kanji, but the kanji for tsuki translates as Moon (月). The hiragana for her name (うさぎ)  translates to rabbit. (Hence why she is given the nickname "Bunny" in the American version.)

But what do rabbits have to do with the Moon? Or Moon mythology?

In Japanese folklore, there's actually a rather cute story, heh. I remember when I was in Japan I stayed with a family for a few days. They were usually too busy to actually take care of me, so I stayed with another family a lot. And there we talked about a lot of Japanese fairy tales and such (I love fairy tales, and we often talked of Kaguya-hime). And I kind of knew about this story before my trip, but I was never really obsessed with it or anything like that, and even now my memory is a little hazy.

I'll put a link to the Wikipedia page in the Works Cited area, but basically there's a story where there's a bunny on the Moon. Kind of like the Man in the Moon, but with a rabbit. It seems as though this was originally a Chinese tale, but it spread throughout Asia eventually.

This blog gives a delightful song that goes along with the story of the Moon rabbit as well.

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit

Evelyn-White, Hymn to Helios (31) 6, Hymn to Selene, (32) 18; Rudin, pp. 94–95; Morford, p. 64; Aelian, On Animals, 12.7.

Smith, "Selene". Kerenyi, pp. 196–197; Hammond, "SELENE" pp. 970–971; Hard, p. 46; Morford, pp. 64, 219–221.

Hopefully I was able to teach you something today! Next Saturday I'll do a review of the second episode of Sailor Moon (though it may be a little later in the day, I have a housewarming party to go to). If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please feel free to comment here or send me an email!

xo, Kate