Sailor Moon

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[edit] Introduction

The Sailor Moon metaseries include a manga series, five anime series, three theatrical movies, numerous musicals, a live-action television show, and video games. The manga and anime have been adapted in various territories, notably North America. Around the mid-1990s, the Sailor Moon fandom was one where the primary pairing type involved f/f slash fan fiction and fanart (also called yuri or shoujo ai). This material was being posted to Usenet and several archives on-line. Prior to Xena, this was the first big f/f slash fic community, although the vast majority of Sailor Moon fanfics are not of this genre.

[edit] Terminology

Below is a list of terms and their definitions that are used in this fan community.

  • AQ is the shortened form of the villainous group the Amazoness Quartet (sometimes romanized as "The Amazones Quartetto"), specifically used for a fan group also called The Amazoness Quartet who ran the web page review site The Worst Sailormoon Pages Ever.
  • ASMR is the shortened form of A Sailor Moon Romance, a prominent Sailor Moon fan fiction archive.
  • Inner Senshi is a fan term designating the group of Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus.
  • Moonies is sometimes used by or to refer to Sailor Moon fans.
  • Moonie code is a derivative of the geek code and is used to show personalized Sailor Moon-related preferences. It was invented by Tolaris in 1997.[1]
  • Outer Senshi is a fan term designating the group of Sailor Pluto, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Saturn.
  • SeraMyu/Seramyu/Sera Myu are the Sailor Moon musicals which ran after the end of both of the anime and manga. The musicals are broken down into four stages, one for each actress who played Sailor Moon: First Stage (Anza Ooyama as Sailor Moon/"Anzamoon"), Second Stage (Fumina Hara as Sailor Moon/"Fuminamoon"), Third Stage (Miyuki Kanbe as Sailor Moon/"Miyukimoon"), and Fourth Stage (Marina Kuroki as Sailor Moon/"Marinamoon"). SeraMyu ran from 1993-2005 with 29 musicals and 848 performances. [2]
  • SOS is the shortened form of "Save Our Scouts" (later "Save Our Sailors"), a campaign which originally aimed to reverse the cancellation of the DiC dub. They supported efforts to distribute and merchandise Sailor Moon in North America. [3]
  • Talents is a euphemism for female breasts. The term originated with modified dialogue in the English adaptation. Lita (the English name for Sailor Jupiter) says she should be Snow White in a play because she has the most "talent." As she says this, she prominently displays her bosom on-screen. In the Japanese original, her dialogue additionally indicated her large chest made her best for the role.
  • WPR is the shortened form of "web page reviewer," a style of website popularized by The Worst Sailormoon Pages Ever. WPRs review other fansites, sometimes to constructively criticize them and sometimes to mock them.
  • YKYWTMSMW is the shortened form of "You Know You Watch Too Much Sailor Moon When," a comedic listing of things an obsessed Sailor Moon fan might do. Such lists were a common feature of many mid-1990s Sailor Moon fan sites. The original was created by Starfox. Variations on the theme exist, such as liking a particular character or couple too much. [4]
  • Otaku Senshi are fan-made Sailor Senshi that usually have their own appearances, profiles and history which may or may not relate to the canonical story. [5]

[edit] Timeline

Below is a partial timeline of events that took place in this fan fiction community.

[edit] 1991

  • Codename wa Sailor V debuted in Nakayoshi manga magazine. Sailor V soon spawned a sequel, Sailor Moon, which became popular.
  • The Sailor Moon manga debuted in Nakayoshi manga magazine.

[edit] 1992

  • The first episode of the Sailor Moon anime aired on TV Asahi on March 7, 1992.

[edit] 1993

  • Fans discussed the anime and manga metaseries Sailor Moon in the Usenet group rec.arts.anime. At the time, the metaseries was only released in Japan.
  • In August 1993, the Steve Pearl-edited "Anime Frequently-Asked-Questions List" included the question "What is this Sailor Moon thing, anyhow?" [6]
  • SeraMyu debuts with Gaiden Dark Kingdom Fukkatsu Hen.

