What's wrong with the 90s Sailor Moon Anime

 

Allow me to pitch you a hypothetical. Imagine that an adaptation of your favorite series came out, an adaptation that was very different, way more then most people realized and that this adaption became ubiquitous with the franchise in itself, became an extremely popular worldwide phenomena. What would you feel? Pride that your favorite series is so well known? Annoyance at people for constantly stating wrong things about your favorite series? Joy at being able to talk about your favorite series so much? Confusion at why this got popular? Well that's the feeling I've had for close what is probably close to two decades now. 

I like the 90s Sailor Moon anime as a series in itself. If it was it's own independent thing it would be on my list of favorites. But in my mind it doesn't even compare to the manga, which is my favorite series of all time and by a wide margin. However the anime seems to be more popular overall, and I think a lot of people don't realize just how different the two are. This isn't Dragon Ball Z, where the anime basically has the events of the manga but with a lot of filler; the Sailor Moon Manga and the 90s Anime have fundamentally different plot structures with many characters having different roles, personalities or motivations and many events of the manga not happening or happening so differently that the events are basically incomparable. There is no guarentee that someone who likes one of these two will like the other because they are essentially different stories.

The differences between these two series I believe can almost all be traced back to one of three places, and each change is to me overall for the worse. That is not to say that I think the 90s Anime doesn't have some place it excels over the Manga, but that each overarching change that spawned the minor changes is as a whole a negative change for me. I'm going to be going over what those 3 are in order from least to most important to me and why I don't like the change so maybe you can understand some of my feelings towards one of the most popular anime of all time. I should note these three changes are themselves somewhat inter-connected and arise from each other.

Change 1: The Anime is MUCH longer

This is probably the most immediatly obvious change but the anime is vastly longer then the manga. If you analogize an episode to a chapter, then the 200 episode anime is over 3 times longer then the 60 chapter manga. 

To faciliate this, the anime is far more episodic then the manga is. By most accounts about half the anime is made of non-serialized episodes or "filler", episodes that don't progress the central plot at all. I've liked series that are almost entirely non-serialized before but a series that has a central plot and which has episodes that don't move the plot forward in any way I view as an inherent failure in serialized storytelling.

That's not to say I hate every filler episode. There are filler episodes I do like, such as episode 12. However I don't think it's a concidence all my favorite episodes are plot episodes, my favorite arc is the second Nehelenia arc at the start of Season 5 (the only arc without filler), and of my least favorite episodes all but 1 are filler. Filler episodes to me for obvious reasons feel less impactful as they by definition do not carry signifigant consequences moving forward, and by extention feel less meaningful, they feel more floaty and less dramatic. And that's not neccesarily a bad thing, but it goes against what I look for in storytelling, a sense of momentum and importance and gravitas. 

If you compare the manga, the manga has literally 0 chapters of filler. That's not to say everything in the manga forwards the plot but if you removed a single chapter of the manga you would have to move it's plot elements into another chapter or the reader would be confused, as every chapter does something to move the plot along. You fundamentally couldn't adapt the manga's story to anime and have it go out to 200 episodes, the plot moves too quickly and relies too much on that fact, especially the fifth arc which relies in large part on the constant suprise and escalating tension of Galaxia's assault on Usagi. If you were going to make a signifigantilly longer, you'd HAVE to change the plot structure dramatically. And I don't mind that idea alone, I actually am favor of adaptations making even quite signifigant changes, however it's the filler and sheer amount of it that making the Anime's pacing difficult for me to stomach.

I've read the manga countless times but I've only seen the anime twice all the way through and part of the reason is the sheer time commitment it takes plus the amount of time watching episodes that don't feel like they carry any impact. It doens't help that manga will inherently an advantage in re-readability compared to anime for me as I generally prefer to read things then to watch them as it allows me to automatically shift to my preferred pacing. I don't expect this to be universal but to me reading something feels more natural usually.

