Sailor Moon was the “gateway drug” to this addiction and obsession with anime and anything Japan. Watching Sailor Moon after coming home from middle school was something I looked forward to. Magic-Girls in sailor suits fighting for love and justice. Not only were they powerful strong women, but they fought bravely while looking beautiful! Each character had their own distinct personalities too: the brainiac, the tomboy, the natural leader, the pretty one, the ditz. There was bound to be one character that you could relate to. I actually went to a panel that discussed the importance of Sailor Moon on its’ audience at Krakencon in Oakland, CA back in March or so. I plan on writing about what was discussed there in a future post.
I loved everything about this anime –art, characters, story, music. It’s because of Sailor Moon that I developed an interest in art and drawing. I would spend hours trying to replicate screenshots and finding as many images I could online – which was scarce since the internet was still relatively new at the time (thank God for AOL). I also attempted to create my own website to express the fandom of Sailor Moon like so many other kids (angelfire for the win!). I also had quite a bit of merchandise: I had the 90s soundtrack, a deck of playing cards, several wall scrolls/posters, and the star locket that was so precious to both Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon. And more currently I’ve been trying to collect the SHFigurarts line. Oh, I was able to find my favorite track – and this song actually coincides with the scene that resonated with me the most – which I’ve also linked further down.
The romance story between Mamoru and Usagi is like a fairy tail. Except the “damsel in distress” role is reversed. Usagi often saves a kidnapped Mamoru from the evil doers. Girl Power to the max! My favorite scene from the earlier episodes was when Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon are stuck in tower and they’re forced to expose their true identities to one another. Tuxedo Mask gets stabbed in the back in a dirty attack by Malachite and Sailor Moon cries her eyes out – revealing her true identity as the Moon Princess in the process exposing that the Silver Millennium Crystal had been locked away inside her the entire time they were searching for it. It was such an emotional scene for a young tween as myself and it’s stuck with me since as a pivotal scene for the show at the time. LOL I was able to find a link – and it made me laugh/cry:
My first anime crush ever actually was Mamoru/Darien/Tuxedo Mark. Although, looking back at it – Mamoru was a condescending ass in the 90’s. I much prefer the Mamoru in Sailor Moon Crystal; he seems much more mature and not to mention even more handsome than his previous self! Other than that, I love this character because despite his memory loss; the thing that keeps him going is his love and dedication for Usagi/Sailor Moon and he puts everything on the line for her.
Of all the sailor scouts my ultimate favorite scout was Sailor Venus. So much so that I paid homage to her in using “venus” in every AOL screenname I ever had. She was also my favorite scout to draw. Remember how you’d have to cover your text books in brown paper to protect it? Yeah, I’d draw her all over my covers.
LOL wow what a trip down memory lane. It really made me remember how much I really loved this series over the years. I realize I’ve gone on more than I should’ve. But considering the importance that Sailor Moon holds for me; I had to indulge in this memory filled post.
This has been a pretty epic post to kick off this 30 day challenge! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had fun writing about it. What series kicked off your dive into anime?
Awesome post! It was really cool how much detail you went into about your experience with the show.
Looking forward to the next one!
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Thanks! As soon as I started writing about it I started reminiscing. I laughed so hard when I found the soundtrack and the scene of tuxedo mask. I was crying laughing at the scene when I saw it again-like, wow this scene held so much meaning as a kid! But the dubs sound so silly now compared to back then!
Next thing I realized was how much this actually shaped a big part of who I am and grew up to be. It really deeply affected me; it held much more meaning than what I had initially thought. I had forgotten about my poor attempt at a website; how much sailor venus had a hold over my online persona, oh and now I just remembered I tried to write fanfics too! It’s never ending! LOL sailor moon definitely awakened my creative side in the grand scheme of things.
I’m not sure how detailed other posts will be after this -but I can’t wait! Thanks for the comments/feedback; it’s always encouraging when people enjoy it!
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The same happened for me when I wrote my post about DBZ for this challenge and how I went mad trying to buy all the DVDs while on vacation in the States.
I’ve got a lot of memories from that time in my life and learned a lot of life lessons from DBZ in a similar way to how Sailor Moon most likely did for you.
It makes sense though. For people like us, Anime is huge part of our lives. It’s important to us in a way no one else can really understand, so naturally our first Anime will always be the show that helped us become the people we are today.
Anime definitely inspired me to be creative as well. I doubt I’d be doing analysis at all if not for DBZ.
