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Exclusive Interview: Viz Media's Charlene Ingram and Josh Lopez on Sailor Moon

As for the "sexist" part, well again, this is the show that "evil" Umino up skirts Miss Haruna early in the series, and what's her first reaction? Not to pound Umino into sawdust...she cries about no one will want to marry her. Really? That's the reaction??? Beating the crap out of a him would have been funnier.

Sevenfeet wrote:

h As for the "sexist" part, well again, this is the show that "evil" Umino up skirts Miss Haruna early in the series, and what's her first reaction? Not to pound Umino into sawdust...she cries about no one will want to marry her. Really? That's the reaction??? Beating the crap out of a him would have been funnier.

To be fair, I don't really think that a teacher should beat the crap out of her student. I actually don't think that would make it amusing either. :c

"Beating there crap out of him" wasn't the real point. Please read the previous sentences.

As for the "sexist" part

zeo1fan wrote:

We're not critiquing you for critiquing it. We're critiquing you for attacking skirts and make-up with seemingly no justification.

Really? You're trying to ask a serious question that should be obvious to everyone here?

Let's just pretend you're not either trolling me or defending this slavishly. Let's address the "silly" aspect of this. Hyper short skirts and bare legs in all kids of weather are hardly the attire most woman would choose to fight monsters. Just sayin'. The front bow probably gets in the way of anything practical you'd want to do with your arms and hands. High heel shoes on Mars? Yeah, that's an broken ankle waiting to happen (and curiously, it DID happen). And I doubt those tiaras would stay on a minute in combat. But let's be "realistic" for a moment. Most super heroine costumes in comic books in the US are pretty silly too. Wonder Woman? DC had to retconn a story that her costume was some kind of magical armor. Whatever. The Black Cat from Spider-man comics? I'm sure that cleavage wouldn't stay tethered while swinging through the city. And of course, the queen of ridiculous costumes has to go to Power Girl, where the creators weren't even trying to justify their character's choices...at least not one that didn't result in peals of laughter.

As for the "sexist" part, well again, this is the show that "evil" Umino up skirts Miss Haruna early in the series, and what's her first reaction? Not to pound Umino into sawdust...she cries about no one will want to marry her. Really? That's the reaction??? Beating the crap out of a him would have been funnier. Short revealing skirts are the rule for women in comics who wear them (Wonder Woman, again was an early template). But in this case they are on 14 year old girls. It's hard not to think that this isn't a lite version of fan service. Back in the 1980s, the X-Men was the most popular comic book in the US and the youngest character was Kitty Pride. All the other X-Men who began as teenagers in the 60s were adults by now and Kitty Pride was introduced at age 13 but not assigned to one of the other younger mutant superhero teams. Given how the artists drew her considering the age of her character, Kitty Pride was often referred to as "Kitty Porn" by readers. Despite my comments here, I don't think that Sailor Moon animators went nearly as far as Marvel artists on their respective characters.

As for the "Make Up!" line, the transformation sequence does contain fingernail polish, lipstick, hair, etc. At least they are consistent.

I have a little girl who's 8 years old and is in the target demo for this show now. I'm hardly a prude. I don't mind the gay themes...she sees that in real life and needs to view that realistically since she has a friend with gay parents. Violence? No more than her Harry Potter movies. Sexism not compatible with my wife's view on women's issues (or mine)? Not sure about that.

Speaking of choices, a lot of people are blaming the anime writers/animators/directors for choosing, well anything in the story, but I'm pretty sure that all those details were developed by Naoko Takeuchi. If you take issue with it, ask her.

Speaking as a woman, I really, really wish I had watched Sailor Moon as a kid. I would have absolutely loved it! I grew up craving shows with serialized, complicated storylines and ended up watching a lot of American superhero cartoons like Spider-Man, live action Japanese imports like Power Rangers, and Gargoyles--pretty good choices when you're starved for content (and Gargoyles in particular had *great* writing). But they were all so male dominated. The women were side characters, love interests, or simply outnumbered by the males. American cartoons today don't seem that much better.

Sailor Moon is revolutionary because it's All About Girls! Girls are the stars, the primary focus, the superheroes! So they're feminine, they like pretty clothes and jewelry and make up--not anymore so than Barbie, or Bratz dolls or the girls of Monster High, or, hey, many little girls in real life! They have male love interests-- well, most male superheroes have love interests, too (who occasionally save their butts). Their costumes are impractical? Can you think of a superhero who has a *practical* costume? Superman's cape isn't aerodynamic, it's there to look good.

I haven't seen the whole show yet, but I can already tell that I would have eaten this up as a kid. If my nieces were interested, I'd show it to them in an instant. And now they, and a whole new generation of girls has the chance to discover the show and fall in love with something that's still unfortunately so rare--girls in a show about girls for girls. Girls who are shown calling the shots. Girls who are masters of their own destiny! Really, what more could you ask for?

What a sad day to see one of the most iconic series for girls, created by one of the most successful women in the industry, being demeaned as sexist trash. Sometimes I wonder just what kind of show people who make these claims want. Females who have forgone their own feminity? There's something unsavory and backwards about that mindset.

-Stuart Smith

As a gay dude, I tended towards identifying with female characters over male, a lot of the time. So I understand the feeling. I watched a lot of magical girl shows. I read and watched a lot of fairy tales. And a combination of Disney, Nick, and Cartoon Network gave me a steady supply. The Wild Thornberrys, Kim Possible, The Powerpuff Girls, As Told By Ginger, etc. I never particularly felt as though the supply was lacking.

What a sad day to see one of the most iconic series for girls, created by one of the most successful women in the industry, being demeaned as sexist trash. Sometimes I wonder just what kind of show people who make these claims want. Females who have forgone their own feminity? There's something unsavory and backwards about that mindset.

I can't think of an awful lot of currently ongoing American cartoons with female protagonists--My Little Pony and Legend of Korra, obviously. Gravity Falls focuses more on Dipper than Mabel, but I'd still say she's a protagonist.

I think the focus on live action shows for tween girls like ICarly and Hannah Montana, along with the ridiculous notion that boys won't watch shows with female leads (didn't Sailor Moon disprove that two decades ago???) has shifted what the children's networks are willing to produce for girls.

Mohawk52 wrote:

I doubt they would not know that master material should not be stored in conditions that would expose it to the outside environment. Besides I will hazard a guess that SM was done on video tape, not film too.

Has any anime, ever, been recorded straight from cel onto video? It's not exactly designed for frame-by-frame capture.
People have original cels to trade because the studios ]got rid of them. Other materials aren't always treated much better and, even with the best of intentions, may not have held up well (remember how much time, money and effort they had to spend restoring the negatives for even something huge like Star Wars?)