There was a time when the release of Sailor Moon animation seemed grim and there was a large basis of people who were exposed to Sailor Moon in their regional language. It almost made the series pass over continents with their versions of being distant from Naoko Takeuchi’s original vision, sometimes a bit closer, and for some variations it could have been an alternate universe. So, everyone has a different idea of how the ideal Sailor Moon would be and that affects the nostalgia as the years go by in people's enjoyment of the series. With this diverse audience there was plenty of discussions of the varying degree of Sailor Moon accuracy to the Japanese original and what people loved across the world of their own regional translated variations. There was not too many outlets covering the ongoing development of Naoko Takeuchi’s life in Japan and the internet wasn’t as quick to find out information in the 90’s, so there was a long time before anyone had heard of anything Sailor Moon related until “Sailor Moon Crystal” came out. While there were other projects and developments it was hard to find if you were not actively checking out the updates within the Sailor Moon Universe Community. Sailor Moon Crystal’s release had mixed reactions and had mixed reviews based on how people perceived their imagined idea of what the series had shown from their first time seeing it. There were a few that were not satisfied from Naoko’s studio called “Princess Naoko Planning. PNP” and it didn’t get a large portion of the audience, while you can not get it right so to speak to everyone’s expectation, and through the language barrier it can be a little hard to explain to people from all over the world why so many people had a feeling of disappointment. Sailor Moon is a very special series to a lot of people… and many people didn’t watch a lot of anime in the early years and seen as cartoons… but, for many people it was a gateway to people enjoying anime and many characters that got people to connect with them on another level. This connection had happened for so many people where it started as some silly super sentai “superhero” show and it transformed like the Sailor Senshi themselves into a whole different type of show than anyone had been expecting to see from a cartoon at the time. The show showed a transition of the idea of a cartoon to a Japanese Anime without the adrenaline action of Dragon Ball, or the Sci Fi history telling of Gundam Wing, or the culture breaking jokes of Tenchi Muyo, because Sailor Moon wanted to connect with peoples hearts through relatability and emotional courage. At its initial release many people would see Sailor Moon in its western release in the early 90's, but there were quite a few viewers that only caught a glimpse of the show when it aired on Toonami. The perspective of the show with its renditions kept on making a more complex message with the viewers... now, not only with the translations, but also with the continuation of the story to its Japanese story counterpart and the change in casting of who was still working on the show for the western audiences. Those who saw the initial release would start to wonder if it even was the same show, because of the changes that were made in the story that could have been a completely different Sailor Moon universe and as such is sometimes treated as one. While each version has its own changes and ways of approaching the story there is still the main message that keeps on pulling through. The idea that has kept so many people attached to the show is the signs of what makes a friendship and how to go through the good times and the bad times with love and hope, even when all seems lost people can maintain their love as long as all people involved are doing their best to understand one another. It really is something beautiful. That sort of connection is mostly seen in shows that are under "Slice of Life" these days, but Sailor Moon paved the way for many of those shows with its magical girl spin and futuristic environment of a crystal world like crystal tokyo. It still holds up today with this unique connection of characters and bonding. Even if the show is starting to show its age and its audience is getting older by noticing many parts that make things feel very 1980's and very 1990s it has only grown as apart of the series's charm and enchantment that it brings when rereading the manga or watching the show. People can still can look at Rei and say that's my girl as she works hard in her self development to be the best star she ever could be, or see Ami and find a real connection of what she's going through for the sake of valuing friendship and understanding, or Makotos path of owning up to her traits of masculine and femininity in a harmonious balance. Many people would feel like they went on a trip to Japan. People didn’t feel like it was some epic that was out of this world and insane crazy in its entirety, but you could really get a sense of what these characters were thinking and how they were feeling and what went on in their day to day lives that led up to the more wild side of the show with its many messages to its audience. It caused a feeling like as the story went on the characters felt like they were connected to you and that it was friends of the viewer themselves with its memorable moments and wonderful discussions. The design and story just feels so genuine and honest in the way of someone who is just trying to understand themselves and explore and be apart of sharing the lives of these characters in the show. The magical girl show wasn’t just a strange weird show genre that came from Japan, but it made people realize that this anime underground sort of show that was on in the mornings or afternoons would later on be a worldwide hit by going out of its way to get people interested in the characters with being positively nailing many stereotypes and relationship questions and different ways to love like no other show did.
