Credit: Henshin Justice
In August 2013, popular internet critic/comedian Nostalgia Critic decided to review Sailor Moon. At the time, I was unfamiliar with Nostalgia Critic, but the review reverberated throughout the fandom. The rumblings weren’t particularly positive, so I decided to skip it. Fast forward a few months later, and on a boring, lazy Sunday, my curiosity got the better of me. It turns out this piece of internet comedy has a lot to say about male sexuality, female sexuality and victim blaming.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
[Content Note: Discussion of rape, guns and victim blaming]
The video opens with a mad doctor scribbling on a white board. We’re informed that Dr. Hack is the master of TV formulas–the formulas individual TV shows use from episode to episode. Here’s his formula for Power Rangers:
Teens + Monster + Giant Monster + Giant Robot.
Since Sailor Moon was based on the Power Rangers formula, I was eager to hear more about Sailor Moon’s particular formula.
Dr. Hack: Fourteen year old girl acts stupid, using magical powers to look slutty and stupid, talking cat tells her how to fight crime because she’s so stupid, surround herself with smarter girls that make her look even more stupid–
*sigh* I realize that Nostalgia Critic is trying to be funny here, but unfortunately, I can’t find the humor in it since this quote basically sums up the entire video. Sailor Moon is stupid and slutty. Are you laughing yet?
In this vintage Dateline Sailor Moon report, I noted that the reporter’s first words to describe Sailor Moon are “blonde bombshell.” Nearly 20 years later, Nostalgia Critic replicates this double standard–Power Rangers get to repetitively fight monsters whereas Sailor Moon just gets to be repetitively stupid and slutty. It’s a refrain returned to again and again throughout the video.
After reviewing the English dub’s opening credits, Nostalgia Critic continues his review by giving a brief overview of the cast of characters. He then spends a considerable amount of time dissecting the transformation sequences.
Nostalgia Critic: And, of course, this gives way into the famous transformation scene–the tiara, the boots, the nail polish-later covered by gloves so that was pointless–and of course, the mini skirt. The mini, mini, mini–mini, mini, mini, mini–mini, mini, mini skirt. Yep, the costume choice that no way enables her to fight better, but sure forces her to squat a lot. OK, so take out the fact that it’s no way battle armor, take out the fact that it’s obviously fan service, take out the fact just like He-Man somehow removing more clothes bizarrely disguises them–though to be fair both these outfits is the face really the first thing you’re going to be looking at?–Take all that away and just tell yourself, this obviously sexualized transformation that takes up a solid minute in each episode happens to a 14 year old girl.
Ok, first of all, Sailor Moon’s transformation isn’t fan service. There are no boob jiggles or butt gleams in these sequences. But of course, viewers can choose what they want to see. If you are are heterosexual male dude, you can choose to leer if that’s how you roll. If you are a heterosexual chick, you are simply seeing a young woman put on a cool outfit. If you are a gay dude, you might not give a shit and if you are a lesbian–well, hey, give me a call when a lesbian comedian calls Sailor Moon’s transformation a “strip tease.”
In fact, this promo sent to TV stations back in the 90s argues that girls will particularly love the transformation sequences where the superhero becomes “glamourous.” The focus of the transformation is the outfit and accessories and Sailor Moon’s moves are not unlike a gymnastics routine or walking down the catwalk. Or, a superhero who is simply getting ready to kick your ass.
Nostalgia Critic’s main beef with the transformation sequences isn’t that they’re sexy, it’s that a 14 year old is being sexy. Much of this section seems to be a reaction to his previous video where he named Sailor Moon one of his top 11 hottest animated women. Some commenters felt that Sailor Moon shouldn’t be described as “hot” because she’s 14 years old. Personally, I have more of a problem with Sailor Moon’s transformation sequences described as a “strip tease.” Cuz you know, putting on clothes is totally the definition of a strip tease. No word on what Nostalgia Critic feels about dude superheroes who actually rip off their clothes.
Take it all off Superman! Credit: www.comicvine.com
Nostalgia Critic hammers it home that the sexy, sexy transformations are happening to 14 year old girls—as if in the history of the world 14 year olds have never worn a short skirt before or have boobs or have long legs or whatever. To show how sexualized Sailor Moon is, Nostalgia Critic gives us an example of what real, 14 year old girls look like. Note that these images aren’t of young ballerinas, or 15 year old figure skaters. Would anyone like to say that the young ladies below are “dressing like sluts”? (And they lift their legs too! How scandalous!)
