by Anne LaRose
on November 21, 2014
On February 10th, 2014, the above Google Doodle created by Katy Wu graced the Google landing page. Google has been criticized in the past for heavily featuring white men. From 2010 to 2013, only 17.5% of these doodles were women. My interest was peaked.
The woman in the center of the image is Raichō Hiratsuka, feminist writer and activist, who co-founded the literary magazine Seitō (meaning Bluestocking). In 1920, she founded the New Women’s Association and speared headed the first attempt to win women’s right to vote in Japan. Previously, I’ve written about Beate Sirota Gordon, the young woman who wrote women’s suffrage into the new Japanese constitution in 1945. But who was Raichō Hiratsuka? What was the state of women’s rights in Japan before 1945? I had no idea. Luckily, I was able to find an English translation of part of her autobiography called In the Beginning, Woman was the Sun.
I was not disappointed.
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on September 8, 2014
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In February 2014, a Virginian State Senator, Steve Martin, wrote on his Facebook page calling women who abort their pregnancies, “the child’s host (some refer to them as mothers).” His words stripped these women of their humanity; he reduced them to objects because of their actions.
At the time, I had just finished re-reading the Infinity arc of the Sailor Moon manga. Words like “host” were swirling around my mind. In this arc, the Big Bad is Master Phaoroh 90 who seeks to steal the souls or “hostes” from the people on Earth, leaving them as empty “vessels” so his underlings can take over their bodies. Talk about being a host! Fortunately for us, pregnancy does not require people to remove their souls–which, perhaps, is the “problem” for people like Senator Martin: Pregnant people are still humans.
While Sailor Moon does not directly touch on the issue of abortion, our heroines do find themselves faced with a similar question. Does saving the world justify ending the life of an innocent child?
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on August 29, 2014
Sailor Moon is the champion of love and justice. With her Silver Crystal, she saves the world over and over again. But take away her transformation brooch, her Silver Crystal and who do you have? Usagi Tsukino, an average 14 year old girl who hates homework, is constantly late and who is a bit of a scaredy cat. Usagi is nothing without her powers–or is she? Guest writer Dina Inds explains how Usagi, herself, is the real hero behind the magic.
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on July 28, 2014
A year ago, I attended a small anime convention dedicated solely to Sailor Moon. At that convention, I gave a panel explaining how Sailor Moon can be looked at through a feminist lens. The enthusiastic response from the attendees lead the the creation of this blog. The first post on Shojo Power! appeared on July 7th, 2013. I cannot believe it has been a whole year! Time flies when you’re having fun, right?
In celebration of Shojo Power’s first birthday, I thought this would be a good time to take a look at what Shojo Power! has become in its first year. On to the statistics!
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on July 14, 2014
Anime Expo has always been on my bucket list. C’mon, the biggest anime convention in the United States?! Of course! I knew the cast of the 90s Sailor Moon English dub would be attending, but I thought maybe, maybe I could see them at Otakon. However, once VIZ announced their acquisition of the franchise and the new English dub cast would be appearing at AX, I was sold!
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on May 27, 2014
At Shojo Power! I’ve talked broadly about whether or not Sailor Moon promotes fat hatred. I found Sailor Moon has a complicated relationship with body image, some positive and some negative. I touched briefly on episode 4 (Sub: “Learn How to Be Skinny from Usagi”/DIC dub: “Slim City”) in that post, but since the original episode is now available on Hulu.com, we can talk about it together! I sat down to watch VIZ’s sub and the old DIC dub to see what kind of message it sends.
[Content Note: fat shaming, dieting]
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on May 19, 2014
For the first time ever, Sailor Moon is now (legally) available to stream online! Today the first four episodes of the first season of the original anime have been uploaded to Hulu.com. After today, two episodes will be uploaded every Monday. Check it out!
I would love to hear from new fans–you have heard SO MUCH about Sailor Moon and now you’ve finally seen the first four episode, what do you think!? Is it everything you thought it would be? Do you think you’ll stick with it?
For older fans, is this your first time watching the subtitled version? What do you think of the original music? Maybe you’ve seen the subtitled version, can you spot any changes in this new translation?
Leave your thoughts below!
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on April 18, 2014
Via RedBubble.com
Moon Prism Power, Make-Up! It’s the phrase our heroine uses to transform from an ordinary school girl into the legendary Sailor Moon. It’s as recognizable as the Power Rangers’ “It’s morphin’ time!” or the Avengers’ “Assemble!” But for fans of Sailor Moon, this transformation call isn’t just any old catch phrase. It’s an incantation that conjures much more.
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on March 31, 2014
Sailor Chibi Moon may have the word “chibi” in her name, but she’s not the only “chibi” around! Enter the popular webcomic Moon Sticks which has been entertaining moonies for over five years. Moonsticks.org is a weekly four panel comic that transforms the sailor soldiers we know and love into tiny, adorable chibis and crack jokes that any moonie can appreciate. The creator of Moon Sticks, Chibi Jen, was gracious enough to answer my questions about how this webcomic comes to life.
Anne Lee: First things first! How did you get into Sailor Moon?
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{ } by Anne LaRose
on March 17, 2014
I’m sure this doesn’t come as a huge surprise–I’m not much of an American comic book reader. My shelves consist of scores and scores of Japanese manga, no American “graphic novels” in sight. I’ve always meant to rectify this, to assuage my guilt over this lack of support. It wasn’t until years ago when I bought the prequel issues of The Guild that I finally owned an American comic. I absolutely loved these issues (and you totally check them out if you haven’t already!), but they were just a few stand alone issues, not a full blown series. I was still on the hunt for a good American comic book series I could throw my money at.
After hearing about the new X-men series featuring an all-lady team, I gleefully waltzed into my local comic book shop and purchased the first three issues. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was short lived and I completely lost interest by the third issue. I’ll save the reasons why for another post. However, I did come out of the experience realizing that I wasn’t much of a single issue person (unless it’s a single issue of Sailor Moon. GIMME! GIMME!) I’m a book person at my core so at least I knew my new adventure would have to involve a collected volume.
My next trip to the comic book store would change everything.
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