Let me ask you a question, how did your first anime make you feel?
It can be a bit of a difficult question to answer I know, but it’s an answer that I
think we all at some point need to find.
Did you enjoy your first anime?
Did you get excited while watching it?
Did that eventually lead into hours and hours of watching other shows attempting to recapture
that same kind of excitement?
Or was it just the beginning that lead to experiences far greater?
I have been watching anime for a long time, and it wasn’t until I reached High School
I was even able to fully understand what anime was.
In High School anime was the cool thing, it was this different kind of entertainment that
was unique from other cartoons that I would watch.
I would get enamored with the stories, the characters, and the artwork.
I would listen to the music for hours on end, making AMV’s in my free time, and I would
spend all my spare money on DVD’s that would one day fill my shelf.
But even High School, happened long after I watched my first anime.
My first, was watched when I was barely out of kindergarten.
It is a series I have a great amount of nostalgia and respect for, because it is my belief that
it helped to not only shape my tastes in anime, but also myself as a person.
So today, in what is going to be 200th Review, I wanted to take some time to talk about my
first anime.
So, Ladies, Gentlemen, and others, my name is Arkada and today on Glass Reflection:
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.
Let’s Jam.
If you have somehow been living under a rock, and have never before heard the name Sailor
Moon mentioned before... well first I would honestly want to know how you managed such a feat.
Not even talking about this show’s impact in Japan, its influence here in the west during
the 90’s is nothing to scoff at, so to have never heard of it that would be an achievement.
But if that is indeed the case, allow me to quickly summarize what Sailor Moon is about.
Sailor Moon is the story of a 14 year old girl named Usagi.
One day after saving a cat in a parking lot, the cat A) reveals that she can talk and B)
grants Usagi the power to turn into the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon to fight for love and
justice against the evil Dark Kingdom and its monsters.
Over the course of 46 episodes in its first out of five seasons, Usagi soon finds others
with similar powers who team up as the Sailor Scouts to SAAAAAVVVEEEEEEEE the world.
I find it hard to talk about how good the series is because of its age.
This show started to air in Japan in early 1992, its first episodes were playing on Japanese
televisions before I ever celebrated my 2nd birthday.
So I would not be wrong in saying this series is good, but I can also point and compare
everything it does to modern day and if I wanted to explain why the series is crap I
could.
So actually no, let’s do that, let’s be evil for a moment and explain why Sailor Moon
is a crap show.
First of, it’s a repetitive formulaic monster of the week show.
Almost every episode of the original Sailor Moon fits into a formula that gets repeated
ad nasum for 40+ episodes.
So here is how almost every episode of the show plays out.
First usually, the episode starts with the current evil general of that arc explaining
to someone, usually their queen, of how they have this new plan that will not fail to bring
energy to the dark kingdom and or defeat Sailor Moon once and for all.
Usagi then gets a minor scene with one or more of the scouts talking about some new
store or service that recently opened in town that everyone is going to (feel free to replace
the scouts with Usagi’s two classmates Naru or Umino at this point if the scouts haven’t
been introduced yet).
Usagi then ends up meeting character of the episode, either someone she needs to protect
or someone who very soon will reveal themselves to be a monster under the employ of the arc’s
evil general.
The monster then, using the previously mentioned commercial enterprise, begins to steal energy
from the local populace, usually at the exact same time Usagi or the scouts are conveniently
in the building.
Usagi turns into Sailor Moon, involving a long transformation sequence that is the same
every single episode to save on animation costs, and she is promptly attacked senselessly
with no defence because she is terrible at her job.
Then one of the Scouts or, more often than not, the mysterious Tuxeo Mask appears to
save her ass, though honestly most of the time he just acts as a distraction without
actually doing anything meaningful.
With the monster distracted, Usagi uses Moon Tiara Action and or Moon Healing Escalation
to defeat the monster.
The evil general then threatens that they will defeat the scouts next time before leaving
dramatically.
Everyone have a brief reflection on the events of the episode ending off with Usagi having
a comedic and klutzy moment.
Episode ends.
Rinse repeat.
