Those Sailormoon People Any anime fan will tell you that the number one thing they hear when non-Otaku see pictures they have drawn or printed out from a computer or anime stickers, posters, or merchandise of any kind is, "Oh, what cute Sailor Moon people!" I don't understand this. It bothers me, simply because the logic of it makes no sense. (Neither does that sentance.) Okay, in some cases, it *does* makes sense. When someone sees a picture of Fushigi Yuugi's Miaka on my binder, I can understand why--to the untrained eye--she looks like one of the Sailor Soldiers. She's bubbly, her eyes are round, and she even has an odd Princess Leia style of "meatballs" in her hair (known to the casual Otaku as Odango). It drives me crazy, though, that people can look at a picture drawn in a totally different art style and still say, "It's Sailor Moon!" Does Lina Inverse really resemble one of the Sailor girls? Does Asuka's hair make her look like one of the Sailor Team or is it her eyes? Even before I watched anime, I could have told you that Vampire Miyu-chan was not, in fact, one of the Voltron force. Hitomi, with that nose, couldn't pass for a Sailor Senshi any day. What's weird, in my opinion, is that nowadays we have mounds of chopped up, badly-dubbed anime for the non-anime fans to see. Among the dub victims are Card Captor Sakura (changed to "Cardcaptors"), Vision of Escaflowne, Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo, and--worst of all, because it wasn't even good in Japanese-- Pokemon! This is not an anti-dub rant, so I'll skip straight to the point here: Why don't I ever hear anyone call the anime people they may see in my room or on my tee shirt "Pokemon people" or "Cardcaptor People"? Those are now dubbed to hell and popular, more so, in some cases, than Sailor Moon. And don't tell me that it's because Sailor Moon was first. Our generation grew up with its own share of Americanized Anime Crap, with shows like Voltron and Speed Racer. No one ever looks at my binder and says "Wow, what cute Speed Racer people!" Sailor Moon was certainly one of the first animes with the neo-90s Giant Eye look to gain popularity on this side of the Pacific, I'll give you that, but that doesn't mean that Pokemon hasn't beaten it off of the charts. One of the only things I can think of that would cause all non-anime otaku in America to associate anime people with Sailor Moon is their sailor fuku school uniforms. (In Japan, school uniforms often resemble American sailor outfits, especially in the younger grades. Each school tends to have a unique style and color, but the basics are the same. This typical uniform is what Sailor Moon's battle outfit was based on.) If someone saw a picture of Nuku Nuku in her uniform--which is blue and white, with a yellow tie--I could see how she would look like a Sailor Moon girl. But when someone sees my Slayers EX poster, with Lina and Gourry decked out in medieval clothing, I have to wonder. Especially because the overly cutesy look of Slayers does not really look like normal anime, let alone like Sailor Moon. What annoys me, I suppose, is the fact that people can categorize things so quickly without even really looking. It's no one's fault that they think all anime people look alike. It just gets frustrating, especially to those of us who would rather not be catergorized as "Sailor Moon fans" (I prefer "anime otaku," personally). Honestly, look at the eyes, the shapes of the faces, the way the hair is done. They aren't really the same. Utena-sama may have pink hair, but that does not make her a future carnation of Chibiusa--*ahem* Rini, sorry. Anime is a category, but it's a broad one. There are different types, styles, etc. But that's a rant for another day. Just don't ever call my pictures of San from Mononoke-hime (that's "Princess Mononoke" in modern Disney speak) a "cute little Sailor Moon girl!". Because she does have those wolves. And they will come after you. |