Moonlight Springs

I seem to recall that somewhere, Naoko Takeuchi said that sailor senshi are born as close as possible to where they need to be.  However, I may be getting this confused with someone’s WMG, so I’m not sure!

So, did she ever say something to this effect, say something similar, or never said anything of the sort at all?

So, in the StarS anime Sailor Galaxia says that they’ve conquered almost 80% of the galaxy. All that’s left is the Sol system.

…Did the writers really mean to imply that there only five inhabited planets in the entire galaxy?  Or that only 50 or so planets have sailor senshi?  Or that there are only around 70 senshi in the whole galaxy?

After the planet Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planetoid, a ton of people started making comments about Sailor Pluto no longer being a sailor senshi.

Every time I see one, a part of me dies inside.

First, when Pluto was reclassified, it wasn’t because we learned anything new or shocking about Pluto - it was because we discovered a ton of Pluto-sized objects in the outer solar system.  There were two options: either include a ridiculously high amount of objects to our list of planets, or come up with a new definition of “planet” and a new term for objects like Pluto.  The latter was determined to be the simpler solution, so that’s what we went with.

While all sailor senshi are associated with some kind of celestial objects, they’re not all associated with planets - in the anime, we have Sailor Moon herself, as well as the Sailor Starlights who appear to be associated with actual stars.  In the manga, we have the asteroid senshi.

Similarly, there’s no reason to think that Sailor Pluto should be less powerful because she’s associated with a planetoid.  Sailor Moon is explicitly shown to be the most powerful sailor senshi in the series, and the moon isn’t even close to the largest non-sun object in our solar system (that would be Jupiter).  Obviously, size ≠ power.

If anything would warrant change, it would be her henshin phrase (“Pluto Planet Power”), but that would be it.

honestlynotafangirl:

…will there still be Sailor Pluto in the new anime? oO

The moon was never classified as a planet.  Does that mean Sailor Moon won’t be in the new anime?

Although all sailor senshi are associated with celestial objects, not all sailor senshi are associated with objects classified as planets.  In the manga, we even had asteroid senshi, and asteroids are even smaller than planetoids.

I remember when Sailor Moon came out when I was a child.  I remember how my cousins were into it.  I never got to watch it much because my family put the banhammer on it because it was allegedly making my bratty cousins even brattier.

I spent much of my childhood and teen years wanting to taste that forbidden fruit.  Then YouTube came, and my wish was granted.  I even managed to read the manga, and loved it on the whole.  But I think I waited a bit too long, because a lot of the things on the show were awkwardly out-of-date.  Also, there were oddities and inconsistencies with the story that were clearly the result of poor planning.

Sailor Moon was groundbreaking in the early 90’s: never before had there been an all-girl team of superheroes. Definitely a great stride for feminism back then, but by today’s standards, Sailor Moon is falling farther and farther behind, to the point where it’s almost anti-feminist.

Another problem is that Usagi is often painfully obviously Naoko Takeuchi’s pet Sue.  As an example, just look at everything regarding Crystal Tokyo.  Why does Usagi deserve to be leader of the world?  Why does the world follow her?  It’s never explained.  Usagi is never shown doing any of the difficult work involved in being a leader.  Usagi as Neo Queen Serenity apparently gets all the glitz and glamor, but none of the responsibilities.  Compare with the contemporary cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, wherein it’s made clear that Princess Celestia, the leader of Equestria, has many, many responsibilities besides looking pretty and occasionally using shiny powers to chase away bad guys.

I actually drafted this post months ago, but I figure it still stands, so I’ll write it as a list of things I hope to see in SM13.

