Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Sailor Moon
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LydiaDianne
Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Absolutely loved the article! Thank you thank you thank you!
Add me to the MANY people who got turned onto anime/manga because of Sailor Moon. Channel surfing and stumbled across it on Cartoon Network and pretty much because instantly hooked. I have the ADV sub-only release of the first season and R. Damn near trampled people stampeding to the Suncoast booth at Anime Expo that year to get it too! But, I was disappointed in the sound quality of it. As for the manga, I have every volume. I'm a bit afraid to touch them much because some of them are a bit fragile. So add me to the group of people that SOMEONE will re-release the manga as well as the anime. I really don't care if it's sub-only...just as long as it has a MUCH better sound quality to it. As for a dub version...well, I would like to hear all new voices. Some that were originally used just weren't all that great. BTW - Toei didn't make Zoicite a woman...that decision was made in the US because they didn't want moms to freak out over two guys being lovers. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14872 |
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In fact, it's because you're watching Sailor Moon that gets you turned on. As the Barenaked Ladies sang, it's "got the boom anime babes that makes [you] think the wrong thing." |
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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CCS comment aside (That's a whole can of worms where we could go any way with which audience CLAMP was pandering to with CCS) Sailor Moon could be extremely feminist depending on what your definition of feminism is, and what branch of feminism you're going for. If you take a step back and look at the Sailor Moon universe, the women in Sailor Moon are never held back because of their gender, they rule because they are female. Men do not have the power in that world, it's total female domination. Outside of Tuxedo Mask, any men that usually do show up are some sort of bad guy trying to trick the girls to some degree, and the girls deal with it. Tuxedo Mask himself is useless, and doesn't really have any power of his own, all he does is sprout flowery words. The girls never need men, never have to depend on them (though Usagi's relationship with Mamoru is the exception, love makes that girl strong be it with him or based on the relationship with everyone else). The men in Sailor Moon are living in a girl's world, under girl's rules. It's the ultimate feminist dream, an answer to "what if woman ruled the world" (Neo-Tokyo for the win). Or it's a nightmare if you see it as defeating the purpose of feminism when the sexes are not equal; the total reverse of a man's world with woman ruling all, and men standing to the side as arm candy. Then you have the earlier definition of feminism - that of "the qualities of females", and all throughout Sailor Moon the girls never lose what make them women (unlike the example brought up with Claymore where everyone is pretty much a brainwashed, emotionless husk of a soldier who I suspect have had their uterus' removed). The girls of Sailor Moon are still girls/women. They never lose their gentleness, love, or care for appearance, and Usagi is the ultimate creator/mother; creating peace, spreading love and the ultimate nurturing force. The fact that they use beauty products is a bit of a conundrum depending on which branch of feminism you're going with, but I find it as an amusing little quirk because I don't see beauty products as a shackle put on us by males, but by woman, and there's nothing wrong with looking the best you can be. I also always looked at their "make-up" transformation as a way to hide their true identities from their enemies, like Clark Kent with his glasses. With that though brings up the short skirts and the question of objectifying the female body. Do guys find it sexy? Sure. Should the girls cover themselves up with pants instead? If we go down this road, we might as well go the 60s/70s feminism route; we should take away bras while we're at it, but if we do that we're possibly objectifying the girls even more because guys will be able to notice the form of nipples. Females will always have the ability to turn on a guy no matter what they do, but we're not about to go cover ourselves with Burkas because of basic instinct on the male side of our race. I personally never thought feminism meant I had to hide what god gave me, and that I couldn't use it either. If the male gender is distracted by it during a fight, more power to those girls. That in itself can be a form of feminism. |
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Danette-Anime-Otaku
Posts: 115 |
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Sailor Moon was the series that got me into anime. Being a girl and all I wasn't into the Shounen fighting DBZ at the time and it was nice to watch a show with a girl focus. It's amazing how in America in the past three decades how most everything seems to be aimed at male audiences and not so much to female audiences. It would be nice to see more of the magical girl anime aired on TV in the US but any anime that does air is always pretty shounen obsessed.
But when it comes down to it I like the series for the reason I like any other anime series: enjoyable characters, enjoyable story, and nice animation/artwork. I would love to see the manga re-released in right-to-left. And since it has been a long time the anime last aired, it would be great if they could release it with a whole new translation while keeping the original Japanese names for our first five heroines (changing the names to is a pet peeve of mine) |
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jr240483
Posts: 4427 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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That's odd? How could the US have any influence when it was Toei that have the original right to the series. However it's like what we were trying to say , that gender edit had to be made cause of the backlash it would have bring. Was also the same senario when it came to the new senshi since it would be the same backlash over two girls being lovers too. In those days people were very very harsh when it came to content over gays and lesbians , so though those edits pissed off a lot of hardcore otakus , better that than have those parental advocates calling out bloody murder. |
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B-503_MIA
Posts: 149 Location: Green Bay, WI |
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My then future wife & I got sucked in by the show by accident, I had set up my VCR to tape Reboot on Toonami & misread the preview guide & wound up with a week full of Sailor Moon... We said "screw it" & watched it anyway even though it wasn't what we intended to watch. We got drawn in by the relationships & some of the most endearing characters we'd ever seen in a "cartoon", the action wasn't bad either for a show "for girls".
