30 Day Sailor Moon meme...Day 18
Mar. 18th, 2011 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteUgh, I'm a little late again...but in my defense, I spent a TON of time today on Sailor Moon-releated things! For example, catching up on Sailor Failures, which is a truly hilarious and thought-provoking assortment of mostly-Sailor Moon related things.
This is such a dangerous question. I mean, the manga is what started it all, the manga is Naoko's work de triomphe, so to speak, the manga is what has the best Sailor V backstory and a Mamoru whose age isn't quite as creepy and...many other positive things.
But...the anime has a feisty Rei who doesn't seem to have any plans on being a shrine maiden forever. I relate to the anime Rei.
And the anime has my favorite arc, Sailor Moon R part 2 (a.k.a. the Romance arc), when so much differed from the manga simply because the anime producers had MAMORU BREAK UP WITH USAGI. I don't know why I love that arc so much--maybe because it, above all the other arcs with the "mystery of not knowing who Sailor Moon is" and "the enemy is trying to kill us all AGAIN!", had so much character drama!
Even the dub did some pretty amazing things, despite it butchering quite a bit. I mean, I adore Rubeus' line "I've seen the future...and you're not in it!" to Sailor Moon when she's protecting Rini at the construction site (In episode 61, "Naughty 'n' Nice"). Wouldn't that scare the crap out of you, hearing that? Even though Serena doesn't know exactly WHEN Rini is from, or why the Negamoon is after her, she has heard, at this point, that the Sailor Scouts are protecting her in the future. But if she's not there, then... Eek!
I think the breakup forced Usagi to grow in the anime. Sure, the original anime had her be much less of a crybaby (among various other character changes that rendered them horribly immature, even for age 14-15), but she was still a professed crybaby, and Mamoru, despite being influenced by dreams from his future self (not like he knew that, and hey, how is that even possible?!), did make a good point: why should their future be determined by their pasts?
After all, Usagi and Mamoru seemed to spend a good amount of time bickering and teasing one another before she found out he was Tuxedo Mask and subsequently, Endymion. The memories that came back into each of them were powerful, sure, and neither of them really knew how to handle it. While I think Usagi successfully integrated Serenity into her persona, I don't know if Mamoru did the same with Endymion. The anime phased him out more and more, while the manga had him continue to be an important character through his death in Stars (and resurrection).
The equivalent arc in the manga seemed to imply Usagi and Mamoru were MORE than fine with each other--tolerant of their memories, aware of their powers, blah blah. Kind of boring, actually, that they were such a perfect power couple. Okay, so it was vaguely implied that they were sleeping together by then, but did we get any interesting characterization as a result? No! Of course not, the focus is on the MAGICAL girl aspect, not the drama.
Again, the manga's got a LOT going for it, and the anime does have some major weak points, but what weak points the anime does have, they tend to be canon-wide, not necessarily JUST the anime. What weak points are exclusive to the anime don't seem to overpower the strong points for me, although the strong points of the manga do come close. Some more things I enjoyed about the manga more than the anime:
* Sailor Cosmos (even though someone rightly pointed out: she is a kind of a coward, and it's a bit disappointing to think she's the final evolution of Sailor Moon)
* More Sailor Senshi, like the only-briefly-seen Sailor Mau, Sailor Mermaid, and Sailor Coronis! Of course, Sera Myu had new Sailor Senshi too, including Animamates, so....
* A wedding! We had many anime posters and some dreams that didn't end too well, but no real wedding in Sailor Moon. The anime ended it with Usagi and Mamoru kissing in the moonlight, and Usagi narrating how she's somehow STILL just 16 but hey, she's just defeated the ultimate form of Chaos in the universe, so everything's cool. She's in high school, a bit of a klutz and a crybaby, but she's also the champion of love and justice...and sorry, the manga beats that end scene with a crystalline stick. THE MANGA HAD A WEDDING. ("It's about damn time!")
But still, in the end, my favorite form of canon is the anime. The anime's also got the gender-bending Starlights (and yes, yes, I know that all the Starlights are ACTUALLY female in disguise, but that doesn't mean I can't like the character drama created by Seiya loving/liking Usagi, and her reaction or non-reaction to his feelings). And awesome music! And...yeah, I think I've said most of them at this rate. But feel free to throw in your two yen!
