loriemegistus's review against another edition
5.0
This is obviously not my first time reading the Sailor Moon manga but Ive been collecting the Eternal editions and felt like doing a reread. This manga never fails to put me in a good mood. I love Usagi so much and this story of love and friendship means absolutely everything to me. This edition is CHONKY! I love the larger size as it makes it easier to read. Highly recommend this series to anyone who loves a good magical girl story or if you’re a Sailor Moon fan!
alexasolis98's review against another edition
5.0
I was given the manga as a Christmas gift. It has been so nice to revisit this story. I actually prefer this translation more than the one I read previously. The some of the translation notes at the manga were quite insightful. Others made me feel old lol.
reeniecrystal's review against another edition
5.0
Original review can be found here.
Sailor Moon, the Japanese franchise of legend, has been going through a superpowered Renaissance ever since it hit 20 years old in 2012. That Renaissance has still be going strong to this day, for reasons that I imagine have a lot to do with the fact that the strongest portion of its fanbase (Millennials and Generation Z) are now largely old enough to buy things for themselves. This resurgence has birthed many things, including a reboot anime, several new toys, statues, clothing, accessories, apps—all things I could have chewed off my limbs for back when I was a young child who could only confirm her memories of Sailor Moon even existing through long-abandoned websites on the internet.
One gift of the resurgence has been not one, but two reprints of the original manga series which started it all. Back in the 1990s, English translations of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon manga were notoriously difficult to come by in the West, having been distributed mostly as a feature in tween girl magazines before the franchise was phased out of mainstream America altogether for years. The prequel series, Codename: Sailor V, never officially made it to America and even amateur English translations were extremely rare. It certainly didn't help things that the series had been out of print even in Japan for years ever since its conclusion in the late 90s. For the few English manga books that actually were available, they suffered much of the same localization as the TV series, with character's names being changed, certain elements censored, and the images mirror-flipped in order to accommodate the left-to-right Western style of reading.
That all changed when the 20th anniversary hit and the Sailor Moon Renaissance was first ushered in by Kodansha Comics' announcement that they had obtained the rights to both Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and Codename: Sailor V and planned on releasing a brand new, newly translated edition across the world. Everyone was thrilled, myself included, since it had been a lifelong dream of mine to read and own the entire Sailor Moon manga.
That dream has long since become a reality.
And I thought that part of my life was done with. Before I had to struggle to find a new goal to continue living for though, lo and behold, yet another reprint was announced. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Eternal Edition.
I wasn't going to buy them originally since I didn't see what the point would be. As far as I knew, they were just the regular manga, but with different covers on them. I soon learned though that they also came with a number of bonus features, such as more colored images and better translations. So I said what the hell and sprung for the first copy.
These are my comparisons of the two.
Physical Appearance
The Eternal Edition is much larger, as you can see. The Anniversary Edition isn't particularly small, just about the size of your average copy of manga, whereas the Eternal Edition is sized and weighs almost like a storybook. It's definitely more handy if you wanted to read the story with a child.
The Eternal Edition is also covered in holographic sparkles that appear in the light. Which, you know, if like Sailor Moon to begin with, is probably something that blows your mind way, way more than it should.
The whole design is definitely more elegant and heavy-set than that of the Anniversary Edition, which with the inclusion of flowing close-ups of the smiling Senshi and the chibi forms on the back, is going for more of a cutesy aesthetic.
The pages inside of the Eternal Edition are white and glossy, like that of your typical Western graphic novel, whereas the Anniversary Edition always has a few glossy pages at the beginning put has primarily regular paper, again like your average manga. (You'll be able to see this when we compare the translations.) The Eternal covers also have these bookmark flaps built into them, which are also holographic.
If you're familiar with comics, you'll know that chapter transitions are often marked by eye-candy pictures, usually of the characters just looking cool in various poses or outfits. In real life, these pieces are usually full-blown works of art that were hand drawn and colored by the illustrator (which in the case of manga, is often also their author.) In manga, which is often black and white and somewhat cheaply produced, these images are often also rendered in black and white. While this isn't always a bad thing, it can often ruin the appeal of some images that were originally richly colored but are rendered as just a mess of vague grey blots. In order to see the original colored images, you typically have to buy a supplemental "Art Of..." book to go with the manga or just look them up online.