After we married & had our first child, the R movie premiered on CN the day after she was born & we all watched it in the hospital. Being a new daddy, I kind of went goofy with that moment & got it in my head to start collecting SM stuff for her. Started with the dvds, then dolls & toys, the manga, etc... Got a pretty sizable collection of stuff (of varying value) that I maybe should post pix of to Shelf Life (once it's got some form of organization) Got a feeling a comeback in the English-speaking world isn't far off, they are making new merch for the first time in years (the Italian stuff is pretty nice) which is good to see... I got a good laugh from the bit in the article about Toby Proctor calling the fan, funny stuff. Job well done, Jason! |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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Interesting post, and I have to admit, what you said has swayed me a bit. I wasn't meaning to define feminism in a "butch" brand as presented in Claymore, but I felt that in the first season or so, Sailor Moon wasn't overtly really feminist in its concept yet. Usagi hadn't yet fully formed the hard-printed ideals that she displayed in Sailor Moon S, where you could argue that she had even become a bit stubborn in her individual beliefs (which to me was the season that really made me start to appreciate her as a character as well, as she began to go with her own opinions more often instead of agreeing with everyone else all the time). Also, Tuxedo Mask did still bail her out on many occasions in the first 2.5 seasons. But by season 5 I can definitely see the series as a whole as being more in line with what you have posted here. I remember a lot of wannabe feminist scholars back in the day were analyzing the show based on the first season, and while I disagreed with many of them, I did agree with the notion that Usagi herself was still a bit half-formed in the early seasons, which sort of muddied the feminist argument for the show a bit. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14872 |
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Because when it comes down to Neilsen ratings, girls don't watch TV! Seriously, the last equivalent of shoujo on American TV is W.I.T.C.H., and many girls don't even know about it. |
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DTJB
Posts: 671 Location: Dubuque, IA |
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Hmm, good point. She was just the first of her type that really stood out for me.
The otaku in me wants to interject. Tuxedo Mask actually gains his own projectile attack in the manga, making him a bit stronger than his anime counterpart. |
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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Part of me wants Vertical to finally give the Pretty Guardian print of the manga the US release it really deserves but I've given up on Sailor Moon geting anything close to the respect it actually deserves in the pantheon of Gateway Drug anime.
For the millionth piece of robotech drech that gets paped out, Sailor Moon's going to get burdened with another million Legal flusterclucks. It's a shame too, I'd think Sailor Moon could do with a "Kai" re-imagining but given that even DBKai couldn't last until the end, that doesn't bode well for anything desperate for a redo.
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Hellfish
Posts: 391 Location: Mexico |
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Sailor Moon was probably the first manga I bought, I do still have it, 3 volumes from spain and al Super S and Stars from the mexican edition. (Also out of print)
It was very feminist if you consider the time it came out, and by feminism I don't mean female domination, Mamoru wasn't useless in the manga and had a more equal relationship but many of the guys working in the anime (Ikuhara among them if I am right) didn't like him and that is why he got relegated to the sidelines.
Because the first season kind of sucked and by the time Greg Weisman came to do something about it was just too late. The comic did well in many countries though. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14872 |
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I disagree, but Greg Weisman of Gargoyles fame still did improve on it. Girls just don't watch TV, so they only have themselves to blame. Did you know it even had a manga (and by that, I don't mean a Japanese translation of the Western comics)? |
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Hellfish
Posts: 391 Location: Mexico |
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Sound just like a true tv executive, careful you may start balding and think of which fox series would be better to cancel next
Yeah I saw many of the pictures, Luba became a normal catgirl and Taranee looks way better on it, and strangely enough Irma wasn't made more buxom O.o I guess it was the demographics. I still find it interesting that while shojo seems banished from tv on th states, it seems to do well on manga. Guess that is what girls do with all the time the do not spend watching tv or maybe not. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14872 |
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Nah, then I'd be cancelling shows with niche following that become a hit in another channel plus DVDs and so forces me to make more episodes again. That or Foxcaflowne.
I thought they sexified the already sexy series even more. I used to have the official link to it and posted it in forums, but I don't think the link works anymore.
Watch where you step; the manga cows are grazing. |
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LydiaDianne
Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Jason,
You are going to have to change the first sentence! I am TOTALLY giving you credit for the fact that Kodashana has finally gotten off their collective butts and are re-releasing the series. Now, can you write an article about the anime series? Pretty please! |
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