On Tue, 13 May 1997, Mike Noakes wrote:
First:
The first moon kingdom - when did it collapse? How much is known
about the Earth kingdom that Endymion came from? And Beryl, powered by
the supernatural Metallia - whe was from Earth, too, right?
There are differing sources on the end of the Moon Kingdom. DIC's
import put it one thousand years ago; other sources (Japanese series) say
it was *two* thousand years ago. I go with the two-thousand-years figure.
I'm not clear on 'where' the Dark Kingdom was, physically,
although it seems to have been somewhere (underground) on Earth.
And if I remember - the assault on the moon kingdom was from
Earth, backed up by various demonic forces - or am I wrong? Any word of
what happened to the other planetary kingdoms?
All I know is that the other planetary kingdoms were destroyed; I
don't have details here. And it was a Dark Kingdom assault on the Moon
Kingdom, not exactly Earth . . . although Earth was falling under the
control of the Dark Kingdom before Queen Serenity sealed Beryl, Metallia,
et al away with the Ginzuishou.
Second:
Yokho - 108th (?) demon-hunting descendant, current in a long
line of mamono slayers (BTW, what's the diff. between a youma and a
mamono?). Is it ever said who was the first hunter? Who established the
line? Why? Are there other family lines of demon hunters? A good page
where I can read up on this stuff?
Devil Hunter Yohko 6 has something to do with the first of the
Mano line of Devil Hunters; I haven't seen it (unfortunately) so I can't
tell you more than that from experience. I would suspect that there are
other families of Devil Hunters; I'd check DHY 5 (since Yohko has several
allies in that one) and see if you can pick out anything useful . . .
Or check around the Web, but I don't know where any DHY pages are.
You might want to check the anime index on Yahoo, though - there are a
number of anime pages listed there.
(Trivia note: If you're working by generations, Yohko should actually be
the *109th*-generation Devil Hunter of the Mano line. Her mother, Sayoko
(?) would have been 108th, but disqualified herself before she became a
Devil Hunter.)
As to the difference between a youma and a mamono . . .
Linguistic question. They're written with different kanji, and
thus the meanings are slightly different. Referring to JWP, Mamono means
goblin or apparition; Youma means *ghost* or apparition. Slight
difference.
WARNING! It gets spammy from here as I dismantle the two words and check
the individual kanji, but the main question is answered above.
<multi-tasks to JWP and opens the dictionary>
Referring to Jim Breen's Japanese-English Dictionary in JWP for the
compounds, and Hadamitzy/Spahn's _Kanji & Kana_ for individual kanji:
Mamono: "goblin, apparition"
ma - demon, devil, evil spirit
Note that this kanji is part of "Akuma," devil - and is also used
in "Majutsu" or "Mahou," both of which mean magic: not necessarily evil
magic either, in fantasy anime! (Incidentally, "jutsu" = art, technique;
means, conjury, while "hou" = law.)
mono - object, thing
This may be the same as in "Bakemono," monster.
Youma: "ghost, apparition"
you - very young; infantile, childish
ma - (same kanji as in Mamono) demon, devil, evil spirit
<JWP crashes in the middle of this process>
Aw, nuts . . . ;.;
Granted that linguistics don't always bear much relationship to the real
meaning (didn't we have that discussion about word derivations and roots
some time back?) . . . but there is a difference.
Sorry for the extra spam, but I hope it was enlightening.
Tim Miller
trmiller@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us
Kanji Hunter Shachihoko Seikousen
Amateur Nihongo linguist/translator
Otaku at large - specializing in BGC, Slayers, assorted others
Author of the Shuriken Cycle (and various other works in progress)
"This is real life . . . it's not SUPPOSED to make sense!"