Nostalgia Critic on ‘Sailor Moon’

Why?

Although I follow his close associate Jame Rolfe, whom I’ve often found insightful if vulgar, I haven’t paid much attention to the so-called Nostalgia Critic. For whatever reason, whenever I’ve started one of his videos, I’ve found it annoying.

Because I wasn’t minding him, I discovered only three years late that he produced a review of Sailor Moon. As soon as I realized this, I decided that, of course, I had to watch his review and post it.

Then, about halfway through his video, I exclaimed, “I can’t post this!”

However, after further consideration, I have decided that, though his methods are crass, I think he discusses things that are worth discussing. So I have decided to post his video here even though some of his humor violates my vaguely defined rules for acceptable content. Viewer discretion is therefore advised:


He mostly discusses the DiC English dub of Sailor Moon, and he appears to be familiar only with part of the first season, though his discussion does, curiously, range for a moment into the third season, which he compares against the Japanese version even though he otherwise leaves the Japanese version unaddressed.

A few comments of my own: First, though his methods are tongue-in-cheek and crude, I think he is right to address the sexualized obsession with young girls that characterizes much of Japanese pop culture, even if I think he over-interprets this particular franchise and uses it as an excuse to make ribald jokes.

Second, I think he needs to watch the Japanese original in order to appreciate the franchise. He spends much time complaining about Sailor Moon’s unlikable personality, which is not unreasonable, but I think he should see the character as played by Kotono Mitsuishi, whose fantastic voice performance makes the whiny, lazy, and cowardly heroine remarkably endearing.

Third, his complaints about the show’s sexual elements, if not exactly misplaced, are at least too facetious and improperly contextualized. I don’t entirely disagree with him, but it is worth pointing out that Sailor Moon and her compatriots wear miniskirts and go-go boots for the same reason that female Star Trek officers in the original series wore them: Because these were at one time emblems of women’s liberation. That may be hard to appreciate in an age where the burka is a symbol of feminism, but it is a fact nonetheless, though such a symbol was arguably anachronistic already by the time Sailor Moon made its appearance.

Also worth noting, the animated version of the franchise, which is the only one the Nostalgia Critic discusses, varies considerably from the manga version. Both certainly have sexual content, but of a markedly different character. The upskirt shots, the emphases on the characters’ legs, and the panty peekaboo are exclusive to the anime, apparently because most of the people working on the anime were men and because they wanted to appeal to a male audience.

Nyanzi on Dark Magical Girls

The other day, I posted a link to Christopher Kinsey’s discussion of how the magical girl genre has grown darker and more adult in recent years. Shortly thereafter, senpai noticed; that is, Rawlye Nyanzi took up the subject and gave his own speculation.

He looks at the subject from a different angle and makes an interesting observation: Japan is facing a devastating population winter. That is, the Japanese are not reproducing at replacement rate. And that means that the traditional target audience of magical girl anime is not getting replenished.

Nyanzi writes,

Remember that child-focused anime aren’t only trying to sell themselves, but associated merchandise as well. Before, they could aim at parents. Now, since there are way fewer parents and way more childless adults (who have way more disposable income), magical girl anime no longer have to be child-friendly. There’s no money in the children’s market anymore because there are too few children.

He also points out that there were grimmer magical girls even before the most recent spate. He gives My-HiME as an example, but we could easily refer to others—and even some of the great classics have their dark elements. Let’s not forget that Sailor Moon was forced to watch all her friends die and that the girls of Magic Knight Rayearth were tricked into committing a cosmic mercy-killing.

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Christopher Kinsey: ‘Magical Girls and What to Do about Them’

Anime Outsiders is an interesting website; I first discovered them on Twitter, where they claimed (and whether they were being honest or merely puffing themselves, I have no idea) that they had members who were disaffected former employees of Crunchyroll. Garrulous and highly opinionated, they’re worth keeping an eye on simply because they offer exactly what their name implies—an alternate opinion that’s outside the mainstream groupthink.

Christopher Kinsey has an article up over there entitled, “Magical Girls and What to Do about Them.” Like every author who discusses magical girls, Kinsey feels a strange need to give a history of the genre, but unlike most, he mercifully keeps it brief and gets into the real point he wants to discuss—how the genre has become darker, edgier, and more adult thanks largely to Puella Magi Madoka Magica. In doing so, he also points out a connection between Madoka and Lyrical Nanoha that I had not picked up on (mostly because I admittedly have a hard time remembering Japanese names).