[edit] 1995

  • On July 25, 1995, alt.fan.sailor-moon was created. The Usenet control message lists one of the purposes of this group being the posting of Sailor Moon fan fiction.
  • Ken Arromdee's widely-known Sailor Moon FAQ began development.[7]
  • Starting in September, Sailor Moon was adapted from Japanese to English, and distributed by DiC on American and Canadian television stations where it ran for the first time in those markets. Bandai also marketed the series with action figures aimed at young girls. This was the first anime show of its generation to reach a mass audience in North America, and it helped to bring in a large number of new fan fiction writers into fan fiction, specifically fandoms for Sailor Moon and anime fan fiction.

[edit] 1996

[edit] 1997

  • On February 8, 1997, the Sailor Moon anime ended in Japan with its 200th and final episode.
  • By March, the term "beta version" was being used in the Sailor Moon fan fiction community in reference to fan fiction.
  • Around this time, Val Lam produced a fansub of the Sailor Moon S movie and promoted it on AFSM and TAFMAL (The Anime Fansub MAiling List). He went on to release anime fansubs through his VKLL distribution website. [9]
  • SeraMyu temporarily ended with the musical Sailor Stars Kaiteiban. Due to huge fan support, SeraMyu continued with the musical Eien Densetsu. Eien Densetsu also marked the beginning of the Fan Kansha Events (Fan Appreciation Events). [10]

[edit] 1998 to 2002

  • From 1998 to 2002, Sailor Moon fans defined high quality, graphically-enriched fan and fan fiction sites. They set the standard that other anime related fan fiction communities had to meet or battle with.
  • Also during this time period, fanfic writer Lianne Sentar was hired to write the official novelizations of the Sailor Moon series that were published by TokyoPop.
  • During these years, VKLL distributed fansubs of Sailor Moon S, SS, and Stars, as well all three movies and the then-undubbed Sailor Moon R episodes. Until DiC finished their run on SMR and Cloverway dubbed S and SS, fansubs such as VKLL's were the only way Sailor Moon fans could watch the show in English. Whenever new seasons were dubbed, however, VKLL pulled the tapes to avoid legal issues. The VKLL fansubs were frequently pirated by for-profit groups.
  • Fans also shared full episodes and episode clips through websites and file sharing services. The quality increased with improvements in internet services and file sharing, although the legality remained an issue.
  • Around this time, an author named Ashley plagiarized romance novels and passed them off as Sailor Moon fan fiction. [11] [12]

[edit] 1998

  • Tripod shut down a number of fan fiction sites located on their server, citing copyright infringement.
  • Cartoon Network picked up Sailor Moon in syndication. DiC adapted the remaining Sailor Moon R episodes (excluding episodes they skipped) and released them. They announced that they would not be dubbing further seasons.
  • On April 24, 1998, Anya plagiarized Jennifer Wand's Sailor Moon fan fiction. [13]
  • Eien Densetsu Kaiteiban - Final First Stage (called "EDK-FFS" by fans) ended the First Stage of SeraMyu in February, temporarily ending the run of SeraMyu for a second time. Due to its popularity among fans in Japan, SeraMyu was revised with a Second Stage (so-called for its new cast) starting with the new musical Shin Densetsu Kourin.
  • On November 28, 1998, the mailing list sailormoontoonamiblockparty was created. [14]

[edit] 1999

[edit] 2000

[edit] 2001

[edit] 2002

  • On August 12, 2002, the LiveJournal community badfic was founded. The purpose of the community was to mock badfic and share horror stories from reading in the field. Members were also allowed to write their own badfic as a medium of discussing other badfic. By November of 2003, the community would be discussing Sailor Moon fics.
  • Around October 2002, LittleOni plagiarized two Tenchi Muyo authors, Diane Long and Hospitaller. LittleOni also plagiarized a Sailor Moon story. [22]
  • In summer of 2002, the site Tower of Time opened. The site contained fanfiction and fanart by the owners, Song of Amazon and Praesentia Spirit. However, the site has become more notable for its Art Request section which allows guests to request images of original characters in and out of the Sailor Moon fandom. The site also hosts a popular message board for otaku senshi creators.

