Sailor Moon the manga is quite a different thing from Sailor Moon the anime, more so than many other manga adaptions. It's also, considering it's originally aimed at 10-12 year old girls, a surprisingly powerful story.
What I also think (I haven't done any real analysis, this is just a gut feeling) I've noticed with SM is that, while a children's story and rather simple in its plot (girl & friends fight monster, saves universe, get's the guy and becomes a princess) it is much more queer than most mainstream manga for girls that didn't come from the revolutionaries.
I mean, compare to Fruits Basket, which starts off with interesting premises and queer characters of various types but ends up disappointingly heteronormative with every character paired off girl/guy, including the bit characters. This is a problem with many of the girl's manga that don't set out to break taboos (a lá Kaori Yuki) or have "a higher artistic ideal" (like Moto Hagio, who while big in Japan is also seen as Quality Manga with a big Q). Manga aimed at boys otoh tend not to have as much romance, so the non-heterostandard characters more often seem to end up unattached (or, ehm, dead) although they are frequently played for comic relief.
Sailor Moon otoh has a dedicated lesbian couple and transgender characters, who are not punished for what they are, and who do not end up in a straight coupling at the end. The anime adds three gay characters (though all villains.) There is also the choice some characters make to put their mission over love, and they are not "rewarded" with straight love in the end – another rarity for female characters, I'm sad to say.
Of course, it's not perfect, there's a lot of how Usagi/Sailor Moon needs to be saved by the guy and the anime is super repetitive in many episodes etc. But I think it went further than most realized when they were kids. Oh, and the anime went further than most dubs allowed -_-;;
Utena btw is also a shining example of an anime that hit the mainstream, yet dared to go "all the way", but I expect you know that already =)
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Date: 2010-11-05 09:37 am (UTC)What I also think (I haven't done any real analysis, this is just a gut feeling) I've noticed with SM is that, while a children's story and rather simple in its plot (girl & friends fight monster, saves universe, get's the guy and becomes a princess) it is much more queer than most mainstream manga for girls that didn't come from the revolutionaries.
I mean, compare to Fruits Basket, which starts off with interesting premises and queer characters of various types but ends up disappointingly heteronormative with every character paired off girl/guy, including the bit characters. This is a problem with many of the girl's manga that don't set out to break taboos (a lá Kaori Yuki) or have "a higher artistic ideal" (like Moto Hagio, who while big in Japan is also seen as Quality Manga with a big Q).
Manga aimed at boys otoh tend not to have as much romance, so the non-heterostandard characters more often seem to end up unattached (or, ehm, dead) although they are frequently played for comic relief.
Sailor Moon otoh has a dedicated lesbian couple and transgender characters, who are not punished for what they are, and who do not end up in a straight coupling at the end. The anime adds three gay characters (though all villains.)
There is also the choice some characters make to put their mission over love, and they are not "rewarded" with straight love in the end – another rarity for female characters, I'm sad to say.
Of course, it's not perfect, there's a lot of how Usagi/Sailor Moon needs to be saved by the guy and the anime is super repetitive in many episodes etc. But I think it went further than most realized when they were kids. Oh, and the anime went further than most dubs allowed -_-;;
Utena btw is also a shining example of an anime that hit the mainstream, yet dared to go "all the way", but I expect you know that already =)