Change 2: The Anime and Manga have different audiences

The 90s anime is fundamentally meant for young girls. While it has things that only an adult audience would appreciate these are similar to hidden jokes and meanings in a western cartoon meant for children. For the most part it's purpose was to entertain young Japanese girls, maybe young Japanese boys too if they could although being a shojo anime in the 90s that was probably seen as a bit of a stretch goal, and instill in them some morals their parental guardians would approve off.

The Sailor Moon Manga is a Shojo Manga that was meant to be read by teenage girls. This has a pretty clear effect on the surface; the manga includes graphic violence such as a child being burned to death and another character being stabbed through both on-panel, characters being heavily implied to having sex, and the main character comitting suicide, things that would be obviously inappropriate to show a young child. 

I'm not one of those people that say "oh it's more mature/for an older audience, therefore it's automatically better." Sailor Moon in both versions is clearly for a young audience with pretty unambigious good and evil, tons of unambigious happy endings, cute mascot characters, and so on. Likewise a series I love almost as much as Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, is signifigantly more "for children" in both its manga and anime versions. However the difference in who the series was aimed at undeniably changes the tone between the two series and in a way I thought was overall against what I loved the manga for.

In media aimed at children complex ideas have to be presented not explictly but moreso embeded in the narrative. As a general rule this ability is to me the greatest thing about fiction, the ability to be shown something through narrative in a way that you can get an intuitive sense of the thing more then being abstractly told it. However when writing for children this rule has to be taken to it's utmost, complex ideas which must be taught have to be presented in the form of symbols and metaphor. This very thing happens in the Sailor Moon manga when Queen Serenity teachers her daughter about Star Seeds via metaphor, telling her that within each one there is a star that we keep shining via our actions, and so long as they keep shining, they will never be eaten up by the monster in the dark. For a real life example consider most fairy tales. One of the things the Hansel and Gretel story undeniably taught was not to be trusting of strangers offering sweets.

The Sailor Moon manga holds a special place to me for it's presenation of themes that meant and still mean a lot to me, themes explictly and implicit in the narrative. Consider the theme of temporality vs eternal-ness in the fifth arc. There's a moment in the fifth arc of the Sailor Moon manga when Usagi goes outside after Galaxia has killed some of her precious friends in front of her and she says it feels like everything is gonna disappear around her, relating her feeling of fragility, and the temporality of the world after her trauma. While I've never experienced anything so traumatic, I have experienced more mild versions of what Usagi is talking about, an experience I've never seen captured so perfectly. This also the chapter Galaxia questions why the Senshi with Eternal Sailor Crystals cling to their fragile human star seeds, representing human identities. In another chapter early in Stars, Usagi bemoans that these bodies we have will someday disappear, wishing they were just as eternal. The manga has so much of this, these philisophical ideas.

The 90s anime excises much of these, these ideas aren't something a child would understand or neccesarily be interested in. Instead much of the conflicts become entirely emotional and conflicts of the characters' personalities. And don't get me wrong they are quite good at making emotional conflicts that tug at their heartstrings. Scenes like Usagi walking calmly towards Super-Beryl knowing she can't run away or her world will be destroyed or Sailor Jupiter crouching protectively over an unaware Usagi as Nehelenia throws attack after attack at her because of her devotion to her princess never fail to bring a tear to my eye. But the themes of the manga are so personally important to me and so intellectually emotionally interesting that without them, the anime lacks the ability to capture my memory as strongly. 

The 90s anime also made me cry like the manga did, but there's not much of it my mind returns to naturally. Conversely there's so many moments in the manga I find myself thinking about and applying in my attempt to make sense of the world.

Thing is, neither of these are the real thing I consider wrong with the 90s Sailor Moon anime. I phrase almost everything about series in terms of preferences; "I like this" or "I don't like this" rather then saying this is good or bad. I tend to be of the opinon that most things in fiction aren't "good" or "bad", just resonates to a different degree to a different amount of people. But the Sailor Moon Anime has an ability to make me angry that no other series can. I don't like series like Naria Girls, but I can't be angry at it because it ultimately doesn't know any better. The Sailor Moon Anime's biggest source of change however actually has the ability to evoke an anger from me for perverting something important to me. The first two changes are not my preference, but I consider Pretty Cure among my favorite series, and it's also a series of anime meant for children filled with filler. 