This is such a dangerous question. I mean, the manga is what started it all, the manga is Naoko's work de triomphe, so to speak, the manga is what has the best Sailor V backstory and a Mamoru whose age isn't quite as creepy and...many other positive things.
But...the anime has a feisty Rei who doesn't seem to have any plans on being a shrine maiden forever. I relate to the anime Rei.
And the anime has my favorite arc, Sailor Moon R part 2 (a.k.a. the Romance arc), when so much differed from the manga simply because the anime producers had MAMORU BREAK UP WITH USAGI. I don't know why I love that arc so much--maybe because it, above all the other arcs with the "mystery of not knowing who Sailor Moon is" and "the enemy is trying to kill us all AGAIN!", had so much character drama!
Even the dub did some pretty amazing things, despite it butchering quite a bit. I mean, I adore Rubeus' line "I've seen the future...and you're not in it!" to Sailor Moon when she's protecting Rini at the construction site (In episode 61, "Naughty 'n' Nice"). Wouldn't that scare the crap out of you, hearing that? Even though Serena doesn't know exactly WHEN Rini is from, or why the Negamoon is after her, she has heard, at this point, that the Sailor Scouts are protecting her in the future. But if she's not there, then... Eek!
I think the breakup forced Usagi to grow in the anime. Sure, the original anime had her be much less of a crybaby (among various other character changes that rendered them horribly immature, even for age 14-15), but she was still a professed crybaby, and Mamoru, despite being influenced by dreams from his future self (not like he knew that, and hey, how is that even possible?!), did make a good point: why should their future be determined by their pasts?
After all, Usagi and Mamoru seemed to spend a good amount of time bickering and teasing one another before she found out he was Tuxedo Mask and subsequently, Endymion. The memories that came back into each of them were powerful, sure, and neither of them really knew how to handle it. While I think Usagi successfully integrated Serenity into her persona, I don't know if Mamoru did the same with Endymion. The anime phased him out more and more, while the manga had him continue to be an important character through his death in Stars (and resurrection).
The equivalent arc in the manga seemed to imply Usagi and Mamoru were MORE than fine with each other--tolerant of their memories, aware of their powers, blah blah. Kind of boring, actually, that they were such a perfect power couple. Okay, so it was vaguely implied that they were sleeping together by then, but did we get any interesting characterization as a result? No! Of course not, the focus is on the MAGICAL girl aspect, not the drama.
Again, the manga's got a LOT going for it, and the anime does have some major weak points, but what weak points the anime does have, they tend to be canon-wide, not necessarily JUST the anime. What weak points are exclusive to the anime don't seem to overpower the strong points for me, although the strong points of the manga do come close. Some more things I enjoyed about the manga more than the anime:
* Sailor Cosmos (even though someone rightly pointed out: she is a kind of a coward, and it's a bit disappointing to think she's the final evolution of Sailor Moon)
* More Sailor Senshi, like the only-briefly-seen Sailor Mau, Sailor Mermaid, and Sailor Coronis! Of course, Sera Myu had new Sailor Senshi too, including Animamates, so....
* A wedding! We had many anime posters and some dreams that didn't end too well, but no real wedding in Sailor Moon. The anime ended it with Usagi and Mamoru kissing in the moonlight, and Usagi narrating how she's somehow STILL just 16 but hey, she's just defeated the ultimate form of Chaos in the universe, so everything's cool. She's in high school, a bit of a klutz and a crybaby, but she's also the champion of love and justice...and sorry, the manga beats that end scene with a crystalline stick. THE MANGA HAD A WEDDING. ("It's about damn time!")
But still, in the end, my favorite form of canon is the anime. The anime's also got the gender-bending Starlights (and yes, yes, I know that all the Starlights are ACTUALLY female in disguise, but that doesn't mean I can't like the character drama created by Seiya loving/liking Usagi, and her reaction or non-reaction to his feelings). And awesome music! And...yeah, I think I've said most of them at this rate. But feel free to throw in your two yen!
