Lumpy Dog
11/15/14, 05:58 PM
A running cliche in Magical Girl that so many casual anime fans and the modern anime fandom (especially fans of Madoka Magica) hates so much is the everyday high school/middle school soap opera story of romances, drama, backstabbing, and friendship. The hate is so vocal today that so much in the modern anime fandom want more stories like Puella Madoka to come out and I seen a lot of non-anime boards (especially gaming forums) where people honestly want the Soap Opera of traditional Magical Girl to die completely and instead be replaced by a darker grittier and gorier formula that Madoka has introduced into the genre.
This is probably the one thing people hate the most about Sailor Moon and bash it cliched and generic.
I already stated I am new to magical girl. But if there's one thing I can say its that no other magical girl to date except for CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura (which I'm watching and this isn't even a strictly traditional magical girl as it subverts or deconstructs some tropes from the episodes I had finished so far), its the soap opera storytelling that Sailor Moon is the champion of.. Its just so masterfully executed in Sailor Moon that I found myself caring for the characters. Not only did I cry during Hotaru's transformation to Mistress 9 as I stated in my other thread but I felt heartwrenched in even the earlier repetitive seasons. Minako's discovery Allen doesn't care about her, Mercury's development from shy nerd to sociable friendly, MArs descent into a gradually nicer and nicer person; they all touched me so much to the point as I continue Super S I am jus tcrying at the thought of the series anding and saying goodbye to the cast who I grown to love as though they were real friends.
As I mentioned from my other threads they show them as real human beings. Even though Makoto still is depressed from her boyfriend's dumping she is not shown wailing daily and emo all the time. (OK irl there are people who wail and cry everyday from being dumped but these are always either incredibly young immature people or have mental illnesses and this isn't the topic of discussion so lets just leave it). Even in times where she is suffering from the pain of memories, Mokoto is shown doing other stuff rather than being obsessed with her failed relationship such as cooking and martial arts.
Minako may have decided to devote herself to fighting evil with all her heart but she still finds time for her hobbies. Chibiusa had shown hidden depths of maturity despite her general annoying demeanor, Hotaru has a chilling dark side, Mars is shown going into hobbies you would never expect a preppy alpha ☹ popular girl would be into, Mamoro has hidden areas he retreats too that not even Usagi and Chibiusa knows about,etc. They show so much stuff that you would normally only discover in a Gaiden, drama cds, Spinoff, author's notes, or official guides/artbooks/collector's memorabilias, and interviews. Best of all the show doesn't seem to get out of pace despite developing characters to such extent that they are real human beings and the filler moments such as Mokoto going to her old dojo to prepare herself for the upcoming battles and Haruka's profession racing don't ruin the direction the story goes to and turn the story convoluted.
This is masterful storytelling at the core. Other magical girl series such as Cutie Honey Flash and Cardcaptor Sakura have tried to copy this soap opera formula and failed at replicating Sailor Moon's mastery (well imo Sakura manages to reach the same tier level but its not a traditional execution of the formula) and deconstructions like Madoka Magica and Magic Knight Rayearth tried to avoid the soap opera style plot while simultaneously trying to put the same amount of character development you'd find in Sailor Moon and failed miserably for the most part (Rayearth being a huge exception).
So this is one thing I want you Moonies input. Do you think that all the bashing Sailor Moon story gets is ignoring the good parts? I mean the character development can only be matched by a few series in anime/manga period and it goes to say SM has surpassed the average anime drama series I seen (which is saying something) in character development and tearjerkery.
Sure the plot may be generic but plot is only one element of a story and Sailor Moon excels at other elements that are just as important (and in the case of its genre and medium, even more important than a complex plot) and the character development,pacing, and masterful execution of soap opera tropes (common in magical girl) is what imho sets it way above much of its current rivals such as Madoka Magica and Princess Tutu.
This is probably the one thing people hate the most about Sailor Moon and bash it cliched and generic.
I already stated I am new to magical girl. But if there's one thing I can say its that no other magical girl to date except for CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura (which I'm watching and this isn't even a strictly traditional magical girl as it subverts or deconstructs some tropes from the episodes I had finished so far), its the soap opera storytelling that Sailor Moon is the champion of.. Its just so masterfully executed in Sailor Moon that I found myself caring for the characters. Not only did I cry during Hotaru's transformation to Mistress 9 as I stated in my other thread but I felt heartwrenched in even the earlier repetitive seasons. Minako's discovery Allen doesn't care about her, Mercury's development from shy nerd to sociable friendly, MArs descent into a gradually nicer and nicer person; they all touched me so much to the point as I continue Super S I am jus tcrying at the thought of the series anding and saying goodbye to the cast who I grown to love as though they were real friends.
As I mentioned from my other threads they show them as real human beings. Even though Makoto still is depressed from her boyfriend's dumping she is not shown wailing daily and emo all the time. (OK irl there are people who wail and cry everyday from being dumped but these are always either incredibly young immature people or have mental illnesses and this isn't the topic of discussion so lets just leave it). Even in times where she is suffering from the pain of memories, Mokoto is shown doing other stuff rather than being obsessed with her failed relationship such as cooking and martial arts.
Minako may have decided to devote herself to fighting evil with all her heart but she still finds time for her hobbies. Chibiusa had shown hidden depths of maturity despite her general annoying demeanor, Hotaru has a chilling dark side, Mars is shown going into hobbies you would never expect a preppy alpha ☹ popular girl would be into, Mamoro has hidden areas he retreats too that not even Usagi and Chibiusa knows about,etc. They show so much stuff that you would normally only discover in a Gaiden, drama cds, Spinoff, author's notes, or official guides/artbooks/collector's memorabilias, and interviews. Best of all the show doesn't seem to get out of pace despite developing characters to such extent that they are real human beings and the filler moments such as Mokoto going to her old dojo to prepare herself for the upcoming battles and Haruka's profession racing don't ruin the direction the story goes to and turn the story convoluted.
This is masterful storytelling at the core. Other magical girl series such as Cutie Honey Flash and Cardcaptor Sakura have tried to copy this soap opera formula and failed at replicating Sailor Moon's mastery (well imo Sakura manages to reach the same tier level but its not a traditional execution of the formula) and deconstructions like Madoka Magica and Magic Knight Rayearth tried to avoid the soap opera style plot while simultaneously trying to put the same amount of character development you'd find in Sailor Moon and failed miserably for the most part (Rayearth being a huge exception).
So this is one thing I want you Moonies input. Do you think that all the bashing Sailor Moon story gets is ignoring the good parts? I mean the character development can only be matched by a few series in anime/manga period and it goes to say SM has surpassed the average anime drama series I seen (which is saying something) in character development and tearjerkery.
Sure the plot may be generic but plot is only one element of a story and Sailor Moon excels at other elements that are just as important (and in the case of its genre and medium, even more important than a complex plot) and the character development,pacing, and masterful execution of soap opera tropes (common in magical girl) is what imho sets it way above much of its current rivals such as Madoka Magica and Princess Tutu.