This page is dedicated to why I like the cartoon Sailor Moon and some common misconceptions about it. Let me first tell you how I first encountered Sailor Moon. It was back in December of 1999. One afternoon, I was chilling in Sailor Buben's dorm room (he wasn't Sailor Buben at this time yet). He was playing a Japanese Sailor Moon video game on his laptop. It reminded me of Double Dragon: your character walks down the street, periodically encountering enemies which you must defeat before you're able to move on. I found this game rather amusing: teenage girls in short skirts running around kicking the crap out of bad guys. A couple days later, while I was in my dorm room, Sailor Buben's roommate, "Sailor Syster", IMed me to tell me that the cartoon Sailor Moon was on Cartoon Network. Suddenly overcome with giddyness, I turned on the TV. And right then and there I experienced my first episode of Sailor Moon. I don't remember the name of the episode; it was the one where a youma deceives Sailor Mercury into thinking the other Scouts are against her. I found it to be downright hilarious, and made fun of it out loud. "I fight for love and justice!" "Shine Aqua Illusion!" And the funniest thing was that weird cat's head that kept following the little pink-haired girl around. To sum it up, I found it so corny that it was extremely entertaining to watch, and I began to watch it on a regular basis.

After watching a few more episodes, I still found it funny and corny. But there was something else about Sailor Moon that made it so intriguing. At first I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was. Maybe it was the fact that the cats could talk. Maybe it was Tuxedo Mask appearing in the oddest places, such as on top of lampposts. Maybe it was the fact that the Sailor Scouts would always say the name of their attack as they were using it, a la Street Fighter. Or maybe it was Sailor Venus's gorgeous hair. But whatever it was, it was enough to get me addicted to this anime cartoon, hook, line, and sinker. I began surfing the internet, looking for pages that had info about Sailor Moon. I was amazed to discover the vastness of the plot and characters of Sailor Moon. The Moon Kingdom. Queen Serenity. Neo-Queen Serenity. Beryl. The Dark Generals. The Imperium Silver Crystal. The guardian cats. The Inner Senshi. The Outer Senshi. The Negaverse. The Negamoon. Crystal Tokyo. The Doom Phantom. I soon came to the realization that there was more to Sailor Moon than just young teenage girls running around looking pretty defeating villains with magical attacks. Sailor Moon is more than just a cartoon. It is an epic series like Star Trek or Sea Quest.

In my opinion, Sailor Moon is one of the most misunderstood cartoons on television. At first glance from the average observer, it seems to be a simple, shallow cartoon best suited for younger girls. I've heard someone, whose identity I won't mention, compare Sailor Moon to Barbie. I will admit that the transformation scenes do tend to make Sailor Moon seem like such a cartoon. However, Sailor Moon is not just about girls transforming into pretty soldiers with hearts and stars flying all over the place. The transformations represent but a small fraction of the vastness of the cartoon. In fact, many of the elements of Sailor Moon are not solely geared towards a young female audience. The Moon Kingdom is violently attacked by Queen Beryl and the Dark Generals, forcing Queen Serenity to sacrifice herself so that Princess Serena, Prince Darien, and the Sailor Scouts could be reborn on Earth in the future. That certainly doesn't conjure up images of a shallow Barbie-esque cartoon. Some of the characters, such as Mina and Darien, have complicated pasts that define key elements of their characters. In the second season, Serena's daughter from the future travels back in time so that she can save her future mother from an evil race. That sounds more like Terminator than Barbie. There are even some villains, such as Neflyte, the Four Sisters, and Prince Diamond that become righteous in the end. If you think that Sailor Moon is just for six and seven-year-old girls, think again.

Now, it is most likely a fact that of all the Sailor Moon viewers, the younger ones will usually be girls, for at young ages boys usually scorn any cartoons in which the main characters are female (and vice-versa for girls at young ages). To younger viewers, Sailor Moon is a cartoon about prettiness and the day-to-day concerns of a young girl. Such viewers most likely would not pick up on the deeper, more complex plot elements (When I say "deep", I mean deep for a cartoon. Obviously, Sailor Moon does not have a plot depth even close to that of The Godfather, although in my opinion Sailor Moon is much more entertaining.) Once viewers reach an age where this gender issue is no longer relevant, however, Sailor Moon is open to both male and female viewers. The reason for this is that Sailor Moon is wrought with elements, such as the ones discussed earlier, that can be appreciated by members of either sex. It doesn't matter that the heroes are female (except, of course, for Tuxedo Mask). In fact, if you exclude the pretty princess element of Sailor Moon, the cartoon seems much more suited for an older audience. There are some aspects of Sailor Moon that are indeed meant for older, more mature viewers and not for young viewers at all (although most of these have been edited out when the cartoon was translated into English). For example, Day of Destiny, the last episode of the first season, was drastically edited in terms of what is heard. In its original form, the Scouts aren't captured at all; they all meet very violent deaths! As another example, the unedited version of the Sailor Moon R movie contains many violent scenes and several sexual connotations (hence the unedited version is rated PG-13). Nothing more needs to be said to justify the fact that Sailor Moon is not just for young female viewers.

While I was initially drawn in by the cartoon's humor and corniness (the humor and corniness of Sailor Moon still never cease to amuse me), the main reason why I like Sailor Moon is because of the fact that this cartoon, at first glance seeming rather dull, unsophisticated, and exclusively feminine, is actually quite intriguing. Many anime cartoons are known for their juxtaposition of elements suited for young viewers to those suited for older ones. This is extremely fascinating, and it doesn't limit the audience of the cartoon to any one specific age group or gender. Sailor Moon is such a cartoon. Younger viewers can appreciate it for its image, and older, more sophisticated viewers can appreciate it for its plot, characters, humor, and animation. If you are an avid Sailor Moon viewer and can appreciate the cartoon on a deeper level than just its facade, pat yourself on the back, because there are a lot of people out there that don't have that skill. If you're one of those people that has seen Sailor Moon once or twice and has branded it as childish, try watching it a few more times in succession. You may be surprised to discover how wonderful of a televison show Sailor Moon really is.