 Young ballerinas who aren’t even wearing any skirts. Via: prima ballet |  At 15, Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest individual gold medalist in 1998. Credit: Olympics Tumblr |
The images Nostalgia Critic uses consist of 14 year old girls sans make up and short skirts. This image is meant to show the viewer that real life 14 year old girls aren’t sexualized like Sailor Moon. Or, at least, not sexualized in a way that would tantalize a hetero dude’s boner.
Nostalgia Critic shows us what real 14 year olds look like.
Repeat after me: You can’t tell what a girl’s sexual history is by looking at her.
Repeat after me: You can’t tell what a girl’s sexual history is by looking at her.
Repeat after me: You can’t tell what a girl’s sexual history is by looking at her.
Nostalgia Critic comments that the problem with the sexualization of girls in media is that it doesn’t teach young people about real life sexuality and merely profits off of said sexualization. But here’s the problem. When you describe a girl in a short skirt and heeled boots as a “slut,” you are making a huge assumption about that girl’s sexuality based on only what you see–not on any actual first-hand knowledge.
What’s really happening here is that Nostalgia Critic is just re-enforcing the same old sexist belief that girls are to blame for a dude’s behavior, not the dude himself. If only Sailor Moon didn’t wear such a short skirt! Then! And only then, nobody would call her a slut! This don’t-blame-the-dude game continues with Nostalgia Critic suggesting that we blame Japan instead. Japan is the “creepy” and “kinky” one, you see, because the age of consent there is 13–it’s not Nostalgia Critic calling 14 year olds “sluts” or seeing their transformations as a “strip tease.”
It’s too bad that Nostalgia Critic didn’t review America’s consent laws. Although the average age of consent is 16, America also has similar close-in-age-exceptions as those in Japan. And surprise, surprise, some states allow for 14 year olds to have sex with teens who are only 2 – 4 years older than them. However, here’s the thing about laws. Their existence or lack thereof isn’t some smoking gun. For example, America has laws criminalizing rape, but that doesn’t stop people from arguing that an 11 year old victim “dressed older than her age.” Or, when rapists are convicted, people still blame the victim. Japan may have a club where you can pay to sexually harass young woman in school girl outfits, but you can do the same in America and just hope the woman can’t or won’t come after you.
But if you haven’t been convinced yet that you should be blaming Sailor Moon’s sartorial choices or sexually deviant Japan instead of, say, Nostalgia Critic, he tells us he just didn’t know how old they were–because they look sexy.
Nostalgia Critic: …why did I put her in my top 11 hottest animated women list? I didn’t know! I swear I didn’t know! Look at the way they’re drawn man! I thought they were in college or at very least late high school! Wouldn’t you have made that guess? C’mon! Look at the way they’re showing them off! I swear officer–I mean–audience! I had no idea their real age.
At the risk of taking this waaaaay too seriously, I just want to remind our friendly viewers at home that in a court of law, you actually can’t use the “I didn’t know her real age” defense.
But before you can reach for your Captain Picard facepalm pics, Nostalgia Critic would like to give us one last reason why you shouldn’t blame him for sexualizing teen girls in mini skirts: his penis, like all heterosexual teen penises, is a metaphorical gun to his head.
Metaphorical penis gun.
Penises don’t force anyone to use the word “slut.” This may seem funny and inconsequential to some people, but in real life, people pretty much believe this. This video is a great piece of evidence of how we believe, as a society, that male sexuality is aggressive and uncontrollable–and thus, any dude can’t be held accountable for his actions. While some people may think that this is just a joke, this belief has real consequences in our lives. In 2010, a young girl was repeatedly raped and videotaped by multiple boys and men and people commented: she did wear sexy clothing, you know.
Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands — known as the Quarters — said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.–March 8th, 2011, nytimes.com
I’m not sure why dressing like a 20 year old or wearing “sexy” clothing makes rape inevitable. But I suppose we just need to remember that seeing a girl or woman dressed sexy is like your penis putting a gun against your head. Then, this senseless violence probably makes more “sense.”
