Takeuchi Naoko - Sailor Moon, vol. 01-10 (Chi. trans.)
Fri, Jan. 15th, 2010 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceter(transliterations taken from Wiki, as doing the Chinese-to-Japanese-to-English transliteration is a bit beyond me)
Do I even need to do a plot summary for this? Anyway. Tsukino Usagi is your normal 14-year-old girl: perpetually late for school, not too studious, and a bit of a klutz. Until one day she finds a talking cat, who then informs her that she is Sailor Moon, defender of love and justice, or some such.
I read bits of this back in eighth grade in the dentist's office when I was getting my braces tightened; the dentist only had pieces of the series, so all I remember is picking up whatever volume had the prettiest cover and reading it that way. I also used to watch episodes when they were on right after school. Even though my sister and I made terrible fun of the Chinese dub, how much of a cry baby Usagi was, and how boring the monsters of the week were, there was still enough to it to make me look up fanfiction back in high school.
Now that I've read the entire thing, I think it is a flawed series, but I can also see why it had such a following. The characterization is nearly non-existent; the inner guardian sailors outside of Usagi and Chibi Usagi are basically collections of random traits. Ami is smart and likes blue, Makoto loves baking, and etc. When we meet the outer guardians, things are much more interesting, although they still don't get as much time as I remember them getting in the anime.
And yet. Takeuchi has created an extremely compelling world and not fully filled it in (which is why I think it is so great for fic). There's reincarnation and flash forwards, and each additional story arc continues to expand the universe, both in terms of what we know of the past and what will happen in the future. I also forget how female-centric the series is when I'm reading; there are extremely few male characters, so much so that you don't even notice how female-centric it is because female is so much the default. There's also remarkably little about romance and much, much more about wanting to protect your most important people and the world.
Spoilers for the first three arcs of the anime and the manga even though I feel a bit silly spoiler protecting for something this well known
I don't know very much about the anime, since the Death Busters arc always seemed to be the only one on when I was watching it after school. But I was surprised to find that what I had known about the Four Kings in the anime (particularly the homosexual relationship between Kunzite and Zoisite) is less present in the manga. I think one of the good points and bad points both about that manga is that you avoid having to do all the monsters of the week. This is good in that it really cuts down on the amount of time you spend watching the Sailors transform, but it also means the arcs move much faster and you get less of the villains' motivation.
The Black Moon arc is also very strange to read when you know the canon already; I felt like I kept waiting for all the reveals. And yet, it was also neat actually being able to see the beginning for myself. I was surprised at how little time it took for Usagi and Mamoru to discover each others' secret identities, and I am perpetually surprised at how little time is actually spent on the Usagi/Mamoru romance. Don't get me wrong; it's very present in the series. But it frequently acts as fodder for the plot (Mamoru gets threatened a lot, which amuses me), as opposed to being the center of the plot, as it is for most high school shoujo. I also didn't get as much about the Silver Millennium as I wanted, but I always want more backstory.
The Dark Kingdom arc was also strange to read, because I remember being so annoyed at Chibiusa as a teen! She's still kind of annoying, but without the animation and the bad dub, she's much less so. Her and Usagi kind of romantically competing for Mamoru's attention still squicks me out a bit because he's her father! But I really like the relationship between her and Usagi later on and how it continues to emphasize that it's not just Usagi and her friends, but also intergenerational female relationships as well. Plus, the introduction of Crystal Tokyo! I love that so much! And Sailor Pluto!
The Death Busters arc is still my favorite, and only partially because it's the one I had the most exposure to. First of all, there's Haruka and Michiru. I'm sure it surprises no one that Haruka is one of my favorite Sailors. I was, however, surprised that the romance between her and Michiru isn't as large in the manga (or I'm just remembering the anime wrong), although people do mistake them for a heterosexual couple. And there's the thing with Usagi, which is interesting... I vaguely remember the manga saying something about Haruka being able to choose between being male and female, but that may be my reading the Chinese wrong. Still, I love that even after we get the reveal of Haruka being female, we sitll get to see her in her race cars and being snarky and abrupt and everything.
The other favorite bit about the Death Busters arc is the entire thing with Sailor Saturn, and I am again sure it will surprise no one that she is my other favorite Sailor. I love the whole death and rebirth thing, and even though Sailor Moon is usually the center of the series, I think Sailor Saturn eclipses her role in the Death Busters arc by the magnitude of her sacrifice.
Overall, the series is both cool and frustrating; cool for all the ideas and concepts, and frustrating because I keep wanting characters and situations to be explored much more than they are.
