Favorite Team/Family/Corps

[leikomgwtfbbq]

While I generally haven't taken part in 30 Days of Scans (mostly due to my strange work schedule), I decided I did want to chip in for the favorite team/family/corps day.


Everyone knows about Sailor Moon. She's clumsy and a crybaby. But in the manga, she actually improves by leaps and bounds; she remains selfless and a great optimist, but becomes braver and a little more serious--a good leader. In the anime, they seemed to hit the reset button on her characterization every season and kept her largely the same the whole time.


Mercury! The girl genius, who is also completely badass. I always kind of felt bad for her, though. People pick on her Mercury Bubbles/Shabon Spray attack, but the attacks that came after that were damn awesome. She could freeze monsters to death! And that's gotta be an unpleasant way to go.


Mars! I liked her a hell of a lot more in the manga. She seemed to be a lot more complex there; she was mysterious, a sort of cool loner type, but she felt deep senses of loyalty and responsibility to her roles both as a friend to and a protector of the Moon Princess. And she actually seemed to respect Usagi in the manga, too.


Jupiter! Always my personal favorite. I identified with her closely (and still do, actually). I was always pretty big and people often mistake me for being scary or mean. But like Mako-chan, all I want to do is make friends and carry on with my girly hobbies and dreams.


Sailor Venus! Another character that I felt always got the shaft in the anime. In the manga, she's a good leader; she can be serious (and really freakin' badass!) when the situation calls for it, and is protective of her fellow Senshi. They're her friends, and you can tell she does love them. Although she's the same age, she also acts as a mentor sometimes, since she's been a Senshi the longest. She really isn't anywhere near as stupid as one might think; while she may not be book-smart, she's a determined and fairly clever fighter, and extremely loyal to the Princess.



Part of the reason I love the Senshi is because they're just plain badass. Not exactly Nanoha-level badass, but in every adaptation, all of them get to do awesome stuff. When Mako defeats her first monster, she isn't even Sailor Jupiter yet. She's been tricked into thinking the monster of the week is a boy who loves her, and when she finds out, she just gets pissed and beats the shit out of it with her bare hands. AWESOME! Even Tuxedo Mask is damn cool in the manga--none of that rose-tossing-spout-a-cryptic-encouragement-then-vanish nonsense. He actually does helpful stuff. And Chibi Moon? Future Badass, believe it or not. She may be wimpy in the anime, but her attacks melt monsters in the manga, and she shows up (with the Amazon Senshi) to rescue Sailor Moon herself at one point.

I think the Sailor Senshi were also a part of what made me a feminist at an early age. Here were some girls, being girls, with interests in flowers and love and makeup and boys, yet still kicking ass all over the galaxy. They weren't standing there waiting to be rescued, nor were they acting just like the boys. They were warriors who were allowed to be girly. The concept of women being powerful yet still being feminine was one that was entirely new to me at the time, and I loved it and embraced it.

Plus, I always liked that their powers came from love and friendship, even though I suppose it's beyond cliche by now. They were using (traditionally) feminine things as a source of power and strength. Girl power turned into sparkly evil-blasting superpowers! Hell yeah!

(Sorry that got a bit long. This is why I don't post much. It always turns into Essay Time. XD)

Comments

[kutsuwamushi]

SQUEE

I think what I like so much about Sailor Moon is that it's not just a story with a great friendship; it's about that friendship. It always comes back to much the characters love each other--even when they don't get along. So what if it's sappy and idealistic.

That the characters' histories and powers are so epic only makes it better. It's a teenaged girl's dream: The best friends ever, AND the power to destroy the world!

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Icon love! XD

[minyandu]

Motto! And the awesome family of outer solar system!

[protogarrett]

Ah, the other senshi. I liked Pluto, and I so wanted to like the others, but they seemed so poorly executed in my opinion. Especially Saturn, science project reborn as infant until massive growth with the power to destroy the Universe but still gets her butt kicked every time?

But Pluto isn't a planet. She can be a Sailor Dwarf Planet along with Sailor Eris, Sailor Haumea, and Sailor Makemake.

