I'm not a writer and I have a hard time articulating my thoughts into words at times, so apologies if this is hard to read or comes off as disjointed to anyone.
Sailor Mars/Rei Hino's personality is pretty different in the manga and anime, right? Why is that?
Her wikipedia article says that it's Ikuhara's doing:
But wasn't Ikuhara just an episode director for the first season? How would he have that much influence on the series? They're even talking about the infamous "Ikuhara hates Mamoru" rumor that most likely came from this interview. It's just speculation. Fan speculation is usually fine, but it shouldn't be a source on a Wikipedia article.
This Tuxedo Unmasked article lists Roppongi and Bubble Era culture as their motivation. Now they got her personality wrong because of the location of the school the T.A. Catholic School is based off of?:
But then we have this interview with Junichi Sato from a few years ago. The series director of season 1. (I used the subtitles provided by the video itself with some minor adjustments.)
So there you have it. It was the result of a lack of communication between the manga and anime staff.
Satojun retweeted a link to the trailer of this fan documentary back when it first came out, but I can't find it anymore. Still, without his twitter account I never would have known about this documentary in the first place. We shouldn't pester and/or harass the creators on twitter with questions about a 30 year old show, but it doesn't hurt to look them up every once in a while.
...
BTW, it's kinda weird that Tuxedo Unmasked makes nasty tweets like this in regards to MementoNepenthe's translations of the Blu Ray booklet notes when they're writing articles about clubbing culture influencing anime Rei with nothing to go on:
Should MementoNepenthe have posted scans in the first place? Yes. Should there have been a seperate thread made for them? Maybe. Should these have been waved off altogether initially, even when they covered nearly every episode and already sounded extremely plausible before getting confirmed? No. Should they have doubled down and launched a crusade on the thread's title when proven wrong? Even when it's explained why it's in that thread? No.
They have citations in their article, but the conclusion is still a huge reach. Especially when sources like Junichi Sato's interview are available online. I *like* Tuxedo Unmasked most of the time. They're usually so on-game with this stuff that I can't help but feel angry about this article and these tweets. COULD they have misinterpereted her character because they associated the location of her school with late night clubbing? Maybe. But you can't tell me that doesn't sound like a huge reach.
I'm just really tired of this sort of thing and frustrated I guess. Like, if Tuxedo Unmasked sees this and blows me off the face of the Earth with an epic clapback or whatever then so be it. But this fandom has enough baseless rumors as it is and we should be trying to stop it.
Sailor Mars/Rei Hino's personality is pretty different in the manga and anime, right? Why is that?
Her wikipedia article says that it's Ikuhara's doing:
A cold and aloof character in the manga, her personality was drastically changed in the anime adaptation[2] at the behest of Kunihiko Ikuhara, where she became fiery and hotheaded.
This Tuxedo Unmasked article lists Roppongi and Bubble Era culture as their motivation. Now they got her personality wrong because of the location of the school the T.A. Catholic School is based off of?:
Rei is said to go to T.A. Catholic School (a private all-girl’s school) which seems to be based on Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin (T from Toyo and the ei in Eiwa is pronounced “A” in Japanese, which would explain the name TA chosen by Naoko). The school is located in a part of Roppongi where there are quite a few embassies, high class restaurants, and has a vibe of what one could call the “upper crust part of town.”
Incidentally, TV Asahi (the station which carried the Sailor Moon anime during its original run) is also located in Roppongi, though despite being in the same area, the feeling of the town is incredibly different. Particularly at that time, in the late 1980s and early 1990s (and even today, to be honest), Roppongi was known for its discos and wild night-life entertainment. Late night drinking, women in short skirts, and dance clubs running late into the night were and are the norm. The most famous of which, Juliana’s,4 was located in Shibaura, in the same Minato ward and nearby to Roppongi.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was a misunderstanding by the anime staff when they were deciding how to interpret the characters from paper to the airwaves, I think the staff working on the series definitely had a different impression when they heard the words “Roppongi girl,” which could have led to at least some of the differences we see in Rei’s personality. While Ms. Takeuchi’s association was likely more in line with the private Catholic girls school, the embassies, and sky-rise apartments, the day to day experience of the TV Asahi directors and writers would have been very different and more akin to the night club life that Americans would more closely associate with Las Vegas.