And no problem! Keep at it! 😀
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I had a similar experience with Sailor Moon when I was young and it was probably that experience that allowed me to become the anime fan I am today. In my case I didn’t get interested in art but I did become even more obsessed with stories and in particular fantasy (I think Sailor Moon was the first real story I’d experienced where the girls – plural – got to be front and centre).
Thanks for sharing your experience.
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Yes! I agree Sailor Moon was also very encouraging because of it’s all female cast! It was rare to see that in the 90’s when there was Batman the animated series as well as the X-men. Thanks for sharing your experience too!
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Ah…trips down memorylane. Always nice to look back on things, and think about the shows that you loved so much when growing up. My first “Anime” was Robotech ( though technically it was not considered Anime as it was an American adapatation of three unrelated Anime shows, it really was my first sight of an Anime type story.
This was a great read: looking forward to the next one. Ps, that action figure looks awesome 😀😀
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Oh – interesting. I’ve been seeing that series pop up a lot! By the way – speaking of American. Did you know that Batman: The Animated series was created by Sunrise Studios who was a sub-contractor to Warner Brothers. Sunrise studio then came out with The Big-O shortly after that, which is why there is a glaring similarity to the two! LOL a fun fact I learned over the weekend from a friend.
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Really? No I did not know that. Wow, another favorite of mine:the Big O, with the theme song that was pretty much a copy of the Queen song, but a truly unique show. Unfortunately only 13 episodes were released here, so I have never completed it. Thanks for sharing this fun fact though. You learn something new every day 😀 The Batman Animated series was fantastic by the way, truly loved that show. Great animation, terrific voice cast, abd some great storylines 😀
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Lol my first anime is a tie between Sailor Moon and Pokemon, but I had no idea what an anime was back then… So I consider my first spiritual anime series to be DN Angel!!! I was in love with Dark Mousy!!!
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I haven’t seen DN Angel – do I need to add this to my list?
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I loved the anime so much that I went out and bought all of the available manga volumes… Little did I know that the author is horrible at finishing series… and it’s been on hiatus several times over the years…. the longest one was like 1999-2010 or something stupid like that… I’m still salty about it!! This last hiatus left us with the biggest cliffhanger ever! But thankfully the anime actually gets a real ending!
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Ohhh yenno tbh I love trigun so much I’m trying to collect the manga! Then I found out at a con that they were re-releasing it in bigger volumes so now I’m on the train to collect it!! Trigun had two storylines because of publishing switches!
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LOL the life of an otaku is always full of those!! Special Editions, Re-releases, Color pages… sigh so much manga, so little money… and time lol
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Don’t forget merch! I’m like..omg what am I going to do with all these nendoroids!? I’m about to approach mid-30 in a few years!! LOL I keep telling myself my future kids will learn to appreciate anime and cute boys. LOL!! >_<
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YES! I am the same way with my manga… I’m like maybe it can be family heirlooms or something lol
and I have no idea what to do with my ErenxLevi body pillow XD
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lol OMG I am trying my HARDEST to not buy a body pillow of Makoto!!!!
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I’m the wrong person to tell that to, I’d tell you to BUY IT NOW!! LOL
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LOLOLOL I’m so tempted 😭😂 my parents would think I’m weirder than they already think
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Lol my folks know about the anime and manga, but BL and body pillows are on the dl 😉
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Oh yeah BL is definitely on the dl. Omg speaking of manga. I loved Twittering birds so much I was gushing about it to my BFF who doesn’t watch anime or read manga ever but because I was sending her screenshots and kept talking about doumeki she researched it and started reading the manga onlin on her own 😂😂 I was so proud I got a friend into BL!
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Lol yes!! Stage 1 of Operation convert friends to fujoshi was a success!! Upgrade to more suggestions! Lol I have a handful of RL friends that like BL so we fangirl about it all the time 😄😄😄
Omg I absolutely love Kou Yoneda’s works! I have read just about all of their works!! What other authors do you read?
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Actually I’m not too familiar with authors or anything yet. Just because I literally JUST started getting into BL over the summer….all that ‘shipping in the sports gateway brought me to it..i didn’t even know what doujinshi really was until sports anime! LOL..so I’m reading Twittering Birds, I also really like the View Finder series…but other than that – I’m new to BL. lol.
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I love the Finder Series, it is like my guilty pleasure! I love it to pieces!! I can definitely recommend some stuff if you want!!
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so, I’m open to suggestions.
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Excellent! I will compile a list!!
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Yay! I’m excited!
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I’ll have to look into DN Angel!
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Yes! It’s a fun series and Dark is bae! OMG I was in love with that man!!
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