[edit] 2003

[edit] 2004

[edit] 2005

  • SeraMyu ended with the final musical, Shin Kaguya Shima Densetsu Kaiteiban - Marinamoon Final, on January 16, 2005.

[edit] 2006

[edit] 2007

[edit] Kerfluffles

[edit] Dub vs. original

The Sailor Moon fandom is known for ongoing conflicts between fans of the English dubs and manga translations and "purist" fans of the Japanese originals. Fans defend their right to their version preferences.

[edit] Mixxine, Smile, and Eye on Mixx

Mixx Entertainment—now TokyoPop—originally published their translations of the Sailor Moon manga in their Mixxine magazine. After a year-long run, it moved to the new Smile magazine. The announcement of this transition wasn't made until after the yearly subscription renewals, leading to controversy among fans who primarily subscribed to Mixxine because it included Sailor Moon.

Outgoing editor-in-chief Ronald Scovil Jr. widely criticized this move and publicly kept in contact with fans, many of whom embraced him and supported his position. Scovil claimed that Mixx debiliberately chose not to inform readers in advance, while C.E.O. Stuart Levy claimed Mixx made a mistake in their enthusiasm to release the new magazine.

This controversy led to the creation of the "Eye on Mixx" watchdog website, which aimed at informing other fans of their issues with Mixx's handling of Sailor Moon. Other reactions to Mixx's behavior were more serious. The Mixx website was hacked during this time with an x-rated graphic and attacks against Levy. [31] Levy's personal information was posted to a public newsgroup. Levy was also accused of "mishandling" and poorly treating creator Naoko Takeuchi at her 1998 San Diego Comicon appearance, notably by the SOS campaign group. In turn, Levy accused Eye on Mixx of racism for replacing an "x" in Mixx with a swastika; site creators said it was only meant to represent Mixx's "facism." Levy said that SOS and Eye on Mixx were lying "hecklers." He also threatened legal action against SOS and Eye on Mixx. [32] Because of Mixx's accusations, Eye on Mixx's original Tripod website was shut down by the site provider; they moved to a new host before closing for good.

[edit] Plagiarism and theft

Sailor Moon image and multimedia galleries have long been plagued by direct links and image theft, leading to the closing of many galleries. Fan fiction also became the target of plagiarists.

The Sailor Senshi Page has been heavily plagiarized over the past decade. The plagiarism became widely known when the owner, Jackie Chiang, spoke out about the long hours it took to scan the images, a process that also damaged the books that the images came from. This led to controversies over what constituted "image theft" when people did not own the copyrights to the original work.

Ms. Haruna's Homeroom, a former multimedia gallery, was forced to close because of other websites direct linking to its video files, driving up the costs to prohibitively expensive highs. [33]

Fan fiction authors have also been plagiarized. On April 24, 1998, fan author Jennifer Wand was plagiarized by Anya.

[edit] SOS

In the mid- to late-1990s, Save Our Sailors (originally known as Save Our Scouts) was surrounded by controversy. They were criticized for campaigns such as the "Pop-Tart procott" and for mixing information about the dub and the original. SOS supporters creditted SOS with raising awareness about difficulties in the production of the dubs.

In 1998, the SOS group further lost credibility when they were accused of deliberately lying about a controversial aspect of the original series—the lesbian romance between two of the Sailor Senshi, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. The SOS said this relationship was a deep friendship that wasn't understood by American audiences, and claimed to have an unconfirmed source for these conclusions. They also claimed they had found a source where creator Naoko Takeuchi said that Sailor Uranus used to be a male prince until "he" was reincarnated as the female Sailor Uranus. [34] Fans loudly expressed their disagreement with the SOS's claims about "Prince Uranus" and the "friendship." [35] SOS later removed this text from their website and said they were unable to locate their original source to confirm it. [36]

SOS has also been accused of taking credit for coincidental occurences between their campaigns and dub production news, backtracking on their positions, and relying on ineffective methods. [37] Supporters attributed the continued production of the dubs to SOS's efforts.