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THE FOUR KINGS OF HELL
In Japanese they are called the “Four Kings of Heaven”, during the ruling of crown prince Endymion they were the four guardians of earth. Their were heavily implied romances between the “Four Kings of Heaven” with the Inner Senshi: Zoisite & Ami (Amy), Jadeite & Rei (Ray), Nephrite & Makoto (Lita), Kunzite & Minako (Mina). Naoko says that this would reflect the characters' past lives, but it is debated if it is yet cannon. The story then continues to explain they were led astray and were forced to sell their souls to the Dark Kingdom and became Beryl’s slaves. They would be apart of the attacks on the Moon Kingdom in the “Silver Millenium War” dawning dark kingdom military uniforms of dark grey. When they turn their allegiances to the Dark Kingdom they were called “The Four Kings of the Dark Kingdom”, but many just referred to them as “The Four Kings of Hell, because it was simpler and easier to contrast with from Heaven and Hell rather than Earth Kingdom to Moon Kingdom or Dark Kingdom. In English, they are known as the “NegaCommanders of the Negaforce Military”, and are each competing for Queen Beryls attention (DiC), but later they would show teamwork and cooperation instead of being mere rivals (Crystal). They meet their demise from Queen Beryl in DiC by failure during the season, Crystal by execution at the final episodes, and Original Animation by failure during the season. In Crystal the uniforms are white, but fans speculate that the white uniforms could be the way the uniforms looked before they had left the Earth and Moon Kingdoms service, which would be interesting to show the uniform changes in design from one era to the next to make the visualization of the story speak for itself with the dialogue. They are treated as military generals and called as such in the series to command active duty youma at a capped amount usually around 50-200 world wide along with their own private selection of commanding officers in their support and in this case highly respected and high ranking youma elites.Their areas of command would be based on the stones found around the world: Japan (Jadeite), Nephrite (North America), Kunzite (Middle East), Zoisite (European Nations). This was said to reoccur again, after the “Silver Millenium Reincarnation '', but the four kings would still have memories of being Prince Edymion’s guardians who had admired the prince: Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite. In the original animation they are killed off by crystal petrification (Jadeite), incineration (Kunzite), electrification (Zoisite), exsanguination (Malachite) bleeding to death. As they died, the spirits would be sealed in their respectively named stones and later advise Prince Mamoru in his hardships and also assist in information him about the earth crystal named aka. The Golden Crystal. They were treated in the story as the Anti-Sailor Team for D-Point, The Dark Kingdoms base on Earth in Antarctica they would serve the Queen of the Dark Kingdom. In Buddhist mythology, there is a group titled “Four Heavenly Kings” that protects the north, south, east, west. Who check the lunar month or send emissaries to inspect the morality in the world of man. So, in Sailor Moon if they were to turn to darkness they would be checking on the immorality in the world of man for the dark kingdom. Which would lead people to believe that the dark kingdom would recognize all ways of immorality as its source of power and vice versa. The Moon kingdom would be the source of morality as its power, while the Earth Kingdom would be somewhere in between. Transformation Pen
The transformation pen, the one thing necessary to take on a form crucial to entering battle with concentrating on their heart in order to be comparable opponent to powerful foes. Transformation items are not limited to pens, since they come in many shapes, have a variety of different designs, possibly even materials, and even to those who don’t think about transformation items they know that they are different from each other. But, before we go into the transformation pen, let's take a look back at its history in the series. Transformation Call Where did they come from and what was their reason for being put into the world and how they might be created or even made. We see that some characters can call upon a transformation item from a planetary connection from within them that summons a nearby item almost as if the user is summoning it to go towards their hand. The Sequence of Transformation from the Pen A person removes their transformation item from a pocket and then throws the item up high in the air in a spinning motion. A burst of planetary energy releases as a burst of light coming from the item as stars scatter from the light to charge the item. To start the transformation process the user must shout the name of an engraving in the item with the word “power” and then to further enhance the female transformation they say “make up” which creates an instant magical power enhancing manicure in the thematic colors. The clothes on the users body is sent into the item and a new outfit forms around the user one clothes item or accessory at