The Thing That Goes Doink

I decided that tonight was a good a night as any to relive some of my high school days. I've been poking through various episodes of Sailor Moon (dubbed, because that was all I had back then) and while I don't deny that the story is good and the characters well constructed, it really comes down to the localization.

And while I could certainly write a long entry on the pros and cons of localization and how it's changed in the last ten or so years that I've been a fairly "hardcore" anime fan, I find that to be an entry for another day.

Ultimately we shouldn't be so hard on the DiC dub of Sailor Moon, especially since it was dubbed almost twenty years ago. (Yes, I know. My brain just made the @A@ face, too.) Back then the market for anime titles for girls was small. They took the content and then worked it into something that would sell, and hot damn if it didn't. Sailor Moon is probably one of the main reasons why anime is considered mainstream entertainment today. Admittedly, it's now becoming a niche market again versus the wide appeal it had the mid-2000s, but I think part of the reason why the public accepts it readily as a form of entertainment is because shows like Sailor Moon paved the way.

And to be fair, companies had been re-writing anime plots for a long time at that point. Voltron, G-Force and even Speed Racer barely resembled their Japanese counterparts by the time American localizers were done with them. (And let's not even get started on Robotech. No...just, no.) DiC did the same.

The problem was that Sailor Moon's popularity peaked right about the time the Internet became readily available to everyone. It suddenly became very easy to get online and see what had been removed, edited and out and and out changed from the original. We became aware that we weren't getting "the whole story" and fans realized that this was actually common with the anime shows we were familiar with. Suddenly the fans cried out for the unchanged episodes, for a more faithful translation, and slowly but surely the anime industry in the United States shifted to reflect these demands. But that didn't change the fact that Sailor Moon had been edited into something that shared only the basic plot with it's original material.

I will never forget the fond memories I had from the DiC (and later Cloverway) dub of Sailor Moon. I can track my growth as a fan with that series. (And wow, is it embarrassing. When you realize that you were once "that fan" you realize that you can't really bring yourself to mock them anymore.) My baby sister and I bonded through the show. And I don't regret it.

Not one bit.

But now that I'm older I find that I want the original run of the show. I want it completely unedited, with its more complex story lines and character growth. I find this about a lot of shows that I loved when I was in high school. I find myself watching The Vision of Escaflowne and Mobile Suit Gundam W and truly enjoying the more complex plots, rather than giggling like a little girl over the more inane parts.

I have developed a deep love affair with Japanese animation that won't end any time soon. I'm pretty sure I'm going to become "that parent" who cheerfully takes the kids to anime conventions, probably at some point dressing up my daughter as Chibi-Usa while I play Neo-Queen Serenity. (Husband will be mysteriously absent during these times, I have no doubt - if anyone asks I'll say that Mamoru is going through one of his brainwashed and crazy phases again.) And I will revel in it.

And there will be no regrets.

Ganked from randomdiversion

( Ahh, nothing quite like a trip down memory lane. )