The Sailor Moon FAQ further summarizes complaints against SOS

[edit] Web Page Reviewers (WPRs)

In 1996, The Worst Sailormoon Pages Ever hit the Sailor Moon fandom, and it started controversies that took years to cool off. [38]

While some fans praised the website for attempting to raise standards of quality for Sailor Moon fansites, others criticized The Amazoness Quartet's methods of reviewing the "Worst Pages." The AQ's detractors felt that the AQ were overly harsh and stifled attempts by inexperienced new fans to create websites. Supporters felt such reviews were necessary to demonstrate better website techniques and improve the average quality.

Disapproval of the AQ led to flames and parodying. Some fans were inspired to create their own web page reviews, although this sometimes involved relying heavily on the AQ's methods or even outright plagiarizing the AQ's material. The AQ voiced their own disapproval of the copy-cat and parody sites, while also praising those that used more original methods. [39] By the late 1990s, a few dozen Sailor Moon WPRs had come and gone. [40]

This section needs more information.

[edit] Influential Fanworks

This section needs more information.

[edit] Influential Fansites

[edit] DeviantART

This section needs more information.

[edit] Fandom Members

[edit] 1990s

These fandom members were prominent in the 1990s, featured on many link lists and in fan fiction archives. They were the big name fans of the decade that Sailor Moon was published and aired. Most have since left the fandom and no longer produce new fan works or maintain Sailor Moon websites.

[edit] 2000s

Many of the original waves of Sailor Moon fans started leaving for new fandoms in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The only new Japanese canon came in the form of SeraMyu and later Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Newer fans rose to prominence as they were introduced to the series or indulged in nostalgia.

[edit] Fandom Size

Comparitive size of fandom based on archive sizes from November 2006
Same chart as above only including Quizilla totals from December 2006
Anime and Television categories with most stories added on FanFiction.Net in 24 hour period December 29 to December 30, 2006

Many Sailor Moon stories were released before the existence of FanFiction.net. Some of these were never re-archived on FF.net, instead remaining in Sailor Moon-specific or anime-specific archives, on mailing lists, and on personal homepages. An unknown number of older works were lost when FF.net removed adult stories and enforced a new system for chaptered stories. It is thus difficult to gauge the real body of work produced by this fandom across dead or modified archives.

[edit] January 2007

As of January 29, 2007, there are 23,345 stories on FanFiction.net. This makes the Sailor Moon category the seventh largest on the site. The archive for A Sailor Moon Romance contains 10,056 works as of the same date, while SMFanfiction.net contains 1,316 stories.

[edit] May 2007

As of May 23, 2007, there are 92 Sailor Moon stories on FanLib. [45]

[edit] October 2007

As of October 5, 2007, there are 25,145 stories on FanFiction.Net, 73 on FicWad and 48 on FanWorks.Org.

[edit] December 2007

As of December 25, 2007, sailormoonfans on GreatestJournal had 45 members [46], sailormoontoonamiblockparty on Yahoo!Groups had 3,202 members [47] and sailor_moon on InsaneJournal had 19. [48]

[edit] External Links

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

Below is a partial list of articles and academic sources to help you continue to learn about this community.

  • Allison, A. (2006). Millennial monsters Japanese toys and the global imagination. Asia--local studies/global themes, 13. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Craig, T. J. (2000). Japan pop! inside the world of Japanese popular culture. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
  • Drazen, P. (2003). Anime explosion! the what? why? & wow! of Japanese animation. Berkeley, Calif: Stone Bridge Press.


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