For those among us who know our production houses, Seven Arcs began its life producing adult themed animation, the most notorious of which is known as Night Shift Nurses and the less said about THAT the better. But this was all to build the capitol to make a really honest to goodness TV anime series. As it turns out, they produced Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha which, as mentioned above, was a magical girl anime primarily designed to draw in a male audience.

Kinsey makes the case that the genre, in its recent developments, has ended up excluding the audience it was originally intended for—young girls.

I’ve repeatedly complained on here about the excess darkness in the genre today, with many series like Magical Girl Site trying to duplicate the grimness of Madoka without understanding why Madoka works.

Although I think Kinsey makes the common mistake of interpreting Madoka in light of Gen Urobuchi’s previous work (even though Urobuchi himself has said he was trying to write against his usual tendencies with Madoka), he ultimately turns to the Netflix adaptation of Smile Pretty Cure into Glitter Force and makes what I believe to be a great point:

Could it be translated better and still sold to young girls? Probably, but this is just the thing to remind the anime community that we have to cater to more than just young men with disposable incomes. Everyone deserves a chance at the table, and if Glitter Force can be a gateway to a new fan just as Sailor Moon scooped up many young ladies to the fandom back when I was young, then I think we need to have more series just like it.

History of Magical Girl Transformation Sequences

This video from Get in the Robot, although alleging to focus on the rationale for transformation sequences in magical girl anime, is actually a history of the genre with some critical interpretation thrown in. And it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen, so you should watch it. It mentions a lot of the major milestones in the genre, but smartly avoids getting sidetracked by rabbit trails or minor titles while at the same time pointing out some influences that others often miss.

My only small quibble with this video would be in its claim that the genre has shifted away from an early focus on coming-of-age stories. I think that’s something that’s been muted by the infusion of superhero tropes, but by no means eliminated.

Grown-Up Stuff: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 18

The bird is fighting its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wishes to be born must destroy a world. The bird is flying to God. The god is named Abraxas.

Herman Hesse, Demian

Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 18: “Mitsuru’s Impatience.” Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Character designs by Chiho Saito. Be-Papas, Japan, 1997 (Nozomi Entertainment, 2011). Approx. 24 minutes. Rated “16+.”

Watch for free.

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Hmm, haven’t done one of these in a while. I think it’s time once again to dive into that greatest of LCD-laced art-house-style anime from the 1990s—and, of course, to do with copious helpings of Texts from Last Night.

Mari sits on a table and eats chocolate while scorning Tsuwabuki

Continue reading “Grown-Up Stuff: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 18”

Magical Girls and Suffering Well

A fellow calling himself Exclamation Point, who makes pretty good videos analyzing anime, has recently uploaded one entitled “How to Suffer Well: Sympathetic Characterization in Madoka and Magical Girl Site.” From the title, I assumed he was going to use magical girl shows as a jumping-off point to discuss Stoical philosophy. I was wrong, but I think the video is still worth watching.

My opinion about “dark” magical girl shows is less positive than his, though, perhaps ironically, I think I enjoyed Magical Girl Site more than he did. His point in this video, which he makes very well (and then drives into the ground) is that the suffering in Puella Magi Madoka Magica stems directly from the characters’ decisions, and has consequences that fundamentally change their world, a world that is worth preserving. In Magical Girl Site, by contrast, life just sucks and then you die: The heroine is not at all responsible for all the bad things that happens to her, and she has no reason to preserve anything because everything is miserable.

He makes a good case, and I think what he says could apply not to Magical Girl Site only, but to the whole slew of “lesser” dark magical girl shows that have followed in Madoka’s wake without understanding why Madoka works. Magical Girl Site is just one particularly extreme example, one where the flaws especially stand out because it’s trying especially hard to be on the edge.

I basically agree with him, but I might point out that there is, at least, an improvement to the heroine’s life by the end: She’s got away from her abusers and found friendship, and has concluded, contrary to what she had been told and believed previously, that she is not in fact unfortunate.

Exclamation Point’s reply to me after I say that would no doubt be to point out that the heroine’s just going to die anyway within two years or less so her happiness is temporary and therefore pointless. I might then answer by way of rebuttal that all temporal happiness is temporary—and I might add that the story isn’t over yet by the time the first season ends, so it’s possible that the girls might find a way to foil the shortening of their lifespans.

