Forum - View topicThe Incredible Untold Story of Sailor Moon.
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
himethebook
Posts: 4 |
|
||
|
Here is a preview of the prologue for the book: This prologue is copyright 2014 Theodore Jefferson
Walk down any street in America and ask ten strangers if they've heard of Sailor Moon. The majority will probably say yes. Right now I can think of five comic book characters far more "famous" none of those ten strangers could identify. Those five famous comic book characters wouldn't be quite as famous nor would they have made their creators quite as financially well-off if it weren't for Sailor Moon. The story of Sailor Moon is a story of contrasts: The unlikeliest of superheroes, cosmic levels of success followed by inexplicable obscurity, and a second chance that may well have been the greatest one-presidential-term comeback in entertainment history. It is a story of two groups of fans, at once divided and joined by a common inspiration. It is the story of a character that baffled parents by causing brothers to sit down next to their sisters every afternoon and quietly watch television together. Sailor Moon is the heroic epic of Japan. It has the same cultural significance to the Japanese people as Star Trek does to Americans. Usagi Tsukino's mannerisms are as recognizable as Captain James T. Kirk's. Any Japanese person would recognize her classic "triumph over evil" pose as easily as any American would recognize the starship Enterprise. It is for that reason that Sailor Moon may very well be the greatest post-Meiji east-west ambassador since Richard Nixon. In her adventures, record numbers of Americans, Canadians, Europeans and Australians found something they couldn't quite explain, but that has compelled them to watch, read and celebrate for nearly twenty years. I believe what they found was an expression of heroism, love and courage recognizable to all cultures. I found Sailor Moon where most Americans did. One afternoon I happened to have Cartoon Network on while I was housecleaning. I know, it sounds like a thrilling moment of serendipity, but bear with me. There was a marathon of episodes in progress called "Total Eclipse of the Heart" no doubt named by a fan of 80s music. As I worked, I glanced at the show occasionally. At the time, like most Americans I had heard the name "Sailor Moon" but I really had little idea what it was. Within 20 minutes, my glances had given way to me sitting there watching episode after episode. Two years later, I was working for the company that brought the show to the United States. To be fair, I had a number of advantages older fans didn't. I found the show during its silver age. I didn't have to endure the literally dark days when I would have had to set my alarm for 5AM to see the next episode. I also had the benefit of some very dedicated fans who built web sites which served as a fine guide. We will cover the importance of the Internet to Sailor Moon in numerous upcoming chapters. What I came away with was a better understanding of subjects quite close to my soul. As a scholar of letters, my formal study of the heroic epic gave me a context for understanding the characters. I knew why they were so important to fans. As a writer, I saw in Takeuchi-sensei's work a superior understanding of the classic heroic balance between simple humanity and the loving, courageous act of transcending vulnerability. Perhaps no less important is what Sailor Moon made possible. In this book I will make the case that without Sailor Moon, the entertainment landscape of the 21st century so far would be very different. There are billion-dollar comic book franchises that simply would not exist at anything approaching their current success levels were it not for the events Sailor Moon set in motion in the early 1990s. As a result of my further marketing work, I also came to understand bringing Sailor Moon to the United States was a tremendous risk. The majority of that risk was borne by one man whose contributions to the show and what followed should not be underestimated. His was the pioneering spirit that told American culture there was room for a girl in the pantheon of heroes. This man bet his company and reputation on that belief, and won. The cable television landscape in the late 1990s changed dramatically as a result of Sailor Moon's influence. A four billion dollar industry arose from what by the turn of the century most had dismissed as a lost opportunity. And then, some little creatures called "pocket monsters" turned that four billion dollar industry into a planet-wide shockwave of merchandising that has yet to subside. Revenues in the eleven figures followed, reshaping everything from television to video games to Broadway. Chances are, anything you like today has been either influenced by or made possible by Takeuchi-sensei's magnum opus. Toys like Pokemon and the Disney Princess phenomenon, games like World of Warcraft and Stardoll, television shows like My Little Pony, the Powerpuff Girls and H2O Just Add Water, movies like The Avengers and The Incredibles, books like The Hunger Games and The Lightning Thief: all of them had a straighter and smoother road to success as a result of what she accomplished. Sailor Moon is Japan's triumph. After the unprecedented success of their business enterprises in the 1980s, Japanese entertainment companies took what Chuck Jones, Walt Disney and Charles Schulz had accomplished, brought it up to 21st-century technological standards, gave it super powers and shipped it back to the United States where it captivated two generations of children and made their parents wish they didn't really have to collect them all. In the space of only forty years, a nation had emerged from the ruins of the most catastrophic war in human history, rose to economic prominence on the world stage and stood alone astride an entertainment empire with no equal, past or present. They had out-Disneyed Disney, put video games directly in the hands of hundreds of millions of children, covered entire walls in bookstores with new and exciting stories, paved the way for comic book characters to be credible as film stars and made a clumsy middle school student with long blond ponytails the ambassador of cool. Sailor Moon changed the world. |
|||
|
|||
|
himethebook
Posts: 4 |
|
||
|
Here is the proposed chapter list for the book in publication order Copyright 2014 Theodore Jefferson
C'est La Vie is Japanese for Superhero Five is a Magic Number: Nakayoshi, TV Asahi and The Golden Age The Fuse is Lit: Nine Hundred Million Reasons To Read Backwards Never Running from a Real Fight: The Deal Grain Futures Don't Sell Action Figures: Syndication Save Our Sailors: The Internet Wars Clash of the Titans: Carl Icahn Defeats the Negaverse The Lewis and Clark of Anime: How a Card Game Vanquished Denmark This One Goes Out To All The Ladies: Toonami and The Silver Age The Wait is Over: Sailor Moon Saves the World Along Came a Spider: What a Difference Forty Years Makes Honors and Privileges: Italian Sports Cars and a Plush Toy Cat That's Teamwork: My Little Incredibles Avenged: The Senshi Initiative Forty Billion Dollar Tiara: From Princess to Empress The Undiscovered Country: The Queen has Returned Bonus Chapters: Naoko Takeuchi: The Rabbit on the Moon Andy Heyward: The World of DIC Al Kahn: Monster Man Brad Bird: Mister Incredible Lauren Faust: The Power of Friendship The Original Japanese Voice Cast in their own words The Original American Voice Cast in their own words The Original American Musicians in their own words The Live Action Television Cast in their own words |
|||
|
|||
Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11299 Location: Frisco, TX |
|
||
|
Just FYI to all the users, I have talked to the author through PMs, and this topic was approved by Bamboo. So, if you have any fact-checking or knowledge to contribute, please feel free to do so, and do not report this thread. Thanks.
|
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group