Sailor Moon Vs. Western Female Superheroes

BAM BAM! One of the most popular heroine in anime will battle some of the famous Western heroines in the comic/movie industry! 

What Exactly Will This Blog be About?

Hello everybody! It me Alice and if your reading this your probably in my comic class at RIT (shout out to the RIT peeps). Your probably asking, "Alice what will this blog be about?", great question you may ask sit down and relax and I will tell you all about it! This course has been my first introduction to the Marvel/DC comic world. I decided to make my final presentation about how the female superheroes in the Western world compare to Sailor Moon. Anime is probably my favorite thing in my life besides cute doggies. There are millions of things we can compare these two things too, but for the sake of time we will compare their superhero genre elements to each other. Let the blog begin!

What is Sailor Moon, and What Superhero Genre Elements Does it Have?  

Sailor Moon is a anime that aired in 1992 and is one of the most nostalgic and popular anime in the 90s era. The manga was created by Naoko Takeuchi and I totally don't have almost all the mangas in my shelf ( news flash I do lol). Sailor Moon is part of the Magical Girls Genre in anime which means a anime that consist of girls that have magical powers or objects. It is one of my favorite genres and I seen most of the magical girl animes out there and I can tell you Sailor Moon is different from a lot of them. Before Sailor Moon, we had magical girls who really weren't crime fighters and did not consist of fighting villains every episode. The exception of this is Cutey Honey, the first anime to have real anime girl transformations and fighting villains. Sailor Moon is a anime where a girl named Usagi Tsukino one day gets powers from a cat named Luna. She is able to transform to Sailor Moon, the champion of love and justice and as the anime continues she meets new friends and there are also Sailor Senshis. A Sailor Senshi or Sailor Guardian is a girl who is a guardian of their represented planet or element. For example Sailor Mercury is the guardian of Mercury. I won't spoil the whole anime but the Sailor Guardians are in a journey to find the Moon Princess, and to get the Silver Crystal and defeat the evil Queen Beryl. She is the main antagonist of the first arc of Sailor Moon, and the Queen of the Dark Kingdom. She wants to have the silver crystal to rule the universe. Of course, Sailor Moon has different enemies in the anime but Queen Beryl is basically her arch-nemesis as she destroyed Sailor Moon home planet, which led to the death of her past life and her past life mom, Queen Serenity. I don't want to spoil the whole anime but this basically sums up most of what the anime, Sailor Moon is about. I have watched all 200 episodes of Sailor Moon like 3 times both sub and dub and has inspired me to draw and pursue my career as a illustrator. 

Digital illustrations by Alice Benavides @starryillustrations

Anyway back to the blog, what superhero genre elements does the anime, Sailor Moon, have? Sailor Moon is a anime consisting of a costumed crime fighter with magical powers. This is one of the superhero genre elements. Another element is that Sailor Moon, the main protagonist, fights a super villain, that also has powers, called Queen Beryl. A huge element of the superhero genre that Sailor Moon has is alter ego. Her alter ago is a normal Junior High student named Usagi Tsukino who is a bit of a crybaby and is clumsy. She doesn't really do well in school and has a mom, dad and a brother. To fight evil, she transforms into Sailor Moon, a hero with a sailor uniform ready to kick butt. However, I still don't know how people in that world don't see that Usagi and Sailor Moon are the same person. Just like what happens with Superman and Clark Kent, they literally have the same face and nothing changes. Sailor Moon also has friends who are supporting characters (kinda like a side kick). Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus are her best friends and they also have alter egos when they aren't defeating evil. Previously, I was explaining how Sailor Moon is different then most animes in the magical girl genre. In this blog, we will use Wonder Woman and Squirrel Girl and compare it with superhero genre elements to Sailor Moon. 

What Superhero Genre Elements do Wonder Woman and Squirrel Girl Have? 

If you are a fan of Marvel/DC comics, you probably heard of Wonder Woman or maybe even Squirrel Girl! In this section, we will be introducing what these two comics are about, and what superhero genre elements do they have. Wonder Woman is a female costumed superhero in DC comics. She is one of the founding members of the Justice League and was first featured in Sensation Comics #1 in 1942. For the comparison, we will be using Sensation Comics #1 and Wonder Woman, 1975 TV series, season 2, episode 2. She also first appeared in All Star Comics #8 in 1941. She has a alter ego under the name Diana Prince, which she brought that identity from a army nurse in the hospital that Steve Trevor was in. Squirrel Girl is a female superhero in Marvel Comics. She first appeared in Marvel Super-heroes vol. 2 #8 in 1991. We will be using The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 2015 comic #1 for the comparison. Squirrel Girl has a alter ego under the name, Doreen Green, whom is starting college at Empire State University and moved into a dorm. The Superhero fiction genre is a style of fiction that has a protagonist with superhuman powers and abilities. The superhero genre has elements such as secret identity, a sidekick, having super villains, the protagonist having a superpowers or a power enable by a specialized item, and the comic is usually based in a huge city. Wonder Woman has the power of her Amazon bracelets, which she is very skilled and can stop bullets with them and she also has her famous golden lasso. She has super strength, she can easily run at 60 mph and can jump from buildings. Wonder Woman doesn't really have a official sidekick with superpowers, but as seen in the 1975 TV series, her sidekick is Steve Trevor. Her comic also takes place in a huge city, such as Washington D.C. in the United States. Her villains in Sensation Comics #1 is the Nazi pilots, a bank robber, and in the 1975 TV series season 2 episode 2, her enemy was the Nazis after Hitler, who has created a Hitler clone.  However, her arch nemesis in her series is Cheetah. In The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 2015 #1, Squirrel Girl has a sidekick who is the squirrel named Tippy-Toe. Squirrel Girl has the power to run in the proportional speed and also have the strength of a squirrel. She can summon a squirrel army and also can communicate to squirrels in their language. Squirrel Girl also takes place in a mega city of New York City, where she attends Empire State University. In this volume, her enemy was people who cause trouble in the streets and also Kraven the Hunter, who hunts big game. These two female superhero's comics all have the elements in the superhero genre, but how do they compare to Sailor Moon? 

