Sailor Moon Boycott
As many of you have heard, Viz Media has licensed all forms of the Sailor Moon anime for North America. They have also announced that they will create a new English dub of the old anime as well as the new Sailor Moon Crystal.
I promised that I would leave the fandom if this happened and I will. As much as I would like to make it an immediate exit, please note that I have spent a significant chunk of my life loving Serena as Sailor Moon, Alan, Ann, Lita, Game Machine Man, Bertie, and Malachite (just like the sword in Ogre Battle). Forgive the dramatic death throes.
For those of you who think I’m overreacting, let me make this clear. Viz has essentially announced that the Sailor Moon loved by millions, the girl named Serena whose opening theme proclaims she fights evil by moonlight and wins love by daylight. is no more. She has been erased from continuity Sonja Belmont-style.
This isn’t merely akin to George Lucas or Star Trek remastering the episodes to include newer footage that wasn’t present in the original versions. While fans have been justifiably upset at those edits and editions, those changes are relatively minor.
Now imagine if George Lucas has in addition to making those changes, stated Chewbacca was actually canonically a lesbian and changed the scenes to make that very obvious, as well as claimed the Jedi’s goal was to oversee the development of humanity according to the Force and lead them into the light through taking over the Empire. Or what if Star Trek in the remastered footage, changed Kirk’s name and removed the iconic music and replaced it with the soundtrack from the 60’s Batman? What if, on top of this, all of the actors were magically replaced by duplicates with near identical motions and camera-angles in a shot-for-shot remake of each series, but with their own inflections?
Combine all those scenarios together and your get New Moon, the Sailor Moon sequel that replaces the original North American dub. The heroine who fought evil by moonlight and won love by daylight is no more. We will never hear that theme song in association with Sailor Moon officially. Serena will never be Sailor Moon again officially. All of the things we loved about the Moon Kingdom, Zoycite, the lady general who both plotted and kicked butt when it came time to do so, the music, the transitions, the acting, the funny dialog — everything is now gone, officially. It’s not like a mere retcon where one can at least look at the previous issues that were published as the physical media of these episodes are not preserved. It’s a retroactive erasure of even a connection to the series we used to know.
As a normal person, I have no powers against this blatant disenfranchisement and marginalization except that of my limited wallet, and I will say this. From this day forward I will not pay for an official piece of Sailor Moon material released from this date forward. I am boycotting Sailor Moon for the actions of Naoko Takeuchi — make no mistake Viz and Toei Animation are culpable as well, but in their defense, they are transparent in that they make the real culprit clear — the woman who authored the manga that inspired the anime and now has taken over the inspired creation. Except for the projects I have previously pledged my support (such as Moon Animate Make Up, David Parisky’s Sailor Moon the Movie, Sailor Moon Solar SailorS, Dead Moon Circus, and such), any mention of Sailor Moon will have the staunch declaration of this boycott.
However, while Viz may not have much say in how to adapt Sailor Moon, they still have the license and will still profit from this censorship. Consequently, I will buy no more manga collections or anime licensed by Viz either. There are numerous collections of mine that will remain incomplete as of this moment. If Viz supports Naoko Takeuchi’s prejudice, discrimination, and bullying of fans who supported her work, then I cannot in good conscience give such a company money.
I know my action alone is meaningless, but I encourage others to not pay and not give anything official any more time. It’s not enough to complain. We have to take the power away from them that we gave them to redress this wrong.
Sailor Moon CX will no longer update. As much as I would love to finish the story in a “Take That” no one reads it and no one cares, so I am abandoning it. I won’t burden people with my presence much longer.
We Will Serena will have one final update in light of what has happened. I don’t know when it will be, but it will be soon.
On behalf of the Moon, Farewell.
(Source: nangbaby)
