Sailor Moon (center) with Sailor Venus (from left), Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter. Together, they fight against the evil supernatural forces that threaten the world.
Naoki Takeuchi/PNP/Toei Animation Co.,Ltd. via VizMedia
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Naoki Takeuchi/PNP/Toei Animation Co.,Ltd. via VizMedia
Sailor Moon (center) with Sailor Venus (from left), Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter. Together, they fight against the evil supernatural forces that threaten the world.
Naoki Takeuchi/PNP/Toei Animation Co.,Ltd. via VizMedia
sailor moon burst onto Japanese television screens 30 years ago and captured the hearts and minds of young people around the world. Usagi Tsukino, or Serena, to American viewers, was an average 14-year-old girl living a normal schoolgirl life. Then one day, she meets a talking cat who helps her transform into Sailor Moon and tasks her with fighting supernatural forces. She will eventually meet other girls with similar magical powers and, together, the Sailor Scouts will fight to keep evil at bay.
Briana Lawrence is a fandom editor at The Mary Sue, and a longtime sailor moon fan. He recently wrote about anime for Mary suein an essay entitled “Revisiting the first episode of sailor moon 30 years later makes me appreciate Usagi crying about how stressful being a magical girl is,” and sat down with NPR’s Juana Summers to talk about why. sailor moon still hold.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity..
Interview Highlights
On the reasons why Usagi’s crying bothered her as a child
I think when I was younger, it bothered me because I was projecting what other people would say. So I said, “Yeah, why are you complaining? You’re supposed to save the world. You’re supposed to do this.” And then, I got older and I got tired. I was like, ‘Wait, why do I have to push myself to the limit to get things done? Why can’t I take my time?’
I’m actually working on a magical girl book series, so I went back to see sailor moon as I was writing it, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I get why she’s crying! It’s annoying going through this!” As if you were 14 years old. There is a cat that tells you that you have to save the world, [and] the cat doesn’t really give you that much detail [about what you’re supposed to do.]
14-year-old schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino meets Luna, a magical talking cat, who asks Usagi to become Sailor Moon and protect the world from evil forces.
Naoki Takeuchi/PNP/Toei Animation Co.,Ltd. via VizMedia
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Naoki Takeuchi/PNP/Toei Animation Co.,Ltd. via VizMedia
14-year-old schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino meets Luna, a magical talking cat, who asks Usagi to become Sailor Moon and protect the world from evil forces.
Naoki Takeuchi/PNP/Toei Animation Co.,Ltd. via VizMedia
About what it is about Usagi and the rest of the Sailor Scouts that keeps bringing new fans and people to the show.
Partially, I think we’re making up for lost time because now we’re getting to: here are the actual unedited episodes. Here’s the real queer content that wasn’t in Sailor Moon, here it is now. The other part is just, for me personally, staying power is the message that changed for me as I got older. You know, kids are put under a lot of pressure, and when you’re in the middle of the pressure, you don’t see what you’re doing to other people. So as an adult, I look back and say, “Oh, God, yeah, I’m so sorry.” Sailor Moon was right all this time. She should be able to go to the game room and fall in love with the boy and then take a bath and relax.
On the show’s lesbian couple, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who became “cousins” in the show’s English dubs, and why sailor moon resonates with his queer fanbase
I think, for me personally, it resonated because it was censored, and I was like, “Oh, more queer content that we’re not getting.” I came out when I was 18 and have been with my wife since I came out at 18. We’ve been together for 20 years. So I remember we went to tell his parents and the answer was, “Okay, but you don’t have to talk to anyone else. You can keep it to yourself. You don’t have to say anything.” And I think that’s why [Sailor Moon] it resonated with me a lot because [the queer relationship between Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune] it was locked up for so long and people thought it was necessary to do it to protect the children or whatever. When I finally saw what the content was, I was like, “God, is this what they censored? Is this what they were worried about?” Because they’re just people being themselves. Uranus and Neptune just hang out together. They don’t even kiss or anything. They just shake hands or talk to each other. It was something so relaxed that we were robbed.
There is no reason to go back to the way it was 30 years ago. In fact, we can have this now. So whenever someone is upset about [queer content in television shows coming out today]that might have something weird about it, it’s like, “Really? Are you going back to when you turned [Uranus and Neptune] in cousins? Really? Is that the hill you want to die on?” And it’s like, no, you shouldn’t. We’re supposed to progress further than you guys were doing when we were kids.