The Eternal Edition, however, due to its glossy printing, is able to deliver these images in color right in the middle of the book where they belong. The large size of the pages also helps to better appreciate them, which is great since I consider Naoko Takeuchi a fantastic artist.
That said, it's worth noting that the Anniversary Edition also has some artwork, and even has some artwork that's not in the Eternal Edition. As you would guess, said artwork is at the beginning where its own glossy pages are. It's not a whole lot missing, but as I said, is worth noting.
One example of this is the contents page (Anniversary Edition on the top, Eternal Edition on the bottom):
Translations
The real draw of the Eternal Edition is the purported better English translations. Even though I appreciate the Anniversary Edition for what it is, even I had to admit that its translations were its weakest point. The problem is not that they're inaccurate, quite the opposite actually, they always struck me as a little too accurate.
Japanese, and indeed Eastern languages in general, have always been noted for their rough translation to English (and vice versa) because the building blocks of the cultural linguistics are so different. To see this illustrated, just try translating anything between the two with Google translate. And as with most languages, depending on how you try to render or arrange certain words, it can even seem nonsensical.
As such, people who speak both Japanese and English will often tell you that to do it well you have to go more for translating the spirit of what was said rather than the absolute precision of what was actually said. When reading the Anniversary Edition, this is something I came to understand completely. There are lots weirdly phrased things in the Anniversary Edition that, while comprehensible, really take you out of things when you know that almost no actual English speaker would phrase it like that. You really do have to take liberties if you want the dialogue to flow naturally, though there is a lot of controversy among English speaking fans as to how much liberty is appropriate. (See Digibro's video on the trouble with translations for a better understanding of the subject.)
From what I've read out of the Eternal Edition, this issue was eased enormously. It's clear that this new translator did exactly what I had originally wanted and not only translated what was said but rearranged and tweaked much of it in a way that would come across as a more realistic English statement. The Anniversary Edition wasn't that bad, but the new translations are nonetheless refreshing for the way the little tweaks help an English speaker become more absorbed in the story as opposed to having to always stop and read a sentence twice to get what it meant.
Here are a few examples (smaller image Anniversary Edition, bigger Eternal Edition.) These aren't the worst translations the Anniversary Edition had to offer in their entirety, but since only the first book of the Eternal Edition is out, I had to work with what I've got.
Anniversary:
"Sendai-zakaue is where five hill slopes meet, it is a very unusual place. But there's an urban legend of a rarely-seen sixth slope of this hill. The "Demon 6:00 PM Bus" is said to be sucked into that sixth slope and vanish. Do you know the name for such an occurrence?"
Eternal:
"Sendai-zakaue is a rare place where five hill slopes meet. According to legend, there has always been a sixth phantom slope. The six o' clock demon bus is drawn onto that sixth slope, where it vanishes, or so the rumors say. Do you know what they call it when people disappear like that?"
Anniversary:
"Yes, Bride-san. Your groom is right here. Shall we begin our wedding ceremony in hell?"
Eternal:
"Hello there, my lovely bride. Your groom is here for you. Won't you join me for our wedding... in Hell?"
Anniversary:
"Stealing the sacred form of the blushing bride and whispering of "love"! We won't stand for it!"
Eternal:
"I will not stand by and let you use the sacred image of a blushing bride and the echo of whispered sweet nothings for your own evil ends!"
Anniversary:
"You will refrain from underestimating women! And with Mars Power, you will burn! These high-heeled legs will deliver your punishment!"
"You were controlling and tricking people?! You mean you weren't serious? Damn... it! I'll let you know about a woman's pure feelings with raw strength!"
Eternal:
"I'll teach you not to underestimate the power of a woman! My Mars power will incinerate you! In my chic heels, I'll punish you!"
"You were controlling him? You tricked me? He... doesn't really love me? Dammit! I- I'll show you the true force of a girl's pure heart!"
All in all, I'm very pleased with these editions and plan to buy the rest as they come out. Because that's what us nerds do: waste all our money on slightly altered versions of things we already have.
