Fandom memories redux

[Jadeite2]

What are some of your quirky, ancient memories being a fan of the show?

This thread is mainly intended for those of us for whom Sailor Moon is old-hand (5-6 years+) but I suppose could work for those who became fans more recently. (The issue here is the gilded nature of memories.) I call it redux because I have this deja vu feeling that we've been over this before, although I think the nature of this thread is slightly different. (Do not post "Here's how I became a fan" stories!)

-I remember finding a webpage in 1996 that discussed the "mysterious" S season and "practically unknown" SuperS season. Supposedly there were other sailor scouts! It had pictures of Uranus, Neptune, and Chibimoon. I printed them out and handed it to someone I knew was also a fan, who scoffed and insisted they were fakes.

-I remember sending an e-mail to many family members asking them to sign the SOS petition. I remember then showing a tape of the show to my cousin and having him say something to the effect of, "What the hell? THIS is what you want to keep on the air?"

-I remember my first post to the Looney ML being something like, "So this 'Usagi' person... that's Serena right?"

-I remember reading Troy Stanton's Sailor Moon V fanfic in 1996 and being blown away, and incredibly disturbed by the lesbian Jupiter for some reason. Maybe because I was several years below the recommended reading age at the time. (Called the "Dark Adventures" for a reason!) Looking at the site, there've been a ton of chapters added since last I read it. Might have to go over this again...

-I remember the first day of school in 9/96 and in the first class hearing someone talk about how saddened he was by Sailor Moon going off the air. The following year he also got the school morning show to play the outers' transformation music.

-I remember getting an advanced copy of Ami's First Love subtitled from a fellow in Hawaii, in return for letting him borrow my DiC trading cards for several months (to scan.)

-I remember all the buzz in the summer of 1996 about the changes that Stars was bringing to the Sailor Moon universe. As I went on vacation for several weeks that summer, I wasn't able to access the Looney ML for updates, but had a few friends e-mail digests with all the latest gossip. I also remember coming home and drinking from a bottle of Sprite that had been in the fridge from before we left to California, and coming to the conclusion that drinking it was a pretty bad idea.

-I remember getting a tape of 5-6th generation off-air raws of episodes 197-200 in March of 1997 (just a few weeks after they aired) and thinking myself quite special. Then not understanding was happening.

 

[Sakuya]

- My sister was browsing the internet when she showed me this page on Makoto's twin sister named Elizabeth.

- I remember SOS had a page where it contained a mailing address for Takeuch Naoko and I almost attempted it but realized I did not know Japanese and she might not know much English.

- When I was about 4 or 5, or maybe 6 (I don't remember), I would be required to have nap time. My sister bribed me that when I wake up, Sailormoon (the Cantonese dub) would be on. So I always sleft and she would wake me up when it was time. Ah...those were the days!

- I was watching episode 45 at my aunt's house in Hong Kong and my cousin was asleep so I was not allowed to turn on the volume. I couldn't hear anything!

- I was having open house in Hong Kong when I was watching episode 46.

- One of the Hong Kong technology stores (selling TVs) had on the local channel on all the TVs and Usagi's face could be seen everywhere! I remember it was the first season's lake monster episode.

- I was obsessed with the card machines in Hong Kong. I would put in $1HK coin and turn the knob, and out comes this Sailormoon trading card. I still have the whole collectiong contained in a binder! Too bad, card machines are no longer popular and are all removed in Hong Kong. That is, unless one is lucky to find one in an old area...

 

[alycia]

I remember when I used to be obsessed with Sailormoon and the new eps of the S season was on FoxKids. At the same time it was on my sister wanted to watch a show and every second day I would be allowed to watch Sailor Moon. but then she stopped watching her show so I watched Sailormoon every day, and when she caught me watching on "her" day she told me off, even though she wasn't even watching.

And when I was in grade 1 I remember watching the dub on morning television before school, and Venus was my favourite.
Then one day we went shopping and I saw a Sailor Venus doll in Myer and my mum told me we will buy it from Toys R Us because it was cheaper. But when we got there it was more expensive so I got upset.

 

[Sailorneorune]

I was in junior high when Sailor Moon was on TV in my area. First on a rather hard to get antenna channel (which was playing R!), then on USA (started from ep. 1). Ah, good times...
I wish I still had my Beryl doll, and I also wish I were still in contact with the girl I used to look after on the weekends while in junior high. We used to watch the episodes of Sailor Moon we taped. Unfortunately, I no longer have those tapes... I had the entire Neph saga too.
Today, I have seasons 1-3 on DVD, and Sailorstars and PGSM 1-47 on VCD. I am trying to get my 8-year-old cousin hooked on Sailor Moon (she seemed to like the series when I introduced it to her this last summer), and my boyfriend is already hooked (like Parvus, he's hot for Mars (no pun intended)). Absolutely no work needed to be done to get my best friend hooked on SM, as she already was, and she is willing to watch PGSM once I get the necessary files on her computer.
While PGSM is about to end, may the fandom for this timeless anime/manga/tokusatsu micro-empire of kickass shoujo goodness continue, as Sailor Pluto stares at me from her place on my Shelf of Random Japanese Stuff, +1.

