The heroines of Japanese cartoons: Sailor Moon The power of Bunny and her 90s style will be back soon in a new movie on Netflix
Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon (literally: “The Beautiful Warrior Sailor Moon”) is far more than a Japanese cartoon. Born in 1991 as a manga (the famous Japanese black&white comics to read from the right to the left) by the pencil of Naoko Takeuchi, who was just 24 years old at the time, it was soon turned into an anime (the Japanese abbreviation to “animation”, referring to the all the Japanese animated movies and series that became popular thank to world-wide famous sagas as Dragonball or Pokémon). The success of the anime was unprecedented: today, Sailor Moon is the protagonist of a cultural phenomenon that made more than $15 billion only in the first three years on air.
June 2021 saw the debut Sailor Moon Eternal, the movie celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of the latest anime feature film in the saga was divided into two parts and was a continuation of the animated series Sailor Moon Crystal, adapting the fourth chapter of the original manga called Dead Moon Circus.
Despite the success, the anime immediately caused many controversies mostly due to the freedom with which it represented some issues as genre identity and sexuality, in a time when the public was still not used to it. As Eleonora Caruso rightly wrote on Prismo, Sailor Moon has been one of the very first feminist icons to be represented by media : her adventures anticipated the spirit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xeena the Warrior Princess, while the portrayal of such a strong female friendship came years before the first airing of a cult as Sex & The City. To be honest, she was the first heroine of a shōjo manga (manga dedicated to a female audience) to systematically narrate the fight against evil enemies, codifying a language that previously belonged only to the shōnen manga (dedicated to a young and male audience).
The looks of Bunny and of the other heroines and characters, are in perfect harmony with the dreamy settings of the city, of Silver Millennium and of Crystal Tokyo, with their enchanted atmospheres, pop colors, and mystic symbols. There is even an Instagram account entirely dedicated to Sailor Moon scenarios.