One last thing I’d like to point out, since we’re taking about sexy clothing and all. In the flashback, the hypersexual 14 year old Nostaglia Critic with a metaphorical penis gun wears a black t-shirt and blue jeans. Remember when Nostaglia Critic showed us pictures of real 14 year old girls? You know, the ones wearing t-shirts and blue jeans? The ones who were decidedly not sexy? Again, it’s perfect example of how we as a society view male sexuality and female sexuality–dudes are hypersexual beings no matter how they dress, but female sexuality only exists when a woman or girl wears something sexy. That, of course, is completely illogical, but I doubt our patriarchal society wants to hear that.
 | |
Thankfully, at this point, after a few drinks, Nostalgia Critic moves on–but not quite. He notes again, how stupid Sailor Moon is, the censorship of Sailor Neptune and Uranus’s lesbian relationship and a lack of physical fighting. But not without making more pot shots about Sailor Moon’s outfit which is basically “a bathing suit with napkin covering the crotch” and that Japan is totally cool with Sailor Moon “showing off her goodies to the world” if she lifts her leg even a centimeter. Nostalgia Critic chalks this up to “cultural differences” and admitting that America has produced much worse things like toddlers dressed as Madonna. But it’s waaaay too little, waaaay too late.
Unfortunately for Nostalgia Critic and this video, victim blaming and sexualization aren’t merely cultural differences–they’re are behaviors we find in any patriarchal, xenophobic society that doesn’t want to be held accountable for its own horrible behavior. And if there’s one thing worth remembering about this video, that would be it.
What really gets me is…this is one of his more popular reviews and people. LIKE THIS? I don’t get it!
I would guess it’s popular for all the wrong reasons…
I’m a big Critic fan (just saw his panel at a con, actually!) but yeah, this wasn’t one of his best moments. I think I commented something along these lines on his video. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s supporting rape culture, but I would say he’s obviously ignorant about a lot of these issues. Particularly, I did think it was a bit gross how he took a pretty standard cool-outfit transformation sequence and assumed it was created to be sexualized–even though the target audience was young girls. Finding it sexy is fine (she’s not real, it’s not statutory anything), but unironically assuming it was drawn specifically for people like you to find it sexy is really egocentric and does indeed have some unfortunate implications.
Most of the reason I’m commenting, though, is because I actually am a lesbian. And no, in my opinion, that sequence was definitely not a strip tease. :/
LOL Thanks for your input! 🙂
I am a teenaged male and I write for the Sailor Moon fandom, and I’m something of a fan. I think there are a lot of problems with the anime, but the manga is pretty awesome, and I like the world it hints at and the character building. I do have some problems with how it portrays guys as weak, but nothing unforgivable.
As a male, I have to wonder if someone reversed the nostalgia critic’s digestive tract, because he had **** coming out of his mouth and was talking out his @$$ at the same time. Are all his works like that? For that matter, did he even watch any of the series at all? He missed a lot of stuff.
The biggest thing I think people don’t mention enough, though, is the context. For most intents and purposes Sailor Moon was the first Magical Girl WARRIOR series, and it created a lot of what we find in the genre today, much like Treasure Island did with pirate stories. An average (or arguably below average) girl gets magical powers and meets similar girls, and instead of using them to see if the guy she likes likes or back or grant people’s silly wishes, she uses them to blow up monsters. I’m not ashamed that I think that’s awesome.
And no matter how much Usagi whined and groaned, got tied up and attacked, flunked her tests, and got yelled at, she never gave up and quit. For me, her defining moment (and I haven’t read it in a while so some details may be wrong) is fighting Rubeus, where Rubeus has her in a gravity ray turned on so high she’s sunk a few inches into the ground. And she stands up and says that she’s going to protect Chibi anyway.
Same thing when she thinks Mamoru is purposefully not talking to her before she finds out Galaxia took him. She fights the Sailor Animates despite going through an emotional crisis. But I think I’ve got off-topic, if I ever had one.
Just one last thing–that penis with a gun thing? Total. Bull. At age 16 I was a fan of the show, but quite honestly squicked by the thought of being personally turned on by the characters, no matter their actions or state of dress. It’s guys like him, especially with access to the mass media, that give the male gender a bad name.
I watched a few of his other videos and his formula is “watch something and tell the audience how stupid it is.” So, in some ways, Sailor Moon got the standard Nostalgia Critic treatment, but it’s too bad most of the focus was on Sailor Moon’s sexuality.
And yeah, it’s a bummer that he didn’t watch more episodes. He harps a lot on “formulas” in his video, but back in the day, that was one thing that was different about Japanese animation from American cartoons–they had actual story arcs.