Neorune Aoryuusuishou Power, Make...up!

 

[takaj]

- I thought Haruka was the "transgendered Starlights" I had heard about.
- I thought ChibiChibi was Chibiusa and that the timeline had caught up to the point that Usagi had given birth.

I remember the first ep I saw. The dub episode with Zoicite and the rats.
How nostalgic... that was... six years ago.
Man, I feel old...

 

[Danielle]

When I was.. 12, I guess, it must have been 1995, my chore was washing the dishes, and I never did it cause I was lazy. Anyways my mom grounded me from watching the DiC Sailor Moon for a month.. Such a low blow. I remember being so upset and trying to sneak in and watch it after school before my mom got home. And it was during the time when the Princess is revealed.. I can't remember the # of the episode but I just caught the end and I was freaking out. Poor little Danielle.

 

[Kerochan no Miko]

After I'd seen fansubs of the R and S movies and had seen some of the DiC dub, I started looking around the 'net for websites about the show, and came across a page with lots of manga artbook scans. I remember looking at that and wondering who this "Naoko" person was and why she was drawing the senshi to look all weird and skinny and long-fingered.

I used to hang out in a web-based chatroom and one person kept saying something about chasing people around with a Silence Glaive. I kept asking people what a Silence Glaive was and everyone ignored me.

 

[Diaphanus]

Around 1997 when I didn't have the last few manga volumes, one of my friends said that there was a Sailor Universe. I didn't believe him, of course. It seemed to me that he was thinking of some fan-fiction character.

 

[Hades Impact]

- I still remember many people long ago trying to convince me that Sailor Moon was really a porno cartoon in Japan.

- I remember being in awe over someone having a Sailormoon movie, a getting giddy over seeing Uranus Neptune and Pluto transform. It was an E. Monsoon sub so the translations were often totally off. Oddly enough, the Japanese voices felt familiar right from the start.

- I remember being dumbfounded by gentle uteri.

- I remember back in '96 trying to surf the net at a friend's house trying to download clips from Haruna's place. I got him in trouble for overusing the Internet.

- I remember spotting clips of some Sailormoon musicals that same time thinking I would never get into such a thing.

- I remember a friend writing small stick figure Sailor Moon comics for the high school paper. I tried to get him to draw a strip retelling the first ep of S. I had a line like, "Why are you two holding hands, are you lesbians?". Needless to say, the comic did not get published.

 

[RubyTuesday]

I rember my first episode. It was dubbed by DiC and it was the second episode after Sailormoon get's the cutie rod. I didn't learn about the moon stick until half a year later.

 

[Saphir]

First episode seen was the orange rainbow crystal episode. Wow... so long ago. I was in eighth grade... I'm now in first year of grad school. Wow. I am old, and I have the receding hairline to prove it!

 

[spirithime]

- I remember when it was impossible to see Sailor Moon in Montana without a satellite, so it was only on rare visits to Canada that I could see it. Once, my sister and I were in the country long enough to see every episode of the Evil Endymion arc, but I was mortified when I realized that we would be leaving the day before Day of Destiny aired. I never did get to see the dubbed version of that.

- I remember thinking about how cool it would be if there was a sailor scout with a black uniform.

- I caught my first glimpse of Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Chibi Moon on a poster. I figured out who the first three were easily (because Pluto's dark and Neptune looks like the sea, duh!), but somehow got it in my head that Chibi Moon must be Saturn, because who else could she possibly be?

- I remember using my friend for her internet connection, and surfing the web for Sailor Moon sites for the first time. I used to keep little index cards and write notes on them about all the information I discovered. I managed to memorize all the Japanese names of the sailor senshi years before I ever saw a Japanese episode.

- I remember hearing some Japanese clips for the first time. My friend and I would giggle for hours over the seemingly ridiculous-sounding clip of "Jupiter Oak Evolution."

- I remember seeing my first episode with Jadeite (for some reason, I only ever managed to catch from Nephrite on, and for years I only knew of three "generals"). I heard Beryl say "So, Jadeite..." and thought she had called him something like "Sojitite." I went for a repulsively long time actually assuming this to be his name.

- I remember making up my first Mary Sue senshi. My friend and I actually designed her to be like a combination of the two of us, and as we had limited internet use, all of our mythology and astrological knowledge came out of a set of 1985 encyclopedias.

- I remember hearing about how disgustingly revealing the Japanese versions of the transformations were. I was almost disappointed when I finally saw them for the first time, and realized that the only change involved a couple body lines.

