Friday, May 26, 2006

I've finally watched all of Sailor Moon. I have to admit I think the real draw of the show is how they manage to write a show like a teenager would write a story. I mean, let's take the final season. The plot is that the strongest Sailor Soldier, a long time ago, sealed Chaos within her body, and thus she becomes evil and starts to collect the eternal star seeds(it's a macguffin) of all the Sailor soldiers in the galaxy. She destroyed a planet and only three people escaped. They look for their princess disguised as idol singers. There's a long fight and most of the Sailor Soldiers on earth die, but Sailor Moon manages to use the light of hope, the star seed of the strongest Sailor Soldier in the galaxy, which incarnated inside a little girl, and also, her own love and kindness to heal that soldier and release Chaos back into the minds of the people, along with the light of hope.

Basically, there's a far reaching complicated story line with a large cast, so that everyone has a character they like, and also, the story is always amped up for maximum emotional drama. There's friendship, love and betrayal- all that good stuff. I tend to always cry at the end because there's always some really dramatic plot twist. You know, Sailor Moon is going to win, but...OH NO, the evil witch queen tossed SM's child from the future off a floating asteroid from hundreds of miles up!!! And yea, most of the episodes are fillers, but those can be fun too, as the happy lalala, Minako tries out to be an idol, oh no, there is a monster stuff is why you get upset when Minako dies, you know? Also, those stories are good when you're sick and don't want to follow the plot. So here is my listing of Series in order of favorite. Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon Stars, Sailor Moon SuperS, Sailor Moon Classic, and Sailor Moon R. Although I like them all. When I was in college, us girls could spend hours talking about Sailor Moon. Once we made the boys watch it, and had fun explaining the plot.

I also like how they didn't make the show totally half assed just because it is a children's show. While sometimes the fillers are kinda lazy, it still seems that the creators put a lot of time and effort into creating interesting imagery. Also, one of my favorite parts of Stars was how they used the familiar Sailor Moon music in different scenarios. I like how they play on that familiarity. I'm not always fond of how the macguffin finding must be shoehorned into every episode, but that goes with the territory. I usually like the villains as well. They try to lean away from "I'm evil...Because!" and try to make the villains have better character development. The best villains were in S, I say. I'm ambivalent about the "villains could have won if only they had worked together" trope. I understand the show is supposed to help kids learn about how teamwork is good, but come on, guys. Don't take the stupid pill.

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