"Sailor Moon has given girls their own cartoon heroine, but does she have to be so ditzy?"
While her articles were well written, they were not well researched. On the cover of the Starweek TV Magazine that has the first article as the cover story it says:
"Over the Moon – Girls are crazy about Sailor Moon. Parents don't know whether to cheer or gag."
In the article; Louise complains about everything from the theme song to their weapons to even their personalities. In her complaint about the line: "Winning love by daylight" she says:
"Wait a minute: Winning love by daylight? What kind of mushball hero splits her time between chasing bad guys and chasing boys? ...Concerned mothers now are torn between cheering their daughters' new TV heroine and gagging at the boy-crazy whiner she often seems."
Despite what Ms. Brown thinks, Sailor Moon doesn't chase boys and she is not boy crazy. Her crush on Motoki is quite natural and believable, as he is always nice to her. She does give up on him, but a schoolgirl crush is something that viewers can relate to, so it is a sensible plot element. Later she falls for Tuxedo Mask, and learns that he is her soulmate. In the Japanese theme, the song is about Usagi's hidden crush on Mamoru. She repeatedly informs us that she enjoys his company, but she feels naïve and hopes for a "miracle romance."
After discovering that Mamoru is Tuxedo Mask; Usagi, Mamoru, and the girls remembered their past lives together. They remember that Mamoru was a prince from Earth (Prince Endymion) and that he was in love with, and engaged to, Princess Serenity (Sailor Moon's past identity). The Dark Kingdom attacked the Moon and the couple was killed. In her despair, Queen Serenity sent the couple, the senshi, and the guardian cats to be reincarnated in the future on Earth where she hoped they could live peacefully. The Senshi were revived by Luna and Artemis, the guardian cats, to protect the Earth from evil beings. Usagi's attraction to Mamoru is natural as they are soulmates.
Many people seem to complain that Sailor Moon is a whiny, unwilling hero. While I can understand that as an initial impression, Sailor Moon repeatedly shows the true nature of her character as a person who cares deeply for others and who will never hesitate to sacrifice her own safety to protect others if they are in serious danger. Throughout the series and movies, she repeatedly sacrifices herself (sometimes dying in the process) in order to save her friends.
Louise's thoughts on Tuxedo Mask:
"The shapely Sailor Scouts, as they're called, save the world from Nega-verse bad guys – unless the bad guys are too strong, and then they need help from Sailor Moon's boyfriend, Tuxedo Mask, whose arrival is heralded by a glowing red rose. And herein lies the problem with the show. Not only do these girls still need boys to bail them out (with Sailor Moon gasping "My hero!"...), but as human teens, they bicker about boys, homework and hair more like girls in a 30-year-old Archie comic than the feisty females we might wish."
Since when do the roses glow? There is often a glistening effect that is used to draw attention to his entrance; but this is a visual effect to make his entrance seem more dramatic. And Sailor Moon doesn't generally gasp that he's her hero, as though she needs to be saved by someone else. She is a classic example of an unwilling hero. She struggles for a long time with her new role as a saviour and protector, and in many episodes of the first season, it takes her a while to be confident enough in herself to fight back and triumph over the villains. Generally, Sailor Moon is quite shy around Tuxedo Mash in the first season, and does little more than thank him for his help when he's there.
Unfortunately, there was an early episode cut from the dub where Sailor Moon had to fight, unaided. She was encouraged by Luna to believe in herself and be confident, and to not rely on someone else saving her. This lesson would have been a great addition to the dubbed episodes, and it completely defeats the point that Ms. Brown was attempting to make. The heroines aren't one-dimensional characters who wait for a boy to save them, but it takes some of them longer to adjust to their new roles as soldiers than others.
Makoto/ Sailor Jupiter is the boy crazy one, and this repeatedly grates on the nerves of the other girls. This kind of reaction indicates that most of the characters find this to be an annoying personality trait. It does not suggest in any way that they all think they should spend a significant amount of time talking about boys. Homework discussions seem to be over-emphasized in the dub for comedic effect; and Amy/ Sailor Mercury seems to bring up the topic with unusual frequency. This is the result of changes made for the dub, the original is much more subtle when it comes to discussions of homework. But, the girls are students, so it's natural for it to be mentioned from time to time.
