Review Me Twice: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol 1

You know how, if you haven't read/watched/personally experienced a certain pop culture phenomenon after it has risen to enormous popularity and perhaps has been around for a while, you've picked up little bits and pieces here and there? Like, your friends talk about it, Redditors post about it, SNL makes fun of it, whatever, and you can't help but learn little things here and there. Well, that happened to me with Sailor Moon. I had never watched and episode or read a page, but I knew the names and looks of all the Sailor Scouts, I knew about the little cat Luna, and I knew Tuxedo Mask was this major romantic interest of some kind.

And that's basically all I learned from reading this book. So maybe Volume 2 would be more informative.

As you may have learned on Wednesday, I don't read manga. I know how (protip: backwards) but I just... don't. So that was a little off-putting to have to get used to that.

Finally, as a 27-year-old who doesn't know any 12-year-old girls and didn't like them even when I was one, I hate having to listen to this brat. Usagi (Sailor Moon) is so annoying. She doesn't like school. Her only real interests are sleeping and playing games (which she repeats a few times). There is literally an exchange between her and Luna (yeah, the cat) where Luna tells her it's time to fight the bad guy and Usagi actually whines about it. You're a Guardian, princess whiny-pants! GUARD!!!

So to summarize... I'm not a fan. But I'm not a manga fan or a Sailor Moon fan. So that isn't too surprising, I suppose.

I admit that I look at Sailor Moon with tainted eyes.  Also, I look at it with the knowledge of what happens later in the series.  Is Usagi whiny?  Yes.  Is she annoying?  Yes.  Does she eat a lot and do terribly in school and just want to spend her time in an arcade?  All true things.

And, if you don't know what she's like, the first book can be very off-putting.  But I DO know.  I know that the character becomes incredibly loyal and protective of her friends.  I know that Usagi eventually gets better at school.  I know that she stops whining about fighting and takes up the call like a champ and a proper leader.  So it makes me hate her maybe not quite the way that Alex does.

Plus, I grew up with her, so I admit, I definitely have the nostalgia thing going for me.  The books (and anime) are crazy and ridiculous and so sappy I can't even handle it sometimes... but I still can't help but hold a special place in my heart for it.

Favorite Manga

I was a manga whore when I was a teenager.  I probably read more manga/watched more anime than was entirely healthy for a kid, but that just means I am adequately prepared to tell you my favorite manga today!

Yuu Watase wrote Alice 19th, though she is more widely known for her series Fushugi Yugi.  I liked Alice 19th better, 1. because it was only 6 books long as opposed to 18, and I just liked the story line better than Fushugi Yugi.

Alice ends up having what are called "Lotus Powers," which basically means she can see into the hearts of people and heal them.  She inadvertently makes her sister disappear, and spends the rest of the series trying to save her.  Kyo is the boy she falls for, but inevitably can't be with because... well, reasons.  Mainly because it's Manga and there's always a reason your two main characters can't be together until the Last Possible Moment.

Overall, it's a good series, as Ms. Watase is prone to have.

I... don't read manga. I know, I'm a huge fan of graphic novels and comics and all sorts of other visual reading material... but I just don't read manga. I had a bunch of friends in high school who were really into the Japanese thing (anime, manga, Lolita, the whole deal) but I guess my inner hipster didn't want me getting into the same thing as everyone else. So if you need guidance on which manga you might enjoy, Cassy's your gal, not me. Sorry, guys!

The Difference between Manga and Graphic Novels

We've read a lot of graphic novels on this blog.  And Alex did briefly discuss the differences between the two.  But why do we distinguish between the two?  Why are they considered two separate categories?  I mean, Barnes & Noble even shelves them in separate places (though, to be fair, one is shelved across the aisle from the other, but they're never mixed.)

They're from different countries.

Ok, so maybe this is the most obvious, but that doesn't make it less true.  Graphic Novels are (usually) American made.  They are read left to right, top to bottom because that's how the target audiences read.

Manga is Japanese, exclusively.  And it's read in the opposite direction.  You read the text right to left and, in fact, the books even open "back wards", or at least what Americans would consider backwards.  (This, actually, was not always the case.  About 10 or so years ago, the used to read like regular books, but it was decided that too much was compromised when they had to mirror it, so Manga started being printed in its original format.)

Style

The artistic style of Manga vs. Graphic Novels is incredibly different.  Graphic Novels tend to depict real life, or at least in the sense that they look like people (big busted women aside.)

However, Manga is a bit more characterized.  The eyes are larger, the mouth smaller, the hair is usually not acting in the most normal of ways.  Their legs also tend to be longer and skinnier.  Just look at the differences between Wonder Woman and Sailor Moon.

Themes

Graphic Novels, while then can be, and have been, pretty dark in their storylines, they're still relatively family friendly.  All ages enjoy them in American, and a lot of them are directed at the youth.  That means things like sex, gratuitous violence, and excessive amount of bloodshed, are not found in American comics.

Manga doesn't have that same barrier that graphic novels do.  Part of that is cultural.  Americans are notorious for their prudishness, but part of that is that it's just a different type of media.  Manga frequently is explicit about violence and sex and, in fact, there is an entire subsection of manga called Hentai, that is manga pornography.

Author Bio - Naoko Takeuchi

This week, we're getting into some Manga and reading Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi.

If you don't know what Sailor Moon is, well, then you've been living under a rock.  Oooorrr, maybe you just weren't a teenage girl in the '90s.  Lots of Takeuchi's life made it into Sailor Moon.  Usagi's (Sailor Moon's) family actually bear the same names as Takeuchi's family.

Takeuchi also went to school for Chemistry.  She actually got her degree in Chemestry and became a licensed pharmacists: a far cry from the work she did on Sailor Moon.  However, drawing was always a passion for her, what she wanted to do and chemistry was her back up plan.

She started drawing manga at 19 years old, for a company called Kodansha.  It was here that she created Sailor V, which eventually became the launching pad for Sailor Moon.  She worked on many other projects during this time, including The Cherry Project and PQ Angels.

Takeuchi is currently working on the reboot of Sailor Moon, which premieres on Friday, July 5.

History of Manga

As we learned from Alex, manga is another form of Graphic Novels.  It's a lot more stylistic and different from your usual graphic novel though.

The Kangi for Manga

Japanese in origin, manga significantly predates the comic (by about 150 years.)  The word itself directly translates into "whimsical drawings" and while the comics are Japanese, the word origin is Chinese.

Modern manga appeared in the 1940s as a huge post-war movement.  Astro Boy was probably the first and most popular manga that appeared during that time.  To this day, it is still immensely popular in Japan.

Manga has come to include a huge range of subjects, from space travel (such as Cowboy Beebop), to superheroes, even porn.  You can get manga books, magazine and of course, anime, which is essentially manga translated to television (though, to be fair, the styles tend to differ slightly between anime and manga.)

 





This is the manga version of Sailor Moon;

below is the anime version.  See the style difference?

The US even started to catch onto the craze, though much later than Japan.  Manga started to make its appearance in the 1980s.  Anime actually exploded in the US first, mostly because it was much more accessible than manga was.  During the 90s, when anime really became big, the manga counterparts became more readily available.  Though originally published left to right, most manga now reads right to left, as originally intended.  Dragonball Z, Pokémon and Ghost in a Shell were some of the most popular and among the first manga to come over.

If you want to know more about manga and anime, the Wikipedia page is immensely thorough.