Tag Archives: sailor moon

Final Influence

Within the American cartoon world, there has always been cartoons that don’t show enough female representation. If there is female representation, it is either societies overexageration of feminity or the representation is  very far and few. Throughout the 1990′s, most cartoons had a predominantly male cast with one to four (if we are lucky) different female characters. The lack of representation doesn’t lie within just cartoons but throughout our modern American pop culture.

Cartoons are a thing made predominantly for children but just because it’s catered toward children, it doesn’t mean that cartoons are not important to the development of a child’s brain. Cartoons are one of the first things a tiny human being is going to see. It is important from a young age to teach girls that they ARE strong. That they don’t need to be rescued like their Disney princess counterparts.

Forgive me for incorporating Beyonce into this, seeing as Beyonce doesn’t have much to do with anime, but I wanted to quote the woman who was featured in her most recent song “Flawless” and I am going to use this lens as a way to compare the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her lecture “We Should All Be Feminists” with Sailor Moon.

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.” 

What Sailor Moon has taught me was to NOT make myself small. This show was one of the first in which it told me that I can be just as strong as any boy because Sailor Moon and her female soldiers were risking their lives and the safety of the world rested on THEIR shoulders and no one else’s. They fought battles on a daily basis and received cuts and bruises like none other, and even to the point of taking on missions where they KNEW that they were most likely going to be killed, yet they went into the mission with their heads held up high and came out victorious.

“We say to girls, ”you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man”

One of Sailor Mercury’s biggest dream was to be the best doctor in the world. When she wasn’t fighting crimes, she was constantly studying and always made sure to never forget her studies because she understood that in order to be a successful doctor, one needs the best education that they can get. With this dream of hers, no one ever questioned her gender. Not even the men that would rarely appear on the show, as a matter of fact, most of the men applauded her brains and her effort.

Tuxedo Mask is the only male character who is featured as a main character and while this character occasionally helps with missions, more often than not, he turns out to be the damsel in distress and Sailor Moon has to save him quite often. He never questions his masculinity either and instead is grateful for the Sailor Soldiers in helping him.

“Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important.”

Shows will always have some sort of layer of problems. It’s really  hard to avoid and to try and please everyone is sometimes impossible. I am more than happy to admit that Sailor Moon does push for an aspiration towards marriage whereas the other shows produced for young boys during that time did not have the same message. Yet there are other characters in this show like Mercury, Uranus and Neptune et cetera who do not have the same aspirations as the other soldiers do to marriage.

“We raise girls to see each other as competitors, not for jobs or for accomplishments which I think can be a good thing. But for the attention of men.”

I couldn’t agree more. In Sailor Moon S, with the introduction of Neptune and Uranus, everyone is competing to find the “purest soul” and it’s either for  themselves or for the safety of the world. Very rarely does this show showcase the soldiers fighting for the attention of a man, and on the occasion that this does happen, it is always featured in a fill-in episode and is not of huge importance to the major plot of any season.

I know for some people they find shows like Sailor Moon disgusting and that it showcases underage girls wearing school girl uniforms with their panties flashing and over-sized breasts but I feel as though this is a very shallow way of viewing this show in particular and other cartoon shows that might feature something similar to the Magical Girl fgenre. Sailor Moon was catered specifically for young girls. Not for men (although all are welcome to watch). This may seem like a harsh opinion but for me it is the men who take a show as innocent as this and make it into a pedophiliac fantasy. I say this because I identify as a feminist, and I have the right to behave however I want, I have the right to wear whatever I want and I do not want to live my life where I am constantly being policed on how I behave simply because I am a woman and Sailor Moon has played a major role in my influencing who I am and what I stand for today.

Sailor Moon is more than just school girl uniforms, it’s about strength, and the unity that comes with friendships. This show is devised of an assortment of characters and all of them are very different from each other, but instead of focusing negatively on their differences, they utilize that difference and work together to overcome either the antagonist or conquering something within their own personal lives. This is so important for the development of a young girl in this modern age. There are more cartoons with the damsel in distress trope than there are of empowered women in cartoons. Don’t even get me started on the lack of women of color in cartoons. (As a side note, because I don’t want to get too heavily into this but just to let everyone know, Sailor Moon is not white.)

In conclusion, shows like Sailor Moon has influenced our pop culture in the United States. With shows like The Powerpuff Girls, or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic  it is very obvious to me on how these shows connect with each other. Whether its the Powerpuff Girls fighting crime or the My Little Pony gang coming together in building a strong friendship despite their differences.

Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune <3

The time has come to explore this side of Sailor Moon. This is the side of Sailor Moon that most fans are aware of but I wanted to bring some light to those who may not be as big of fan as Sailor Moon as I or others might be.

Ah yes the long awaited topic on the homosexual couple in the Sailor Moon series. Let me give you some back info here, so in “Sailor Moon S” we are introduced to some new characters Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaio (Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune) who are genius high school students who excel in the actitivies they are passionate in and are ALWAYS together. These characters are known to the Sailor gang as just the most beautiful people they know.

Neptune and Uranus

When we see the characters first appearance out of fighting uniform, Haruka (blonde, short hair) is wearing a boys school uniform and refers to themselves with ‘he’ pronouns.The Sailor crew and the audience go wild for him! Then, it’s revealed that Haruka is actually biologically female and this completely shocks the crew but for how long? Literally a few minutes and then Haruka’s gender is pretty much never mentioned again. The unfortunate side here though is that even though Haruka prefers to wear mens clothing and refers to himself with male pronouns, when he transforms into a Sailor Soldier, he is put into the same uniform as the rest of the soldiers. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable he felt wearing that. :(

The relationship between Haruka and Michiru in the Japanese version only hints to the two’s intimate relationship with each other. We never see them kiss, but they profess quite a few times the type of love they feel for each other and even showing jealousies towards other women or men who flirt with them.

So, how did their relationship change when brought over to America?

LET’S MAKE THEM COUSINS INSTEAD!

*headdesk*

Dark blue states represents legal first cousin marriage

Well when you think about it, that makes sense to change a homosexual relationship into an incestial relationship because marriage by incest is legal in more states than marriage by same sex. Still though, a lot of young kids who were watching the American version scratched their head at this because if these two were cousins then they were REALLY, REALLY into each other and in my opinion, that made me MORE uncomfortable than the version I was watching from Japan.

Cousin Marriage source

Magical Girl Anime: Powerpuff Girls!

On November 18th, 1998 The Powerpuff Girls officially debuted on Cartoon Network in America. I remember being wickedly excited for this because FINALLY there was a show that had three girls as the protagonists and they were super heroes! Doesn’t this sound familiar?

PPG

Sailor Moon!

So not only was Powerpuff Girls a huge hit in the states, by no surprise, it also became very popular in Japan as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Unfortunately the day came where the Powerpuff Girls was cancelled over here. However, I don’t think Japan was ready to let go of them yet so what did animators in Japan do?

Powerpuff Girls Z!

That’s right. They went ahead and made their OWN version of Powerpuff Girls. Renamed it to “Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z” (which roughly translated means “They Appeared! The Powerpuff Girls Z!’) and they totally added the missing ingredient that the American version did not use. In the American version, the Powerpuff Girls are just always strong, they were born that way. In the Japanese version however, it’s very hard to make an anime about super strong girls and NOT give them the most famous ingredient in the formula that is magical girl animes: THE TRANSFORMATION SCENE.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You hear a lot about anime within our culture that Japan has imported over to us but the cultural exchange happens with some successful cartoon shows being brought back over there and in this case, taking and making it their own thing. I really love this exchange.

Original v.s. U.S. version: Opening

For this entry I am going to talk about the differences in the Japanese and American ‘Sailor Moon’ theme song.

Obviously we will start with the Japanese version. In the Japanese version, the theme song is actually called “Moonlight Densetsu” which translates to “Moonlight Legend”. So this version I am posting right now is the English translation of the original Japanese song. The video I have provided for you is the first season opening of the show with the original Japanese lyrics:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m sorry, I’m not honest
I can say it in my dreams
My thoughts are about to short circuit
I want to be with you right now

The moonlight makes me want to cry
I can’t even call, it’s midnight
But I’m so innocent, what should I do
My heart’s a kaleidoscope

We are lead by the light of the moon
We meet by chance again and again
The countless shining stars above us foretell love’s whereabouts
Born on the same Earth
A miracle romance

So, reading the lyrics, the song doesn’t explain a whole lot about what this show is going to be about. It’s pretty subtle and if you are a big fan of Sailor Moon, you can see in certain parts of the song that there are some hints of what the shows basic premise will be like. Overall, I think this song is really beautiful and I love that it sings about inner conflict and feeling lost, yet having the opportunity to meet with someone again and how basically we are all human beings.

