PHILOSOFIA

Sailor Moon TOS, Part 3: Battle of the Still Frames

magicalgirlproject:

Sailor Moon is famous for (among other things) having a wide appeal that spans the genders. I always thought this was because of a) the classy and understated fanservice and b) the fight scenes. Having now watched the show, I’m doubting the second one, because Sailor Moon has some of the most underwhelming action scenes I’ve seen in a while, for two big reasons:

Reason #1: People call Sailor Moon an “anime,” but I feel this is a misnomer. “Anime” is short for “animation,” and there’s not much of that to be seen in this show. The “action” scenes are almost entirely composed of freeze frames and stock footage, with hardly any new animation. It’s kind of amazing how much the characters don’t move when they’re fighting, unless they’re in a stock footage clip. You could have yourself a mighty fine drinking game just by playing Count The Still Frames. (Take an extra drink for shaky-cam.) I can understand this happening in the first season, when they didn’t yet know if the show would be a success and had to scrimp on the budget, but when we get all the way to Sailor Stars and they’re still pulling this cheap powerpoint-presentation shit, I start to feel a little ripped off.

Reason #2: There’s almost no hand-to-hand combat; the girls’ stock-footage long-range magic attacks are their entire arsenal. When attacked up close, they usually dodge out of the way (often while screaming) instead of trying to block or deflect the attack, and you can forget about them throwing a punch or a kick — I could count on one hand the number of times that happened. This is partially a personal taste thing, but having lived for many years on a steady diet of fighting shonen, I prefer my fight scenes to be a little more up close and personal. It’s also weird to me because the Sailor V manga had some close-quarters fighting in it (Sailor V Kick!) but obviously that didn’t make it into this version.

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Omg, please make a Top Ten Henshins!

• 23 August 2013
• #sailor moon#magical girl project
• 19