So, Sailor Moon Cosmos is coming out in June, putting an end to the remake that every fan wished for, and that was executed with various degrees of success. OK, I’m being nice: Sailor Moon Crystal sucked ass big time. However, this is not a post to shit-talk all the things that went wrong with this adaptation. It’s about what the series means to me, and why my inner 10 year old – and frankly, my 35 year old too – is so fucking excited about it.
I still remember the first episode I watched; it was the one where Sailor Jupiter awakens back in the 1990s. I remember how hooked I was with the show and how I had no fucking clue when to watch it next. Simpler times, I guess.
I eventually figured it out and became a huge fan. I realized girls at school watched it too, and somehow ended up being the basis of our friendship. Watching it everyday, discussing it at school, pretending my sister’s dolls were Sailor Senshi… Man, I can think of some many ways in which Sailor Moon was an integral part of my life.
Side note: I always find it funny how shocked I was when I discovered I was gay. The signs were all there.
The final season of Sailor Moon, and coincidentally the one that’s been remade and released this June, is all about finding the Light of Hope. There is a lot to that story, including major plot twists that continue to shock me no matter how many times I’ve re-watched it, but the conclusion of it is that the Light of Hope is in all of us. Each of us can defeat Chaos and protect that which we love, because we all have that power inside us.
And so, without realizing, it was one of the things that kept me going throughout the years. I experienced a big depression in my early teens, and I did think of suicide more than once. It was a rough time and it broke me more than once. It broke me so badly that the only thing that kept me going was getting back home everyday and sitting down to watch an episode.
Sailor Moon found the Light of Hope within her, and I, inadvertently, no matter how shit the day was, knew I could find hope in her. I fought my own battle, and am now in a better place.
So, yes, I’m fucking excited about this movie and I regret not being able to go to Japan to watch it, but that’s a story for another day.