The real problem for me comes from what I think the biggest change is.

1: The Sailor Moon manga is written from a woman's perspective. The 90s anime is not.

I'm not that much of a political person, so I'm going to avoid trying to make this some wider point. However this is something I think Naoko Takuechi, writer of the original manga, would agree with me. When asked what the difference between her manga and the anime adaption was she said that her manga was written by a woman for women while the 90s anime has a "slight male perspective".

I have nothing against men, I love men. I also have nothing against the idea of a male writer writing a series meant for women.  However I think I completely know what she means by this and to me it is the root of the problem that is the biggest reason I don't rewatch the anime much. The Manga was written by one woman and the 90s anime was written by numerous people, the majority of whom were men. 

To me the biggest problem with the 90s Sailor Moon anime is the depiction and treatment of the tituar heroine Usagi Tsukino. Naoko Takeuchi when writing Sailor Moon has said that Usagi is similar to how she was and I believe the difference is explained in that Naoko was writing a character she personally related to, while the writers of the anime were essentially writing a character first and were not viewing things from her perspective.

My biggest problem with the 90s Sailor Moon anime is it seems way too mean to Usagi. Now look I get maybe this is just a me thing, I get maybe I'm too sensitive. I've been told that literally since childhood, I'm a bit of a crybaby...almost like....that's right Usagi. Maybe I don't want to see the sadness of a character I have related to since childhood being constantly being portrayed as a joke. So often Usagi is in tears in the anime and people either ignore it or pretend like she's in the wrong for not wanting to fight for life. I don't consider Madoka a deconstruction, but if it deconstructed anything it's the fact that making 14 year olds fight for their lives is a traumatic thing that some tears are probably pretty justified at. In episode 4 Usagi doesn't wanna fight and Luna threatens her too. THREATENS HER TOO. This sensitive 14 year old girl is being told to fight for her life or else. This isn't treated as Luna doing something evil for the greater good, it's treated like Usagi was being unreasonable.

The best comparison is how the abducation by Demande is treated. In the manga Usagi abducted by Prince Demande who in both versions sexually harasses Usagi and is clearly a metaphor for attempted sexual assault, kidnapping her and forcing her body still with his telekinesis as he moves sadistically closer to "kiss" her. In the Manga Usagi slaps Demande as he gets closer and later rescues not just herself but the other senshi after she regains her spirit thinking of her loved ones that need her. As she leaves she actively defies him further by refusing to be intimidated and defiantly telling him she's not responsible for the evil he does, refusing to let him guilt her for his actions. THAT is Sailor Moon, a character whose a bit of a crybaby and a coward on the surface but who rises into heroism because the ones she loves needs her. Note: She has agency and the narrative treats her as a hero. The series is sending the theme that despicable tyrants like Demande may trap your body but they can never trap your spirit, the noble spirit that will haunt and ultimately undo them. 

In the 90s Anime Usagi cries in fear as Demande holds her, before Tuxedo Kamen saves her after inexplicably getting into Demande's palace. I'm not against Mamoru saving Usagi at times, I love Mamoru, but this takes out most of Usagi's agency as she doesn't do anything here at a point in the story she really needs to be able too. But that's not the part that really gets me angry. At the start of the next episode the Guardian Senshi are outside worried about Sailor Moon understandably and Sailor Mars suggests they go look for them when Tuxedo Mask returns with Sailor Moon. Usagi has been sexually harrassed at the very least and implied to have had attempted sexual assault on her person, she's been kidnapped and threatened and had her body being controlled by the mind of a madman. She's also quite an emotional person. Upon seeing her friends she starts tearing up about how happy she is to see them again. Not even comedic streams of tears like the anime sometimes draws her with but mild tears and Sailor Mars says "There you go crying again. The battle is still ahead of us!" which she describes seconds after as a "pep talk". 

