Hey you, please log in! I am also at Dooyoo and Epinions, and variations of my reviews may also be f...
Hey you, please log in! I am also at Dooyoo and Epinions, and variations of my reviews may also be found there :P I am a home educating parent, as well as a freelance author. Wish me luck, I am attempting to learn Japanese! with my children
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Back in the mid 1960's, American television brought the now classic family comedy bewitched to our small screens. It sparkled, and still does; enjoying international popularity even today with millions of DVDs sold worldwide and enjoying current airdates via satellite and cable TV. What made it special was not just the ensemble cast that breathed life into the characters, but the concept itself: a young woman with magical powers falls in love, and tries to balance her witchy nature with her everyday life and love. As the ratings took off, so did the copy cat shows, beginning first with I Dream of Jeannie and repeated ad infinitum. Widely considered to be the birth of the magical girl genre, it is no surprise that the Japanese who loved this decided to breathe their own life into the genre, spilling straight into the popular culture as manga and anime. One such attempt caught the public imagination not only in Japan, but like its predecessor Bewitched, grew into a world-wide franchise. The heroine? No witch, but a princess from a lost kingdom that existed millennia ago upon the Earth's own moon, now re-incarnated with her fellow sailor warriors to battle against evil, and seeking her long ago lost one true love. Her name: Sailor Moon.
Of course, belonging to the magical girl genre, she is and her cohorts are no ordinary warriors, but ones that each possesses special gifts. Various objects act as magical talismans to release certain powers, but supernatural powers they are none the less, though in this day and age, technology also plays a role with computers and the like popping up here and there as needed to complete a mission. Life is certainly complicated for poor Usagi when her happy life is disrupted by the sudden appearance of a very strange stray cat. A bald spot in the shape of a crescent moon on its head turns out to most definitely NOT be the mange, and if that is not unsettling enough, the critter
can talk. It says the most unsettling thing, and poor not too bright Usagi is terrified. Princess this and Princess that and scary monsters attacking Tokyo, what next? You have to be kidding, a masked guy in a tuxedo who throws red roses to distract the monsters and then runs off? Who is that guy? As the episodes speed by, she finds out, all while trying to find herself a real boyfriend and get her homework done.
Undoubtedly, this now classic anime has its moments of laughter, with Usagi's daftness and initial cowardice playing for some serious laughs. Huh? Who is Usagi? This is Sailor Moon Uncut, the original unbutchered edition of Sailor Moon, and definitely NOT the highly edited, rescripted, and dubbed Sailor Moon that saw television airplay in the UK and USA. So the Serena that English speaking fans of THAT edition know goes by her actual Japanese name. Usagi means rabbit or bunny, and actually is by far a more fitting name for she who runs in terror and crouches in tears when the time to do battle first commences. Yes, she still hates to fight, and the storylines are the same, mostly, though the small changes do make significant differences in the feel of the programme. I say mostly because Usagi is not the only person to suffer a change. One character actually received a gender change, a decision taken by US studio executives.
The reasoning behind it was that they wished to show Sailor Moon in an after school slot, with primary school children as the target audience. Therefore, same sex couples were a definite no no as it would no doubt upset certain segments of the population who would shout to the rooftops about the "terrible" things being shown to the impressionable. So, it was that Zoisite, general of the dark kingdom and nemesis to the sailor warriors, became a female, while his boyfriend, General Kunzite of the Dark Kingdom, was renamed Malakite. Add in some scene edits to shorten some episodes and remove anything else that might happen to interfere with the American television revenue dynamic as envisioned by studio executives, and you have a television show that focuses mostly upon a super hero type premise with a bit of romance thrown in, while the original is more character driven, with the opposite sides each trying to fulfil their destinies and realise the dreams of their own true love, reliving again and again the tragedy of loss as well as the joys of redemption.
Make no mistake about it; Sailor Moon Uncut is definitely a good guys vs. the bad guys sort of show, with "superpowers" on both sides. But this is just a face value, with far deeper undercurrents running through the story arcs. This is no mere entertainment designed for children; this is a fairy tale about the human condition, and the need for love and redemption from the stains of greed and jealousy upon the human soul. As such, it transcends the genre that the American studios hacked to fit it into, and goes into a realm where the mature of heart and mind may wander. This is not to say that children will not enjoy it, but do be prepared to have to deal with tears as characters sacrifice their lives for love, as well as possible questions when the romantic pairings become obvious. The violence is also more intense, and if you prefer your children to not watch scenes involving such things, please be warned that this edition carries a 15 and up rating.
The original theme song, Moonlight Densetsu, heralds the true nature of the series. Unlike the catchy pop superhero anthem of the American dubbed version, Moonlight Densetsu speaks of deep romantic longings with the inner emotional turmoil and mental confusion a person experiencing real love for the first time experiences. When viewed from this standpoint, one readily sees that it is not a superheroes comic brought to life, but indeed springs boldly from the magical girl origins and the mundane aspects of an ordinary life interrupted making such frequent appearances makes much more sense. To be sure, there is enough action here that Sailor Moon attracts male fans, but the stories themselves are not about the action so much but rather what the impact is on the personal lives of those involved in the escapade. Usagi and her friends and even those cast as the villains grow emotionally and mentally at each encounter, sometimes with tragic consequences and sometimes with great happiness, but in this series at least, never with happily ever after. It is decidedly written not for the young, but for those of us who are slightly more mature. Younger fans can enjoy the action while us adults, well, we can wax nostalgic and sit back and enjoy the ride as we swing from romantic comedy to tragedy to action hero and back again.
Art wise, one is not set to be overly impressed or awed. It is far better than the average, but if you are expecting crisp CGI aided animation, you will disappointed. This was drawn and animated over a decade ago, so the style is definitely retro in nature. Being a romance aimed more at a female audience, the drawing is pure shojou in style: large eyed pretty girls, androgynously beautiful males, and lots and lots of bright colours. The picture has been cleaned up for this release and even on my HD screen, there is no inherent graininess. Likewise, the sound is fairly nice and crisp in that there are no crackles or pops or hissings to be heard, BUT (and yes this is a big BUT) the original Japanese soundtrack was not of highest quality even for the times it was produced, so it still comes across as slightly dull when heard via stereo quality speakers. The soundtrack is pleasant enough, but truly, only Moonlight Densetsu is a real stand out. Just as well though that the rest of the soundtrack blends into the background, as otherwise it might be a bit of a distraction given the slightly fluffy nature of many of the scenes. The picture and sound clean up are not compromised at all by the compression rate, as all 1000 minutes have been placed across 8 discs by ADV . The subtitles are available in English, and they are quite well done, with the font easy to read and the translation being very accurate. All in all, it is a reasonably good release of a classic anime that no fan of animation or the magical girl genre should miss.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Science Fiction - Director: Hiroyuki Yamaga - Original Language: Japanese - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Ayako Kawasumi, Fujiko Takimoto
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