Where exactly are these complaints about hair? Usagi is teased about her signature hairstyle on occasion, but she doesn't complain that she dislikes her hair. And Minako/ Sailor Venus is known to have beautiful, shiny hair (and she's quite happy about that).
Suzanne Janak states:
"I have mixed feelings about the show. I've seen worse, and it's all in good fun. The way they come together as a team is good, and they're individuals, but I think what attracts the kids to the show is there's so much boy stuff. And there's not really that much else on TV for girls these days."
So much boy stuff? The majority of the villains are females. And there are few major male characters. This is a show about girls, for girls. Yes, girls will talk about boys sometimes; but it is definitely not a focus of the series. I'd like to know what evidence there is of this apparent plethora of "boy stuff" in this show.
Media critic Kealy Wilkinson, executive director of Canada's Alliance For Children And Television explains:
"Mothers across Canada have been phoning to say they're delighted about these new female protagonists. On the one hand, producers should be congratulated about an animated series about girl heroes, but it's too bad they haven't erased all the stereotypes. She's not nearly as empowering a girl super hero as we might expect."
If she wasn't that powerful, then why would she be needed to defeat the vast majority of villains? She has nearly and successfully killed herself (many times over) to save those she cares for most. So what if she's not your typical, "perfect" super-heroine? Her personality is what makes her more relatable and believable.
She likes to read comics and play video games, she's not the greatest at school, sometimes she's lazy, she loves to eat, and she can be whiny sometimes – but those are only a part of her personality. She's also brave, caring, trusting, loving, friendly, and believes that there is goodness within everyone.
When Makoto transferred schools, most students avoided her because of her reputation as a bully. But Usagi went right up to talk to her, unafraid. People are spooked by Rei's ability to tell fortunes, some think that Minako is a snob, and others think that Ami is just trying to show off her genius. But Usagi never followed the crowd, believing the rumours everyone else spread. She learned who these people were, as individuals. She befriended them. Not just because they have a shared mission as superheroes, but because she wanted to. Being accepting of others and discounting rumours are wonderful personality traits; the kind that I would love to see more kids emulate.
Sailor Moon is not the most graceful, nor the most intelligent – but she's got the biggest heart of all of them, and genuinely cares for each of them so much that she would sacrifice herself without a second thought to save them. That is truly heroic.
Nine year old Natalie Janak-Bailey says she likes the Senshi because:
"They're pretty and they have lots of power." Besides she also adds, "the show isn't violent. The villains just get turned into moondust."
This is a classic example of using a quotation simply because it agrees with your point. The problem here is that it is in no way representative of the general fan consensus.
In my experience, people like Sailor Moon for a variety of reasons, including:
- Quality animation
- Well thought-out, complex story line
- Relatable, realistic characters who show feelings and are not invincible
- Comedic value
The biggest problem that I see is the dub suffered a great deal of changes at because of what DiC wanted for the show, and flimsy attempts to add content that more obviously followed US television guidelines. That's what warped the show into the "kids stuff" in North America for the first two seasons. Many mistakes were made; tons of cuts, and altering the personalities of the characters to be more obvious and simplified. This is also due to mis-targeting a show intended for pre-teens and early teens to something that was safe and appealing to seven year olds.
The insanely boy crazy Jupiter, and excessively studious Mercury are the results of dub havoc. Yes, they get close to this in the originals, but the dub takes these characteristics way overboard! Honestly, what sane teenager would be ten chapters ahead in Math and worried about her grades?
They are sometimes suggestive in the Japanese version, with some hinted innuendo. Which makes sense because the characters are primarily teenagers, and this wasn't intended o be a show for young children. And violent scenes were often edited to be more kid-friendly. The dubs in the first two season degraded the show into something that became increasingly different from the original, and I can't enjoy watching them anymore. I'll stick to subtitled originals, thank you.
