To start things off, I'll be posting a mini-series within a series: Viva la Mahou Shoujo. And of course, when I talk magical girls, there's one series I always come back to...
So if you’ve been following me
by now on any relevant port of social media I keep, you might know that I’m a
little obsessed over Sailor Moon.
Okay, maybe a lot obsessed.
It’s been fun trying to wrestle
my feels down into something coherent for an audience, but it helps that –
though I adore magical girl series on the whole – it was Sailor Moon that made
me feel why the trope is so powerful, important and enduring.
Let’s begin with my own
personal Sailor Moon story. Every 90’s girl seems to have one, after all. Mine
is, alas, not heavy on the usual dashing about in a self-made cosplay outfit,
geeking out over fanfiction and loading up on whatever merchandise was
available (though, believe me, if I didn’t have a present, albeit strained,willpower, I’d be quickly rectifying that).
I actually watched a good
handful of Sailor Moon’s English dub (ah, valley girl Usagi…I wish I could say
you were missed), was mildly intrigued and then left off for perceived new
horizons – a.k.a. making a nuisance over myself by proselyting Studio Ghibli to
any captive listener I had, which I will never regret, thank you very much.
If anything, these past few
years have been the majority of my newfound Sailor Moon experience and
adoration, and though I regret not watching them when I was younger, I know
that I needed them just as much now as a late teenager and into my post-teenage
years.
Which leads into the first
reason I adore Sailor Moon – it is one of the few shows that I can honestly and
truly say that I feel is feminist and girl empowering without worrying about dismissing or ignoring problematic material (and of course, there might be something I'm forgetting here, so feel free to set me straight if you feel the need).
We all know that there’s a war
on teenage girls (unless, of course, you’re not a girl and am one of those
annoying people who are waging said war on teenage girls while insisting that
you aren’t doing anything of the sort).
Everything we love, or loved,
is trite, overdone – or else underdone.
It’s cliché, it’s soppy, it’s –
quelle horror – a chick flick.
By subjecting yourself to a
fandom predominantly cultivated by teenage girls, you’ve lowered your IQ and
your self-respect. You’re buying into a trend. You’re going along with
something no one else likes.
You’re undermining politically correct expectations on what you should be reading and dumbing yourself down in the process. (And mark this as the first and last time I cite a YA
click bait article as evidence for anything than the existence of a joy police
in this world.)
Usagi is a teenage girl at war
with more than vicious energy vampires. She struggles over her weight, her
tears, struggles with her grades and is in a relationship but it’s (very)
complicated.
 |
| Usagi in action. |
She is nearly everything I was
at thirteen, believe it or not. I remember crying over nearly everything – over
stress, the unfolding nightmare that was my high school experience, about the
fact that one of my best friends was miles away in the city and another (soon
to be ex best friend) was overseas and the one that would give me a reprieve in
the form of introducing me to blogging and bolstering my creative
self-confidence didn’t even know I existed yet.
(And vice versa, to be fair.)
Thirteen-year-old Kaye needed
to know that there were other girls, other story lines, that were as fraught as
her life was at that point. Sometimes, I regret that she didn’t have Usagi when
she needed her.
But she does now.
And so many other girls do.
 |
| Always looking out for her girls. |
To me – barring some issues
with representation and economic background – the Sailor Scouts could be taken
as archetypical teenage girls. We might not all have a rocking transformation
sequence or a well-done catchphrase on our first try or win our demons over
once and for all – if ever, if any of them…
But we all have heart. It takes
courage and fortitude to live as a teenage girl, in this world, in these
bodies. It takes a tough spirit and steel nerves and bird bones that we ourselves
might underestimate but can pierce a man through if he dares to try and crush
us between his fingers.
We’re resilient. We keep
fighting.
Teenage girls really aren’t
ever given enough credit. And Sailor Moon, to me, tries to pay back what they,
what we, were and continue to be due. It acknowledges the daily battlefields that
we keep treading and the inner struggles within the Pandora’s box of a still
developing soul.
It is so refreshing to have a
series that gives agency to our inner strengths – that you can be in pain, you
can be frightened, you can hunger for something beyond your reach, and still
rear up like a lioness for your friends, do what needs to be done and push
yourself beyond your own self-deprecation and doubts.
And now that I’ve embarrassed
myself thoroughly by waxing poetic (and very badly at that), on to the next
reason why I adore Sailor Moon so deeply.
The friendships.
I’m a girl who survived high
school because of the girls I had surrounding me. They were my confidantes,
kept me firm on my path and not freaking out over the little things like SAT
scores and wearing the right thing to big wedding parties and the fate of the world as we know it
(just, you know, the little things), so…yes, I also have a lot of feels about
friends, good friends, and the way they weigh you down and keep you secure.
There is so much to love about
each of the Sailor Scouts and how they put their hand out for their friend when
it’s needed. I mean, they might argue, they might get petty, they might not
agree with every decision – but they still have that bond and they literally
put that bond over whatever else might come their way.
It’s just that theme around the
power of love, and it not just being the bond between Usagi and Mamoru (though
you know I’m not complaining about that). I always adore stories that celebrate
sisterhood and close friendships and how they blossom and bear up under
tribulations.
And speaking of Mamoru – can I
just say how refreshing it is to have an awesome, loveable male counterpart who
dashes in, sweeps everyone off their feet…and then literally doesn’t do much
else?
(Okay, so, he throws a rose. He
offers confidence and encouragement. And then, particularly in the first few
episodes, he just steps back and lets Sailor Moon do what he has to do.)
He is like the perfect love
interest to me because he doesn’t barge in and go, “Ha ha! It is I, the man you
have been waiting for! Conveniently swoon into my arms while I take care of
things for you.”
 |
| Presented without context. |
(Well, I don’t think any love
interest actually speaks like that outside of a really corny, really bad spoof.
But you get the idea.)
Exhibit A, right here:
Rock on, Tuxedo Mask. Rock. On.
So, now that I’ve rambled on
and on and on (if you’ve ever been fortunate – or not – to receive an e-mail
from me on anything other than strict business, you probably know that I have
the habit of unnecessary parentheses, unexpected trains of thought and the
occasional irrelevant tangent) – now for the fun part.
Who is Kaye’s favorite Sailor
Scout?
Well, if you follow me
elsewhere, you probably know the answer to this. But if you don’t…
Have you heard the good word
about Sailor Mercury?
 |
| Isn't she lovely? |
I mean, come on. You really don’t
know me if you don’t think I wouldn’t choose the awesome, beautiful, serious
about her books and her studies and definitely tech-savvy Ami to be my patron
Sailor Scout. What’s not to like about a girl who adores research and the
written word?
(The answer is nothing. There’s
nothing that’s not to like.)
The reviews are in on Sailor Moon: You need to see it. You won’t regret it. It’s not too late
to become a fan. It’s never too late to suddenly decide that after all these
years, Sailor Mercury is your absolute favorite Sailor Scout.
Yes? Yes?
Well, it was worth a try.
ETA: I just realized that the
majority of this feature focuses on classic Sailor Moon, and there’s a reason
for that. I still haven’t gotten around to seeing Crystal.
The main reason for
this is that I’m doing a rewatch of the classic series and I’m not even doing a
good job of that due to a certain K-drama you might hear about later on in this
series (shush, you, I know it’s not an anime).
If you’ve watched it, spare me
the spoilers but you can definitely pop your predictions for what I might think
or need to expect in the comments.
So, what’s your take on Sailor Moon? Is there another mahou
shoujo anime you’d like to see my take on in the coming weeks of this
mini-series within a series?
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