(Warning: Nothing major beside some spoilers for Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S, some swearing and me just rambling about stuff.)
A few days after I talked about that depressing Switch 2 Direct and worry about Nintendo's future, I decided to write something a little bit lighter on my blog. And make it political free too as I know some don’t like that stuff for mental reasons. Thankfully, I think this one would do!
So anyways ten years ago, I did something “dumb”. Like, I didn’t know why I do it. I was in laying on my lofted dorm bed on a Sunday afternoon, on my iPhone and being bored on my mind. I already browsed Facebook for the time being. I haven’t joined Twitter just yet and I won’t be on Reddit for the next two years.
It was on my bed I thought of something that I never thought of doing before. Like I still don’t know why I did it. I could’ve done other things that day than what I did.
What I did on that day is watch the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime. With the original English dub from the 90s’, where the characters were given Western names and censored any Japanese things that the American audience didn’t “understand” at the time. And watch it on YouTube! Now before you go after me, I didn’t know about Funimation having all the episodes on their website (back when Funimation used to have a site).
I think what inspired me to watch Sailor Moon is thanks to me attending the local anime con that my university held, two weeks earlier. Like, I didn’t even know my university holds one until that Saturday as I was heading to the Student Union to grab something to eat and saw people cosplaying from different various anime, cartoons and any pop culture media that was big at the time. I remember seeing a group of girls cosplaying characters from Haikyuu, on the front lawn of the Student Union as I went in.
I know it was that con where I bought the large Attack on Titan jacket that I paid $80 for. I remember I use to wear on a daily basis (even when I was living in Southern Texas, where it’s 100 degree for four months of the year) until late last year where after mom’s nonstop nagging, I finally replaced it due to it having huge holes on the bottom and that the zipper doesn’t work anymore! You can blame my autism for not giving up that jacket right away as autistic people are known to keep things that we love, even if it falls apart.
But that’s another story saved for another day.
So it was in my former dorm I watched the very first episode of Sailor Moon and I was impressed! I love how soft the art style was due to the colors. Then there was the animation that made the show look retro as it was made in the 90s. I also liked some of the filter episodes, which was notorious back in the day. But most of the filter episodes were slice of life where it’s five teenage girls hanging out and dealing with teenage stuff in Tokyo.
And how cheesy the voice acting and the writing as I mention before, this was back when any anime in the 90s, get heavily censor for the sake of the American audience. I said that because I remember watching some of the skipped episodes that never aired in America. And I can say oof for some of them. For both of “I understand why they skipped that episode” and “seriously, this is laughable in modern day sense”!
Then I remember that silly messages at the end of each episode, where the character tells the audience some life important lesson. Such as always recycle, volunteer in your community, don’t cheat on exams and never talk to strangers. But there were a few things that aged poorly on the show. It was mostly the age gap relationship.
I know this was the 90s and age gap relationship is view differently in Japan than in the West. But I kind of feel the ick due to Sailor Moon (the main character of the show), is dating Tuxedo Mask, who’s a college student and she’s 14!?! Same thing when one of her friends, once has feelings for one of big bad from one of the arcs, who’s an adult! It was probably one of the few “positive” changes that Sailor Moon Crystal (the modern reboot of the show) made, where they made the main characters and Tuxedo Mask high schoolers to get the ick out of it for modern viewers, who are against huge age gap romances.
Another thing that aged poorly is how the American version got rid of LGBT characters in order to please the Mortal Guardians. I said that because in the second arc of the 1st season there were two male villains who were lovers. The Mortal Guardians wouldn’t like that, so they have to make one of them FEMALE!
Same thing in the 3rd season, Sailor Moon S as there’s Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who are both female and is in a relationship. The original dub made them COUSINS and anyone who saw the original version wasn’t fool by that! And nobody likes! Then there’s the fact America didn’t bother airing the last season, Sailor Moon Sailor Stars because the Sailor Starlights were CROSSDRESSERS and the Mortal Guardians didn’t like crossdressers appearing in kids show (and still isn’t as of today).
Or that the 4th season, Sailor Moon SuperS didn’t too well in ratings in the States as I heard according to the fandom, SuperS was one of the weaker season. So they figure, don't bother with the last season, I guess?
