Sailor Moon Fans

Recently discovered: The image galleries on Three Lights are fantastic. High-res scans of hundreds of images, including some of the beautiful-but-tiny artwork I've had lurking in my SM picture folder since the days of dial-up. If there's anything you've always wanted a larger version of, check it out.

Also, anyone else have favorite SM sites and galleries these days? (I was trying to find the one with all the video game sprites recently, with no success...not sure if it's vanished or if I'm just not searching deeply enough.)

I recently got into ShadowJack Watches Sailor Moon, with some pretty serious delight. Allow me to sell you on it.

The recaps have just hit the end of SMR, and are slated to continue through the whole anime, movies included. Each one covers the entire episode, with a combination of serious analysis, jokes from the script, riffs on the script, and, at regular intervals, adorable illustrations.

Also pop-culture references, although they're all contemporary pop-culture references (Eva, yes; xkcd, no), which in hindsight was a brilliant choice -- it lends an air of authenticity and historicity to the thing, subtle but definitely there. One of my favorites, from that time Sailor Moon pwned an evil cherry tree:

Hey dol! Merry dol! Here's a merry maiden!
Blue skirt and boots of red, and her pigtails, golden!
None has ever caught her yet, for Moon, she is the master:
Her songs are stronger songs, and her feet are faster!
So, hey, come, merry dol! Can you hear me singing?
They cheated Moon of her dessert—

Usagi /bursts in, dramatically. "—SO NOW BEGINS THE BEATING!"
[...]
Usagi: "You let them out, again, Old Hag Cherry! What be you a-thinking of? You should not be waking! Eat earth! Dig deep! Drink water! Go to sleep! Sailor Moon is talking!"

*flail*

Or this heartbreaker from the SMR movie:

Fiore recalls the tiny planetoid, its three volcanoes, and its three inhabitants—one of them a mysterious flower. It sang its song to Fiore, and Fiore, in love and reverence, obediently stuffed the bodies of the sheep and its little master into the one active volcano. The flower will never be lonely again.

fffff stab me in the HEART why don't you also this crossover needs to happen yesterday.

Anyway!

The writer had only seen through the Jadeite arc when he started watching, so he's seeing most of it cold. Combined with the fact that he's paying very close attention, it makes the whole thing a fascinating exercise in first impressions. I've been a fan for 10+ years, and so many of my ideas about the series are laid down like bedrock by now; I'm never going to be able to unsee them. Reading this is like being able to watch the series with fresh eyes. Sometimes that means seeing new angles; other times it means confirmation that yes, this isn't just my fangirl blinders making it seem more clever than it is, this particular bit of awesome was very much in the text.

A bit of sparkling insight, from Black Lady's transformation:

Our warrior ladies' transformation sequences have always had a little sexiness in them—the good kind, that anyone feels about themselves when they dress up a bit. Bright lights and fireworks, hair and face just so, new clean clothes that show off your best parts, and your finest dancin' shoes. "Look at me! I'm lookin' good, I'm feelin' good. Tonight, let's dance." It's like that.

This lady goes through a cruel, bitter parody of that—sexual blatancy that verges on desperation, a little trip through ft gr mc md tr hell. A magical latex bodysuit shapes the feet and face and ass and tits as they grow (and they do), then reforms into a latex and fishnet dress, slit deep up the side, and a red silk train, with (of course) heels, and (of course) a leather, diamond-studded collar.

Twenty-one and ready to destroy hearts, the Black Lady shines with negative energy.

Mmmmm.

You can see how, in spite of the parody elements, there's a basic sense of respect. The series is met on its own terms, and that doesn't mean they're talked down to; they get the honor they deserve.

Finally, speaking of honor...I've been using the reading of these recaps as an opportunity to rewatch some of the episodes themselves, and to actually track down and watch some of those I never got to see in the first place (thank you, DiC). Including the full uncut two-episode-long finale of the first season.

And, um. I was expecting some of that rose-colored-fangirl/nostalgia-glasses effect to kick in, you know? And...it didn't. Not at all. Ten years later, and that show has not gotten the slightest bit less epic.

I can't wait for the recaps to hit SMS.