[shadowpsykie]

eh i don't care what people say, Pluto is a planet :p

i liked the outers, you just had to understand them

they don't protect the moon princess, they protect the moon kingdom.

and Saturn was the one that was assigned the destruction of the moon kingdom, SO that it could be reborn. she is the senshi of death AND rebirth.

plus her relationship with Chibi Usa was awesome :)

to understand Uranus and Neptune you have to understand that beyond thier loyalty to the moon kingdom, they have a loyalty to each other that goes even beyond that "A Universe without Michiru is not worth living in"

[protogarrett]

See, I read all the books. I just never really liked them at all. I thought their characterizations and personalities were a bit inconsistent, their powers a bit odd, and their relationships with the others off-putting.

And let's not get into Darian/Sailor Earth. God, he needed a swift kick in the junk.

[shadowpsykie]

I get you. And I respect your opinion, I still love them.

I kinda see them as the bat-clan. Or three batmen. Their main concern is the mission.

Like when neptune and uranus found out they had the heart crystals. Uranus shot herself to obtain it, because that was her mission.

[q99]

-Mercury! The girl genius, who is also completely badass. I always kind of felt bad for her, though. People pick on her Mercury Bubbles/Shabon Spray attack, but the attacks that came after that were damn awesome. She could freeze monsters to death! And that's gotta be an unpleasant way to go.-

One cool touch I liked is in a 'bracing for battle,' shot where the whole team's looking serious, Ami'd be the only one who was smiling.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Yeah I always pictured her going "Rei-chan may be the psychic but I already know the outcome of this fight :D"

[q99]

I figured it was because she so rarely got a chance to let loose in day to day life :)

[shadowpsykie]

heh could be both!

"Ugh i have been studying all day, i LOVE IT when we fight! it really clears my mind! this will take.... 5.3 minutes, pleanty of time to start algebra!"

[superfangirl1]

Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino was my favorite as she was strong, independent tomboyishness as I sort of was growing up.

I like she was into sport and confident in herself to be self-sufficient.

[shadowpsykie]

and yet still boy crazy!

the outers even respected her. saying at times that she was powerful enough to BE an outer senshi (like that little nod, the whole Jupiter is TECHNICALLY an outer planet as the normal deliniation is the asteroid belt)

i loved that her very first appearance she took on a monster AND LIFTED I T OVER HER HEAD all of this BEFORE she became sailor Jupiter.

[skjam]

I too love the Sailor Senshi.

[hyperactivator]

Ah childhood obsessions.

[shanejayell]

*claps* Much love.

[shadowpsykie]

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

you need to have Hotaru and Chibi-usa there too! oh and Puu! :)

and Uranus and Neptune!

and Mamoru!

I LOVE that to the very end, Usagi will not take a life if she can avoid it, instead she heals them (beryl may have been the only one killed). she defeates the bad guys literally using the Power of love. Its her love that Heal Galactica, AND brought her family back! :)


oh and may i add *SQUEEEEEEEE*

[icon_uk]

I prefer my Bronze Saints, but I have to admit a liking for Sailor Mercury (geek chicks are cool) and the Outer Senshi (Sailor Pluto is my particular favourite, even if her spell attack fails, she still has a five foot staff to beat the crap out of you with)

[cygna_hime]

Man, the first fandom never really goes away...

I was always really fond of this series, and in retrospect it's spoiled me for a lot of media -- I developed these wild expectations that a series could have multiple female characters, each with different virtues, all kicking ass. I have since been pretty much unfailingly disappointed.

Also, I observe that my crush on Haruka is still going strong. *fangirl sigh*

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Also, I observe that my crush on Haruka is still going strong. *fangirl sigh*

Same here. XD I don't even swing that way, but Haruka? I'd hit that in a second.

[dejadrew]

Aaaaaaaaand the theme song is in my head now.

Sailor Moon was my first glimpse into a wider world. My sister and her friends were obsessed with the cartoon, so one day when I was in a comic book store getting my X-men fix, I spotted these and picked them up for her.

And then I read them.

And then I MINORED IN JAPANESE.

Well, there were many years and several intermediate stages between those last two steps, but goddamn.