“And yeah, it’s a bummer that he didn’t watch more episodes. He harps a lot on “formulas” in his video, but back in the day, that was one thing that was different about Japanese animation from American cartoons–they had actual story arcs.”
I think that’s what had me most baffled about the video. In the past, the NC has been pretty open when he’s treading on shows or such that he’s unfamiliar with. In his Digimon review, that’s the main reason why it’s a crossover with Jesu Otaku — he’s unfamiliar with Digimon and JO was, so when the Critic didn’t know what was going on, JO could fill him in. Something similar happened when the Nostalgia Chick included Tuxedo Mask on her list of hottest animated men and, being unfamiliar with his character or series, she called JO for some information.
Doug pretty clearly was unfamiliar with the show or franchise in general. It would have been so easy to find a friend or another video producer who knew the series and could at least fill him in on everything, even if he didn’t want to make it a fully-fledged crossover. Instead, he pretty clearly decided to just watch what seemed to be the first season of the English dub, which was a pretty subpar sampling. :/ And his Disneycember review of “The Cat Returns” implies that he’s seen at least one anime in its original Japanese form as well as the English dub. If he’d have even done that much, he probably would have gotten a bit of a better understanding of the series.
That’s not even going into cultural points, like how the outfit worn is based on frigging school uniforms, and probably isn’t that much more revealing than some versions of them. Okay, most people probably don’t run and kick and jump around in them, but still.
(Also, I realize it’s the least of the issues, but I’d like to point out how you aren’t going to get an indecent view of things even if the senshi skirts had a wardrobe malfunction. The main bodies of the outfits are like leotards.)
I really hate how he obsessed over the supposed sexuality of the transformation sequences, and I say this as both a Sailor Moon fan and a Nostalgia Critic fan. I mean, when he critiques other cartoons he focuses on things like plot holes, animation errors, dumb dialog, etc. I mean, considering there is a lot of things like that in the dub of Sailor Moon, he had a lot of material to work with. But noooooo, he focused on the transformation sequences and made his worst review to date IMO.
Also, he’s admitted that he doesn’t watch anime, which only made the review worse. At least when he reviewed the Digimon movie he brought an anime fan, JesuOtaku, onto the show to review it with him, and he should have done that for Sailor Moon as well.
I feel ya. It’s funny, so many people make a big deal about the transformation sequences yet no mention that Darien is actually a college student dating a 14 year old?
And yeah, it’s really disappointing that he didn’t bring in another fan–or as others have pointed out, Nostalgia Chick. I mean, I imagine the whole point is about the nostalgia, not watching something for the first time. :/
“I feel ya. It’s funny, so many people make a big deal about the transformation sequences yet no mention that Darien is actually a college student dating a 14 year old?”
Aye, in the manga he is a high school student so I wonder why they altered his age yet changed the same sex couple to being related.
The same sex couple being related was purely a fabrication of the English dub. They were still a couple in the undubbed anime.
I think the only real thing I agree with when it comes to his review is that Usagi is an actual idiot and very klutzy just as she is in the manga.
she gets better as time goes on but in the brain department sadly she actually is lacking.
though I don’t like how he knocked the voices being in English(Or whatever langue the show is being shown in) and the rest of the ‘world’ around ’em is still in their native langue.
Though to be honest I like their native langue over it being in english, that and the voice acting of the English actors are more meh than anything else.
one more point I do like to touch on is the amount of blabbering they do after changing, as I deem them changing is actually much faster just ‘drawn out’ for the show.
When they are talking and wasting so much time is normally where any normal enemy would attack and take them out.
Crystal is even worse of an offender when it comes to their long winded intros.
Have you ever read the book Warriors of Legend? It talks about how the long-winded introductions are a rip-off of samurai introductions.
If the author’s argument is that young girls should feel empowered because an average girl is being transformed into something “glamorous,” fine, but why isn’t Superman glamorous? Why isn’t Batman? Oh, right, men who fight crime need to be macho and tough, but girls need to be feminine and dainty, and, above all, pwetty. My God above, a woman who fights crime that is muscular and someone male readers/viewers wouldn’t want to sleep with? Fuck that! Say what you want, all criticism of this episode comes from men. As a woman, I saw his review and honestly thought he was very respectful to women in his views. He clearly felt how good the girls looked in stripper gear had nothing whatsoever to do with how well they fought crime.
Did you even read my article?
