Some Sailor Moon memories
Apr. 9th, 2019 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
general_radixVery early this morning, I bought the elusive SH Figuarts Sailor Saturn from another user at MyFigureCollection (Amazon and most sellers on eBay want $100+ for her, but this person had her listed for $45); that unsightly absence in the Outer Senshi will be corrected, and once I get Chibi-Moon for my birthday, I'll have the base forms of all the Senshi. So what better way to celebrate than to write about some SM-related things (whether previously constrained to my brain-meats or on the 'Net)?
* It's a bit hazy, but I think that one of my first-ever memories of Sailor Moon was catching a glimpse of some figurines displayed in a glass case at some sorta exhibition. My only concrete recollection of that moment is trying to get a closer look, only for Dad to walk past (I was a tiny sprog and was riding on his shoulders). I'm thinking that this happened in California, because that was where all the high-end places were.
* Later in Pratville ('98 to '99), I heard the actual name "Sailor Moon" (mishearing it as "Saver Moon" and having to be corrected) and got a reminder of what the title character looked like. I thought that maybe I didn't actually get my "A Moon Star is Born" tape until we moved to our current home, but I also recall knowing enough about the rest of the team to try making a woefully-amateurish physical representation of Sailor Jupiter back in Pratville...
* Until I actually started receiving the Irwin dolls, my stand-in for Sailor Moon was this Dollar Tree-tier knockoff that looked kind of like her, but with an off-pink, green-accent fuku with longer sleeves. This doll was soon re-purposed as an antagonist toUsagi Serena--like, maybe a relative who was jealous of her for whatever reason?
I also used various Barbies as stand-ins for the other Senshi until I got the real deals; one white-haired, ice-themed Barbie became Queen Selenity. (For anyone wondering: I had all of the Inners plus Wicked Lady, herself a stand-in for Rini, and much later acquired Sailor Uranus from KB Toys back when it, yannow, existed.)
* There was a point where I knew that Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto existed, but had no idea why Saturn wasn't among them. That question was answered by volume 9 of the manga, but until then I was like "WHERE IS SHE?!"
I also wondered why there was no Sailor Earth (because technically that's Mamorou). Did I have Naru become Sailor Earth, as in my current AU musings? No, I chose...Ash Ketchum, I think. I was still in elementary school.
* My first-ever glimpse of the Stars arc was flipping through another kid's volume of the manga (the beginning of said arc). All the new concepts and characters piqued my imagination, but it would be ages before I'd see anything from Stars again.
* Ah, Zoicite, that cruel yet lovely commander of Queen Beryl's, with her sharp tongue and black heart--huh? What do you mean, Zoicite was male in the original? Is this the root of my later exploration of gender through tomgirls and the like?
Side note: I'm not convinced that the old dubbers didn't genuinely mistake Fish Eye and victim-of-the-week Tamasaburou for women.
* Are you thinking that I was also hoodwinked by "Amara" declaring that she and her "cousin" "Michelle" had known each other since childhood? Yeeeeess....
It took me an embarrassingly long time to wrap my head around the concept of wlw, though at the very least I don't recall ever wanting to pair Haruka or Michiru with dudes. [glares at "Wings of Love"]
* Tomb of the Unknown Senshi was one of the first major SM sites I came across; its purpose was to provide info and visual references on the more obscure Senshi. In addition to the Sailor Animamates, the site also went over the manga- and musical-only Animamates and other Senshi. Unfortunately, the webmaster got her wires crossed in enough areas that a whole response site cropped up.
* Why yes, I did hear about some of the really infamous fics before I was old enough to handle their content. I bring this up mostly because I read part of a fix-fic of "Chibiusa's Seventh Birthday" where, instead of the vile shit that goes on in THAT fic, the Senshi just take turns dunking Rini in the pool, with the sexual content restricted to Usagi and Mamorou; it was also so old that the author used different English names for the Outer Senshi (ex: Hotaru was "Heather"). Maybe one of these days I'll go looking for it again, since it was apparently also part of a series...