Despite some the issues that the 1st season had, the show kind of got me hook to the point it became a hyperfixation for a while. I remember binge watching it on YouTube based on how much energy I have. Then sometimes I even watch the show when I was in the one of the dining halls that my campus has! And even when I went home after finishing my first year in university, I was still into the show.
But after watching the first arc of Sailor Moon R (the 2nd season) on YouTube, that hyperfixation went away. That made me sad. I don’t know why it went away.
Maybe it’s because it was at the same time I start becoming more interest in video games and turned my attention towards that instead. Don’t know, but at least it was nice to have that Sailor Moon hyperfixation when I did. Even when I stop watching that show, I still watched anime on and off based on my interest at the time. But one day, I’ll finally get the motivation to finish the rest of Sailor Moon R.
Then three years later, that motivation came back as I end up watching the rest of Sailor Moon R on Hulu, since my mom pays for it. And let me tell you, there a huge difference in between watching Sailor Moon on YouTube and watching the “updated version” on Hulu. I said “updated” as they basically replaced the original dub with a modern dub. Where the girls and other characters got their Japanese name back and they didn’t censor anything that the American audience won’t “get” as we became more accepting towards other cultures. They even dub some of the skipped episodes that the original dub didn’t do at the time!
But one of the main “issues” I had watching Sailor Moon R wasn’t the anime itself (I heard the 2nd season is bit of an improvement of the 1st season). It was the ads. I fucking HATE ADS! That’s because mom paid for the cheapest subscription, which means there’s ads whenever you watched any shows on their platform. I hated it and hated it more because my attention span was getting worst due to age and my autism!
Ugh!!!!
Besides that, it took me almost a month to finish Sailor Moon R. But then I lost motive to watch Sailor Moon S, which is the 3rd season. I blame the fact that I ‘m forced to watch ads on Hulu for ruining the hype. But I know some of you are screaming at me, saying that I could’ve watched the updated Sailor Moon R dub on the pirating site as they don’t have ads that interrupt the show!
Look, I didn’t know at the time and I wasn’t feeling comfortable going on the pirating sites back then. Like, if I wanted to watch something that bad, I would’ve gone to YouTube instead! That’s how I managed to watch the rest of Total Drama series (my longest and current special interest), back when I was in high school and when I used to live in Germany!
And what a shame too as in the next season, we finally get introduce to the Soldiers of the Outer Solar System. And that some of the villain of that season’s VAs (voice actors), voiced some of the characters in the English dub of the Danganronpa series (which was my special interest at the time). Which I didn’t know until I was looking at their TV Trope character page and recognize their names!
Then two years later, mom finally upgraded her Hulu account by bounding it with Disney+ and ESPN (which mom doesn’t like the last one as we’re not a sport family and at one point, try to bribe the guy at customer service to get rid it, which then he said they can’t do). It was the upgrade where not only we can actually watch live TV since we ditched cable that same year, there's now no more ads whenever you watch any show on Hulu! That means I can actually watch Sailor Moon S and the last two seasons if I really wanted to without any interruption!
But it’s been seven years since I last watched the series overall.
Then nearly two months ago, mom told me and my older sister that she’s thinking about ditching Hulu completely as she wants to save money due to the upcoming Recession and thinks no one in our household watches Hulu anymore! I still watch Hulu…on an occasion.
I use it to watch college football, NHL and the new season of Total Drama when it aired on Cartoon Network last year. Oh and various anime too! Like I understand why she want to do this, but if she does end up cancelling her Hulu account, then it looks like I’ll have to go the pirating sites for some of my anime that are only on Hulu!
But still, I’m happy I get to watch the 1st season of Sailor Moon when I did. If it wasn’t for that show, then I would've never got into watching anime completely (even thought that boom won’t happen for another two years). I also like how Sailor Moon was one responsible for kicking off the anime boom in the States, along with Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon in the 90s and that the series is still affecting American pop culture to this very day.
Maybe one day my Sailor Moon hyperfixation will come back and it’ll motive me to finally watch Sailor Moon S and the later seasons at long last! After all, I didn’t expect my Total Drama special interest to return last year after an eight year hiatus, but it did. So anything can happen!