I, too, saw the review, and I can’t argue there were some pretty tasteless jokes. -but I don’t think you’re in any place to decry the ignorance of others. You bring up two examples: ballet classes and a medalist that you think justifies the stuff he was criticizing, while ignoring the obvious. Those examples aren’t from people in a show. I’m sure that sounds stupid, but I’ll explain. See, if I saw four girls in sexy outfits skipping around, and basically stipping(yes her having glowing light in place of her naked body still makes it a strip of sorts) in a comic, or a movie, or show, I’d think fanservice. Even supposing I didn’t think it was the case, that the target audience, was, as some said young girls, it’s still entirely reasonable to think some of that’s for the older brother or someone watching with them, basically a bonus. At the very least, many would say it could be considered inappropriate for the target audience. The fact is, stuff like that sells, and considering it’s obviously sexy and obviously there, how is it that crazy to think it’s just one of the infinite examples of “sex sells” in media? No matter what the reason, and even if it wasn’t the intention, considering the severe widespread cultural taboo that exists all around modern America considering teenagers and sex or being sexualized in any way, shape or form, is it really that surprising that a grown man born and raised in the U.S. would be a little shocked and creeped out by very, VERY young adolescent girls dancing around in tiny miniskirts, and having the cameras zoom in on their every curve and angle? Is it surprising that such content would be seen as inappropriate for such young viewers, if not an attempt to make more $? I don’t personally care what they wear, I say, if you got it flaunt it with pride, but I can respect how the nature of the content would make some uncomfortable.
There is actually a ballet episode and an ice skating episode in Sailor Moon.
At the risk of stirring up trouble, I think he’s intentionally playing up the “ignorant dumbass,” for comedy sake. He clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about and he knows it, so instead of trying to weasel out of it, he’s intentionally making himself look dumb in highlighting the “negative points.” He’s admitted to never watching the show and it shows here. His brother actually happens to be something of a Sailor Moon fan and provided the facts of the show for him to use.
Well, his ignorant dumbass routine is based on “LOL they dress like sluts so what do you expect my raging hormonal dick to do?!!? HAR HAR.” So, it’s much less about him being ignorant and him shifting the blame.
I always hate when people use that excuse. You know what I mean? the “It’s not supposed to win Oscars” excuse. While his reviews are typically an exaggerated form of his opinions, I think some people take that instead as “Yeah, I know the review made this mistake, but you should not get angry at this because it wasn’t made for your type” Never mind that most of the Sailor Moon fans making that excuse are not the demographic for either the Japanese or the 90’s English version. (Both Girls 6-11, as are many Shojo products).
Besides, the whole ignorant thing didn’t stop him from researching about Japanese sex laws as a way to tell people about how fanservice effects people’s understanding of sexuality. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t meant to be him intentionally playing an “ignorant dumb ass.”
Also, I’m pretty sure it was Lewis Lovhaug who provided the facts and not his brother. (Though I don’t know much about Rob’s taste, nor do I care).
What irks me is that clearly he puts a lot of time and effort into many of videos–including this one–so to have such a lazy joke is even more annoying. It’s like you spent hours and hours on THIS? Urgh.
Nostalgia Critic did bring up the age gap aspect when he was talking about the dub censoring Haruka and Michiru’s relationship but I have to agree with this article that I found his whole review to be very sexist and disgusting. I didn’t like that he spent so much time focusing on the Soldiers’ bodies and making gross jokes about sex. It’s also hypocritical that he bashes the show for sexualizing women yet he turns around and sexualizes Usagi with his gross masturbation joke. I was also annoyed he was not only misinformed but was completely making stuff up about the show that wasn’t true. Like how he called Beryl “Queen Barrel” or how he claimed Jaedite’s name was ripping off Star Wars somehow. What makes his other videos funny is that the Nostalgia Critic makes fun of things that are actually true in movies and TV shows which are absurd and make no sense, but here he’s just making stuff up about Sailor Moon to make some sort of lame punchline. What I find sad about it is there was plenty of things he could have brought up that would be actual criticism, like Tuxedo Mask’s infamous kiss scene in the ballroom dance episode or how the original anime portrays gay men with negative stereotypes but I guess that would require some actual thought. And why did he review the DiC dub anyway? I think most Sailor Moon fans would acknowledge the DiC dub is heavily flawed so I don’t know why he didn’t just watch the Japanese version which would have actually cleared up some of his fake criticisms. Like the Japanese version actually explains who Sailor V is which the dub made more confusing so that would be one less pointless thing for him to complain about.