This to me is the perfect comparison of why the anime makes me angry. It treats Usagi's emotionality as a light-hearted joke, even in situations where it makes total sense to be afraid or sad, or even in situations where she went through a legitimately traumatic experience. The Manga never does this; the other senshi and all of Usagi's loved ones are quick to try and help her and show sympathy for her after she goes through something traumatic. The manga treat Usagi as an actual heroine, an imperfect flawed one, but one all the more noble for rising above her flaws. 

When I read the thoughts of or talk to people who prefer the 90s anime they say that the manga seems to worship Usagi and the anime depiction is "more realistic" or something to that effect. Respectfully I can't disagree more. The manga may give Usagi too much screentime, but it also presents Usagi's flaws as a character plenty; for instance her becoming jealous and overly possessive of Mamoru to the point of being jealous of his attention of Chibiusa, a young girl. The difference is this isn't a joke, Usagi having a flaw as a person she needs to overcome is treated as a serious plot point. Likewise the characters do playfully rib Usagi a few times for her being a crybaby and a lazy person. In contrast to me the anime seems to do this all the time, constantly having the character tease Usagi on things she's clearly sensitive about. Apparently for some this is endearing because it "shows they are close friends". I can't understand this; if I could tell a close friend of mine was sensitive about something I would try very hard not to remind them of it, to make them feel better about themselves. I see those scenes and I just feel bad for Usagi, knowing how bad it hurts at that age to teased about things you feel sensitive about. That's not even getting into all the other things the 90s anime does like it's downright romantic depiction of Demande who again sexually harrassed Usagi or the entire episode of everyone including Usagi's family and Luna her supposed mentor teasing her about her weight, something she's concerned about. You know how that episode ends? It ends with Shingo, her little brother, rigging the scale Usagi uses to measure her weight. Episode ends with Usagi crying that she's fat. Cut to ending theme. Much funny.

I don't wanna assign bad intent, especially when I don't think it's there but I do think the writers of the anime lacked the ability to empathize with Usagi's character whereas Naoko understood what it was like to "be" Usagi. The people writing the anime were probably imagining more what it would be like to be a friend of Usagi's, embarrased about her emotional outbursts in public settings. They were probably thinking about how to make Usagi's character marketable and have broad public appeal and so exaggerated her flaws for comedic purposes. I've never seen a series that loves to take the piss out of it's main hero as the 90s Sailor Moon anime. This is what makes it different from say Pretty Cure which doesn't generally portray it's heroines' sadness as funny, and even when it does, doens't focus it nearly so much on just one character to the point of metafictional bullying.

Taking a heroine that was maybe meant to help give young sensitive girls more confidence, give them the sense that despite their flaws they could become heroes for their loved ones, a character whose strongest aspect was always her emotions who had inner strength and agency, who truly was "a bit of a crybaby" but admirable in the courage she would rise to for her loved ones, and making her a joke...that's what makes me angry about the 90s Sailor Moon and what I think "is wrong with it". Usagi is a character I relate to more then any others and the anime hurts me in a way I series I don't actually like can't because it delights in tormenting a character I have great personal attachment too for a quick laugh.

After all that I should reiterate that I don't dislike the 90s Sailor Moon anime. There's a lot of things I can say I love about it. The series does a really a good job of making these really emotional moments, it can be funny when it focuses on things other then harassing one of it's characters, some of the season endings are inspired in their ability to present a complex idea through narrative, the first Sailor Moon movie is my favorite piece of fiction ever. But on some level I feel a mild resentment that it's the 90s anime that is the famous series that is known globally while the manga is viewed as a divisive curiousity where to me it should be the inverse.

If you prefer the 90s anime, that's fine, these are just fictional stories at the end of the day. I just hope you maybe appreciate more now why someone might view things differently.