a time. History of Transformation Pens There is very little known about the early days of transformation items and thats where all the questions start from. Were transformation items always used for battle? Why is it usually a pen or stick? Was it ever used for things other than battle during a time of peace. These are important to ask, because there is no reason a transformation item is just created in the universe for no reason. It could have not held an important portion to the creator or have a need to be justified, but it does make for some interesting understanding the topic of why characters transform. With the advancements of transformation items it could be thought that these could be many years old, but thinking back that the time of Crystal Tokyo was so much in the future… possibly even thousands of years could have taken place to develop such wonderful magical items. To think that someone had to move forward with the research of the transformation items for each part of the sequence and each item that could be used in their own way, but if they didn’t the world would have stayed still with no such transformations ever occurring, with no different timeline era. Some may think that the author may have just thought to throw in transformation and in the series someone may have just decided to make transformation something that can be used. Well, those people who have that idea wouldn’t be alone, because that's exactly what had happened. It was all a matter of doing things different from non-transformation and thinking on how to create the evolution of using magical things. How are Transformation Items Made? Transportation Holding Device Types? Transportation Pen? Transportation Stick? Transportation Rod? What is the Power Circle? Why is there a Engraving on it? What is the story on the evolution of Power Circles to Power orbs? What exactly are the types of Magical Items used for Power Circles and Power Orbs? What are the characteristics? What sort of skill would it need to be created? Are their unique power circles and power orbs? The Western (DiC version) of the series had a specific tone of easy going to serious and it was specific to the events that were happening in the show, however it had many elements of low budget sound tracks at the time and could even be corny with a few of the tracks. You would go on to see the show and see the same sound track with limited tracks of the western version, but it still helped tell the story as it was going on to know what was happening and when the moments changed to the music. When people heard the songs they would associate them with some of the episodes that really were heart wrenching with tracks “Rainy Day Man” or “The Power of Love” and it only made the memories of those episodes go even farther by being able to revisit those emotions with those tracks.
Looking back it really wasn’t the amount of songs that would be there for its Japanese counterpart, but I think it still did its job in making identifiable music for people who wanted something simple in the ways of a sound track. Back in the 90’s there wasn’t too much room for largely contrasting ideas in music and partially this is because there was still shows that had limited popular music charts and people would enjoy talking about tracks that hit the radio stations. Radio really was big back then with people and their cassette players and seeing the shows that featured these songs on channels on the television. It can be strange thinking about how life was like previously to streaming services and the internet's outrageously large track availability and people's buying habits of large quantities of quality tracks versus debating on a small selection of tracks of the time they could record. People just didn’t have a lot to choose from in their songs and they had to pick them wisely, so sound tracks were not necessarily needed to be really large, but that's also why Japanese soundtracks had a big impact like the Sailor Moon musical collections for movies and seasons. People just were not prepared to have that much music in a show and have it really capture the shows messages in its songs, but you can’t feel the connection to the change in events as strongly as the western song compositions, but instead have a stronger connection to the characters themselves. The show also left people hanging with the first couple of seasons coming out and then there was a large dead period and this is when people started seeking out something called fan-subs of the show and people really started to take a serious look at the Japanese storyline and listen to the music of the Japanese soundtrack for the first time. Those who dived in were curious to what it would be like to hear the music in the Japanese version or what would be similar to the western version. So it was a surprise for better or worse when people actually got their hands on the Japanese songs as well as the show itself. When watching the Japanese series, the music and sounds may not have had the same aspect as the western show, but it really had a sort of music that was different. This made a division to those that liked one over the other and it connected people who saw the good in both. It was different