What with the weather and all, it’s been a crappy month personally, and I really needed a pick up, and lo and behold, things arrived from Japan! Yesterday, Okazu superhero Jye N. has sent me Volumes 3-6 of the new Sailor Moon manga and today, the rest of my last order , which includes the  Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary  Memorial Tribute Album (美少女戦士セーラームーン) THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL TRIBUTE). I am blasting it as I type.

When it arrived, I tweeted:

I have acquired the 20th Anniversary Sailor Moon Tribute Album. It comes with art, lyrics and feels. (T_T)

Mitsuishi Kotono’s message on the Tribute album site also basically says “Oh, god, the feels” only coherently and in Japanese.

It’s a good thing I already know the words to these songs, because the lyrics are written in hot pink over pastel backgrounds.  Clearly, they do not think you will ever need to read them. ^_^

The art was a sweet touch. Lots of pictures any fan would know, (including a bunch of Haruka and Michiru appearances). The album cover is, as you can see, an original piece, similar to the new cover for Volume 1 of the new manga edition. The back has a classic Takeuchi image of all of the Senshi.

It was the image on the final page that finally got me choked up.

I’ve already gotten grumpy responses about this album. Look, let’s be honest, the music was never good. It has positive associations for some us. If you’re in the habit of retconning your life, or insisting things were always better back then, or just generally hating on the music, that’s fine. I’m perfectly okay with a new version of “Otome no Policy” because it was never really a great song. If you’re all ready to hate this album, fine. Go for it, be a frowny grump. I’m on my second listen and I’m smiling happily.  ^_^

The album starts, as it must, with “Moonlight Densetsu,” sung by Momoiro Clover Z and it sounds pretty much exactly like one would expect. There’s no substantial changes to the song, and they do a good job with it.

The second track is “Heart Moving” sung by Nakagawa Shouko, known as Shokotan. Again, the song is substantially unchanged and she has a pretty confident voice. I wish they’d given her a better piece to sing, frankly. I know, I know, OP/ED, but there are better songs, dammit!

Track 3 is “Princess Moon” a song that I actually could not recall for a moment, by Fukuhara Haruka, a singer I do not know. She apparently performed this during the live concert. I have to say, her voice actually fit the “girlishness” of the song well. Once I recognized the song, I realized why I did not recognize it. It ended a portion of the anime I watched only a few times, compared with some of the other series, which I have watched over and over. And over. /cough/S/cough/

For Track 4, Yakushimaru Etsuko sort of breathlessly whispers her way through “Otome no Policy”. I kept waiting for the synth drum to pick up and the energy to rise. It wasn’t bad, though, just sort of quiet. It’s a song I can take or leave, so the remix was fine for me. ^_^

Tommy Heavenly 6 kicks on track 5, “La Soldier.” Honestly, if the preview for this track had not been good, I would never have bought the album, I love the hell out of this cheeseball song. Lightning strikes, rain and organ riffs, but no dogs howling. It’s still a hoot. We add the howls in ourselves.

Track 6 is “Ai no Senshi” and while I didn’t dislike it, I can’t say I liked it. Mariko Goto and Avu Chani sound like  Yumi and Yuki from Marimite singing one of the two standout Sailor Moon music hits – and the one I like best. Okay, but not to my taste. I wish this had been a stronger track.

Now, if I had produced this album right here is where I would have put “Moon Revenge.” I know it’s not a OP or ED, but neither is “Ai no Senshi”  and it’s absence is notable – Mitsuishi-san also makes the comment that she wishes they had included it.  It’s a great song (by my standard of “great” Sailor Moon songs, of course. ^_^) Oh well.

