A dissertation on the cross-demographical appeal of the Sailor Scouts, or why Sailor Moon rocks

Certain kinds of Japanimation always give me that nostalgia for childhood. Take for instance Sailor Moon; it’s exactly the kind of mindless cartoon everyone should love as a child. Sure, it was technically a little bit before my time, but there were still reruns on as I started my spending more and more time with that little thing called the television.

I will always remember the opening what with its cosmic crickets followed by simplistic guitar and drum riffs and lyrics. It was one of the first shows I really started to like, and I liked it even more than I liked Dragonball Z, which I guess in a way set me apart from the other little boys my age. They just wanted to see gratuitous cartoon violence. I wanted to see gratuitous cartoon violence and pretty girls. Not that I knew anything about sex at the time (not that it matters anyways what with the whole homosexuality thing I got going on), but still, there was something appealing about the one that the other just didn’t have.

This brings me now to my rambling musings and the point of this. Despite being just another crappy child’s show, Sailor Moon deserved a far better audience than it ever received. It had the kind of crossover appeal you just didn’t find in the other shows of the time.

For the girls, it had strong, albeit ditzy female role models in Serena (which I’m guessing is the Japanese approximation to Selena, which would be appropriate considering the whole moon thing. If that last sentence made no sense, look up Selena. If you get something about the late Hispanic pop goddess, keep looking) and the Sailor Scouts. In its continuing story arc about the reincarnation of the moon princess, the show also had the kind of romantic quadrangles that make preteen girls swoon.

For the boys, there was that whole gratuitous cartoon violence I mentioned earlier. People were always dying or getting kidnapped by monsters sent by the nefarious Queen Beryl. It was a little Scooby-doo how the girls faced a different monster pretty much every episode, but such was the ratings climate of the time. Besides, when you’re a little kid you don’t really notice how it’s exactly the same thing every episode, I mean duh, it’s a different monster. Also, pretty girls in skimpy sailor outfits, need I say more?

And finally, for the gays, well, I guess it’s kind of hybrid cross between the girls’ and boys’ reasons really. The pretty girls weren’t cool because they were pretty girls; they were cool because they were pretty. The romance was a little soap-operatic (How many times did someone’s name get screamed in agony as they died or get healed with a kiss/tear?), but it had to be that kind of over the top otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to the younger audience’s simple grasp of the romantic. Oh yeah, and in true classic anime fashion, there were always homoerotic subtexts to tickle budding gaydars. Ever notice how some of the Scouts could be (and were) mistake for boys or how in the one movie young Darren was just a little too friendly to the green alien boy who comes back years later like a stalker ex?

It had something for everybody if you bothered to look past the frilly pink exterior, and it was a damn sight easier to follow than half the stuff on primetime now. But it had a good run while it lasted.