So much of this show is tirelessly predictable, some might find it mindlessly boring.
It also doesn’t help that the villains are the most incompetent idiots to ever attempt
to take over the world.
It takes far too long for the villains to ever acknowledge the scouts as a legitimate
threat, and even longer for them to be able to see through their Clark Kent disguises
to find out who they are.
Even worse is how none of them ever bother cooperating with one another for the net gain
of them all.
I realise that a lot of what happens here, happens because otherwise there would be no
show, especially not one of this length.
But there are times I just have to laugh at the predictability of it all.
However it’s not all bad.
In fact I would argue that it has quite a few good points, many that it still holds
over...well more recent adaptations of the original manga.
The Original manga, and then later the adaption Sailor Moon Crystal are quite short.
First time I ever read the manga, and yes I actually read this one.
I was seriously surprised at just how quickly it breezed through the initial seasons of
what is this original show.
People complain now a days about filler episodes in anime, even entire filler arcs, but Sailor
Moon quite possibly could be considered one of the most outrageous.
See this?
These three volumes of manga that comprise the majority of the show’s first season,
and things in this fourth manga aren't covered until episode 60 and beyond.
60 EPISODES for 3 volumes of manga.
That’s an insane amount of filler.
But I’d like to say it’s a necessary one.
This is where I get to compare my thoughts of the original series with Crystal, because
I feel that Crystal did little justice to the characters of the series.
It did justice to the manga sure, but with just 3 volumes of manga it’s really hard
to get a sense for who all of these characters really are.
Which is why I love the filler for Sailor Moon.
Usually I would say that most filler episodes of anime don’t serve much of a purpose.
Besides delaying things to give the mangaka more time to work.
But here the filler in Sailor Moon gives us a real chance to see a buildup of the stakes
in the story.
To slowly adapt to the introduction of its 6 Main Characters.
Heck even then Venus takes forever to get her own episode, it’s almost like she doesn’t
really exist, but that’s a video and a rant for another time.
The characters themselves are also phenomenal, or at least they felt it, because of how relatable
they were.
Or rather they were not all relatable as a whole but anyone could watch the series and
relate heavily to at least one of the Sailor Scouts, who usually ends up being your favorite.
There is where I could go into a big rant about the history of the Four temperaments
but you know Cracked did a video on that relating to the ninja turtles and they did the topic
far better justice then I could so check on that when you have the time.
If you strip all of that extra time away everything just feels rushed, and you don’t get a chance
to be attached to the characters as much.
Or that could just be the Nostalgia talking.
Though it’s not nostalgia to say how enjoyable it is to watch this series.
Sure it can be predictable at times…well alright a lot of the time.
The repeated formula will do that.
But this story about a young girl who is not even close to a perfect hero was and is both
refreshing and inspiring.
Usagi is a klutz, she is a scatterbrain, by all accounts she should not be the one with
the fate of the world on her shoulders.
But she is a character who is able to persevere and save the day regardless.
The rest of the scouts have reasons why you might relate towards them, Ami’s Intellect,
Rei’s Passion, Makoto’s Strength, Minako’s Empathy, but Usagi is this careful mix of
these things in exactly the right way while also making her very close in characterization
to the average viewer.
Usagi is not someone who is able to do everything because she is the main character like some
shows have.
She can be selfish, she can be cruel, but she can also be loving, caring, and protective.
Which makes this story about her all the better.
But enough of that, TO THE ANIMATION!
Oh lordy, how I miss cel shaded animation!
Not that I have anything against or modern digital stuff, but there’s just something
so pleasant about the animation from this era.
But it’s not without it...hiccups.
Being a series that had to run on and on every week for several years, there’s nothing
too spectacular about the show’s animation.
Even for the time.
The high points of course would inevitably be the parts that you see most often.
The Intros, the transformations, the attacks, these are all the highlights and they are
most definitely top tier for the era.
Beyond that though there are very few times that the animation becomes one of the show’s
main points.
It’s not until the later seasons that the show gets any semblance of a budget increase
and the films have far better animation in general.