Do I even need to do a plot summary for this? Anyway. Tsukino Usagi is your normal 14-year-old girl: perpetually late for school, not too studious, and a bit of a klutz. Until one day she finds a talking cat, who then informs her that she is Sailor Moon, defender of love and justice, or some such.
I read bits of this back in eighth grade in the dentist's office when I was getting my braces tightened; the dentist only had pieces of the series, so all I remember is picking up whatever volume had the prettiest cover and reading it that way. I also used to watch episodes when they were on right after school. Even though my sister and I made terrible fun of the Chinese dub, how much of a cry baby Usagi was, and how boring the monsters of the week were, there was still enough to it to make me look up fanfiction back in high school.
Now that I've read the entire thing, I think it is a flawed series, but I can also see why it had such a following. The characterization is nearly non-existent; the inner guardian sailors outside of Usagi and Chibi Usagi are basically collections of random traits. Ami is smart and likes blue, Makoto loves baking, and etc. When we meet the outer guardians, things are much more interesting, although they still don't get as much time as I remember them getting in the anime.
And yet. Takeuchi has created an extremely compelling world and not fully filled it in (which is why I think it is so great for fic). There's reincarnation and flash forwards, and each additional story arc continues to expand the universe, both in terms of what we know of the past and what will happen in the future. I also forget how female-centric the series is when I'm reading; there are extremely few male characters, so much so that you don't even notice how female-centric it is because female is so much the default. There's also remarkably little about romance and much, much more about wanting to protect your most important people and the world.
Spoilers for the first three arcs of the anime and the manga even though I feel a bit silly spoiler protecting for something this well known
I don't know very much about the anime, since the Death Busters arc always seemed to be the only one on when I was watching it after school. But I was surprised to find that what I had known about the Four Kings in the anime (particularly the homosexual relationship between Kunzite and Zoisite) is less present in the manga. I think one of the good points and bad points both about that manga is that you avoid having to do all the monsters of the week. This is good in that it really cuts down on the amount of time you spend watching the Sailors transform, but it also means the arcs move much faster and you get less of the villains' motivation.
The Black Moon arc is also very strange to read when you know the canon already; I felt like I kept waiting for all the reveals. And yet, it was also neat actually being able to see the beginning for myself. I was surprised at how little time it took for Usagi and Mamoru to discover each others' secret identities, and I am perpetually surprised at how little time is actually spent on the Usagi/Mamoru romance. Don't get me wrong; it's very present in the series. But it frequently acts as fodder for the plot (Mamoru gets threatened a lot, which amuses me), as opposed to being the center of the plot, as it is for most high school shoujo. I also didn't get as much about the Silver Millennium as I wanted, but I always want more backstory.
The Dark Kingdom arc was also strange to read, because I remember being so annoyed at Chibiusa as a teen! She's still kind of annoying, but without the animation and the bad dub, she's much less so. Her and Usagi kind of romantically competing for Mamoru's attention still squicks me out a bit because he's her father! But I really like the relationship between her and Usagi later on and how it continues to emphasize that it's not just Usagi and her friends, but also intergenerational female relationships as well. Plus, the introduction of Crystal Tokyo! I love that so much! And Sailor Pluto!
The Death Busters arc is still my favorite, and only partially because it's the one I had the most exposure to. First of all, there's Haruka and Michiru. I'm sure it surprises no one that Haruka is one of my favorite Sailors. I was, however, surprised that the romance between her and Michiru isn't as large in the manga (or I'm just remembering the anime wrong), although people do mistake them for a heterosexual couple. And there's the thing with Usagi, which is interesting... I vaguely remember the manga saying something about Haruka being able to choose between being male and female, but that may be my reading the Chinese wrong. Still, I love that even after we get the reveal of Haruka being female, we sitll get to see her in her race cars and being snarky and abrupt and everything.
The other favorite bit about the Death Busters arc is the entire thing with Sailor Saturn, and I am again sure it will surprise no one that she is my other favorite Sailor. I love the whole death and rebirth thing, and even though Sailor Moon is usually the center of the series, I think Sailor Saturn eclipses her role in the Death Busters arc by the magnitude of her sacrifice.
Overall, the series is both cool and frustrating; cool for all the ideas and concepts, and frustrating because I keep wanting characters and situations to be explored much more than they are.
(no subject)
Thu, Jan. 21st, 2010 01:44 am (UTC)There is also DARK MERCURY.
The OP is pretty representative of the cuteness/heinousness/low budget: here!
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 25th, 2010 07:28 pm (UTC)