If you aren’t familiar with Sailor Moon already I am sorry – this is the WORST place to begin explaining it to you.

The video below will basically explain what you need to know for the comic. It’s also a good lesson on Sailor Moon fundamentals: each episode there are bad guys, the scouts transform, they perform their attack, and they defeat the bad guys / change them back into humans. The video also shows the Sailor Starlights changing from men into women when they transform. Imagine if He-Man held aloft his magic sword and turned into She-Ra. Japanese parents must have had a tough time answering questions about Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon was fearless like that. Sailor Moon was my first introduction to a gay couple. Because translations intentionally butchered plot there was always some debate about whether or not Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were lesbian lovers or just cousins, but after my friend showed me this it was more clear – I don’t touch my cousins like that.

The below video is slightly more complicated. Now, forgive me if my information is a bit sketchy here. YTV never got to the Starlights when I was watching. When the Sailor Starlights first appeared their true identities were unknown to the main sailor scouts. I think Sailor Moon actually had a crush on Seiya (and vice versa if I remember correctly, hence his desire to protect her). There’s a lot of potential subtext there.

I’m sure this all sounds ridiculous or foreign, but I have fond memories of Sailor Moon.

I’ve talked about what made the show so appealing with some friends, but I resist the idea that it was so alluring because it was one of the first animes we saw. Sailor Moon did a good job rooting itself in what makes fantasy stories timeless: friendship, characters, good triumphing over evil, and love. And that fucking music …

Even in the English dubbed version they had compelling music. I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in Japan there’s a baseball player walking out to bat with Sailor Starlights music playing. I’m sure he’s a crowd favourite.

STARLIGHT!