I watched an episode of Sailor Moon.
What did you think I was talking about something else? It says in the title "CB Anime Review". What did you think I was talking about?
But yes, its true, I watched my first episode of Sailor Moon 2 days ago. Since then, I've been able to get through 2 more episodes in 2 days, which leads to a grand total of 4 episodes. Now, this might be a little too early for me to try and review it, since I've barely seen any of the anime, but I feel like I get the premise enough that I can make some comments on it.
For those who don't know, Sailor Moon is an anime that aired in Japan in 1992 and in the US in 1995. There were 5 seasons of the show; around 200 episodes total, as well as a couple movies. The story is about a 14 year old girl named Usagi, who is chosen to become a "Sailor Scout" and takes on the identity of "Sailor Moon." As Sailor Moon, she fights off the forces of evil from the Dark Kingdom who want to use humans to gather energy in various ways. Pretty straightforward right? Exactly, so far the plot follows the same format in every single episode: Usagi is having some sort of personal issue, her issue is somehow related to the Dark Kingdom's plot, she fights them using her tiara, the monster dies, and her problems go away. Literally, it is the most uncomplicated thing I have ever seen. Just like other kids shows like Power Rangers or Pokemon, the same thing happens over and over again! I don't know if its like a special formula for getting kids hooked on shows, but obviously it works, because Sailor Moon is extremely popular.
Sailor Moon is what anime fans call a "Magical Girl" anime. It's pretty much how it sounds. A girl, or group of girls, somehow gain magical powers and use it to fight evil, or fix their social lives or whatever. There is usually some sort of cute animal the accompanies them, offering advice or just being cute. I've seen other Magical Girl animes before Sailor Moon. When I was a kid, I really enjoyed the English dub of Cardcaptor Sakura (Don't judge, on the dub thing, not the show), then later Tokyo Mew Mew. Last year, my friend showed me this anime called Madoka Magica(THIS ISN'T LIKE ANY OTHER LITTLE GIRL MAGIC ANIME YOU'VE EVER SEEN BEFORE! YOU HAVE TO PREPARE YOURSELF, DON'T TAKE IT LIGHTLY!!!!!! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED). So, I'm not completely oblivious to the Magical Girl genre. Sailor Moon was just a bit before my time. I'd heard about it of course, through friends and ads for dolls and stuff, but I never felt like watching it. However, with the upcoming release of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, I feel like I should at least give it a try.
My first big mistake was watching the English dub. I'd heard the English theme song before, and thought it sounded good, so why not try the English show dub?
It was a mistake.
The voice acting overall wasn't too bad......except for that one character: Naru, or Molly in the English Dub. They give her the strongest, most ear wrenching Boston accent every. It's sooooooooo ridiculous. You kind of get used to it over time, but it's still pretty cringe worthy. So I switched over to the English sub, and it was a bit better. No annoying accents or anything, but with those out of the way, I could focus on everything else.
For it's time, the drawing isn't too bad. It's no Cowboy Bebop, but it was a big tv show, so they probably didn't have as much time to make everything look perfect. The background though is what annoyed me the most. It looks like a 10 year old's watercolor painting. Still this is the first season and it was 1992, so maybe things will improve and I can talk about the progress of the show.
Now for the characters. I know that there are other Sailor Scouts, but they haven't appeared yet, so I'm just going to talk about the main girl, Usagi. The show advertises her as a "crybaby" but WOW, she is literally a crybaby! Even though she has these cool powers, she doesn't really do anything but run away and cry. Besides her magical tiara, crying is her only superpower. In the other shows that I mentioned, the magical girls have a little backbone and try to take their problems on headfirst. That's what I liked about them. They wouldn't go into an all out brawl, but at least they tried. So far, Sailor Moon can't do anything but run away until this random guy called Tuxedo Mask shows up and gives her some words of encouragement.
Literally, that's all he does. He shows us, throws a rose to the floor, says "You can do it" to Sailor Moon, and leaves. (BTW This is the main romance of the show)Eventually Sailor Moon remembers she has a magical tiara, throws it and beats the bad guy and everything goes back to the way it was.
So, here's the thing. I've been bashing on Sailor Moon for a bit, but here's what I really think of it; it's really dumb. It's not bad, it's just dumb. There's a difference. There are really bad animes out there, ones that no one wants to talk about (Every Beyblade season after season 1). Then there are dumb animes; animes that are simple, and campy, but everyone loves the heck out of. Sailor Moon is a dumb one. I know there is a lot of nostalgia for this show and I can understand that, I feel the same way about Digimon. This was a part of people's childhood, and seeing this show reminds them of when we were young, and happy and didn't have think about life or anything......
*Goes and sits in a corner to cry for 10 minutes*
Finally, it's a kids show, meant for kids. Of course its not going to be that intellectually stimulating, or what 10 year old would watch it.
So, I just wanted to get this all out there. If you're a Sailor Moon fan, please remember that I've only seen 4 episodes of the show, and I hadn't seen it before 2014. Even with the new series, I'm curious to see how they will try to satisfy their old fanbase and get new fans of the show. So, I'll try to keep watching for a bit, and if things change, I'll tell you. If not, well, I'm sorry, it's just not my cup of sake.
Though I will admit, that theme song is extremely catchy....Fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight....
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