The music though is… well I wouldn't say that it’s good necessarily.
But it’s catchy as all hell.
It’s good in the same way that pop songs are good.
A part of you hates it for how formulaic it is but every time you turn around it’s like
stuck in your head on repeat and won’t freaking go away.
As far as voice acting, I don’t have much to say on the Japanese side of things, but
there’s a bit we can speak on with the english.
Mostly because there are two english dubs and it’s fun to compare.
The problem though with comparing the original DiC dub to the more recent Viz dub though
is that they are technically two separate shows.
The DiC dub comes from a time where it was commonplace for north american adaptations
to be edited for content and sometimes have whole episodes, plotlines, and even character
backstories just flat out removed for one reason or another.
The most blatant example of this is prominent in the dub with the General Zoisite.
Zoisite’s character design and mannerisms come off as very feminine.
However in both the manga and in the japanese dub Zoisite is a guy.
*mamoru miyano whispering* "But he's a guy"
Also he is notably in a homosexual relationship with fellow general Kunzite.
As you might imagine this sort of thing would not fly with the America of the 90’s so
Zoisite became female and honestly no one could tell the difference.
It also really screwed me up while re-watching the series because I was used to the original
version.
The dialogue in general though for the original was a bit more bubbly, like the adaptation
staff had a bit more fun with it.
Just comparing some of the scenes side by side can prove my point.
What are you saying?
What do you mean Tuxedo Mask?
He’s not even here.
Yes I am.
It can’t be…
Tuxedo Mask?
Gemmie a break, he’s not even here Zoisite.
YES I AM!
No way.
I AM TUXEDO MASK!
You are?
Mmhmm.
*GASP* He is Tuxedo Mask I don’t believe it.
Not that the new dub is bad, in fact I think I enjoyed it much more than the original which
apparently is not a common opinion to have.
There’s a lot of nostalgia in the DiC dub, but the Viz one seems to be quite a bit more
faithful to the original Japanese track.
Which is something that I appreciated.
I could talk on and on about this series, so more than likely it’s going to be a show
I come back to in the future.
It’s just a series that means so much to me as a person and as an anime watcher.
It’s part of our history and my own.
Sure I have a major nostalgia boner for it but no one can deny its popularity and the
impact on the anime market both in Japan and here in North America.
It’s an impact that I don’t think I can fully cover in one video unless we want to
be sitting here all day.
Needless to say that Sailor Moon is a classic series that helped to define the Magical Girl
genre in the 90’s and for many people helped to introduce new segments of fans into the
world of anime.
For this reason, I proudly present it with the rating of Certified Frosty.
A rating for only the best of the best or those shows too important to ignore.
Though in this case it easily qualifies for both.
At the time of this video Sailor Moon has been licensed by Viz Media and is available
for home video release from them.
Unfortunately, as far as legal streaming goes it’s only currently available on Hulu, which
is US only.
You bastards.
So the rest of us are out on the cold on that front.
Hopefully that changes in the future.
As far as alternate anime recommendations, I’m actually going to give you a bit of
an order.
Under the assumption that you want to see how the magical girl genre has developed over
the years here’s what I recommend you do: Watch Sailor Moon, you don’t have to go
through all the seasons, if you stop after the first or somewhere in R that’s fine
but watch this first.
Then watch Cardcaptor Sakura, follow that up with Princess Tutu, and finally end off
with Madoka Magica.
It’s quite possible that you may have already seen some of these before, but this is a good
order for people who are new to the genre and want to see a bit of its history.
Like you could replace some of them with others of course but this is just my personal favorites.
With luck, some of them are hopefully to your liking.
And with that I leave you!
We have traversed through 8 years, multiple platforms and formats, and now 200 full reviews.
It’s been a long journey, but with luck, we are nowhere near done.
While I will always like to thank my patrons for their continued support for allowing me
to do what I do I also just wanted to take a moment, this time, to thank all of you who
have watched my videos these past 8 years.
It has been an honor and an absolute pleasure, and I look forward to many more videos to
come.
Until then, Ladies, Gentlemen, and others, Stay Frosty.