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.