Incidentally, TV Asahi (the station which carried the Sailor Moon anime during its original run) is also located in Roppongi, though despite being in the same area, the feeling of the town is incredibly different. Particularly at that time, in the late 1980s and early 1990s (and even today, to be honest), Roppongi was known for its discos and wild night-life entertainment. Late night drinking, women in short skirts, and dance clubs running late into the night were and are the norm. The most famous of which, Juliana’s,4 was located in Shibaura, in the same Minato ward and nearby to Roppongi.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was a misunderstanding by the anime staff when they were deciding how to interpret the characters from paper to the airwaves, I think the staff working on the series definitely had a different impression when they heard the words “Roppongi girl,” which could have led to at least some of the differences we see in Rei’s personality. While Ms. Takeuchi’s association was likely more in line with the private Catholic girls school, the embassies, and sky-rise apartments, the day to day experience of the TV Asahi directors and writers would have been very different and more akin to the night club life that Americans would more closely associate with Las Vegas.
We didn't have many direct meetings with Takeuchi-sensei. We usually had a representative take part in meetings; her editor or another representative.
That person would feed us all the important information during our meetings and he also explained our opinions to Takeuchi-sensei. So we didn't have many chances to meet.
She visited us from time to time, but she wouldn't take part directly. We usually talked to a middleman.
...
About Rei, we had the following situation; when we create the animation scenes we use the original story as a base. But when the manga version of Rei finally came along, we had already created many episodes in advance.
That's why we started noticing some differences and gaps. Even with all the meetings, we ended up with these differences.
Our Rei Hino ended up with a more masculine side; a girl that speaks her mind. A very cheerful girl.
But later Takeuchi-sensei said "No...Rei is actually an ojou-sama (refined lady)..." and we said "Oops..."
But we had already established the character that way and we couldn't possibly change it.
So we met with Takeuchi-sensei in order to define how the character would be and we created her personality.
I think Rei is the most different character when comparing the anime to the original story.
That person would feed us all the important information during our meetings and he also explained our opinions to Takeuchi-sensei. So we didn't have many chances to meet.
She visited us from time to time, but she wouldn't take part directly. We usually talked to a middleman.
...
About Rei, we had the following situation; when we create the animation scenes we use the original story as a base. But when the manga version of Rei finally came along, we had already created many episodes in advance.
That's why we started noticing some differences and gaps. Even with all the meetings, we ended up with these differences.
Our Rei Hino ended up with a more masculine side; a girl that speaks her mind. A very cheerful girl.
But later Takeuchi-sensei said "No...Rei is actually an ojou-sama (refined lady)..." and we said "Oops..."
But we had already established the character that way and we couldn't possibly change it.
So we met with Takeuchi-sensei in order to define how the character would be and we created her personality.
I think Rei is the most different character when comparing the anime to the original story.
Satojun retweeted a link to the trailer of this fan documentary back when it first came out, but I can't find it anymore. Still, without his twitter account I never would have known about this documentary in the first place. We shouldn't pester and/or harass the creators on twitter with questions about a 30 year old show, but it doesn't hurt to look them up every once in a while.
...
BTW, it's kinda weird that Tuxedo Unmasked makes nasty tweets like this in regards to MementoNepenthe's translations of the Blu Ray booklet notes when they're writing articles about clubbing culture influencing anime Rei with nothing to go on:
Should MementoNepenthe have posted scans in the first place? Yes. Should there have been a seperate thread made for them? Maybe. Should these have been waved off altogether initially, even when they covered nearly every episode and already sounded extremely plausible before getting confirmed? No. Should they have doubled down and launched a crusade on the thread's title when proven wrong? Even when it's explained why it's in that thread? No.
They have citations in their article, but the conclusion is still a huge reach. Especially when sources like Junichi Sato's interview are available online. I *like* Tuxedo Unmasked most of the time. They're usually so on-game with this stuff that I can't help but feel angry about this article and these tweets. COULD they have misinterpereted her character because they associated the location of her school with late night clubbing? Maybe. But you can't tell me that doesn't sound like a huge reach.
I'm just really tired of this sort of thing and frustrated I guess. Like, if Tuxedo Unmasked sees this and blows me off the face of the Earth with an epic clapback or whatever then so be it. But this fandom has enough baseless rumors as it is and we should be trying to stop it.
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