Instead, Track 7 is “Tuxedo Mirage” ably performed by Momoiro Clover Z.  This about where I started to cry. I have listened to this song so many, many times watching the anime. So many. I’m re-listening to this track right now…and I think they do a lovely job.  I’m really okay with them. It “feels” a bit like the Peach Hips’ version. Very nostalgic. (For those of you not familiar with the original anime, “Peach Hips” was the unfortunate group name given to the five Inner Senshi voice actresses – Mitsuishi Kotono, Hisakawa Aya, Tomizawa Michie, Shinohara Emi and Fukami Rica – when they sang songs for the series.) The wife heard it for the first time and also fell apart, so I’m glad it wasn’t just me. (T_T)

Momoi Haruko, known as Halco, does a fine job with “Rashiku Ikimashou”, but I’ll forever resent it. ^_^; On relisten, this is a very good version of what is a really annoying song. ^_^ The wife was like “wow, I haven’t heard this in forever.” And I said, “SuperS” and we both nodded, like, right, of course we wouldn’t have watched that more than necessary.

Track 9 is the best track, IMHO. Horie Mitsuko, voice of Sailor Galaxia in the original anime, is perfect for “Sailor Star Song” which, admittedly, is one of my top five songs from the series, so I am massively, unrepentantly biased. I could listen to this over and over and I imagine I will.

Track 10 is an interesting remix and  a very sweet rendition of “Kaze mo Sora mo Kitto” by Kawamoto Makoto. Many feels for this song because of the visual for the ED. The more I listen to it the more I like it.

The final track was an interesting and appealing choice. “Legend au clair de lune” is a French-language version of “Moonlight Desentsu” sung by Clémentine, a French singer who is based in Japan. This was really a nice nod to the support and popularity of this series in France. This track is a very “French”-sounding piano version; I almost expected to hear Jacques Brel start singing.  Quite nice, really.

I was ambivalent when I ordered this album, some of the previews sounded meh, but really, if you are already a fan, it’s a decent tribute album. Nothing is going to convince anyone who is not a fan that this is stunning music anyway, so go ahead, enjoy it. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Put it in your media player and unlock the feels!

Oh, and after listening to this album twice through, the snow stopped, the temperature rose 10 degrees and the sun came out. Just sayin’. ^_^

In 1994, I was still a few years away from discovering anime. I had heard of it and seen some. Speed Racer and Starblazers had been on TV and I knew enough to know they were “Japanimation.”  But I had not stumbled into the giant sinkhole of time and money that this interest would become.

While I was blissfully unaware of this thing – across the planet, millions of people were reading a manga and, eventually, watching a cartoon that would, eventually, change my world completely.

20 years later, Kodansha and Takeuchi Naoko-sensei are once again collaborating. This time on the Perfect Edition of the manga series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン). This translation, btw, is official. Pretty Guardians, it is. Not Scouts, not Sailor Soldiers. A “perfect edition” is Japanese industry shorthand for “No more changes, ever. These are the final edits, the last time we proofread the text or re-draw a panel.”

It seems ironic somehow that although this was the first manga I ever read, it wasn’t until last year that I looked at the 15th anniversary edition, when it was released in English. Some choices were made that were good, a few that are inexplicable. (Like the spelling of the Outers’ family names. I  rebuked the translator over lunch last time I saw her  – gently, as I am wont to. “What the fuck, Mari? Who spells like that!?!” We’re still speaking, ’cause she’s cool like that. But really, Ten^o?  WTF.)

I digress, as I often do when it comes to Sailor Moon. It was my first anime love. My first manga. The reason I learned to read Japanese. The motivation for me to write fiction…and eventually, non-fiction.

And just a few months after finishing it again for the very first time in more than a decade…here I am reading it. Again.

The art has definitely been remastered and redrawn in places. People more dedicated than I have done side by side panel comparisons to show how the Senshi have been “youthened.” The digital remastering (perhaps even re-toning in places?) looks really good. Color pages from the artbooks are included, which always give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I can attest to one very specific change that I noticed right away.

In  the original artbook for the series, Takeuchi-sensei commented on original costume sketches. On the character design page, she notes a chain around Jupiter’s hips that never made it into the comic. I have no idea why I remember that, but I did. So when Makoto transforms for the first time in the perfect edition and there was the chain, I laughed.

My apologies for bad quality, my scanner finally gave up the ghost, so I had to take photos. You can click the images for slightly larger versions.

Here’s the original panel from the 1990s version:

Here’s the costume page from the first official artbook  that – for some reason, who knows why – I remembered. Note the belt and the highlight sketch of the ball on the belt.