May the Best Super heroine Win

Sailor Moon, being made in Japan, while Wonder Woman and Squirrel Girl is made in U.S.A. have lots of similarities and differences. Superpowers is one of the biggest elements in a superhero genre. The main difference between Sailor Moon and the Western Female Superheroes is power. Wonder Woman and Squirrel Girl both have powers that resembles male superheroes like Superman, such as super strength and super speed. However, Sailor Moon's powers comes from wands that gets upgraded to be even powerful as the show continues on. She also uses her tiara as a boomerang and also has the power of the silver crystal. Wonder Woman and Squirrel Girl don't have wands but they rely on their physical strength to defeat evil while using other stuff like Wonder Woman's lasso and Squirrel Girl's squirrel army. In most Western comics, the city where the setting takes place is either New York City, Washington D.C. or a city that resembles NYC like Gotham. Sailor Moon takes place in Tokyo, Japan, where most manga/anime takes place. If you watch and read manga/anime you can see the setting having significant amount of Japanese culture such as shrines, festivals and different foods. While in Western comics, you can see american customs and american foods. A similarity in which they all share is they all have a super villain. Whats a superhero without a super villain? Sailor Moon has main villains such as Queen Beryl, but also has to fight mini enemies that cause chaos in the streets. While Wonder Woman and Squirrel have main villains but also fight mini enemies such as bank robbers. Finally, they all have a sidekick (or sidekicks) who helps them defeat evil. Sailor Moon has her friends, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus on her side and help her defeat enemies both big and small. Wonder Woman has Steve Trevor in most battles and Squirrel Girl has Tippy-Toe and her squirrel army. Even though Sailor Moon is made in Japan and has a lot of major differences to Western comics, it also has similarities as well. The major similarity that all share is they cause enjoyment to readers and viewers just like us. 

Sailor Moon's Importance

Sailor Moon is a major icon in the 90s era and still is today. There are many merchandise being sold in stores and online. If you walk into any Hot Topic, I 90% guaranteed you will find Sailor Moon merchandise (unless your Hot Topic doesn't sell anime stuff then that is really sad). Sailor Moon has multiple manga releases where each time the creator would improve the artwork and the panels. Recently in 2014, a new reboot anime, Sailor Moon Crystal was released. It still continues today and there is even a upcoming Sailor Moon Crystal Eternal Movie in the works and should be release soon. Sailor Moon is important in the history of comics and anime because Sailor Moon is one of the first animes/manga to have these magical transformation sequences. Before we saw in the 80s magical girls but only idols, or witches or magician. After Sailor Moon's manga and anime was released, there were numerous mangas/animes about magical girls with magical transformations sequences and fighting evil. Some may say they are rip off versions, but it changed the magical girl genre to what we know today. Actually Sailor Moon is a "rip off" of Cutey Honey, which was a anime in the 70s with transformations but not as long or colorful as Sailor Moon. In pop culture, we can see some Western Cartoons and comic mimicking Sailor Moon's transformations. For example, it was used in the Amazing World of Gumball and Justice League Vs. Teen Titans. Artists and designers use Sailor Moon design clothing, shoes, blankets and so much more due to its magical aesthetic and retro nature. Sailor Moon was also important in gender equality. Before, we only really see male heroes saving the day in anime and females were rarely represented or the show's ratings were down. When Sailor Moon aired, the world saw that a girl can also defeat a villain's butt  and save the world. In America during the late 90s, it was all the craze and many boys were watching it and became true fans of the anime. Today, there still a huge fan base, both man and woman, supporting Sailor Moon and its amazing story line. 

Sailor Moon inspired the 90s aesthetic art style which is a trend right now on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. I even got inspired to draw in the 90s style like you see in my drawing to the left. Sailor Moon isn't just a anime/manga, its a element to the 90s era, a change to the magical girl genre, and the comics and anime universe. 

Digital illustrations by Alice Benavides @starryillustrations

Sources:

Sailor Moon (Season 1). (n.d.). Retrieved August 09, 2020, from https://sailormoon.fandom.com/wiki/Sailor_Moon_(Season_1)

Wonder Woman. (n.d.). Retrieved August 09, 2020, from https://wonder-woman.fandom.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman

Doreen Green (Earth-616). (n.d.). Retrieved August 09, 2020, from https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Doreen_Green_(Earth-616)

North, R., Henderson, E., Wicks, M., Starks, K., Giarrusso, C., Narrington, E., . . . Lanham, T. (2015). In The unbeatable Squirrel Girl(Vol.1). New York, NY: Marvel Worldwide,, a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, LLC.

Gaines, M. (Ed.). (1942). In Sensation Comics (Vol. 1). DC Comics.

Takeuchi, N., & Morimoto, M. (2013). Sailor Moon (Vol. 1). New York: Kodansha Comics.