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"Tsuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo!"
"In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"
(Parurusahan kita, sa ngalan ng buwan!)
I remember almost 2 decades ago... On a late Saturday afternoon, in front of TV, tuned in to a local channel, was my good old, glory days of childhood, following the life of Usagi (Bunny, in the tagalized version) Tsukino. Despite her long, tiring transformation airtime, I watch her how she battled the bad guys from the outer space with her ever loyal 4 Guardian Soldiers, starting with that one-liner, catchy "threat" to the enemies and the infamous pose up there.
If the boys before got Son Goku with his Dragon Balls, I will always have her to fantasize my ideal, clumsy superhero, and dreaming to end up in the arms of my real life Tuxedo Mask.
Come on, girls, don't we all are?
I remember, I would literally leave my playmates in the middle of a game 30 minutes before Sailor Moon starts. In that half an hour of waiting, I have already bought my afternoon snack (a crispy noodle with barbecue flavored powder to sprinkle on top --forgot what it's called--- and Sprite) feeling excited. That's just how very simple my life was. I would even draw her at the back of my notebook, save extra bucks to buy the newest print of Sailor Moon paperdolls, even play Sailor Moon with girl friends of my age. Cosplaying was not even invented back then.
Created by Naoko Takeuchi, some fans say, the manga and the anime differs a lot of ways I can't really tell the difference, since I did not really get to read the manga by the heart, thanks to the limited resources I had when I was still a kid.
Do I really have to go in detail about the story of Sailor Moon? :)
In the shortest synopsis I can muster to write on, normal 14-year-old Usagi Tsukino one day discovers a talking cat named Luna and told her that she is the legendary sailor senshi (soldier) Sailor Moon and is in the quest of finding the Moon Princess. Along her adventure, she meets and unleashes her fellow sailor senshi (Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus) as well as her love interest, Tuxedo Mask. Unbeknownst to her, she is-- actually Princess Serenity, the reincarnated Moon Princess of the Silver Millennium, and Mamoru Chiba, who is disguised as Tuxedo Mask is the reincarnation of Prince Endymion, Serenity's one and only, yet forbidden love.
As the series progresses, more antagonists are shown to ruin earth's peace for them to invade and rule, and at the same time, the Peace force was added with more (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn), and even coming from as far as time traveling from the future (Chibi Moon). Sailor Soldiers are engaged in a battle with power hungry aliens who captures, pure hearts, beautiful dreams, and of course, Usagi's moon crystal powers.
Eternal Sailor Moon and the original 8 Sailor Soldiers (each derived from the Solar System Plantets, and her daughter from the future, Sailor Chibi Moon (in pink))
It may sound mushy, but the whole story behind Sailor Moon actually delivers a lot of moral values, selflessness and genuine kindness, since the audience target of the show is mainly primary to high school girls. Usagi, even though she's quite the ditzy, dense and a crybaby girl she is, shows compassion towards her archenemies and gives them the chance to change. She believes that there's always the goodness of oneself no matter how evil they are, making the rest of her fellow soldiers question how big her heart is to forgive.
Believe me or not, as much as I am a fan of Sailor Moon, I haven't finished watching the whole 200 episodes of it. I am currently in the 4th season, called Sailor Moon Super S because I want to refresh my mind to where my local channel ended. The fifth and final season of the series is called Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, which I am thrilled to watch because that's the epitome of all Sailor Moon transformations I have yet to see. I only had the playing cards with that kind of Sailor Moon before so it's a treat for me to finally follow her life back on track.
Also, a few years back, I have watched this Japanese live-action series of it, called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Yes dear, they made it to live-action. In Japan, everything is possible! You'd probably see Monkey D. Luffy stretching his arms in a life sized Going Merry with his friends on a live-action adaptation one day too?
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, with Miyuu Sawai as the protagonist
Even make-up guru and Youtube personality Michelle Phan loves Sailor Moon. Come on. Who doesn't?
She demonstrated a make-up tutorial for the pretty soldier in her earlier Youtube-ing days. Here's how:
Even the rise of other mahou shoujo (magical girl) based anime such as Wedding Peach, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Cardcaptor Sakura, no one can compare the hype Sailor Moon to each and every little girl across the globe who has dreamed of peace, friendship, magical adventures, and of course, love.
Thank you, Internet. :-)
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi. I do not own the story, characters and all related media pertaining to this article.
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