Sailor Moon and Japan: It’s Salad Time

Something I’ve been seeing people talk about recently, so I thought I’d bring this post back.

Another entry into explaining stuff in Sailor Moon from a Japanese context.

The butt of jokes from the SeraMyu seem to come from the song from Shin Kaguya Shima Densetsu “Chikyuuiro wa Salad Time”  (literally, The Earth Colour is Salad Time). So its time to explain why its not actually supposed to be funny… I think the issue here is that a certain English idiom has died out a bit in current American English.

Junya Saiki, the lyricist for this song is known for his obscure referencing, metaphors and language play and this song is no exception.

The word “Chikyuu” 地球 of course simply refers to The Earth, the planet on which the Sailor Soldiers live so that’s pretty clear. 

“色” iro, is a bit trickier, it translates usually to “colour” but it is not actually the same concept of colour we have in English, this is one of the hardest things about learning a language is subconsciously, we apply our understanding of our language to theirs when this is obviously false logic. Think of it this way “色” is equivalent to “colour” in CERTAIN contexts. This is where context is so important in any language.

色 is a word that helps to describe and categorise something in a visual manner. Often seen as parts of compounds that are equivalent to our colours. 灰色 (haiiro) is a good example, it refers to what we call grey but literally means “ash-colour”. “iro” helps to associate things visually. So 地球色 (chikyuuiro) literally means Earth Colour, but it should be not thought of as necessarily a physical part of the visible light spectrum but take into more of a metaphoric context, something along the lines of “the feeling/tone/appearance/complexion of The Earth (ie the Sailor Soldiers’ current emotion) is Salad Time.

Salad Time on the other hand, is where most of the jokes arise, but again this is nowhere near as funny as it seems. Salad Time seems to be an alteration on the English idiom “salad days”, first used in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, which refers to the time of one’s youth. Comparing one’s youth to something fresh, young and green. (that is inexperience, in both Japanese and English, green is associated with inexperience). Apparently “salad days” has died out a little in American English which may be why many are not picking up on it.

So the understanding of the phrase “Chikyuuiro wa Salad Time” is best thought of as “the way the Earth appears is youthful and fun” that is “we’re youthful and happy, its vacation time!” sort of thing. Which if you listen to the song and the rest of the lyrics is perfectly clear.

Miki Kawasaki and Ado Endou made a joke on the other meaning of “salad time” by dressing up as eggplants for a fan event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe1qDpaQm68