Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Cartoon Chatter | Sailor Moon



You can say that my introduction to anime began with Sailor Moon. I was a fan of the Sailor Senshi—or Sailor Scouts for you folks who watched this show in the US—particularly Sailor Mercury. Even though about ten minutes of the show was taken over by transformations, I watched it like a fiend. Oh, I forgot to mention that I watched this in German, not the awful American screeching that passed as a voiceover. 


You can ask me what is good about Sailor Moon. Well, to be honest, I had to do a bit of research to remind myself of what Sailor Moon was actually about, and it's not too pretty. It is a "genius" tale about the reincarnation of the moon princess into the ditzy and annoying high-schooler Usagi Tsukino (Serena in the US, Bunny in German). With the help of the talking cat Luna, Usagi has to reawaken the other Sailor Senshi so they can save the world—and then the universe. Somewhere along the way, Chibiusa (Chibi + Usagi mashup which basically means mini or little Usagi) appears—the child of the Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask from the future (confusing, I know)—and she ends later ends up being a villain during one story arc.


Somehow, you end up with all of the planets (Sailor Pluto, you can no longer exist today) and the gender bending Sailor Starlights—men at first, but women for real. Basically, this show completely messed with my mind. Maybe I subconsciously don't like it even though I really enjoyed watching good prevail over evil in true magical girl fashion (a genre that Sailor Moon revolutionized). They fought evil in killer boots/heels and wore makeup (notice the fingernail polish, the lipstick...they were so fashionable). 





But you owe it to yourself to watch a few episodes of Sailor Moon. This manga and anime seriously did open a gateway to additional magical girl shows—a few of which I will be bringing up in the coming weeks. I'm sure that the internet provides a few ways to watch some episodes free. I would suggest skipping the American dubbed version. They censor parts of the story and the voices are truly terrible.


Did you ever watch Sailor Moon? Favorite Sailor Senshi?

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