Yeah, there’s so many things that you can make jokes about, but as soon as it goes into the sexual realm, it goes south real quick.
I was only recently told by my friend about this review made by Nostalgia critic, I personally never heard or read the review itself, but after reading and hearing about how stupid and sexist and lame the review was and how unprofessional and stupid the reviewer was, I’m glad I never read the actual review and I don’t ever intend to.
Btw, I just want to correct you that Sailor Moon was NOT based on the Power Rangers formula, Power Rangers is basically just the American version of the Japanese Tokusatsu show Super Sentai that has been airing on Japanese TV screens since the early 1970’s. So technically, SM is based on the Super Sentai formula. Power Rangers merely adapted the formula for American audiences.
Wait, how can he blame that SM stole from Power Rangers (the American version) when the series itself (Sailor Moon) existed before that? Power Rangers came out in 93. Sailor Moon both in manga anime form came out in 1991. So he just claimed that Sailor Moon took plots from a series that wasn’t available in the US for another two years, and we mean Power Rangers SPECIFICALLY.
The only thing I liked about this review was the Darth Vader part. Other than that I didn’t remember anything about this review, that’s how bad it sucked so much, and yes, the review was sexist, unfunny, and he also didn’t distinguish between the Japanese and English edited versions.
And the Sailor Soldiers’ clothing aren’t overtly sexual even with the mini-skirts, overtly sexual would be something like, Venus 5, a shitty hentai parody of Sailor Moon, and hell, look at Kekko Kamen even, she only wears a mask, gloves and boots!!!
A better review was Bennett the Sage’s Anime Abandon: Sailor Moon R the Movie episode (funnily enough nowadays, Bennett is one of the only TGWTG reviewers I like along with Cinema Snob). He’s not a magical girl fan, thought the film (which I love) was “campy bullcrap”, and only reviewed the crappy dub (do wish he reviewed subbed versions sometimes) BUT he actually did his research on what happened with Sailor Moon (DiC) and such, and he was able to acknowledge properly why Sailor Moon is beloved/acclaimed by other people even if he doesn’t like it, and unlike other anime he suffered through (“Virgin Fleet”, for one), he actually seemed to enjoy poking fun at it (and some of what he said made me laugh).
Funnily enough there’s only a few websites I feel did a good Sailor Moon review, AnimeNewsNetwork’s newer reviews on it, Screwattack, to name a few, ones that didn’t do good reviews were THEM Anime (those reviews are hit/miss to me) and SnapThirty…
That’s interesting! The R movie was described as “campy bullcrap”? I wonder what that means. Like, it’s funny, if someone asked me to describe Sailor Moon, I’d say it’s an action-comedy. And who doesn’t like an action-comedy? LOL
“Campy” usually means it’s all silly and such but enjoyable and charming, like 60’s Batman.
Yes, action-comedy is what Sailor Moon is, but I’d add a bit of slice of life into it too.
I need to point out that, in NC’s video, there are a lot of references about Japan’s definitions of children.
Simply put, 95% of what he said about this part is actually WRONG. He clearly does not have any ideas about Japan’s law and regulations, only using a lot of assumptions what an American may have for his video.
I don’t know Sailor Moon in US much, so I have no comments on if it is good or bad. But according to my knowledge of Japan for so many years, I really don’t think he has any creditability for bringing such topic (the definition of children and woman equality) up.
Also, I’m not American, so I really don’t care about such political correctness BS in US.
I’m really not sure why he went there. It would have been nice if he just did a proper review of Sailor Moon for what it is. It’s not like he goes into the consent laws of the US for every US movie/tv show.
To give you a brief history, Sailor Moon was butchered early on here in the US/Canada mostly because for the most part America doesn’t treat animation too seriously, especially if its on TV. When the rights were also being held in the air Saban was going to heavily edit the entire series as well as just redo it to make it more PC for an American audience so all the cultural references and so on for the whole series were going to be dropped, redone and made more fitting for an American audience. To see more on this, look up Saban Moon and the mess that was going to turn into.
