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Forum - View topicANNCast - Sailor Moon Sailor Stars
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zrdb
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Sailor Moon is a series that I have a love/hate relationship with. I remember watching it on toonami in the 90's and liking it a lot, I still like shoujo anime now but not SM-why, you ask? Well, after re-watching SM-SS recently I saw how corny and cliched it was-it simply didn't hold my interest as it did when I watched it years ago. I have Wedding Peach and it seems more palatable even though it's as cliche and stereotype ridden as SS is-seems like Whispered Words is my current idea of good shoujo.
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Cardcaptor Takato
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Thanks to all the hosts for doing this podcast! Sailor Moon was my gateway anime and it's still my personal favorite. Though I have a lot of mixed feelings about Sailor Stars. I think I first learned about it through the episode guides on Hitoshi Doi's Sailor Moon Encyclopedia site (which is still up!) and the infamous Save Our Sailors which campaigned to bring over the entire anime to NA. I first watched Sailor Moon through the DiC dub in 97 but didn't get to see Sailor Stars through low quality RealMedia fansubs until the early 2000s. . It's hard to believe it's finally in my anime collection after all these years and that I finally own all of the anime.
I'm with Usamimi that I personally enjoy the Nehelenia arc. It seemed like the opposite of usual anime filler in where normally filler in is done to get the manga caught up with the anime but the Nehelenia arc was made to get the anime caught up with the manga by bringing in the Outers and giving them their power upgrades they forgot to do in SuperS and introducing Eternal Sailor Moon since that took place at the end of the Dream arc manga. I always enjoyed how the Nehelenia arc was basically Sailor Moon meets the Snow Queen which is interesting since the manga based her story more on Sleeping Beauty and I thought the ending was very emotional and touching. For the main story arc, I like the anime expands on the Sailor Starlights' roles and I love the goofy slice of life comedy episodes which I've come to enjoy more than the drama episodes as I get older. Yaten has always been my favorite of the Three Lights. I just always loved his sass. I also love the villains in Stars and I think they're the best part of the season, especially Galaxia, Iron Mouse, and Siren and Lead Crow. I also felt like there was also a lesbian subtext to Siren and Lead Crow's relationship. On the other hand, I do love that the manga goes into more detail about the world building in Naoko's mythos like the introductions of all these new Sailor Guardians like Sailor Phobos and Deimos Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon and Sailor Cosmos. The manga feels like it has more of a conclusive ending and it just feels like a proper series finale. While the anime's ending is very emotional and I enjoy it, it feels like just another season finale to me at times. I think my biggest criticism of the anime is they got rid of all the classic secondary characters that were always my favorites like Umino, Naru, Motoki, and Unazuki that I think really helped to bring the series to life. The Inners at least still get some screen time but Usagi's other friends and Usagi's dad and brother don't show up at all. I think my rankings for favorite seasons are S, season one, Sailor Stars, SuperS, and R. It's just hard to believe all of the Sailor Moon anime is now out in English and I also second that I wish they would license the musicals and live action toku show for home video release in NA. |
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Sailor Sedna
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I liked the Nehellenia arc too.
Stars still holds up well for me (though I haven't time to watch it as much because of me being busy with life like planning my own magical girl series inspired by series like Sailor Moon) had both its hits and misses in the manga/anime to me, while the manga felt more like an ending and had better world-building and a better final battle and such, the Inners/Outers weren't used as well as the anime, while the anime gave the Inners/Outers at least one more time to shine, and gave the Anima-mates more character and I loved Siren and Crow, it didn't have as much as an exciting world building and finale the manga had, no Sailor Kakyuu or Cosmos, and it would have been cool to see Usagi and Mamoru get married. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
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One interesting noteworthy trivia is that after Sailor Moon completed it's run, it was replaced by Cutie Honey Flash in it's timeslot, which was a more shojo retelling of Cutie Honey, and featured most of the same animation staff as Sailor Stars. You can see similarities in the art style between the two shows. The series director for Cutie Honey Flash, Noriyo Sasaki, was an episode director between R to Stars, and directed five episodes of Sailor Stars. Flash's animation director, Miho Shimogasa, was an episode director on five episodes of Sailor Stars, most notably the finale of the Nehelenia arc and "Seiya and Usagi's Nervous Date."
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Cutiebunny
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Sailor Moon is one of those rare series where I like the anime ending better than the manga. What differentiated the ending from the end of every other season was that Usagi no longer needed to rely on her seasonal weapons to save the day and could do so by being compassionate. Sailorstars is my favorite season just based on the final battle alone. S is a close second, and SuperS is a close third. Each season has it's own merits, though I never really cared for R at all. Still trying to find something good about R. Pink spore? Eh.
Shimogasa also was the character design for "Ami no Hatsukoi", along with other series such as "Powerpuff Girls Z". You can pretty much tell any SuperS and Sailorstars episode that she worked on based on the comical expressions alone. Her SuperS artwork, along with that of Ito's artwork, are some of my faves to collect. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
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Cutiebunny
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Usagi needed the grail and whatever residual was left in her to transform in order to defeat Mistress 9/Pharaoh 90, hence the reliance on seasonal items. Sailorstars has Usagi rejecting anything that could maim Galaxia. It's not until Usagi gives the "I love everyone and also you" speech that she makes any progress against Galaxia.
I'm ok with this. Mamoru felt incredibly bland. If Naoko said everything she wanted to say in the manga, there would never have been a musical, Crystal (would have also been ok with this not happening) or any of the plethora of merchandise and cafes that have popped up in Japan since. She would have just ended it with the manga and refused to do anything with the property ever since. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
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Crystal and the musicals are all still retellings of the same story. 25 years later there’s no sequel and Naoko hasn’t made any actual new manga content. It’s a finished story.
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NJ_
 Posts: 3046 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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I personally hated Stars in both versions (not counting the first 6 episodes which were great) but it is true that the anime's ending wasn't as bad compared to the manga which left me angry when I finished it 5 years ago. The only thing I wish Toei did was include a short recap/highlights video to end it like they did for Dragon Ball GT's finale because to end it like they did after 5 years was a bit of a letdown. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
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My hats off to Zac, Lynzee, and Dawn for doing an entire podcast on Sailor Stars without making a single Star Gentle Uterus joke.
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hikura
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Another well put together poidcast. Thank you for approaching this subject.
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Anime was a mistake
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When they talked about how Sailor Stars couldn't have been aired on television, because of its content and how they would have painted a bikini over Usagi's body it kind of dawned on me how early fear of nudity is indoctrinated into the minds of American children.
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Everlasting Coconut
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I remember when I was a kid I randomly stumbled upon the final episode of Sailor Moon on the internet. I watched it and thought it was an absolute masterpiece. I tried to get into Sailor Moon numerous times since then, but the show just doesn't do it for me.
However, even after all these years, I still hold to my belief that that final episode is one of the best episodes of any anime ever. |
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