Also, this made me sad:
This has to be explained now?! Am I that old?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
Sailor Moon, the Japanese franchise of legend, has been going through a superpowered Renaissance ever since it hit 20 years old in 2012. That Renaissance has still be going strong to this day, for reasons that I imagine have a lot to do with the fact that the strongest portion of its fanbase (Millennials and Generation Z) are now largely old enough to buy things for themselves. This resurgence has birthed many things, including a reboot anime, several new toys, statues, clothing, accessories, apps—all things I could have chewed off my limbs for back when I was a young child who could only confirm her memories of Sailor Moon even existing through long-abandoned websites on the internet.
One gift of the resurgence has been not one, but two reprints of the original manga series which started it all. Back in the 1990s, English translations of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon manga were notoriously difficult to come by in the West, having been distributed mostly as a feature in tween girl magazines before the franchise was phased out of mainstream America altogether for years. The prequel series, Codename: Sailor V, never officially made it to America and even amateur English translations were extremely rare. It certainly didn't help things that the series had been out of print even in Japan for years ever since its conclusion in the late 90s. For the few English manga books that actually were available, they suffered much of the same localization as the TV series, with character's names being changed, certain elements censored, and the images mirror-flipped in order to accommodate the left-to-right Western style of reading.
That all changed when the 20th anniversary hit and the Sailor Moon Renaissance was first ushered in by Kodansha Comics' announcement that they had obtained the rights to both Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and Codename: Sailor V and planned on releasing a brand new, newly translated edition across the world. Everyone was thrilled, myself included, since it had been a lifelong dream of mine to read and own the entire Sailor Moon manga.
That dream has long since become a reality.
And I thought that part of my life was done with. Before I had to struggle to find a new goal to continue living for though, lo and behold, yet another reprint was announced. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Eternal Edition.
I wasn't going to buy them originally since I didn't see what the point would be. As far as I knew, they were just the regular manga, but with different covers on them. I soon learned though that they also came with a number of bonus features, such as more colored images and better translations. So I said what the hell and sprung for the first copy.
These are my comparisons of the two.
Physical Appearance
The Eternal Edition is much larger, as you can see. The Anniversary Edition isn't particularly small, just about the size of your average copy of manga, whereas the Eternal Edition is sized and weighs almost like a storybook. It's definitely more handy if you wanted to read the story with a child.
The Eternal Edition is also covered in holographic sparkles that appear in the light. Which, you know, if like Sailor Moon to begin with, is probably something that blows your mind way, way more than it should.
The whole design is definitely more elegant and heavy-set than that of the Anniversary Edition, which with the inclusion of flowing close-ups of the smiling Senshi and the chibi forms on the back, is going for more of a cutesy aesthetic.
The pages inside of the Eternal Edition are white and glossy, like that of your typical Western graphic novel, whereas the Anniversary Edition always has a few glossy pages at the beginning put has primarily regular paper, again like your average manga. (You'll be able to see this when we compare the translations.) The Eternal covers also have these bookmark flaps built into them, which are also holographic.
If you're familiar with comics, you'll know that chapter transitions are often marked by eye-candy pictures, usually of the characters just looking cool in various poses or outfits. In real life, these pieces are usually full-blown works of art that were hand drawn and colored by the illustrator (which in the case of manga, is often also their author.) In manga, which is often black and white and somewhat cheaply produced, these images are often also rendered in black and white. While this isn't always a bad thing, it can often ruin the appeal of some images that were originally richly colored but are rendered as just a mess of vague grey blots. In order to see the original colored images, you typically have to buy a supplemental "Art Of..." book to go with the manga or just look them up online.
The Eternal Edition, however, due to its glossy printing, is able to deliver these images in color right in the middle of the book where they belong. The large size of the pages also helps to better appreciate them, which is great since I consider Naoko Takeuchi a fantastic artist.
That said, it's worth noting that the Anniversary Edition also has some artwork, and even has some artwork that's not in the Eternal Edition. As you would guess, said artwork is at the beginning where its own glossy pages are. It's not a whole lot missing, but as I said, is worth noting.
One example of this is the contents page (Anniversary Edition on the top, Eternal Edition on the bottom):
Translations
The real draw of the Eternal Edition is the purported better English translations. Even though I appreciate the Anniversary Edition for what it is, even I had to admit that its translations were its weakest point. The problem is not that they're inaccurate, quite the opposite actually, they always struck me as a little too accurate.