And here is the new 20th anniversary version:

Ta-da! There’s the belt.

I have absolutely no idea why that stuck with me, but there you have it, Jupiter has her belt, at last, among other redrawn things. The new edition is 1.5 volumes of the original edition per volume, so this one ends at the appearance of a mysterious Sailor. A good stopping point for the volume and  probably puts this edition at 12 volumes. Volume 6’s cover already has me squeeing. ^_^

The story is the same…but it’s not the same. I have no idea if anything was rewritten, but I have now read it multiple times in both English and Japanese I can no longer say it’s the same story I read the first time. Is it me, or does it make more sense this time? I flash back and forth between the anime, manga and live-action series when I’m relieved that Mercury kills Nephrite instead of Beryl, but sad because he’ll never eat her terrible cookies. No, the story can never be the same again. But that’s okay, because sucking people’s energy out through a VHS tape was a stupid idea anyway. ^_^

So while I may never really understand why Mamoru is walking around Azabu-juban in a tux in the late afternoon, or why Ami, who is a genius, never asks a meaningful question, or why no one listens to Rei when she says, “I have a bad feeling about this” even though she is psychic, I don’t care. I never cared and now I’m just so pleased to see that after 20 years Takeuchi-sensei will get the Sailor Moon she wanted the first time around. I’ll be fascinated to see what other differences await.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Visibly better. So much has improved in 20 years.
Story – 7 Still silly. It’s never going to be not silly. So what?
Characters – 9
Yuri – 0
Service – This is so hard to parse. Mamoru in a tux is ostensibly service for the original readership of girls, but the costumes have ridiculously short skirts. Let’s call it a 5

Overall – Oddly, 9. Did I ever like it this much or am I getting soft in my old age?

There are not enough thanks in the world for Okazu Superhero Dan P. who is the sponsor of this and so many other reviews here. Thank you so much, Dan! If you’d like to become a Okazu Hero, just pick an item from my Yuri Wish Lists on Amazon or Amazon JP and you too will become my hero!

Yes, yes, I cannot wait to see the Outers…again….

In Volume 9 of Sailor Moon, the Dead Moon Circus is starting to have a terrible effect on the city and the Inner Senshi can’t transform! Well, until they can. And the reason they can now transform is that advice and guidance they received from the formidable Outer Senshi helps them get in touch with their inner strengths. Phew!

But…what about the Outer Senshi? After the defeat of Pharoah 90 and the Witches 5, they retired from the public eye and lost touch with the Inners. Unbeknownst to the younger Guardians, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna have moved in together in a large suburban house to raise the baby Hotaru. And, unbeknownst to the younger women, the older also cannot transform. As the power of the Dead Moon threat is growing, the Outers are powerless.

But what is important to us is the quiet repose with which the former Outer Senshi have created a family life together. Haruka and Michiru, still together, watch over Hotaru  Hotaru, who is rapidly aging, appears quoting Yeats’ The Second Coming, which I think is well worth reproducing in whole here – imagine it spoken by a child of about 5 years:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
 The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
 Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
 Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
 The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
 The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
 The best lack all conviction, while the worst 
 Are full of passionate intensity.

 Surely some revelation is at hand;
 Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
 The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
 When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
 Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
 A shape with lion body and the head of a man, 
 A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, 
 Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it 
 Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds. 

 The darkness drops again but now I know 
 That twenty centuries of stony sleep 
 Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, 
 And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, 
 Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 

This is the poem Hotaru quotes. Probably few of the children readers of Nakayoshi magazine understood the words they were reading, but the power in these words would resonate with the knowledge that that child speaking them is, in truth, the Senshi of Death.

I want give to the translation an “attaboy” on this volume, Transitions are always hard and the move from one translator to a new one was, IMHO, seamless here. It wasn’t an easy volume, with intense poetry, herbal and stone lore (and some good cautionary science in the notes!) Nice job, Mari. ^_^

But most importantly, we see that Haruka and Michiru make as dashing a married couple as they did a bon vivant pair of young celebrities. And when they, and the Inners, get to transform again, it feels kinda good. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6
Service – 2

Overall – 8