Yearly Archives: 2017

Why Doesn’t Setsuna / Sailor Pluto’s Story Make Any Sense?

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Filed under Articles, Characters, Setsuna Meioh
Setsuna's back story confuses even herself

Setsuna’s back story confuses even herself

Considering how I constantly talk about how Setsuna simply serves as a third wheel to Haruka and Michiru, it may comes as something of a surprise that she’s one of my favorite characters… in theory. The idea of a single Sailor Soldier surviving all the way from(and possibly prior to?) the Silver Millennium is a fascinating concept — even more so when you think about the emotional hardship she must have gone through living all on her own for centuries at a time.

Sadly, in stark contrast with this vast amount of potential her character had, neither the anime nor manga did much with Setsuna. And what they did do didn’t even make sense.

Today, we’re going to talk about how utterly non-sensical Setsuna’s university education is.

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Today, Usagi turns… 45 years old??

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Filed under Blog, ChibiUsa, Fandom, Usagi Tsukino
No offense to any 40 year old readers

No offense to any 42 year old readers

That’s right, dear readers! According to the original story as told in the Sailor Moon manga and anime, Usagi would be turning 42 on June 30, 2019.1 Hard to believe that our favorite sailor-suited soldier of love and justice would now be entering her fourth decade of life, isn’t it? While we may know her as a young and energetic junior high school student, she would now have been out of school longer than she ever spent in school.

Due to all of the odd time traveling mechanics and the start of Crystal Tokyo, it’s a bit harder to say anything about ChibiUsa. However, assuming that – like we have to do with Usagi – ChibiUsa was born in a normal universe, she would be turning around 18 years old today.2

In honor of the two birthday girls, I’ve selected five articles each about Usagi and ChibiUsa that may be of interest to you. Articles are in no particular order.

Usagi

ChibiUsa

If you have any questions or suggestions for future articles, I’d love to hear from you!

What Were Ikuhara’s Inspirations for the Sailor Moon R Movie? (Part 3)

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Filed under Articles, Interview, Making Of, Movie
Ikuhara (left) trying the "zero-fashion-sense Mamoru" look

Ikuhara (left) trying the “zero-fashion-sense Mamoru” look

It’s been a long road here, but we’ve finally made it to the end of our three part special, where we review Director Ikuhara’s notes explaining his thoughts on the story of the Sailor Moon R movie. You can find Part 1 and Part 2 here, respectively.

If you’re new to this series, a little background: Kunihiko Ikuhara1 was the director and major creative force behind the Sailor Moon R movie. Included with the LaserDisc release of the movie was a six page summary of his “interpretation” – basically, his thoughts and inspirations – of the story, separated by chapter.

Today, I’ll be finishing up with comments 17 through 22! Why don’t you join along?

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What Were Ikuhara’s Inspirations for the Sailor Moon R Movie? (Part 2)

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Filed under Articles, Interview, Making Of, Movie
Fiore and his flower minions

Fiore and his flower minions

After finishing the first half of my review of Ikuhara’s director’s notes for the Sailor Moon R movie, I have to admit that I feel like I have a bit of a better understanding of what story he intended to tell.

And you know, I think I like the movie even more. Knowing that there’s actual meaning behind scenes I just glossed over adds a new depth to the movie for me, and it’s definitely moved up on my “to watch” list.

That said, join me as I continue on with Director Ikuhara’s notes for chapters 11 through 16!

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What Were Ikuhara’s Inspirations for the Sailor Moon R Movie? (Part 1)

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Filed under Articles, Interview, Making Of, Movie
Flower Garden in the Sailor Moon R Movie

Flower Garden in the Sailor Moon R Movie

Love him or hate him, Director Kunihiko Ikuhara had a huge impact on the direction that the Sailor Moon anime took and, by extension, could arguably be said to be one of the more influential forces behind the series – especially for those fans who have only seen the anime.

One of his more well-known achievements in terms of Sailor Moon, though, is his work on the Sailor Moon R movie. I’ve written about his thoughts on the movie before, with regard to Usagi and the conflicting representations of motherhood, but today we’re going to take a deeper dive into his thoughts on the imagery of the movie. Come along!

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[Manga Comparison] Act 1 – Usagi (Sailor Moon)

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Filed under Articles, Manga Comparison, Patreon
Manga Comparison (Act 1)

Manga Comparison (Act 1)

What is the Manga Comparison Project?

Since its initial release in the February 1992 issue of Nakayoshi, the Sailor Moon manga has gone through four major reprints in Japan – the original Nakayoshi print, the compilation tankobon print (early 90s), the re-mastered ‘shinsoban‘ reprints (early 2000s), and the ‘kanzen‘ (early 2010s). What you may not know, though, is that Ms. Takeuchi has made changes to the art and text with each release.

This project is dedicated to compiling a list of what’s changed with each release to help us better understand how Sailor Moon has evolved over its past 25 years.

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Where Did the Moon Stick Get its Name?

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Filed under Articles, Language, Making Of
Original anime and Crystal Moon Sticks

Original anime and Crystal Moon Sticks

For those of us first exposed to Sailor Moon through the DiC dub and familiar with the terminology there, learning that our beloved Crescent Moon Wand was actually known in Japan as the Moon Stick was… well… something of a let down. While I – and I’m sure many others – was enthusiastic to learn everything I could about the “pure, original” form of my favorite anime, the Moon Stick always rubbed me the wrong way. Unlike everything else in the series, it lacked that pizzazz a lot of Sailor Moon was known for.

So what happened? How did the Moon Stick come to be known by such a simple name? Today, we’re going to take a look at just that.

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