‘Flowering Heart’ in Real Life

What the hell is this even …

Cinemassacre on ‘Akira’

I have for some time been following James Rolfe, as I’ve enjoyed both his discussions of film and, in spite of the crassness and vulgarity, his role as the Angry Video Game Nerd. He mostly discusses retro video games and B-movies, so I was surprised when I saw a review of Akira appear in my YouTube recommendations.

The reason he hasn’t discussed much anime, as he freely admits in this video, is because he hasn’t seen much. His discussion here is positive, though I was disappointed to find that it was mostly fanboyish enthusiasm rather than analysis.

For any readers here unaware, Akira appeared in 1988 and depicted a dystopian future Tokyo of 2019. The protagonists are punkish biker thugs who begin as best friends and end up trying to kill each other on account of a secret government program investigating children with psychic powers.

The movie is credited with jump-starting the anime craze in the U.S., and it was extremely influential in Japan as well. The animation was some of the best ever made at the time, and involved some bold choices that might go unappreciated in the age of computer animation, such as the decision to set most of the story at night, which required considerable extra work because of the dark colors and backgrounds. Like many anime of the late Eighties, it takes influence from Blade Runner, and like many anime films, it is opaque and largely indecipherable, though it’s based on a much lengthier manga that’s considerably easier to understand.

It was probably popular in the States in part because it was shocking, with bloody ultra-violence and graphic nudity, which fans inevitably contrasted with the content of animation aimed at children.

Personally, I have to admit I’ve never cared for it, even though both the manga and the film are undeniably impressive achievements. Mostly, I just hate the characters.

Preliminaries on ‘Sailor Moon Super S’

As Viz Media has released the uncensored Japanese version of the ’90s anime version of Sailor Moon with an English sub, I’ve been purchasing it on iTunes.

I previously reviewed the first half of Sailor Moon S, the third arc, but never reviewed the second half partly because I got busy with other things, partly because I lost the ability to take screenshots from iTunes, and partly because I had little to add to my review of the first part: the series takes some of the most questionable decisions of the manga, makes yet more questionable decisions in adapting them, and somehow spins gold out of what by rights should be a complete mess. It might be the best chapter in the saga.

Anyway, Viz has released both halves of Sailor Moon Super S, the penultimate series, as well as two of the movies, Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S. Both films had limited runs in theaters, but I only had the chance to see the first one.

I started out by purchasing this series on iTunes, and am still doing so. I’m currently puzzling out what to do about the screenshot issue, because I’d like to review them. I have the Japanese version of Sailor Moon Super S, but the movies I haven’t bought yet, mostly because iTunes appears to indicate that they’re only available in English, which makes me think that maybe I should shell out for the Blu-Ray so I can have them in Japanese. Stephanie Sheh, who plays Sailor Moon in the dub, does a passable job, but she’s also another minor celebrity who’s made a habit of making a fool of herself on social media, so I’m frankly uninterested in listening to her voice.

Anyway, what I’m saying is … Sailor Moon Super S is out, if you didn’t know that already. This particular series has historically been unpopular with American fans because it centers on Chibi Moon, who is not as well-liked in the U.S. as in Japan. I’ve only just begun it, but I’m so far enjoying it. I feel the need to revisit this section of the manga, since it didn’t make much of an impression on my memory and I’m unsure how utterly the anime has changed it.

 

Anime Review: ‘ViVid Strike!’

I have come to make friends and to kick ass, and I am all out of friends.

, directed by Junji Nishimura. Written by Masaki Tsuzuki. Music by Yôichiro Yoshikawa. Starring Eri Kitamura, Inori Minase, and Mamiko Noto. Seven Arcs (). 12 episodes of 23 minutes (approx. ). Not rated.

Available on Amazon Prime.

ViVid Strike! is the fifth anime series in the main continuity of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise. On the one hand, that hardly matters because this series is designed to stand alone: No previous knowledge of Lyrical Nanoha is necessary to understand and enjoy what’s going on here. But on the other hand, despite a radical departure from the previous incarnations of the franchise, ViVid Strike! takes Lyrical Nanoha back to its roots, back to the core concept that made the franchise so enormously popular in first place—magic-powered little girls viciously beating each other to a bloody pulp in the name of friendship.

Fuuka and Rinne punch each other in the face.
When you’re friends.

Indeed, although it is not without its problems, ViVid Strike! is arguably the strongest entry in the long-running franchise, or at least the one with the clearest vision … as well as the most brutal violence.

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