Sailor Moon: More Disney Than Disney
Sailor Moon (center) with Sailor Venus (from left), Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter. Image by Naoki Takeuchi/PNP/Toei Animation Co., Ltd. via Viz Media
By C.A. Ramirez
Sailor Moon is about distressed damsels, not damsels in distress.
Sailor Moon is a tween drama, action-comedy anime that boasts a colorful cast of characters, and stars one of the most likable animated heroines to ever grace a TV series; the incomparable Usagi Tsukino.
I haven’t had this much fun reviewing a series since I watched Archer on an 1/8 of mushrooms, portabella is bliss. In any case, Usagi Tsukino becomes instantly iconic from the first episode on. She is charmingly spastic and overly emotional to a fault, but all while being a cute, rambunctious, and problematic teen. She isn’t popular, even her little brother knows she’s a dork, but that doesn’t stop Usagi from taking the day by the throat and giving it a good strangle.
The art style marks a great progression from the flat animations of the 1980’s animated television series. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and G.I. Joe had this roughly animated color palette. It is in no way inferior, and is more beloved for being able to date a particularly fond moment in time where Saturday morning cartoons reigned supreme. Sailor Moon has fantastic character animations; quintessential anime emotes aplenty. The backgrounds scenes are placidly drawn, with an inviting attention to detail that borrows Monet’s out-of-focus, emphasis concerning minute details — allowing the viewer to simply fall into the world of Sailor Moon without the least bit of resistance.
The story is ludicrous, and I love it! Late for school, again, Usagi rushes through her quant city streets and saves a cat from being harassed by three young boys. She chases them off with a subtle threat of violence and discovers the cat has a Band-Aid on its forehead. Usagi removes it and rushes off to school. The cat, Luna, is a powerful being from the Moon Kingdom, and plays an advisory role to Usagi. Bestowing her with the power of the moon though a righteous tiara and epic outfit.
Sailor Moon is an animated treasure. This series reminds me of one thing: the 1966 Batman TV series. It’s not the acid. I swear. Each episode of Sailor Moon has commercial breaks that fade into an animated panel with Usagi telling us she’ll be right back; complete with a killer jingle. The end of each episode has a, “tune-in next time” moment, giving a brief synopsis of what’s to come in the following episode. It is done with such care and love, that you can’t help but lump it into a beloved category of quirky animation series.
Creator Naoko Takeuchi based the main character, Usagi Tsukino, after herself, and was looking for a tough girl who was cute and loved to go against the grain. Takeuchi had Manga on the brain her whole life, and the world is all the better for it. It takes a fantastically creative mind to construct a main character that has all the panache and wonder of a superhero that just can’t get their personal lives under their thumb. That might sum up every superhero from Marvel, but Sailor Moon was a rare treat for the early 90’s. Children were being treated to Disney princesses that were always hopelessly in love but helpless to a fault, and somehow, they always needed a kiss. The best part about Usagi Tsukino is that she doesn’t need any of that; she wants it. Sailor Moon is about distressed damsels, not damsels in distress, and this distinction is the fiber of this iconic anime series, fusing a superhero narrative with a Japanese version of Charlie’s Angels; a better combination could not exist.