in the sense that it contrasted drastically from the western ost with its really uplifting mixture of Jazz, strongly melodic Japan 1980’s pop, and rockin guitar with beautiful synthesizer beats. The music really made you feel the attitude of the characters and went well to tell the story of each part of their lives in a happy way and when it was dark it went real dark. It was different from other shows in the full on rock soundtracks or the other anime soundtracks at the time for those that liked some of the older shows in the 1980s-1990s. There was a connection of shows being called anime to have its own style of music and Sailor Moon still separated from the way shows were making their music, because they sounded more like songs you might hear on a TV station or at a train station or walking around a mall in Japan in the 1980s. Some westerners would refer to it as Happy Jazzy Elevator music. Naoko Takeuchi & Toei Studio The day starts off as any other persons day with getting ready to go and starting to walk to the destination. The matter of transportation does not matter, but the spirit that drives the person to keep up with the work awaiting them at their job. The story that is waiting to be told by the ones who create them, a meaning to create with giving others power through beauty and courage, and inner strength to defend all that is important for everlasting bonds. This would be the thoughts going on in the mind of Naoko Takeuchi, creator of the series “Sailor Moon”. Working tirelessly on the illustrations the hand is guided to long lines that show a sort of elegance of shape. She always knows through her imagination the exact way it should be like a painting inside her mind. Sitting down for a moment Naoko may have to ponder the right shape or the right angle that an object or character may need to be drawn, but in the end it ends up the way she imagined. While working on the illustrations for the series to use as reference she had often met with the television series team artist Tadano of Toei Animation. He mostly worked on the television series and followed the lead of Naoko’s character designs of long slender bodied heroines who would save the day. Reflecting on the work it would be a consideration to the body shape of runway models that would have long beautiful legs to make it accurate to the manga designs. On the outside of studios the urban landscape can be foreboding and depressing, but luckily in little spots throughout the studios there are places with greenery and areas to rest. Within the studio is where creative minds work on the series of Sailor moon by comparing the notes of the story and finding out what needs to be explained in the series in order to capture the viewers. It is a wonderful building filled with designers, hard working animators, and career veterans of the manga and anime industry. As a group working for the common goal of making a great series closer to Naoko’s vision the series slowly gets critiques of what works in the image of what Sailor Moon is supposed to be about along with its message. Many have grown up with Sailor Moon and each person has their own vision of what it is that made it special to them, so there are many discussions involving each separate direction of the show and what direction it should go. Even though many who discuss and work on the series are always anxious to reach finished production they also notice the style of Toei that goes into the work of each project while working on the drawings. Some may say that it can almost seem like a instructional course or working for a school. Naoko Takeuchi has worked on Sailor Moon since the beginning. She wanted a story of female super sentai or fighting super heroines. The series is not the first magical girl show and has many predecessors, while not as iconic the shows showed their influence, along with fashion shows, and school life. The show speaks out with the statement of “if men can be heros? Why can’t women be heroines?” by showing the cute feminine side of the characters and giving them special powers to save the day for their planets. She really enjoys that it entertains young girls and even older women who grew up with the show. While it maybe tiresum to work on so many designs and illustrations the work doesn’t stop for Naoko, since she also deals with merchandise and live action projects that need her input and vision for each production and item. Another day at work always reflects the area that the work is made and in this case it is Japan. The seasons that change and the rich culture that surrounds the ever changing landscape of Tokyo are not only heard in the background, but also become apart of the show itself. The world of the creator is a message of their life and this really shows when seeing the background artwork of nearby areas of Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Tokyo that always seem to make their appearances in the characters lives. Many references from the Minato ward of Tokyo are also seen from the eyes of memory that Naoko sees. The world isn’t very easy to just see as it is, but it also needs the persons memory, it depends on what they saw or what they thought they saw, they themselves see the world