To be honest, I hadn't really noticed much in the way of translation differences between the first renditions of the Sailor Moon series put out by PocketMixx back in the 90s to this new translation released by Kondansha, but in this collection, the translation is pretty clunky.I know that in some cases, PocketMixx changed things up so that audiences in the US would understand the comic better (I don't recall Saturn reciting Yeats in the PocketMixx version), but there are phrases in this vol. like "my bad" and "Guts" which just really don't make any sense.I know there is an explanation of "guts" in the back of the novel, but it still just doesn't seem to fit. And several times the words of the characters made no sense in relation to who they were.. or it was just overly verbose or otherwise clunky.I have to say, that Kodansha kind of dropped the ball with this vol. at least (though some serious SM fans would say they dropped the ball with the entire series). We're finally getting into the final stages of the series, with this volume inching us closer to the end of the Dark Moon arc. I enjoyed this volume a good deal more than the previous one, as it's more action packed and shows ChibiUsa as more of her own character than the Scrappy Doo of the Sailor Moon world. The artwork remains one of the best things in this series to date. Takeuchi has such a graceful style of illustrating the scenes and characters that it's no wonder that so many people strive to copy her style. The color splash pages in the beginning are wonderfully done and it's easy to get caught up in the drawings as much as in the story. I myself loved the little chibi artwork in-between the chapters. One of the points that I noted worked well artwork-wise is when Takeuchi used it to help show ChibiUsa's growth as a character. She's no longer the little sniveling brat that clung to Mamoru and battled with Usagi for his attentions. She's coming more into her own as a character and starting to become a young lady rather than just a daddy's girl. Story-wise, this is a rather good volume. It's a little "monster of the day" at times, as you have several chapters that all revolve around each Sailor Scout re-discovering their powers and dealing with whatever the Dark Moon Kingdom happens to throw at them that particular day. People familiar with the television show will probably be slightly surprised at how it isn't as formulaic as the anime was, although it'll still be somewhat familiar territory as far as anime and manga tropes go. Despite it being familiar, the story lines are well written enough to where you honestly won't care. Most fans that were unable to read the original English translation or newer readers will be too busy reading the original version of the story to bother thinking about monsters of the day or familiar themes. Overall this really is a wonderful volume. It goes without saying that you absolutely have to have read the previous volumes to know what is going on. Sometimes you can get series where you can jump in mid-series and not miss out on much, but Sailor Moon is a fairly fast paced series as far as plot goes. Each arc is fairly self contained, but they still heavily rely on knowledge of previous plot points, especially the previous arc. I absolutely wouldn't recommend missing out on this volume.
What do You think about Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 09 (2004)?
I loved it; as usual there was never a dull moment
—Chickpeas
