I am writing a review of the Nostalgia Critic’s review of Sailor Moon. It starts off with him hearing the formula for Sailor Moon as made by the mad scientist Dr. Hack. Of course, there are quite a few problems with the Nostalgia Critic’s take on it. To be honest, I have actually watched Sailor Moon. Before I go any further, let me say this: I hated the dub the instant I listened to it. I had already heard that the dub was bad, but as soon as I heard Luna speaking in a voice reminiscent of a British nanny, I hated it. I tried a second time, and a third time, but failed within a second. In my opinion, subtitles all the way for Sailor Moon. Nostalgia Critic was completely wrong about the original name of the show. The full original name of it is Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. Also, the show was made pretty differently in Japan than it was here. For one thing, the company that licensed Sailor Moon, DIC Entertainment, skipped several episodes and seemed to follow more along the lines of the manga, introducing characters such as Ami Mizuno a.k.a Sailor Mercury earlier on. My main issue with his opinion of this show is that he is not looking at both sides of it. These days, anime that has been licensed in America has no changes at all. The only differences are usually how the characters names are pronounced. Because of the unfamiliar pronunciation of the names of the characters, and since the show was mostly aimed towards younger kids and preteens, the names were either shortened, changed so that they were closer to English names, or just thrown out the window having the name changed to something else entirely. Here’s a list of names from the original release of the show side by side with their changed names from America:
Usagi-Serena
Ami-Amy
Minako-Mina
Makoto-Lita
(Rei’s stayed the same because it was the easiest to say)
Mamoru-Darien
Motoki-Andrew
I don’t think I need to add more names, you get the idea. There is also the matter of his issues with the age of the main characters as they transform. He needs to keep in mind that the Japanese made this and therefore don’t see this the way that American’s do, and that it was made in the 90’s when this kind of thing was more common, and also that they do get older as the show progresses until they reach sixteen. While I admit he does have some good points about the show, for instance the lengthy time it takes for them all to transform, but let’s be honest here, does anyone really care!? I have seen this exact thing many times, and it has never been a problem for me. Hell, sometimes while they’re transforming, they show something happening in between, for instance, another transformation taking place a little afterwards, or in the case of episodes thirteen and thirty-five, someone observing this transformation and discovering their identities. When he brings up his issue with her transforming pen and how she only uses it to disguise herself, THAT’S ALL IT CAN BE USED FOR! If you read the manga closely enough, you will see that that is all it can be used for, so it can be safely assumed that she can only change into a form that still makes her look human. I don’t really need to go into his other issues since it’s pretty much repeated stuff. If you want to watch the review yourself, don’t take his word for it. Never listen to a critic about anything unless of course your friends say it is complete trash, but even then if only about half of everyone you know or have heard of say that it is bad or good, you should at least look it up, and if it sounds interesting, give it a try, and if it sounds boring, give it a try. In the case of anime, if it sounds bad and is based off of a manga, read the manga first and then see if you are brave enough to try the anime just to compare, you’ll be happy you did for one reason or another. If it was bad, at least you know to avoid it in future, if it’s good, then that is just one more thing to keep yourself occupied with, something more to enjoy from life.