and show through pictures a similar or a whole new look from selected memories of a time that was in the moment, but now is nothing but the past. Since the debut of Sailor Moon in 1992, millions of copies have been sold worldwide with the franchise going strong with: animated movies, television serieses, beauty products, merchandise, art books, video games, cafes and stage musicals. The series is iconic to many for the battle for what is right, the close bonding of true friendship in its sacrifice and celebration, and the vision of striving for beauty and dreams that need hard work and support to make them into a reality. The series was also quite controversial with readers and the boundaries in broke from classical magical girl comics, so many of the challenges and changes the creation of the series had been through are now some its greatest achievements, like a female being strong and beautiful at the same time. Na The Na
The Typically in the past a group of fans were overlooked and seen as those without a recognized identity. For example Sailor Moon Communities and Dragon Ball Communities were seen as a bundle of fans of animation and nothing else. But, in the communities they each fought for their own identity, which were quite plentiful back in the 2000's.
NOA has been a group online doing articles for quite awhile through its members with the cultural research collections to see all Animanga communities. There has been involvement at conventions and at fan discussions about what direction Otaku are going in their separate communities. This brings things one step closer to rallying around a beloved hobby of animation and Japanese culture that brings people closer together through the art of illustration, music, and storytelling. For years the group has been trying to understand different communities online and offline to change the mindset of fandom toxicity to united otaku peace. The group builds a network of people from different series communities to meet producers of content that know alot of people in subgroups within the group. And then they each have their own specialties of knowledge within the series itself that bring them to a group discussion to go on and talk. It isn't just about the show creators doing everything, but it is about alot of non creators doing a lot of things behind the scenes. Those who are apart of such groups can see this for themselves live in action with the fan creations. The group this year has been working again on seeing the new developments in Otaku culture. This time the project will be looking at a new initiative of a project that was placed on hold for quite some time. The group is going to do further research into Wotaku by writing about articles that feature the western perspective, the fandom ideas, and the participation from other communities of Japanese culture and Japanese History respectfully for even more insight. Research in Wotaku from the group can be traced back to 2003 where there were lists of questions for anime convention attendees. There were many conflicts and that could have been caused from story interpretation, favored characters, or personal complaints. What we had seen previously was that if people don't try to understand one another with their differences and truly gain a understanding for different needs from different people with different specialties in a series there can be no resolution and discussions break down. For example a person may have one opinion and another may have another opinion. It may seem like both people may want everyone to pick a side by stating they are with or against each other with no middle ground. There are only two choices, but if another person enters the discussion and explains there are more choices there are chances there are ways to peacefully resolve fandom issues. Heavy discussions and finding a way to resolve many conflicts with creative ideas can be a great way to give "Series Support". This was originally done by a group called S.O.S (Save our Sailors) with a group discussing about saving Sailor Moon in 1996. It was fascinating to see series differences of interest always seemed to fuel so much series conflicts. However while it can fuel conflict it can also fuel hope if there is no belief in any particular series in a hard core way. Studying a series can unveil how wonderful a series is without concentrating the negative aspects and learn from the good parts. We have learned that more people argue over their particular interests and less so on series differences of their claim. Different subgroups of people have different interests and they fight for influence as a rallying flag for divisions. Some may have fought for the dubbed Sailor Moon and some for the subbed Sailor Moon and they would verbally battle with oral conflicts. So, at the end of the day the series differences were less the fuel to the argument and just the initiator of the argument, but the special interests were the true source of argument fuel. Being an Otaku can be fun by throwing away many negative feelings that are possibly making the hard decision of continuing liking a show due to controversy into something much more easy with harmony. By falling under a banner of enjoying the