* Special mention should go to a fellow going by "True Sailor Io", whose fics got sporked on weepingcock. He ran his own site which was pretty much built on him being a filthy pervert, and I actually came across it once while trying to find some doujin scans. True Sailor Io had the presence of mind to disallow any sexual content of Rini or Hotaru (and presumably Chibi-Chibi as well)...but it never occurred to him that every other Senshi except Sailor Pluto is ALSO a minor. (Or maybe he did, but had a strict "only if they're written as adults" rule? Which isn't better when you're only doing it for porn purposes, but...)
(I wouldn't recommend tracking down his stuff, as on top of that bit of cognitive dissonance, some of the things in his fics were just plain offensive.)
* Sailor Moon Uncensored was a valuable source of information on the original version. Unfortunately, like most [X Anime] Uncensored sites, the webmaster frequently insulted the English voice actors and the creative decisions made by Cloverway/DiC, making the synopses obnoxious to actually read.
* Some positivity to wash away the stain of those last few points: one Halloween I went out dressed as Sailor Moon, and I've still got the wig and costume somewhere (neither fit anymore, obviously). Pretty sure I also had that replica Cutie Moon Rod at the time, too, so that got used as a prop.
* Back in either '00 or '01, I had this bizarre idea of a plot thread where Sailor Jupiter was the half-human daughter of an amorphous gel/slime alien (represented by a blanket). I think I wanted her to have some sort of special quality and didn't own anything that could stand in for a more impressive alien. |D
* The order I got my Figuarts in goes something like Mercury (part of first Amazon purchase I made on my own), either Moon (convention) or Neptune (The Deep), Pluto, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Mars, and eventually Saturn and Chibi-Moon. Long before I actually got Uranus, I saw her on offer at several places, including MovieStop before they went under, and every time I had to pass because I didn't have $50+ on me. XD;; (That was how much I ended up having to pay anyway, grumble curse mutter...)
* It's a bit hazy, but I think that one of my first-ever memories of Sailor Moon was catching a glimpse of some figurines displayed in a glass case at some sorta exhibition. My only concrete recollection of that moment is trying to get a closer look, only for Dad to walk past (I was a tiny sprog and was riding on his shoulders). I'm thinking that this happened in California, because that was where all the high-end places were.
* Later in Pratville ('98 to '99), I heard the actual name "Sailor Moon" (mishearing it as "Saver Moon" and having to be corrected) and got a reminder of what the title character looked like. I thought that maybe I didn't actually get my "A Moon Star is Born" tape until we moved to our current home, but I also recall knowing enough about the rest of the team to try making a woefully-amateurish physical representation of Sailor Jupiter back in Pratville...
* Until I actually started receiving the Irwin dolls, my stand-in for Sailor Moon was this Dollar Tree-tier knockoff that looked kind of like her, but with an off-pink, green-accent fuku with longer sleeves. This doll was soon re-purposed as an antagonist to
I also used various Barbies as stand-ins for the other Senshi until I got the real deals; one white-haired, ice-themed Barbie became Queen Selenity. (For anyone wondering: I had all of the Inners plus Wicked Lady, herself a stand-in for Rini, and much later acquired Sailor Uranus from KB Toys back when it, yannow, existed.)
* There was a point where I knew that Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto existed, but had no idea why Saturn wasn't among them. That question was answered by volume 9 of the manga, but until then I was like "WHERE IS SHE?!"
I also wondered why there was no Sailor Earth (because technically that's Mamorou). Did I have Naru become Sailor Earth, as in my current AU musings? No, I chose...Ash Ketchum, I think. I was still in elementary school.
* My first-ever glimpse of the Stars arc was flipping through another kid's volume of the manga (the beginning of said arc). All the new concepts and characters piqued my imagination, but it would be ages before I'd see anything from Stars again.
* Ah, Zoicite, that cruel yet lovely commander of Queen Beryl's, with her sharp tongue and black heart--huh? What do you mean, Zoicite was male in the original? Is this the root of my later exploration of gender through tomgirls and the like?
Side note: I'm not convinced that the old dubbers didn't genuinely mistake Fish Eye and victim-of-the-week Tamasaburou for women.
