I’ve been in the SM fandom since 2007, when I remembered that Sailor Moon was something I have watched as a child, not fanatically due to the horrendous dub that made no sense back in 1993, but something I did like.
There was a huge drama back in those days in the fandom, but it was between subbing groups not, between fans for liking different versions of Sailor Moon.
Back then the 90s anime was heavily criticized for it’s mediocre at best animation. And everyone in the fandom acknowledged that, without hating it or the fans who thought it was perfection incarnate.
After watching the 90s, I read the manga, then I watched the musicals and PGSM, I liked them all for different reasons, No version was ever perfect, because it is made by a person and people are not perfect, (way to state the obvious)
The fandom besides the inner fighting at the time of who does better subs(spoiler alert not the one who won that fight) did not hate on other mediums or the fans who enjoyed them.
My fav of all are the musicals because I’m a musical head, there were people who rejected the musicals because they hate musicals, but they didn’t come to us musical lovers to tell us “hey musicals are trash stop watching them they are not real sailor moon” they were more of the type “hey you know what musicals are not for me, so I don’t watch them”. The same of course was for PGSM and surprise surprise the manga a well! People enjoyed different things and it was okay!
The moment Crystal came about, something shifted, I loved crystal because I had come to love the manga, I loved the artstyle because it was aesthetically pleasing to me, I didn’t find the animation to be the worst thing that ever happen to humanity, but quite frankly, better than the mediocrity that was the 90s animation(because it was and has been the most accepted fact in the Sailor Moon fandom for 20 years before Crystal became a thing)
everywhere you were to turn online Crystal and its fans were met with hate. I had insults thrown at me for daring to like Crystal, I was an idiot amongst other things for having positive opinion for Crystal. And this has not even stopped after 8 years.
I ejected myself from fandom, I couldn’t go into forums and express that I liked crystal and that the hate it got was unfair, I was always met with the same contempt, that I should shut the fuck up, and let people criticize what they don’t like, and I was the one at fault for being so fucking stupid to like something as trashy as crystal.
It came to my knowledge that other like minded people had similar experiences to mine. So I decided to make my own blog away from fandom, and speak about Sailor Moon and express my love for manga and Crystal and Musicals and PGSM, without being told by 30 randoms that my opinion is garbage and I should kill myself.
so anyway, we came to today. If anyone dares to say anything negative about the 90s, gets a lecture, is considered a hater, or whatever other fuckery you can think of, because how dare we have a critical thinking of a show we actually watched and enjoyed for years. the whole notion that if we like something we MUST love every aspect of it and accept all it’s short comings, is such a new concept to me. I’m nearing 40 years of age, I was almost an adult when the Christina vs Britney thing was going on in music industry, and even though I liked one of the two and not the other, I never went out of my way to trash the other and tell fans of the other pop star that she was trash you shouldn’t listen to her music, and for the most part only few fans did that, and they were frowned upon. (and yes I had the internets back then too, we old people thrived in forums and chatroom back then instead of social media)
I have talked before about the controversial themes in sailor moon and if you want my opinion on this, manga aged way better than the 90s anime in comparison, because unlike the 90s, Naoko as a woman was more considerate when she made men characters, the main love interest was a sweetheart, and assholes like Demando and Prof Tomeo she made sure to not redeem them. in the 90s that was made by men, we got prince Demando and Prof Tomoe redeemed, and Mamoru, the main love interest being an asshole.
Or that these men changed Haruka to resemble stereotypically hetero man attributes like jealousy,possessiveness, disrespect of girlfriend, and flirting no stop even in front of said girlfriend. while NAOKO A WOMAN WHO IS NOT A LESBIAN wrote a better Haruka, who was loyal to her girlfriend, never possessive or jealous of men, and she didn’t flirt. She was also shown wearing women’s clothes and being affectionate with Michiru, while the 90s striped most of that from her. And yes one of the men responsible for that transformation of Haruka was Ikuhara, who is beloved, by the queer community, even though both of his shows after sailor moon, Utena and Yurikuma, have many problematic themes. (and that comes from me who loves UTENA)
At least the mangaka of Utena(A WOMAN), gave the girls a happy ending for the movie side story, instead of making them cars in movie.
bottom line, a medium not being perfect doesn’t mean that another medium is excused.
Manga was never perfect, but it did certain things way better than the 90s anime and I have every right to criticize the 90s on those changes, and not have a bunch of randoms come here to tell me that I shouldn’t. Me saying that I don’t like certain things, never meant “you should hate them too and stop watching now”, that’s your perception because you most probably do it for everything you don’t like.
SeraMyu Sparkles 