DAVID'S SAILOR MOON MISCELLANY PAGE

Hi there! These are just various Sailor Moon-related items I've picked up here & there.... First is a magazine article about the Sailor Moon Phenemenon.

LOOK JAPAN magazine, May 1994.

Cover Story: Heisei Successes.

The cover story this month looks at four people who have achieved success in the Heisei Period (1989- ) by following their dreams. Entrepreneur Susumu Mitsuoka built a car that made his company the first automaker in 40 years to be recognized by the Ministry of Transportation. Discounter Yukio Higuchi made the main store of his chain the biggest selling liquor store in Japan. Director Yoichi Sai broke many taboos with his hit movie, All Under the Moon. And comic book artist Naoko Takeuchi created Sailormoon, a series that has spurred a commercial bonanza.

Caption:Pretty Soldiers: Sailormars, Sailorvenus, Sailormoon, Chibiusa (young Sailormoon), Sailormercury, and Sailorjupiter.

Comics are an everyday part of Japanese culture, and successful comic book artists gain huge fan followings and rich material rewards. Sailormoon, created by Naoko Takeuchi, has become a huge commercial success, spawning goods of all kinds and inspiring up to 5,000 fan letters a day.

Sailormoon introduces herself, "Hi, I'm Usagi Tsukino, 14 years old, in the 8th grade! You could say I'm a little careless and a bit of a crybaby, but to tell you the truth, I'm Sailormoon, supporting justice." Along with four other schoolgirls who transform into superheroines dressed in sailor dresses-Ami (Sailormercury), Rei (Sailormars), Makoto (Sailorjupiter), Minako (Sailorvenus)-and the black cat Luna and white cat Artemis, Sailormoon fights against the Dark Kingdom. As she exorcises otherworldly demons, she cries, "I'll punish you on behalf of the moon!"

Since Pretty Soldier Sailormoon (Bishojo Senshi Seiramun) was introduced in the February 1992 edition of Nakayosi,circulation of the comic monthly has doubled to two million. From March 1992, an animated version of Sailormoon has been aired every Saturday night at seven by TV Asahi. Its rating of 12% is high, considering the prime time competition.

Sailormoon has been made into a musical and a film, and bestselling videos, laser disks, CDs, and game versions are also available. Anything bearing the Sailormoon trademark sells well. Stationery, dolls, candy, ice cream, shampoo, bubble bath, pajamas, cameras, cosmetics...the list of Sailormoon character goods is endless. The success of the spin-off products reflects the huge consumer market of children (and their parents), and the many high-tech Sailormoon games take advantage of the increasing access of the youngest generation to high technology.

THE POWER OF PRETTINESS

"The readers of Nakayosi are primarily elementary and junior high school girls, so I've been trying to make the story pretty, enjoyable, and easy to understand," says Naoko Takeuchi, artist of the Sailormoon comic books. As for why she chose to draw "pretty soldiers," Takeuchi says, "My understanding is that women are stronger than men. So when we draw warriors, why not make them women?"

Sailormoon includes many elements to attract readers: science fiction, combat, comedy, romance, character transformation, and heroic fantasy. The test is peppered with references to astrology, Greek myths, jewelry, fashion, and Japanized English. If you come across a five-year-old who says words like, "Moon crystal power, make-up!" "Artemis," "Silver Millenium," "Endymion," "Jadeite," and "energy," it is probably because of familiarity with Sailormoon.

"Since I have been reading comic books all my life, I don't regard these factors as anything new," says Takeuchi. "But I try to use the same elements to create something different. It takes a lot of time to figure out how to combine easy-to-remember words, to give a fresh light to familiar words, and to coin new words and phrases."

Takeuchi spent a lot of time making sure the characters were cute and appealing. Judging from the groups of boys who browse the Sailormoon sections of shops, the sensuous aspect has not been lost.

"All the characters are fairly similar," says Takeuchi. "And what Sailormoon herself says and does are straight reflections of myself."

In the June 1993 issue of the animation and comic magazine Monthly OUT, Ami ranked first in the most-popular-character category of a popularity contest, followed by Usagi; all five Pretty Soldiers were in the top fifteen. In the January 1993 issue of Animage, Ami was again first, with all five main characters in the top twenty. The Sailormoon series as a whole ranked first overall in both magazines.

Every character in Sailormoon has her or his own enthusiastic fans. In Nakayosi's second annual most-popular character contest, the magazine received a total of 217,052 votes. Even the last, 47th character of Sailormoon received 195 votes.

With so many characters and the limited space of a magazine monthly, Takeuchi says it is difficult to flesh out all of her creations. However, she continues, "The children of today are fond of computer games, which, contrary to what grown-ups think, require brain work and imagination. By giving only some background information about my characters, I want readers to develop their own ideas about the stories. Up until now, comic books have been just given to readers as something that can be read and thrown away, but this will change. The reader will be more active in participating in the story. The down side is that only those readers willing to use their imagination can participate."

The TV version of Sailormoon has been aired in Spain, Italy, France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and is scheduled to appear soon in Scandinavian countries and Thailand. Korean versions of Sailormoon comics are already out in South Korea, and Indonesian versions will soon be available in Indonesia.

The super-busy comic artist who gives pretty dreams to readers says, "Although it may be a luxurious worry, I dream of one day just having time to relax. That's all." With the incredible success of Sailormoon, Naoko Takeuchi will be busy for a long time to come.

by Kunio Nishimura

(end of magazine article)

This is the box the watches come in.

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This is the wrapper of a snack I bought from a street vendor in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province in China. Look familiar?

My home page - no more Sailor Moon, but there are toy robots here.

You can send me mail here:

Crass Commercial Section:

Thanks to many friends on the net, I have completed my CardZillion Sailor Moon sets. I have an extra foil #48 (Tux) and duplicates of many of the regular cards - e-mail me if interested.

Want to trade tapes? I have the following subbed:
R movie (Usagi North version, crummy copy and I'd like to get a better one)
R and S movies (Monsoon versions which I got before I knew better...good copies)
Episodes 3 & 4 (crummy copy)
"death episodes" (beyootiful copy!)

and the following unsubbed:
SM episodes 5 - 8 (great copy)
SM episodes 1-4 and 17-20 (so-so copies)
SMS 90-105 (very good copies)
SMS episodes 18-21 (i.e. 107-110)
and SMSS episodes 1 - 4 (128-131) (crummy copies).

I wouldn't mind having a copy of the Dateline NBC Bandai story.
And for the devoted collector/masochist, I have the Sailor Moon-a-Thon on tape!

Thanks for visiting!

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