1281: MIRACLE ROMANCE

I guess about now is a good time to admit that I’ve started watching Sailor Moon and, predictably, enjoying it a great deal.

In my defence, after watching Revolutionary Girl Utena and finding it enjoyable but immensely confusing, I felt obliged to check out Sailor Moon for further education in the ways of the magical girl. I have a sort of ulterior motive for educating myself on this particular aspect of anime — for starters, I’ve always been interested in it, but never got around to checking any of it out; secondly, I hear that Puella Magi Madoka Magica or whatever it’s called is very good, but is something of a deconstruction of the magical girl genre as a whole and consequently is best appreciated when you have more than a passing familiarity with its tropes.

So, Sailor Moon, then. In stark contrast to Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon is charmingly unsubtle about everything it does. The lead character Usagi seems to do nothing but shout or cry all the time, and the show’s moral messages are only a couple of steps removed from He-Man’s posturing. While there’s no “Hey, Kids!” moment at the end of a Sailor Moon episode, the inherent “message” of each chapter is so startlingly obvious within about five seconds of it starting that it becomes more of a Columbo-style show, where you’re waiting to see how it reaches the conclusion you already know from the outset, rather than holding on tight for some narrative twists and turns.

That’s not to say it’s bad, though; simple is good sometimes, and God knows it’s appreciated after Utena. Sailor Moon’s characters are charming and endearing, even if they’re loud, and they’ve all grown and developed even in the space of the few episodes I’ve watched to date. I’m looking forward to seeing how Usagi — who, spoiler, is also Sailor Moon — develops over the course of the 300 bajillion episodes there are, because she is comically incompetent at present, despite ostensibly being the show’s heroine. Her “sidekicks” who are teased in the show’s opening titles haven’t shown up yet, but I assume it’s only a matter of time.

It’s clear even from this early stage that Sailor Moon was very influential, however. I’m seeing elements of its humour and characterisation in the latest Hyperdimension Neptunia game, for example, where Neptune takes on the Usagi role of “amusingly rubbish protagonist who’s aware she’s rubbish”, and her companions are actually far more capable than she is. There’s also the more obvious fact that Neptune and co are all themselves magical girls, able to transform into their “Hard Drive Divinity” forms to power up and become stronger — though there’s less “identity hiding” in the world of Neptunia than there is in the more “grounded in reality” world of Sailor Moon.

And that music. Amazing. While the copies of the episodes I’m watching aren’t brilliant quality — or perhaps they really were that poor quality when originally broadcast — the amazing background music still stands out, if only for the fact it sounds like it belongs in a 1960s TV series rather than the 1992 anime from which it actually hails. Huge string orchestras, wakka-wakka guitars, choirs of singers mewling “oooooooh, oooh-ooooooohh, Saiiiiloooor Mooooooon…” as Usagi transforms. Marvellous stuff.

Anyway. I’m going to watch a lot more of Sailor Moon, I predict. I have the whole series to hand, but it remains to be seen if I can manage all of it. I’m sure I can, and I’m sure I will feel suitably satisfied at its conclusion. I hope there’s a good ending. Please don’t tell me if the ending is rubbish!