When that fell through, DiC got their hands on it and made a lot of edits to the series. Despite this, I admit three positives on DiC;
1) It got me into the series
2) They actually choose good voice actors for the Senshi/Scouts
3) The remixed theme song was AWESOME
But as a result everything was HEAVILY Westernized. Characters were American, any Japanese references in daily life and to the main story were cut and lines were rewritten to be more acceptable for young kids. As a result, the series floundered badly and there were talks of just ending it. Fans of Sailor Moon bought Pop-Tarts, which at the time were a sponser for the series, and managed to get it to continue with Cartoon Network picking up for the Toonami block and airing the rest of the DiC dub. Later on, Cloverway got ahold of the rights and finished off the original dub of the series but hired new actors, made a kid-friendly version of the script that actually returned a lot of elements of the original series (while censoring others such as Neptune and Uranus’ relationship, hence the COUSIN thing we still laugh at to this day), returned the original sound track to the series (DiC had hired Shuki Levi to redo the entire score of the DiC dub) and since then, they had handled Sailor Moon for the West, including the dubbed version of the movies up until Stars but by that time, CN had dropped both the Toonami and Miguzi afternoon black and Sailor Moon, as long as various other anime series, stopped airing.
Funimation now has rights over Sailor Moon and has repackaged the entire series in a proper release but you can still find VHS tapes of the DiC and Cloverway dubs in you know where to search but the DiC dub is more infamous not just for all the edits but being the main gateway for a lot of Sailor Moon fans as a whole. Because of this, I can’t HATE the DiC dub even if they made a lot of dumb things, such as putting on the Sailor Moon Says segments just to FORCE in educational lessons in the end (these were requirements here in the US, I shit you not) but Cloverway dropped them since as Sailor Moon was now being aired on cable and not syndication they no longer had to adhere to those rules.
Sailor Moon’s history in the US has been a wild one and this was just the anime. As for manga, I was introduced to the series via Mixx/Tokyo Pop and they did a good enough job on distrubuting the series in both single issues and graphic novels but once TP went up, finding books became harder. Kodansha Comics US finally reprinted the entire series including the special one-off stories and the Sailor V series so honestly the NC had no excuse to go the route he did when there was plenty of information not just online but in stores. To show you how common Sailor Moon is now in the US in terms of media I can walk into Target or Wal-Mart and buy THE ENTIRE SERIES box set DVDs at a bargin. To contrast, if I wanted to buy a VHS collection of the entire FIRST season it would have cost me 200 US dollars or more at the time and this is for undubbed. No other option.
Great analysis. Like others have said, everything he says is wrong. It comes from a place of total ignorance.
There’s a reason I stopped watching the NC reviews and for the most part its because they got boring but I do have a question; what version did he review to come to these conclusions? Did he watch the original, uncut Japanese version or the badly edited versions we got here in the US/Canada, specfically the DiC versions?
I ask this question because even those editions were edited to ‘suit’ a more western audience and I’m not just talking about the infamous ‘COUSIN’ relationship between Neptune and Uranus. The English version of SM was cut in a lot of areas to remove cultural references (mostly ‘lost in translation’ things that they assumed kids wouldn’t get because the series takes place in Japan and not the US), moment of violence against the characters as well as moments displaying their relationship towards each other. As small as some of those edits were they did play a BIG part in muddling up a lot of the storylines but despite this, I was still able to love the series from the choppy version but the more intact version of the manga.
However, I think Doug missed a lot of the cultural differences between Japan and the US when it comes to how characters are shown, as well as some interesting notes about the creator of Sailor Moon herself. IICR, her main career goal wasn’t to be a manga artist at all and she had a background in science which would later lead to a lot of the inspiration for the series itself. She was also into fashion design which is WHY the characters look the way they do; they’re based on MODELS and even some of the villains in the series take their clothing and looks from various fashion designs that were popular at the time. THAT is where Sailor Moon gets a lot of her iconic looks from and it’s not just some ‘they look like sluts’ things. That’s what she liked and was inspired by and the end result is one of the most influential shojo series of all time.
In his attempt to be ‘helpful’ in the matter of giving girls icons, Doug made the biggest mistake by being unable to separate fiction from reality. Of course girls don’t look like Sailor Moon. The whole series was drawn from inspiration from various things the creator liked and she wasn’t trying to go for anything realistic in looks. Again, FASHION was her main inspiration as well as various other aspects of the culture she grew up in. Doug doesn’t seem to get this and presents it as some sort of horrific affront to him and girls, as if the site of someone as unrealistic and dreamy (I say this to describe the overall look and feel of the series which takes a lot of tropes from shojo aesthetics) as the SM cast is harmful. Opinions can vary on how you feel but as a whole, SM is not a threat to anyone especially when you just place it into the grander scheme of things that are actually happening in real life.
