She is the one...

It was a horrible show about young women who magically turned into meretricious super heroines—vapid, shallow, dense, and poorly-developed girls who week after week defeated ridiculous monsters in the most formulaic, predictable and uninspired fashion, and at the end of the day we got a lovely little contrived moral wrapped up in a bow (assuming we were watching in English). I am, of course, talking about the misogynistic travesty that is Sailor Moon.

I completely stand by my statement that Sailor Moon is a horrible, poorly-written, and poorly-conceived manga/anime. That said, I still love Sailor Moon. It’s a guilty pleasure—I know the franchise is moronic, but it still holds a very special place in my heart. As a feminist I’m disturbed that the bulk of the series involved a bunch of underage girls running around in miniskirts (that barely cover up their underwear) and high-heels—even more disconcerting are the transformations (which occurs in each episode) in which the girls essentially become naked glowing bodies. All along the way we’re treated to the absolute ineptitude and incompetence of the girls, the vast majority of whom are completely boy crazed. Speaking of boys, male intervention is frequently necessary for our heroines to save the day, dashing any hopes of a self-dignified “girl power” message. What blows my mind is that Sailor Moon was conceived by a woman; it makes me wonder if the objectification of the female characters and sexist attitudes conveyed in the series are simply her pandering to a chauvinistic male audience (which would be weird, seeing as the target audience seems to be young girls—or at least I hope it is), or if she really thought super-short mini-skirts and high-heels were conducive to fighting crime.
We’re supposed to identify with Usagi (Japanese for rabbit...because (maybe) she looks like a playboy bunny in-training...I’m trying to not make my inner feminist cry). The problem with this is Usagi (who, as it turns out, is Sailor Moon, leader of the Sailor Scouts) is a total moron. In fact, most of her friends are also total morons, with the possible soul exception of Ami (Sailor Mercury...the scouts are named after the planets, in a somewhat created mythological tie-in that is, ultimately, under-developed). Ami relegated to the stereotypical role of the brain; we also have Minako (Venus), the beauty queen (also a moron); Rei (Mars), a total bitch; and Makoto (Jupiter), the tomboy/closet domestic/future house wife. Of all these, Makoto is the most multi-faceted, being more than justa domestic girl and more than just a stereotypical tomboy. Outside this core cast, there are outer scouts: Haruka (Uranus), Michiru (Neptune), Setsuna (Pluto), and Hotaru (Saturn)—and here’s where the series actually gets interesting. Uranus and Neptune, in the original Japanese version, are partners—both in terms of being a crime-fighting team and in the more literal sense that they are lesbian lovers. When the show was imported to the US, it was assumed that American children could not handle lesbians, so they were re-written to be cousins (with the disturbing effect of, instead of abolishing the image of lesbians, we got implied incestuous homosexuality...good one, Dic). But the really awesome bit here is Sailor Uranus. When she was first introduced, all the inner scouts thought she was a boy. In fact, several of them developed crushes on Haruka! She goes beyond being a tomboy and actually crossdresses much of the time—that said, when she transforms into Sailor Uranus she still kicks ass and looks completely appropriate in a mini-skirt and heels. You don’t get much queerer than that...

Only the series does get queerer. In the last instalment of Sailor Moon we are introduced to the Sailor Starlights—a group of men who magically transform into female super heroines (dressed even more meretriciously than the central Sailor Scouts). Overall, there is too much to really analyse in any one, discrete blog. Each character really deserves her own in-depth treatment. I don’t intend to dissect the series in that detail. Sailor Moon is, really, just a terrible show with moments of awesome queerness—all the same, the anime was instrumental to my coming out. I was in middle school when I became friends with a girl named Maya who, like me, was something of a geeky outcast (then again, who the hell did fit in during Middle School?). She was the one to first get to watching anime (which remains an occasional guilty pleasure of mine), and the very first anime she introduced me to was Sailor Moon.

At the time I couldn’t quite articulate the impact this series had on me. Watching it I was very aware that it was an incredibly girly show—as a boy entering into puberty, I knew I wasn’t supposed to like this. This was girl territory—run away! All the same, I watched it every day after school; when characters died or experience heavy loss, I cried with them, when they fell in love I fell in love, and when they fought the big baddies I thought it was truly badass. Sailor Moon was a gateway into my inner girl—I had previously decided to repress my femininity. I had no knowledge of transsexuality and I couldn’t imagine I could become physically female, but watching this anime I began to re-examine my femininity—I began to pretend that I, too, could magically become a girl. Hence began my long, long journey to self-realization.

I’ve talked to various people in the queer community, and a surprising number of us have the common guilty pleasure of watching anime. Many of us watch Sailor Moon, specifically. The author of Khaos Komix, Tab Kimpton, seems to have had similar experiences, as he has integrated Sailor Moon and anime iconography into his comics about a group of teens growing into their respective genders and sexualities. It makes me wonder how many of us were affected by this series? How many of us saw Haruka and Michiru, and suddenly being lesbian was an option? How many boys watched the anime, realizing then they weren’t heteronormative? How many watched the show and began to rediscover our cross-gender identifications?

Yes, Sailor Moon sucks. At times it’s even offensive to me as a trans feminist. However, it completely reshaped the path of my life, and dammit, I love this anime. Gross and embarrassing though that is to admit.