It's a Kind of Magic: The Return of Sailor Moon

Anime and manga are staples of Japanese popular culture, and over the last 20 years or so, they've become staples of American popular culture as well. Back in 1997, Cartoon Network began airing a block of anime shows during its action-adventure programming block, Toonami. Some of the more popular fare during that block included an English dubbed version of the 1992 Japanese hit, Sailor Moon. Based on the manga series written by Naoko Takeuchi, the anime series revolved around the adventures of five super-powered adolescent girls who routinely save the Earth and the universe from the forces of evil.  As Toonami aged and its programming block began to change, Sailor Moon was dropped from the line up in 2000. Recently, on July 5th, Viz Media and Hulu have begun streaming Sailor Moon Crystal, the anime reboot of Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon Crystal episodes will be released on the first and third Saturdays of the month.

For the uninitiated, Sailor Moon (the anime) tells the story of Usagi Tsukino, a thirteen year old girl who leads a relatively normal life. Usagi attends Juban Middle School in Tokyo. As she tells the viewer in the opening title sequence, she's a bit of a klutz and a crybaby. When she stumbles upon a black cat with a strange crescent moon shaped mark on her forehead, Usagi's life changes. The cat, Luna, is really a messenger from the moon kingdom and Usagi is secretly the guardian of the moon, Sailor Moon. Using her special moon brooch, she transforms into Sailor Moon to fight villains. As the series progresses, she is joined by other Scouts representing various planets within our solar system.

Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal are both examples of an offshoot of the magical girl genre: the Magical Girl Warrior. But just what is a magical girl anyway? The genre became popular in Japan in the 1960s. Television Tropes and Idioms and Mark C. MacKinnon's book, The Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book both provide interesting and helpful background for the magical girl genre. For instance, TV Tropes claims that the 1964 series Bewitched helped to inspire Mahotsukai Sari (1966) and Himitsu No Akko-chan (1969). These series establish certain elements of the genre that have remained more or less constant. Magic is both an aide and a hindrance in the life of the magical girl. Magical girls are often exceptionally feminine, and their stories focus on the creation and maintenance of personal relationships. As the genre evolves, the girls evolve too; now they are just as likely to be tomboys as girly girls, and the stories tend to feature conflicts with a dark antagonist (almost always female and sometimes older). Additionally, the stakes in battle are raised as characters, including those closest to the magical girl and the magical girl herself can die.

In the United States, an equivalent to the magical girl can be found in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; Archie Comics began publishing the adventures of Sabrina Spellman as early as 1962. Sabrina's adventures mirror those of her Japanese counterparts: she has special powers that her friends do not, and those powers allow her to help them but also complicate her life. Also, like the Japanese magical girls, Sabrina has appeared in comics, in a live-action television series, and in a series of animated shows. In 2004, Sabrina's comic got a manga-inspired makeover; this run lasted until 2009. A collection of the manga-inspired arc appeared as Sabrina -- The Magic Revisited. The animated series, Sabrina, Secrets of a Teenage Witch, just wrapped its first season at the beginning of June.

With Hulu streaming both the classic Sailor Moon episodes (two episodes drop every Monday) as well as Sailor Moon Crystal, fans of the Magical Girl Warrior have a unique opportunity to compare two approaches to a single source. Word has it that Sailor Moon Crystal intends to be a more faithful adaptation of Takeuchi's manga, and based on the first episode, that seems to be true. The characters look a lot more her drawings. Of particular note is the change in the body style of the characters who now have improbably long limbs and, in protagonist Usagi/Sailor Moon's case, wonderfully flowing hair. There's a depth to the animation in Sailor Moon Crystal that the earlier series didn't have, and the colors are certainly richer. This video comparing the two transformation sequences highlights the difference nearly 20 years can make. (There's no sound for these clips as YouTube removed them for copyright reasons.)

While there's been some discussion about which version is "better," what really seems important to note here is that in Sailor Moon viewers/readers have a heroine who is working to define herself both as a person and as a hero. Sailor Moon Crystal, like Sailor Moon (anime) and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (manga) before it), is a bildungsroman, a coming of age story. Learning to use her powers as Sailor Moon is important for Usagi, but learning to be more responsible and caring is equally important. In the midst of conversations about the lack of super-powered women in popular culture, Sailor Moon Crystal provides a lovely counterpoint. In Usagi and the other Sailor Scouts, audiences get an opportunity to watch a superhero who fights for "love and justice."


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