- I remember when Sailor Moon merchandise was like lost treasure, it was so difficult to find (at least around where I lived; whereas I once visited Calgary and discovered an entire store packed with Japanese BSSM stuff. How I wish I could find a store like that these days). I took to cutting out the little DiC Sailor Moon label from the packaging of every piece of merchandise I bought and tacking them onto my wall. I'm pretty sure I had over 100 of them before I threw them all out.

Hoo boy, nine years. I feel ancient compared to some of these young'uns.

 

[alycia]

I also remember when I came across a sailormoon fansite that had a section for the manga and a section for the anime. I didn't know what manga was so I thought it was a different version of the cartoon and I thought it looked really weird.

 

[Yoshimoon]

I remember getting the issue of Game Fan with Final Fantasy 7 in it and seeing a preview of Sailor Moon SuperS for playstation. I saw new "scouts" and saw "Rini" in a Sailor Suit she was called Chibimoon at that point I decided not to lose hope that I would see past the Rubeus Episodes.
I remeber borrowing all the movies in 97 and watching S first because the new Sailors were in it.
I remember going home with my tape with episode 44-46 subbed and saying ah its nothing I have seen this before already... only to stay glued to my TV in tears as the Heart Moving played when Usagi was running.... yume no naka.
I remember meeting one of my dearest friends Angelica in a computer lab(I was a bit nosy) at Hunter College while she was looking at a Sailor Moon site with pictures of Neptune. We eventually took Japanese courses together and she pushed me to do the JET program. We also started the Sailor Moon CCG fandom at Hunter getting many people to play with us.

 

[UndeadPrincess]

Such great memories... I remember:

-...when I first saw Sailor Moon on satellite when I was up in North Carolina for summer vacation. The first one I saw was "The Past Returns" and I saw all the way till the first episode of the second season. It was actually an okay time to start (cause of all the flashbacks) and I thought that was the first episode for the longest time...

-...telling my dad to help me find some anime pictures to print out. I wanted: Sailor Moon, Poke'mon and Dragonball Z pictures. The Sailor Moon pictures confused me, because the S season hand't even been RUMORED to show in the US... I had pictures of Sailor Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. I had another one with Sailor Chibi Moon, one of Sailor Saturn, and one of Eternal Sailor Moon and the 4 inners around her. I didn't know what to think of the Eternal costume at the time... O_=

-...making this super long fan fic of Prince Diamond and Sailor Moon. Most of the "production" was me finding good pictures to suit the story as illustrations.

-...dropping by SOS every once in a while, too. I signed the petition, but under different names.

-...when UPN changed the time Sailor Moon plays, so I would be able to watch it all. Before, I could only see half the episodes in the morning, and then go to school... And then eventually, I set my TV to UPN, and had it timed to wake me up at Sailor Moon. Nothing like waking up to that theme...

-...when S premiered on cartoon network and my friends and I, at P.E would re-enact some of the stuff. My friends and I made fun of that one youma who had the black star on her chest, and pulled down her shirt all the time. Fun times...

-...when I borrowed the R movie from my friend. It was so kick ass.

-...when I borrowed the Super S movie from my friend, but that day, my parents bought me all 3 of the movies, so I watched my own copy. This was a key day, because that very day, without my knowlege, SuperS premiered on Cartoon Network. I've never seen the first episode of SuperS, yet...!

I believe that's it. I've had other adventures, but they aren't exactly anime related. More like merchandise related.

 

[solarsun]

Such great memories... I remember:
-...when UPN changed the time Sailor Moon plays, so I would be able to watch it all. Before, I could only see half the episodes in the morning, and then go to school... And then eventually, I set my TV to UPN, and had it timed to wake me up at Sailor Moon. Nothing like waking up to that theme...

I remember that!

I remember watching it at 6 am everymorning before going to school during 5th grade. I would wake up..watch the episodes...and take a shower then go to school.

I remember goign to a college not to far from the place when I was like in 7th grade and printng off all the senshi profiles from a site and putting them in the liste from favorite to least favorite. I still have that small book and still use it for refrence...sadly the site that I had printed off from is gone.

I remember signing the potition at sos.

I remember buying all the small action figures and playing as mars as the princess. I also did that for my large actionfigures I had with moon and mars.

I remember buying my first mars barbiedoll sized action figure (I bought 2 of them). The first one had boots instead of dress shoes at the wallmart in the same town as the college. That evening on the way home from the store our van caught fire while we where driving in it. I got out in time with my doll but the tiara got lost and burned in the fire. I was so pissed.

I remember watching Usagi becoming the moon princess for the first time. I new it was going to happen, come on the show was called sailor moon, but I was still pissed anyway.

I remember forcing my best friend into palying with my small action figures. She liked mercury at the time because of the black and blue hair. Later on she switched to pluto. NOw though I think its saturn.

