20 Years Ago, Sailor Moon Reignited My Love For Anime…

I’m 1/4 Japanese. My maternal grandmother has a lot of family and friends in Japan. When I was really little, I was lucky enough to receive VHS tapes in the mail of Japanese anime! Granted, they were all in Japanese and I only understood a few words back then (like “food”, “tasty”, “danger”, “noisy”, “no! Bad!”, and “kids”), they were always so much fun to watch!

The first ones I remember watching was one called “Mukashi Banashi”.

This song brings me back to my childhood. I love this song so much.
I used to wish I could ride around on a dragon.
I told my mom and she would just shake her head at me.

The next anime I remember watching was Doraemon (aka “Little Ding Dong”). I thought he was the coolest cat I ever saw and told my mom I’m going to send myself a cat just like Doraemon once I mastered time travel. She just smiled and patted my head.

I really liked the lessons I learned from rabidly gobbling up all the anime I could get my grubby hands on. I learned about how to be fair, why it’s bad to cheat people, why you should do the right thing and listening to your elders.

As much as I loved them, I could never really relate. And then along came Sailer Moon. Here’s a great article I read today about the Sailor Moon phenomenon.

20 years ago, she reignited my love for anime because she’s someone I could relate to!

Here’s how.
– She had to wear a sailor suit for school. Thanks to the one year I spent at a Catholic, all-girl school, I had to wear a sailor suit. In fact, in later years, I would take a pair of scissors to the skirt to skank-ify it and run around in my old uniform for Halloween. I would tell people I was a Sailor Scout. It worked.
– She doesn’t like homework. I don’t like homework!
– She’s always hungry and loves to eat. I had to make up an imaginary tapeworm named Barney to explain why I pack away so much food.
– She’s not exactly superhero material. I don’t think I’m a superhero either but I help people of all ages get better as a nurse and I tell them all how beautiful I think they are. I’m especially a huge hit with the kids.
– She fights for those she loves and protects the ones who need protection. Me too!!

The only difference between us? I’m not a blond. ^_________^ She also has way cool gadgets and super powers. * sigh * I don’t have that. Don’t tell but I would secretly say “Moon Prism Power” when I was by myself and half hope that I would somehow mighty morph into a superhero with awesome powers complete with a dashing, tuxedo’d boyfriend.

Other than that, I think we’re pretty similar!

True Love

Aaahh…Darien. I mean, Tuxedo Mask. God, I couldn’t believe Serena couldn’t figure out who Tuxedo Mask really was during the earlier episodes. Jeezus…..

I think Darien was my first anime crush (later on, he would lose the title to Gambit) and I told myself I wanted the kind of love they shared. And now I do! Wahahaha!

Yes, I have the song on iTunes.
Yes, I listened to it and daydreamed.
….yes, this happened a lot.
….yes, I still play this song.

Girl Power

You know what would be interesting? I think it would be pretty neat if someone could measure the effect Sailor Moon had on women who watched the anime as girls and see where they are now.

Sailor Moon was pretty empowering. Here’s this dumb, ditzy blond who is clumsy and lazy who not only wins the friendship and respect of amazing girls but always does the right thing and fights for what she believes in. She made me wince and groan more time than I can remember but I always found myself cheering for her and hoping she squashes all the villains.

My favorite Sailor Scout of all time? Sailor Saturn. She is the one who’s most like me. It was confirmed when I took some Facebook quiz once upon a time and the quiz’s algorithm determined that I am most like Sailor Saturn.

The Sailor Moon story and characters are simply inspiring. I’d like to think, in my heart, that I am an honorary Scout but one who doesn’t have to wear the uniform any more.

Bonnie N. Clyde is a writer for YouBentMyWookie.com and the alias of the Supreme Commander / Ultimate Destroyer. When she isn’t lusting after fictional anime characters, she writes in her blog over at MissBonnified.com