TV writer and media analyst Jill Golick calls the add on Sailor Moon Says:
"Cheesy. It would be better if they modeled those messages throughout the show, and not just in a do-good minute at the end."
I agree that the Sailor Moon Says segment is cheesy, but I also think it's pretty unnecessary. Many of these segments model the messages on parts of the show, to emphasize what should have been learned by watching the episode. This is similar to declaring the moral of a story after reading it. The purposes of the add on seems to be to remind people how easy it is to do good things, and depicts this with references to the show. But, from my research, it appears it was only added to meet US television requirements for children's entertainment and needed to have an "educational" portion. The problem is that most of the episodes had a moral built in, so the segment is largely unnecessary.
The TV show is no longer airing in North America. It was canceled in July (1996) on TBS. The show failed to catch on in the US like it did in Canada. Particularly because bad time slots failed to give it a chance. The last US station known to air the series was Cartoon Network. It aired longer in Canada, pretty much exclusively on YTV, multiple times a week.
The once crazy Sailor Moon hype has died down to nothingness. There was too much of a gap between translating the original 65 (seasons one and two) and the next 17 (the end of the R season), and even worse was the gap between that and the S season. The rights in North America expired years ago, and fans in Canada and the US alike miss the episodes and the manga. All we hear are rumours about why the series is out of print here, and no indication that we'll ever see it come back legally.
With 200 TV episodes, 3 movies, and some specials aired in Japan, the anime series started running in 1992, based on the comic books Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon drawn by former pharmacist Naoko Takeuchi. The series has long since ended, but you don't have to look far to still find Sailor Moon fans.
Randall Zalken, president of Kaleidoscope Entertainment (the distributing factor in Canada for the dub). The English language version of the show was originally produced by DiC Entertainment (a US company), but translated in Toronto with Canadian actors. He explains:
"We're trying to think of creative ways to finance dubbing more episodes and we're still optimistic we'll have new episodes to roll out before the end of the calendar year." (1996)
Extra dubs weren't made in 1996, but I'm sure fans would have liked to have the chance to help.
Zalken defends Sailor Moon by explaining that her whining is human vulnerability that creates not only a
"Sense of jeopardy that is necessary for drama, but lets kids know it's okay to be afraid."
I agree with Zalken's point here. Sailor Moon may whine, but it certainly adds a sense of realism to her character. Besides, at only fourteen, she represents an average girl who gets thrown into the superhero routine. Putting on a costume doesn't make you perfect, and she's certainly not afraid to let her true personality show. She is an unwilling hero at first, but she always comes through, giving it her all to save the day.
In 1996, more than 18,000 viewers on both sides of the US-Canadian border had signed the once popular cyber-petition called Save Our Sailors (SOS). SOS soon went steadily downhill, earning themselves the reputation of an extremely unreliable source, and have come to be the thorn in the side of real Sailor Moon fans after they spread misinformation about the characters of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune.
Still, the Internet offers a number of sites designed by Sailor Moon fans. And speaking as the webmistess of this site, I can say that I've only seen the traffic of this site increase over the years. The fandom is definitely very much alive.
Sailor Moon is one of Ms. Takeuchi's most popular and well-loved series. It continues to have a fairly steady fan base; which, although not near the original ecstatic amount, is still more than a lot of series can say for themselves.
The S season and Super S season dubs were distributed by Cloverwei, which did an astoundingly better job at making the English dubs than DiC. Whether the Sailor Stars season will eventually be dubbed by them with the current format is hard to tell, but probably unlikely due to problems they may encounter in regards to characters and nudity.
A.D. Vision Films and Geneon (formerly Pioneer) also released the Sailor Moon series uncut, in subtitled format, on DVD. These videos are out of print and no longer available. The only videos available for sale now are second hand or illegal bootlegs.
The fandom continues, but it looks like we have to wait until the original license holders of Sailor Moon decide to allow the series to be distributed in North America again, before we can see it more widely and legally available. Until then, fans will definitely be scouring the Internet to find ways to re-watch the episodes and enjoy a little nostalgia.