1. Mamoru and Usagi’s relationship treated much more seriously/realistically.  Throughout the anime and manga, exactly why Usagi and Mamoru are a couple is often a mystery.  Their personalities completely clash: Mamoru is a serious, intellectual person, while Usagi is goofy and air-headed.  It’s hard to imagine them having anything resembling a serious, adult conversation with each other.  Often as not, Mamoru seems to be barely tolerating Usagi’s childish antics.  So why are they together?  There’s no real in-universe explanation except “they were in love in a past life,” which really isn’t very convincing.  The real reason is the out-of-universe explanation: Usagi is supposed to be an average teenage girl, and average teenage girls are supposed to want boyfriends.  The message it sends is that a girl ought to have a boyfriend, even if they have no substantial connection with teach other, and it’s a terrible message.
2. Less  “traditional” femininity.  Even Makoto, who is the most “unfeminine” of the main group by virtue of being tall and strong, “compensates” for this by being an excellent cook, loving plants, and having large breasts.  Most of the characters are usually seen engaging in activities commonly perceived as feminine or at least non-masculine.  The only regular exception is the butch lesbian Haruka.  The Ayakashi Sisters are portrayed in the anime as obsessed with their looks.  After they are redeemed and turned good, they open a cosmetics business together.  We live in a culture that regularly shames women for not looking perfect.  In some professions, women are required to wear cosmetics while men are not.
3. Usagi no longer being shoehorned into the spotlight ala the anime.  For example, in most episodes it’s only Sailor Moon who is allowed to finish off the monster of the day.  The others can only weaken the monster.  Either figure out how to structure the plot so Sailor Moon can remain the title character without having to get the last shot in every fight (it can be done - just ask Joss Whedon) or remove her status as title character.
4. The villains are horrendously incompetant.  They use the same strategies over and over, then can’t seem to figure out why they’re getting their asses kicked.  It’s not so noticeable in the manga, but it’s really glaring in the anime.  There are several easy ways to fix this: shorter seasons, enemies that are unaffiliated with the season/arc’s Big Bad, and/or more detailed plots.
5. Stars.  Just Stars.  The way the story was adapted for the anime was terrible.  Aside from cutting out a lot of really good stuff (eg, the Galaxy Cauldron), the changes they made were absolutely nonsensical.  Take Chibi-Chibi, for example: her blue and pink colors, odango, and heart motif make it obvious that she’s supposed to be somehow connected to Sailor Moon and no-one else.  How does her being Sailor Galaxia’s starseed make any sense at all when Galaxia has a completely different motif?  If she’s Sailor Galaxia’s starseed, she should resemble Sailor Galaxia, not Sailor Moon!  Another nonsensical adaptation was the starseeds/sailor crystals.  Why does removing them from a senshi kill that senshi, but makes humans turn into monsters with weird powers?  Remember, sailor crystals contain the powers of the senshi.  Aside from this making absolutely no sense whatsoever, it was the worst attempt to keep up the monster-of-the-day plot formula.
6. Crystal Tokyo either needs to crawl off and die in a hole somewhere, or stop being such a Mary Suetopia.  We need to be shown just why Usagi deserves to be undisputed queen of the world - and carrying the Ginzuishou doesn’t count.  In addition, it could be downsized so that it doesn’t actually cover the entire world.  Neo Queen Usagi needs to be shown doing some of the dull, unglamorous work that comes with running a government, too.  It doesn’t have to take long; it just needs to be there.
7. Foreshadowing of future events (eg, that all of the villains are really aspects of Chaos), iron out the inconsistencies and contradictions Takeuchi left all over the manga, and explain the mythos of the Sailor Moon universe better. 

RANDOM IDEA POWER, MAKE UP!!!

It clears up so many myths and misconceptions!

Shooting things with a gun?  Too violent.

Slicing/stabbing things with a sword?  Nope, too violent.

Shooting things with a sword?  All good!

(Also, I’ve added even MOAR new options to the magical girl weapon generator!  Whee, I’m on a roll!)

I created it with the power crystals of Sailor Moon in mind, though obviously there are many, many more uses, such as coming up with treasure for fantasy-themed tabletop RPGs and the like.