* Are you thinking that I was also hoodwinked by "Amara" declaring that she and her "cousin" "Michelle" had known each other since childhood? Yeeeeess....
It took me an embarrassingly long time to wrap my head around the concept of wlw, though at the very least I don't recall ever wanting to pair Haruka or Michiru with dudes. [glares at "Wings of Love"]
* Tomb of the Unknown Senshi was one of the first major SM sites I came across; its purpose was to provide info and visual references on the more obscure Senshi. In addition to the Sailor Animamates, the site also went over the manga- and musical-only Animamates and other Senshi. Unfortunately, the webmaster got her wires crossed in enough areas that a whole response site cropped up.
* Why yes, I did hear about some of the really infamous fics before I was old enough to handle their content. I bring this up mostly because I read part of a fix-fic of "Chibiusa's Seventh Birthday" where, instead of the vile shit that goes on in THAT fic, the Senshi just take turns dunking Rini in the pool, with the sexual content restricted to Usagi and Mamorou; it was also so old that the author used different English names for the Outer Senshi (ex: Hotaru was "Heather"). Maybe one of these days I'll go looking for it again, since it was apparently also part of a series...
* Special mention should go to a fellow going by "True Sailor Io", whose fics got sporked on weepingcock. He ran his own site which was pretty much built on him being a filthy pervert, and I actually came across it once while trying to find some doujin scans. True Sailor Io had the presence of mind to disallow any sexual content of Rini or Hotaru (and presumably Chibi-Chibi as well)...but it never occurred to him that every other Senshi except Sailor Pluto is ALSO a minor. (Or maybe he did, but had a strict "only if they're written as adults" rule? Which isn't better when you're only doing it for porn purposes, but...)
(I wouldn't recommend tracking down his stuff, as on top of that bit of cognitive dissonance, some of the things in his fics were just plain offensive.)
* Sailor Moon Uncensored was a valuable source of information on the original version. Unfortunately, like most [X Anime] Uncensored sites, the webmaster frequently insulted the English voice actors and the creative decisions made by Cloverway/DiC, making the synopses obnoxious to actually read.
* Some positivity to wash away the stain of those last few points: one Halloween I went out dressed as Sailor Moon, and I've still got the wig and costume somewhere (neither fit anymore, obviously). Pretty sure I also had that replica Cutie Moon Rod at the time, too, so that got used as a prop.
* Back in either '00 or '01, I had this bizarre idea of a plot thread where Sailor Jupiter was the half-human daughter of an amorphous gel/slime alien (represented by a blanket). I think I wanted her to have some sort of special quality and didn't own anything that could stand in for a more impressive alien. |D
* The order I got my Figuarts in goes something like Mercury (part of first Amazon purchase I made on my own), either Moon (convention) or Neptune (The Deep), Pluto, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Mars, and eventually Saturn and Chibi-Moon. Long before I actually got Uranus, I saw her on offer at several places, including MovieStop before they went under, and every time I had to pass because I didn't have $50+ on me. XD;; (That was how much I ended up having to pay anyway, grumble curse mutter...)
no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 03:10 am (UTC)I'm glad you are getting the base forms for all the Senshi all together! Your little revelation about Zoicite made me laugh. I remember that being a big thing in school when everyone learned how heavily edited the Americanized Sailor Moon was. (Almost as bad as Yugioh!)
Sadly, at the time I was more a Dragon Ball Z fan than a Sailor Moon fan. Gundam Wing snuck in there shortly afterwards along with Slayers! But it was still fun to see everyone getting excited over Tuxedo Mask and getting little plushies of Luna.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 06:37 am (UTC)I'unno how many kids at my elementary school realized how edited the old dub was. XD There were some older kids I knew from having to share a bus ("older kids" and not friends because many of them were assholes) who were more anime-informed than I was, but I never heard them mention that original!Zoicite was a dude. Maybe 'cuz it was the early '00s and fem!Zoicite was more palatable...
It was more DBZ and Pokemon where I was, but I did see plenty of Sailor Moon stuff among my schoolmates, too! Particularly someone's copy of an official artwork of Super Sailor Moon that I'd stare at every time we passed it in the hallway.