And moving on to the attitudes of the girls, again Doug missed the point and I have to ask him, where does he actually get off saying that HIS ideals of what a girl should act like are the best, despite them having their own will? Yes, Usagi is a bubble head that is the point to contrast her growing up to become a hero and QUEEN. She starts off as a teenager since that’s all she thinks she’s going to be and honestly, there are people like this. There are KIDS like this; kids who just want to enjoy life, kids who have trouble in school. What’s so bad about showing them a HERO that can rise up and MATURE from being that kid who gets bad grades to the young adult who learns from that and overtime becomes a functional adult? Yeah, we’re not Moon people with magic powers but seeing Usagi go from crybaby to a mature young adult who gains friends, brushing away that past cowardice she once had is something. And let’s not forget the other Senshi as well.
You’re not like Usagi? People call you a nerd and that you can’t do anything good? You have Ami who takes the idea of being mousy and reserved into being brave and strong. You feel awkward because you’re the tall girl and you feel clumsy. Makoto has the grace of a ballerina but is still tough as nails and one of the most head-strong fighters of the group. Someone tells you’re too focused on your work or you’re too flighty? Rei and Mina.
You can argue the girls have their anime tropes but in the end they do something, they grow as the series, both manga and anime, go on. YES, they are exaggerated in many ways but their motivations, characters, and relationships is what makes them endearing and HEROES.
Doug seems to have missed that point not just for himself but for the sake of presenting a sort of validation to the audience. I know a lot of people who dislike Sailor Moon just for the very reasons he mentioned; because they look like SLUTS. That’s it. Just SLUTS. It seems to me that he did not do his research on the series, which is funny because YEARS AGO he listed Sailor Moon as one of this crushes as a kid and didn’t seem to have a problem with how she looked back then. It feels to me that the sudden MASSIVE shift has more to do with him trying to be ‘safe’ vs him actually stating his own opinion in the matter. If he were not this scared he may have done more research and not looked to the controversial DiC dub for his reference which, again, removes so much from the series including character motivation, story elements and relationships. Even I knew this back in middle school when I finally got the manga and saw the things that were edited OUT of the Americanized/Canadianized (is that even a thing?) dub.
Think of it like this; the NC is a huge fan of Tom and Jerry but I’m certain he would go ape-shit if someone were to base their views on Tom and Jerry as a whole based on the terrible movie as well as the really terrible series from the 70s which was even more water downed but those versions were the only version someone got their hands on and thus they’re going to base their whole view on that. That’s not fair IS IT?
All in all, I have rambled on too long about this but in today’s enviroment it feels like a lot of older girl series are being dismissed because they’re not ‘real’ enough. I know Sailor Moon was fake but that didn’t stop me from having fun from it. I knew I wasn’t Usagi, Rei, Mina or whoeever. I just loved the characters because they were fun to watch and they FOUGHT. They fought like hell and kicked ass.
Just…..WHAT? What happened to all of this? I know he can like or dislike the series but he just based his view on the most water downed broken references he could get.
He only saw the butchered DiC version, and failed to distinguish between the original Japanese version and the DiC/CWi versions. I totally agree with you on this review (and I will say the Sailors do NOT look like “sluts” at all, it’s impossible to look that way, and calling someone that is just demeaning to women, those people you knew who thought that are probably Nostalgia Critic supporters themselves). And no, he didn’t do his research at all, Rob, his brother, did it for him. Doug also probably had a crush only due to looks; my first anime crushes may have been Sailors Mercury and Venus (hell, they’re still my favorite anime characters) but the main reason I liked them was because of their personalities and characters.
Also, you may want to hear this whole #ChangetheChannel thing going on, turns out Doug is a more horrible person than you think.
Yeah, I followed the whole #ChangetheChannel thing. That was very disappointing to learn about all the things that were going on.
I’ve watched sailor moon since 7 years old. When it aired in the states. Always loved it. Its my favorite series. And i fully believe the characters outfits are far too skimpy for some young teens. People say it isn’t fan service because boobs don’t jiggle, but consider how many years ago this was. When many of us were actually still being raised to have some modesty. Back then this was definitely fan service. Lol but these outfits don’t make much sense in the first place. The outfits aren’t anything fancy or cutesie anyway. So it’s whatever. I liked the characters. Nearly all of them were relatable. It’s so hard to even have a favorite.