Ever wondered what the word Garnet has to do with anything and always crops up with Pluto?
This is probably a sneaky bit of punnery on Naoko Takeuchi’s part.
The Japanese word for “Garnet” is 石榴石 (Zakuroishi), “Zakuro” meaning “pomegranate” and “ishi” meaning “stone”.
Pomegranates are associated with Hades (Pluto) and the Underworld through the story of Persephone. Persephone was abducted by Hades, when Persephone’s Mother Demeter found out she became depressed, the Gods demanded Persephone be released and Hades agreed, before she returned, he gave Persephone some pomegranate seeds which she ate, binding her to the Underworld forever, and she would have to stay there for a third of the year.
So basically the word “Garnet” is associated with Pluto’s never-ending mission as Soldier of Time-Space and the Underworld.
Private Mystery Circle is one of the more confusing songs in SeraMyu. If you’ve ever wondered “Wait. What. What was that?” hopefully this will explain it!
We’ll do this verse by verse.
This song MUST be seen in context of ufology and the events of the Black Lady musicals. Throughout this song it seems more and more people are being replaced with droids. Think back to some scenes in the Black Moon arc of the manga and it makes more sense. Basically this is a song that seems cute and sounds innocent but the lyrics have increasingly creepier hidden meanings.
The matter is that I peeked into your eyes… I found stars, something I’d never seen I met your gaze and knew with full knowledge… Those eyes should be… What is this?
Pretty much everything in this song is to do with paranormal phenomena, especially ufology. This song is mainly about droids replacing humans… just without saying droids or humans, think of it like the body snatchers. The first verse is about noticing someone you love not as they should be, in this case something wrong with their eyes.
Maybe, by some chance… (Maybe, by some chance…) You have multiple personalities No way! UFO? What are you talking about? That’s just not, not, not how they should be… My beloved one… Woo! Private Mystery Circle!
They now try to find a “reasonable” explanation for what’s going on, suggesting that they have a multiple personality disorder but stating that they love them and that can’t be right. A pun appears here too, with one saying “No way!” (uso) and another confusing it for “ufo”. It should be pointed out here that Private Mystery Circle is not a case of “engrish”, Mystery Circle is a wasei term, Japanese terms made from English. In this case it refers to what we usually call “crop circles”
UFO! UMA! From the beginning! Love & Peace You better take another look at them UFO! UMA! Once again… Dry & Moist, make sure of that! Return it to zero! Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Starting over!
The song takes a creepier turn here on. UFO stands for “Unidentifed Flying Object” UMA for “Unidentified Mysterious Animal”. We do not really use the latter term in English but the Japanese do use it. In this verse, Love & Peace, what humans usually believe in are told to be looked at again and revise these principles. People’s values of Love & Peace are being reconsidered as people are being replaced with droids. Dry & Moist however is less clear, it may refer to the soil of Crop Circles but personally I think this might be a reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which this song seems to be a cuter version of, in that the body snatchers come from pods, perhaps dry and moist refers to conditions for plants. Return it to zero refers to the human population, the Black Moon Clan literally intends to replace human beings with droids. That is “starting over”. Listen carefully at the album version and you can hear two kinds of singing. When they say “Love & Peace” it is in a cheerful happy tone but when they say “minaoshite” (take another look) for example, the tone changes into a sort of mocking tone.
Yesterday, perhaps I had thought… Love was best, for better or for worse… But some time ago… Within my heart… Stars were bursting open, making a sound The Moonlight’s… (The Moonlight’s…) deed, could it be? Contactee? Myself and my spirit… (Heart!) I want to peek into them! Woo! Private Mystery Circle
Now the singers take a term for the worst, they know feel different. Yesterday that had believed in love and now they are being replaced themselves. They are wondering if this is the work of Space. Mamoru says “Contacty” in the lyrics, this is probably a misspellign of “Contactee” someone who aliens have made contact with. Additionally the word spirit (kokoro) and (Heart) are usually equivalent. However, kokoro has unusually been written in the katakana writing system, often used for loanwords, however in other cases such as this it gives a touch of artificial-ness to the line, writing “kokoro” in katakana gives the idea of the person saying it is not truly alive.
UFO! UMA! From the beginning! Love & Peace You better take another look at them UFO! UMA! Once again… Dry & Moist, make sure of that! Return it to zero! Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Starting over!
Back to the chorus. I hope I’ve helped explain another song that people often have had trouble with!
Ever wonder why Ami is knitting constantly before she becomes Dark Mercury?
Though its clear that the knitting here is a symbol of their friendship, it can read a little deeper.
The French word “ami/amie” (アミ), meaning friend, is pronounced identically to the name Ami (亜美) in Japanese, furthermore the stem verb “編み”, also read as “ami” means “to knit”. So in a sense, Ami is connecting together their friendship through the process of knitting, all of which is “ami”. Ami is really the force bringing them all together. Ami ami-ing her ami.
As their friendship weakens early in the series, when everyone becomes preoccupied with their own issues, Ami knits harder and harder trying to bring everyone together, but eventually when she slashes the mittens she makes, she is effectively, breaking their bond of friendship. Literally breaking the “ami” from them in three different senses.
Just about everyone knows Japan loves its puns. So if you’ve ever thought “Bloody Dracul”, “Bloody Dracul Vampir” and “Bloody Dracul Krsnik” from the Dracul Series were weird names, it’s not just the vampire blood thing, but also because “Bloody” (ブラッディー Buraddii) is a pun on “Vlad” (ブラッド Buraddo).
