On Apr 1,  4:56pm, DP1 MARVIN PEACE wrote:
> Subject: Re[2]: Magical girls (was: Fanime con)

> I thought that some bits of Sailor Moon (the original, I have only
> seen a few of the English dubs --- I turned off the VCR in digust
> afterwards) were *very* intelligent, especially in the way it tries
> to make commentaries about Japanese society.
>
I recall seeing an article about Sailor Moon before it hit American
TV screens, in which one episode in particular was mentioned as
having the Sailors chide the villain during the fight for not
taking women seriously and for thinking they wouldn't be able
to defend themselves as a result. When the episode played here,
there was none of that in the dub. Doing your homework and
eating your vegetables is about as serious an issue as DIC wants
the show to contend with, apparently. (Never mind the obvious
problems of 14-year-old girls in love with older guys, and a
complex religious/occult background involving reincarnation.)

> Being some what of a fan of this show and living in Japan myself here
> is what I under stand about what happen at the end of the first
> season...

Thanks for the summation! That helps a lot in understanding the
series.

> There is a lot of subtle stuff that has been left out of
> the American version from what I have seen. This is also
> why they will probably never do SmS and above (the 3rd
> season), because the editing whould prove a little diffcult
> with the issues and questions that are raised.

For what it's worth, DIC has announced 40 new episodes will
be appearing on top of the 65 already in release. I'm not sure
how far into Sailor Moon R (second season) they got with the
first 65 (some episodes were skipped entirely, so I've lost
track of the count), but surely another 40 would take it into
Sailor Moon S (third season)? I believe SMS has 38 episodes
all told, based on the laserdiscs I've seen collecting it.

> And the fact that one of the new senshi that get introduced is
> basically a physical incarnation of death does not help.
>
Must be Sailor Pluto, right? I'd think, though, that the real
trouble would be Sailors Uranus and Neptune, whose relationship
seems to be that of the love that dares not speak its name. In
Episode 3 of SMS, Sailor Uranus's civilian identity is introduced
as an older girl who dresses like a boy, speaks in a deep voice,
and drives a sports car (she may be a race car driver, as well).
Sailors Moon and Venus don't realize that she's not a boy, and
it looks like Venus falls him in love with her on the spot thinking
she's a boy, only to be sorely disappointed later. They're gonna
have fun denaturing this stuff at DIC World Headquarters when they
realize what they've bought. I'm aware that Japanese has somewhat
different vocabularies for men and women, and one of the impossible
to translate jokes used in gender-bending comedies is to have an
obvious girl talking like a boy (e.g., Ranma-chan, Ryunnosuke in UY),
but I'm not up on it enough to know if something like that is done
with Sailor Uranus. Since people think she's a boy at first, it's
something I'd assume, though.

And if that wasn't enough, there's a Sailor Saturn in the wings, as
well, not to mention Sailor Chibi-Moon. Sailor Moon S: The Movie has
nine Sailor-Senshi in some scenes, and looks like a Sailor Battalion.
All we need is for DC Comics to enter into a licensing agreement
with DIC and Kodansha, and you could have Sailor Krypton! (Of course,
that would have to be Linda Lee, the first Supergirl and Superman's
cousin, a character that was retired about ten years ago.)

This doesn't have much to do with Tenchi Muyo at all, and I apologize.
I will now return this ML back to its original topic. I'm hoping to
pick up the "Meet the Tenchi Muyo" CD shortly. Oh golly...I'm actually
old enough to know what that slightly odd title is parodying (the
first Beatles record album -- both the cover design as well as the
title -- which came out over 30 years ago). The back of the CD
parodies another Beatles album cover, with the famous picture of
the moptops crossing the street...Abbey Road, if memory serves
(it may not -- Beatles enthusiasts may be able to correct my
errors of detail here).

In other news, I picked up the first volume in Pioneer's latest
series, "Hyperdoll." Lightweight silliness, it seemed to me.
Sometimes I wonder what the lads at Pioneer are thinking with
some of these series. Tenchi remains the best of the lot.

--Dwight Decker