Japanese, and indeed Eastern languages in general, have always been noted for their rough translation to English (and vice versa) because the building blocks of the cultural linguistics are so different. To see this illustrated, just try translating anything between the two with Google translate. And as with most languages, depending on how you try to render or arrange certain words, it can even seem nonsensical.
As such, people who speak both Japanese and English will often tell you that to do it well you have to go more for translating the spirit of what was said rather than the absolute precision of what was actually said. When reading the Anniversary Edition, this is something I came to understand completely. There are lots weirdly phrased things in the Anniversary Edition that, while comprehensible, really take you out of things when you know that almost no actual English speaker would phrase it like that. You really do have to take liberties if you want the dialogue to flow naturally, though there is a lot of controversy among English speaking fans as to how much liberty is appropriate. (See Digibro's video on the trouble with translations for a better understanding of the subject.)
From what I've read out of the Eternal Edition, this issue was eased enormously. It's clear that this new translator did exactly what I had originally wanted and not only translated what was said but rearranged and tweaked much of it in a way that would come across as a more realistic English statement. The Anniversary Edition wasn't that bad, but the new translations are nonetheless refreshing for the way the little tweaks help an English speaker become more absorbed in the story as opposed to having to always stop and read a sentence twice to get what it meant.
Here are a few examples (smaller image Anniversary Edition, bigger Eternal Edition.) These aren't the worst translations the Anniversary Edition had to offer in their entirety, but since only the first book of the Eternal Edition is out, I had to work with what I've got.
Anniversary:
"Sendai-zakaue is where five hill slopes meet, it is a very unusual place. But there's an urban legend of a rarely-seen sixth slope of this hill. The "Demon 6:00 PM Bus" is said to be sucked into that sixth slope and vanish. Do you know the name for such an occurrence?"
Eternal:
"Sendai-zakaue is a rare place where five hill slopes meet. According to legend, there has always been a sixth phantom slope. The six o' clock demon bus is drawn onto that sixth slope, where it vanishes, or so the rumors say. Do you know what they call it when people disappear like that?"
Anniversary:
"Yes, Bride-san. Your groom is right here. Shall we begin our wedding ceremony in hell?"
Eternal:
"Hello there, my lovely bride. Your groom is here for you. Won't you join me for our wedding... in Hell?"
Anniversary:
"Stealing the sacred form of the blushing bride and whispering of "love"! We won't stand for it!"
Eternal:
"I will not stand by and let you use the sacred image of a blushing bride and the echo of whispered sweet nothings for your own evil ends!"
Anniversary:
"You will refrain from underestimating women! And with Mars Power, you will burn! These high-heeled legs will deliver your punishment!"
"You were controlling and tricking people?! You mean you weren't serious? Damn... it! I'll let you know about a woman's pure feelings with raw strength!"
Eternal:
"I'll teach you not to underestimate the power of a woman! My Mars power will incinerate you! In my chic heels, I'll punish you!"
"You were controlling him? You tricked me? He... doesn't really love me? Dammit! I- I'll show you the true force of a girl's pure heart!"
All in all, I'm very pleased with these editions and plan to buy the rest as they come out. Because that's what us nerds do: waste all our money on slightly altered versions of things we already have.
Also, this made me sad:
This has to be explained now?! Am I that old?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
sangd's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this manga. Despite the fact that Sailor Moon is from my generation, I had never read the manga or even watched the anime. Having grown up with Cardcaptor Sakura, I expected to enjoy this story. I can't wait to read the next one. The ending is very intriguing.
J'ai adoré ce manga. Malgré le fait que Sailor Moon est de ma génération, je n'avais jamais lu les manga ni même regardée la série. Ayant grandit avec Sakura chasseuse de cartes, je m'attendais à apprécier cette histoire. J'ai hâte de lire la suite, car la fin est très intriguante.
J'ai adoré ce manga. Malgré le fait que Sailor Moon est de ma génération, je n'avais jamais lu les manga ni même regardée la série. Ayant grandit avec Sakura chasseuse de cartes, je m'attendais à apprécier cette histoire. J'ai hâte de lire la suite, car la fin est très intriguante.
ladyk2387's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
dazidoo's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
bethsreadingjourney's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0