The Old School Otaku Lounge

Well, I was surprised to hear that not only did they release the single for the op/end of SMC world-wide on itunes, but apparently right now it's the #1 album in the "World Music" category on the US itunes site! https://t.co/SGowCBBjzb

Naoko Takeuchi's editor confirmed on Twitter that she was the one who wrote the lyrics to the ending theme song, under the name "Sumire". Also! On that itunes album, there's a cover of "Moon Revenge" (the theme from the first Sailor Moon movie). It's actually pretty good for a cover, I was expecting to hate it (since that's one of my fave Classic Sailor Moon songs), but it's nice.

This episode was great. I think I've fallen for New Rei. Although I guess I'll say the same for New Jupiter, but damn, this is the best Rei ever.

usamimi wrote:Also, there was an article on JapanTimes that had a blurb saying Takeuchi will be giving the new anime writers scenes that she had wanted to include in the manga originally, but her editor had her cut out--so we'll be getting some "new" scenes that Takeuchi herself always wanted in the story! I think that's pretty exciting and I'm totally looking forward to it!

That is just too exciting, I can't wait :3

llj wrote:You know, talking about shoujo and male fans, I've always thought that the loli-appeal demographic officially started with Card Captor Sakura. They actually had merchandise for that show specifically made for otaku, male otaku. Even for Sailor Moon 1 and Utena, they never really targeted that demographic intentionally, even though they were pretty popular shows with males.

Ah it was more around the Minky Momo/Creami Mami era. Momo aired after Mami and was more aware of the underground lolicon audience. The creator of Mami was shocked apparently, when he heard there was such "interest". I found it weird how what was unacceptable is now the norm in character design and ethos, purely based on where the dollar is. Morals, begone! I wrote a waffly blog post some time ago which had a mixed but interesting reception.
http://pinkapplejam.livejournal.com/515149.html
At least Sailor Moon's character design made them look like leggy grown-up models (a girl's aspiration to be a lovely young lady), none of the moé stuff.

greg wrote:Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Not to hit on your or anything, but you [Ryoran] seem to be my type of girl. I've a thing for tomboy-types. I hear other guys complaining about how many types of shoes their wives have and how they get dragged along with them on clothing trips and such, and I am just thankful that my wife isn't like that.

What was cool about Sailor Moon is that there was a different girl-type for every-type and you could "be" a bit of every sailor if you wanted (being in love, wanting to be a singer, being quiet and studious, loving books, loving cookery, appreciating roses, liking animals etc etc). I was a complete tomboy as a kid because it was so restrictive being the type of girl my friends, mom or nan wanted me to be ("you'll like this", eurgh, no I don't!). In fact it was a lot of 80's/90's Japanese stuff I read or saw and made me realise I don't have to shun ALL girly pastimes to be a type of girl, I just had to be the type of person I wanted to be (cheesy! :>), so now I utilise bits and bobs.

For example, I like makeup because GLITTERY WOO plus I have pretty baggy eyes so it gives me confidence, but I wear that stuff for me. I like some fashion but not disposeable flavour-of-the-week high street fashion stuff - my inspirations are animated characters and kid's TV presenters. XD Again, my type of fashion, and learning not to give a monkey's is important. It's so cheesy but shows like Sailor Moon really did help with that nonsense.

Anyways I always wondered if I liked cartoons as a girl because I was a tomboy, or if I had to be a tomboy to enjoy cartoons as they were either aimed at both genders but for babies, or older viewers and masculine-themed. I got a lot of flak from girls who didn't understand why I loved these shows and books so much so I had to get defensive over it, kind of postponing social aspects of school and fandom (kid today just have to go on Tumblr to get an instant social-geek fix, so lucky!).

It's true that Sailor Moon (the original anime) encompassed both so wholly at the time, that maybe society moulded it that was and the producers were actually very savvy about that regards market research etc, that enabled us today to have such a beautiful show (and precious shows like Utena) because it had to be that way to allow it nowadays. Even though I'm a 35yo woman I'm enjoying the new show *massively* and even though there's some dodgy key frames, it kinda makes it even more endearing, haha.