I remember meeting other sailor moon fans on buses to Speech meets.

I remember reading on sites that people could OD on sailormoon and wondered why the heck they would.

It's been 11 years of fun!

 

[J.M.Vargas]

Aww, memories!

I remember getting the issue of Game Fan with Final Fantasy 7 in it and seeing a preview of Sailor Moon SuperS for playstation. I saw new "scouts" and saw "Rini" in a Sailor Suit she was called Chibimoon at that point I decided not to lose hope that I would see past the Rubeus Episodes.

Oh my God, I still own that exact same copy of that magazine! I remember that so clearly too but for different reasons. Back then (1996) I was 23 years old and a gamer, not an anime watcher. I read that preview and thought it was just another import game, but the name "Sailor Moon" got stuck in my head because it was such an odd juxtaposition of words. A few weeks later (in May of '96) I woke up early one morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I put on the TV and start channel surfing. It's 6:00AM and what do you know, a "Sailor Moon" cartoon is about to begin. I immediately remember the name of the videogame from the GameFan preview, put two and two and decided to watch it to see what it was about.

"Match Point for Sailor Moon" was the episode (I remember it like it was yesterday! ), and by the end of it I was hooked. From the opening credits to the silly moments of banter and the somewhat disturbing subject (the fiery posession of the tennis player gal looked pretty horrific for a kid's cartoon, IMHO), "SM" grabbed me and hasn't let go. The following day I woke up early and started taping the episodes (which I still have) every weekday morning 'till the end of September. It wasn't enough that I taped them (which I could have done without waking up early), I had to watch them as they aired!

When the show went off the air in Sept. '96 (before it re-surfaced later on USA Network and Cartoon Network) I did research and discovered there were subtitled Japanese episodes of "SM" floating around. I also dabbled around the SOS website (hey, at the time who didn't? ) and, for the first time in my entire life, bought a product and sent proof of purchase to someone as part of a campaign. Prior to that I had never eaten a Pop Tart before (don't own a toaster!), and now I can't go more than two days without eating one for breakfast (raw, never heated).

I got me the "Sailor Moon R" movie subtitled from a place in NYC's Chinatown though. By the time "Moon Revenge" was playing over the rousing final act, I was experiencing the closest my atheist ass has ever come to experiencing a so-called out-of-body experience. I remember seeing myself sitting in front of the TV watching the movie in disbelief at how everything (character, music, story, drama, etc.) came together to create such a powerful moment. From then on I've gotten all the episodes, a truckload of CD's and a handful of posters. Those posters were hung at my office the day after "SM" went off the air in '96, and they're still there to this day. I'm not much of a merchandise guy, but I bought five plastic dolls of the five inner senshi as decoration for my home. They're also still there to this day.

 

[Diaphanus]

Back in 1994, I wanted to get one of the BSSM games. It was for Genesis. Unfortunately, I didn't have a convertor. I never did get one or the game, though. It's kinda okay now because of the magic of emulation.

 

[peril_in_pink]

- I remember my friend showing me a cut out of the bandai sailor moon dolls from a Toys R Us ad, and then her brother ate it

- I remember the first episode I watched was the very end of Wedding Day Blues, and I thought "hey, it's one of those crazy japanese cartoons, this show is so dumb... I wonder when it's one again"

- I remember finding a store with the Irwin Sailor Moon dolls and purchasing Sailor Moon, some stickers, and a deck of cards... I was in heaven and completely oblivious to the fact the those dolls were freakin' ugly.

- I remember me and my two best friends would paint our nails to match "our" senshi, and we would have a sailor moon day where we would wear our colors... I had a red and purple sweater for mars, and then my friends had green and blue ones for Jupiter and Mercury

- I remember when me and my best friend tried to figure out who/what Chibi-Chibi was and decided that was "deep anime" and that we shouldn't look into it any further

- I remember when my best friend told me that she learned there were other "Sailor Scouts" and that Uranus used to be a guy was was reincarnated as a girl, which is why she was a lesbian

- I remember crying when Darien/Mamoru broke up with Serena/Usagi in Sailor Moon R

 

[Jadeite2]

-I remember Roland Parliament getting fired and tales of pissing off Janice Sonski with a couple thousand faxes.

-I remember the first time I saw the horror of Chibiusa's transformation in the S movie. I too had an E. Monsoon copy.

-I remember the Looney ML Sailor Moon soccer game with Capeboy R (member from these boards)... all too well.

-I remember bugging my parents to make sure that I got subscribed to Mixxzine the first day subscriptions were made available.

-I remember one time in 1996 when my dad told me he had seen Sailor Moon on CNN. I then stayed up until late to catch the rerun of that program; they had shown a 2 second clip of her throwing her tiara during a 1-2 minute spot on Japanese cartoons.