medium it gets down to focusing on the ideas which make the series most enjoyable to its fan base. When looking at possibilities and hope there can be more involvement in connecting everyone together to facilitate community through the Otaku culture. The creators couldn't predict that there were going to divisions of different parts of the series. A series with different parts to identify can be something to gather around and share ideas on. But, when fans place other fans against one another in an argument instead of a brain storm of ideas it can make one group of fans feel oppressed and then cause further conflict within the fandom. But, for those who enjoy the series in its entirety gather to see what suggestions or ideas they can create on their own to assist the creator through discussions and producing helpful content. The communities are important. Especially since all the series communities are made from the cultures animation and manga histories are the origins of the group of people who identify as Otaku. And when Japanese try to separate the idea of Otaku they sometimes refer to western otaku as (Wotaku). But, in the United states they are just called Otaku. This is but one part of what the scene in the western otaku online, so plenty of discussions have already been made. There has been a lot of progress in looking into what a Western Otaku (aka. Wotaku) is in the identity over the many years that have passed by. Common Media Depictions Explore > Getting Started > Portal Japan > Otaku Academy > Group Building > Creative Leadership > Industry Sustainability
The Story of Otaku Culture Otaku Divisions Fashion and Accessories
The Seal of Otaku is used to claim a document pertains to all types of otaku and is issued by people who run events. It is also used as a way to authenticate the director of an event has issued the document as well if it's on the document itself. The seal of otaku is sometimes compared to a coat of arms for countries, but it is used more by events as director document markers than for political authentication. Its design elements come from Japanese School Uniforms, Real Robot Shields, Spirit Monsters, and Japanese Woodblock print designs.
Symbolism The Seal is composed of silhouettes and imagination, the ideas of which make stories, and the pieces which are set to make dreams. The man and women represent a separation of masculinity and femininity that are on the same shape that is the sphere, however they are judged or seen as an actual male or female is up to the viewer, so in short neither gets lowered or heightened from their choice of whatever level of gender they pick as preference in mind, body, and spirit. The words anime and manga are on katana that not only mark what is unique of the culture but the history in otaku and Japan that make up the structure of beliefs. The beam shield from mobile suits is a guard to the symbol of the flag that lays in the middle in its own casing of shield and meaning. The wings denote the flight of transformative ideas which fly ever higher from critiqued ideas that fit the original idea while yet expanding upon it with a rising sun at the top that marks as the union of all otaku are necessary to make the culture rise. Displays The seal can be used on flags as a sort way to communicate there are events for all types of otaku, but those that have it at half staff show they only have less than half otaku types events at a event. The seal is usually never to be shown as a lone flag as it is the support of the cultural flag and not the main flag of the otaku culture. History The same day that otaku was claimed to be more than just watching anime or reading books from Japan was when the Eclipse Knights named the group an animation urban culture with the design of the Seal of Otaku, or cultural coat of arms, for the urban culture. Similar to other urban cultures from the Geek Movement, the Otaku needed a symbol of union to formalize their group as something more than a passing trend and to be taken more seriously. After years of its existence the seal was used occasionally, but contributions from others to make its symbolism is what kept it afloat with the hobby ever changing. Controversy In 2003, the seal was considered another part of the artwork gallery as many didn't know of its meaning of gathering otaku of all types to work together and stop fighting, The meaning was to bring otaku together about similarities in stead of fighting over who was more otaku or real otaku or less otaku, but just otaku at heart. There was opposition to having a Seal that associated people as Otaku. Some did not want to become a single entity involving anything to do with Japanese Culture, Otaku Culture, or Animanga, which was confusing to those who had tried to go under the banner of being self proclaimed otaku. Many artists distanced themselves from identifying as otaku and many cosplayers said they enjoyed costume making but not the anime or manga stories they were dressing the part of, so falling under the seal would be a way of giving in to social pressure and were not in favor of the seal. |
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Country of Japan
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