Anyways, it's a great show. I love how Toei are utilising the franchise's power to explore new avenues of anime for the world. Japan doesn't often market itself very well worldwide, which is diabolically pointless in this global internet economy. So, I'm pleased it is trying, and I will support it in any way possible :>

PinkAppleJam wrote: Ah it was more around the Minky Momo/Creami Mami era. Momo aired after Mami and was more aware of the underground lolicon audience. The creator of Mami was shocked apparently, when he heard there was such "interest". I found it weird how what was unacceptable is now the norm in character design and ethos, purely based on where the dollar is. Morals, begone! I wrote a waffly blog post some time ago which had a mixed but interesting reception.
http://pinkapplejam.livejournal.com/515149.html
At least Sailor Moon's character design made them look like leggy grown-up models (a girl's aspiration to be a lovely young lady), none of the moé stuff.

Probably true about the underground part. Cream Lemon came out around the Minky Momo/Mami era so obviously the audience had been there for a while. But I do feel like CCS was the moment it became "mainstream".

Tuxedo Mask's new voice actor doesn't try to forcibly sound nasal as Furuya Tooru anymore which is a good thing. I still like Rei's new voice and represents her character very well and Luna I am getting used to but still want Han Keiko back.

You wrote an interesting article, PAJ. It's weird that the so-called "father of lolicon manga" felt uncomfortable watching K-On! As much as moe annoys me, K-On is just an interesting show about some girls starting up a band. It never struck me as annoying or pandering.

This reminds me, while watching Sailor Moon R, didn't they always draw Chibi-Usa with little boobies? How old was she supposed to be, again? Like 6 or so, right?

greg wrote:You wrote an interesting article, PAJ. It's weird that the so-called "father of lolicon manga" felt uncomfortable watching K-On! As much as moe annoys me, K-On is just an interesting show about some girls starting up a band. It never struck me as annoying or pandering.

This reminds me, while watching Sailor Moon R, didn't they always draw Chibi-Usa with little boobies? How old was she supposed to be, again? Like 6 or so, right?

I actually liked K-on--I think the problem with it getting a bad reputation comes from all the really skeevy adult doujinshi and fanart that people did of the characters. >< I know I definitely try to ignore it, lol.

Chibi-usa is one of those characters that's kinda weird...in the future (where Chibi-usa is from), supposedly they've found a way to slow the aging process dramatically, so she claims to be 900 years old (lol). But they put her in school as a 5 or 6 year old, yeah. I always assumed they drew her with a small chest because she's portrayed as being kind of chubby at first? But who knows. The chests of all the characters seem to be exaggerated a bit from time to time...I dunno if it was a conscious choice from the art directors, or if the animators just like drawing boobs. Neither would really surprise me, I guess? XD; (I mean, they made some weird choices for the anime...like turning the Three Lights into men who turn into women, instead of being women that dress like men occasionally, like they were in the manga. That always threw me off...)

oh, I posted the new ep of my podcast in my thread for it, but I'll also throw the link up here, because we do talk about SMC a bit: http://animenostalgia.blogspot.com/2014 ... ep-17.html

Compared to the chests of anime girls today, the characters in Sailor Moon always seemed to have reasonably sized breasts. Unrealistically long legs, sure, but boobs seemed about right. Chibi Usa only had boobs drawn when she was in her Senshi costume, which you could attribute more to the make of the outfit than her actual boob size.

llj wrote:Compared to the chests of anime girls today, the characters in Sailor Moon always seemed to have reasonably sized breasts. Unrealistically long legs, sure, but boobs seemed about right. Chibi Usa only had boobs drawn when she was in her Senshi costume, which you could attribute more to the make of the outfit than her actual boob size.

I think the long legs are definitely a nod to the original manga--Takeuchi famously draws ALL her characters with really long legs. (I've always assumed this was supposed to be part of the young-girl's fantasy about growing up to be really tall and/or having long legs, which I've read is a popular wish in Japan...I've even seen lots of bogus ads for "get longer legs!!" and "grow up to 10cm taller!!" in Japanese fashion magazines, lol.)

I've heard people assume it's the costumes/henshin that makes the girls' boobs look magically bigger, and I guess that could be it...though what a weird thing to have happen when you transform, lol.

Well, the senshi costumes have this sort of upper chest padding, like what a football player might wear. That's how I see them anyway.

Unless you're talking about the transformation silhouettes making them look bigger, but I personally didn't think they did.