Now, let’s take a look at the American opening and lyrics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fighting evil by moonlight
winning love by daylight
Never running from a real fight!
She is the one named Sailor Moon!
She will never turn her back on a friend
She is always there to defend
She is the one on whom we can depend
She is the one named Sailor….
Sailor Venus!
Sailor Mercury!
Sailor Mars!
Sailor Jupiter!
With secret powers
All so new to her
She is the one named Sailor Moon

Fighting evil by moonlight
Winning love by daylight
With her Sailor Scouts to help fight
She is the one named Sailor Moon
She is the one named Sailor Moon
She is the one . . . Sailor Moon!

Wait… Who is this song about? What’s her name?

As you can see and hear, the American version of the song and the opening animations alone have changed a lot from the original version. Obviously the biggest change we hear is that the American lyrics are much, much more straight forward. They really throw in our faces that Sailor Moon is our protagonist and even introduce the supporting characters, when in the first episode, the supporting characters are not even there, we don’t even get to find out their names until later episodes. The song alone sounds a lot more like a rock and roll song with the addition of an electric guitar solo in the middle of it. (WHHHHYYYYY???)

As far as what the eyes see,  they use the ‘Star War’s opening with the words flying backgrounds that is not included in the Japanese version (and really those words seem so unnecessary.) Then sprinkled about in the opening, they started showing actual clips from the show with a very colorful 90′s background. They show all of the characters that will be introduced in season one as well, which to me takes away the magic of the unveiling of the different cast members and yes, I understand that in the Japanese opening they show Sailor Mercury and Mars but with no real implication of who they are or what “element” they will be based off of. Sailor Moon is an incredibly repetitive show, but when they throw in episodes of introducing new characters or new major enemies, it makes up for it’s repetitiveness.

Another thing that the American version does is it takes away is the excitement for the transformation sequence by showing it in the theme song. In the first episode, when Sailor Moon first transforms, it’s kind of a huge deal! Then after that, you really don’t wanna see the transformation sequence anymore because they’re gonna start using it in every episode. With the American version, I will now be somewhat forced to watch that transformation sequence again and again and again. The transformation sequence is what makes the “Magical Girl” genre (in my opinion). Below I have embedded a video of Sailor Moon’s first transformation sequence that she ever did and yes, that is a talking cat. The video underneath that is the American version.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(I will most likely further discuss the transformation sequence at another time.)

Lastly, my other issue is that not only do they show Sailor Moon’s most powerful weapon in this season (the Crescent Moon Rod) but they also show her DEFEATING the main antagonist of the show! This opening song is FILLED with spoilers!

Overall, I’m sure it’s obvious which one I prefer, but remember, I am more than happy to admit that I am bias. The Japanese ‘Sailor Moon’ is what I was raised on, that’s not to say I didn’t watch the American version! I was happy to! I know that there are a lot of other girls who were raised on this show and hold the American version near and dear to their heart and that is great! I’m not trying to start some sort of war on which version is better, you have your opinions and I have mine.

 

SailorPuff Girls!

Powerpuff girls and Sailor Moon!

I really want to tell you all everything there is to know about how shows like Sailor Moon influenced shows in the U.S. but I have a lot of excitement for this topic and it’s something that I want to talk more about potentially in Week 9 so I am going to hold back as much as I can in this entry.

Nik Holmes is the artist behind this image and it was available on Tee Fury for only 24 hours! I am so incredibly sad that I missed this deal! 

In case you don’t know what this image is referencing, it was a cross between the famous 1998 show by Craig McCracken’s ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ that debuted on Cartoon Network featuring three young girls who saved the world and kicked butt! This image also includes my obsession: Sailor Moon! So you can already see here how a show like Sailor Moon that premiered in Japan (and in the U.S. but that’s another post) influenced American cartoon shows by having an all butt kicking female cast!

 

Yessss! New Sailor Moon merch from Bandai

Chibi Moon, Sailor Uranus, and Sailor Neptune accessories. Heck yeah!

Bandai has been on such a kick with the amazing Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary merch that is being released. From information I have gathered it seems like you can only buy it in Japan. Not that it’s surprising, a lot of other great merchandise has been released only in Japan.

Their merchandising has been really important for Sailor Moon fans because everything that is being released seems to be incredibly high quality and made for people in their 20′s and not for children. Also, the people who are responsible for the new Sailor Moon series has remained incredibly hush hush about what to expect from the new series. There hasn’t even been any art that has been released as to what the animation will look like and so the merchandise seems to helping us Sailor Moon fans remain calm.