Why Were The American Sailor Moon Dolls So Ugly?
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- Опубліковано 14 лис 2021
- The answer might be a little more complicated than you think!
This video is intended for adult, and young adult, collectors- NOT children!
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I do agree that there is an anti-femininity sentiment here, but I would also argue that the design changes and changes to the show reflect something very anti-Asian and a gross opposition to foreign media in general because it wasn’t “what Americans are used to” - similar things happened with the localization of the Pokémon anime
Absolutely. I mean that was one of 4Kids biggest criticisms. They were constantly censoring any and all references to anything non-American. And DIC was equally guilty of this.
same was even done with yokai watch in 2013-2019
Definitely the anti-Asian part. In this 90s Sailor Moon Dateline Special you can see it in action. ua-cam.com/video/PhwVcIR1aQs/v-deo.html
They use terms like “invading our market”, “American companies worst nightmare” and more stuff on the lines of that. It’s crazy how people seem to only remember Sailor Moon, Pokemon and Dragon Ball taking over the merchandise market and forget about the nonstop demonization of anything Japanese.
EDIT: They even portrayed those interested in anime as “shut ins” and creeps. I think they even said they are similar to serial killers in the video too.
@@noraunhappyIl never forget The famous dounat-onigiri
@@nuotatorre8741 NOTHING BEATS A JELLY FILLED DONUT
I’m sorry, the idea that their costumes are “too sexual” for children makes me screech inside. The Sailor Senshi aren’t in elementary school, they’re teenagers. Teenagers dressing like that is not unusual at all. Better go tell Becky in 9th grade getting ready for the Homecoming dance that her dress and shoes are “too sexual” and a bad influence on young children. Let’s be real, if their real issue was with young children playing with dolls that wore those short skirts and heels, then they better have kept that energy if their child wanted to bring a Barbie home, instead of just going after Japanese characters. Children have always played with dolls who wear heels and short skirts, they turned out fine.
even worse, the dude literally thinks you're a prostitute if you wear heels as a woman. what the actual fuck?
@@nothanks7263 THAT TOO, god the slut shaming is off the charts here
The funny thing is that, there seems to be a barrier in my mind that prevents me as seeing them as sexualized. Yes, the way their characters are drawn could have them easily pas for 2-3 years older than the actual stated ages, yes they are wearing mini skirts. Yes I have seen characters less skin showing and similar figures thought they were sexualized. It had just made me realize that how you perceive something a sexualized can be heavily influenced by the context it is presented in.
Exactly. We had BRATZ for crying out loud which I argue is way worse in "sexy" clothing than Sailor Moon will ever be
They aren't even that sexualized. They're modeled after figure skaters!
I think my resentment of marketing comes a lot from being let down again and again by marketing in my youth completely misrepresenting or reinventing shoujo anime in the US to appeal more to boys. Sailor Moon, Cardcaptors, it happened again and again. We got a worse product every time because of the complete rejection of everything feminine.
I love your sailor moon doll restoration series ! It’s why I clicked this video
I don't think it has to do with the feminine side of things. America is just KNOWN for screwing up animes, in general not just dolls or figures, but the literal Anime themselves. So I really don't think it has much to do with, or anything to do with the feminine side of things. America is just good at screwing things up is all.
@@midnandlinkforever wait. Is this the same person that runs the “tama room” channel? 👁👄👁 I found their videos and didn’t realize it was the same person I see a lot in the comment sections.
@@TheSlipperyNUwUdle yeah! Click her channel silly 😜
I grew lking the world pieces from some girls toys have like market places, parks and generally places are civil compare to the action sets boys get but i was put away from triying to get them because of the pink colors
The fact that companies will turn a product pink and then market it as “for girls” while simultaneously being terrified of anything stereotypically feminine is baffling. Even now “gender neutral” stuff tends to skew more traditionally masculine.
I have a picture of me in kindergarten showing off my Sailor Moon doll in show and tell somewhere. Good times!
Yeah…
I had a chibi-usa sticker that I showed in kindergarten during show and tell. That was fun. 😁
Read my name then think what my favorite anime is then think what my favorite toy was
@@saylorlenes844 Sailor moon show and doll
@happy girl your right
I don't understand why they thought changing the face of the doll would make it more appealing to children. A big reason why kids are watching the show to begin with is BECAUSE of how they look, so why would changing the face of the brand make it more appealing in any way? Most kids I knew who liked to buy merchandise from their favorite shows were usually disappointed if their toys didn't look like the character or were just poor quality.
These idiots from the 90's were incredibly out of touch with their market. Actually, I would say they didn't really understand marketing to children very well at all and just happened to stumble upon a formula that worked, simply based on the sheer number of failures they had. And then when they found that formula, it was hard for them to stray from it. It's good to have a formula, but the fact that they didn't think to change it up or expand their formula for other audiences sooner seems really moronic to me.
It's almost like they've never actually talked to or interacted with children before when it wasn't behind some glass window asking them which Barbie they think is prettier.
I agree. If they had just maybe tested the original dolls out with there intended designs,then maybe they would've been proven wrong. I remember sailor moon being the first anime I ever watched and everything about her look as a child, especially her hair drew me in.
EXACTLY
My sister called them horrific, she wanted to find me a Japanese version because they looked awesome. She also was the biggest reason I was a fan, but she told me that it was partially cool to her as well. She still reminds me of Sailor Mars (RIP Marella you are Sailor Mars).
Awww that's so sweet. I'm sorry for your loss.
This is unironically the same thing that happened to Card Captor Sakura, being originally marketed as Card Captors and heavily advertising the male character (who is a side character) as the main character.
I didn't get into Cardcaptor Sakura until much later in life so I've never seen the original dub, but I remember reading about the Cardcaptors situation retroactively. It's such a shame, because CS is already such a unique show!
@@DarlingDollz , the Cardcaptor dub is among the worst dubs ever done. First they cut lots of episodes to ribbons because they didn't want ANY romance in the series. They started the series at episode 8, because that is the episode Syaoran (Lee in the dub) first appears. Tomoyo (Madison) is rude and snarky, she also talks down to Sakura. It took a good 2 years after the first two seasons to get the 3rd Season dubbed because the romance is such an integral part of the 3rd Season, they had a hard time dubbing it. I just remember they completely changed everything about Sakura, Syaoran, and the Elevator, my favorite episode. Oddly enough the dolls were a lot closer to the original Bandai Japan dolls and they made a doll version of Meiling which they never made for the Japanese audience. I think the biggest difference in the dolls was the quality of the accessories. US Sakura comes with a solid molded very Western backpack while Japanese Sakura has her anime accurate randoseru and it actually opened and closed. Overall the dolls are not as high quality, some of mine had their hair come out and they were never played with. I have to re-root them.
I grew up on the original card captors dub and I loved it! Yes, they really did change it to appear more action packed and less girly. But I think they still did a good job at making it entertaining and holding kids attention. I was a 10 year old little gay boy who was obsessed with card captors in the early 00’s. I wanted to BE a cardcaptor. 😅
I would later see the Japanese version and read the manga and as cute as it was I don’t think it would’ve been successful here in America as is. There’s a lot of cultural aspects that would not have translated well. 🤷🏾♂️
Another series I liked was Mew Mew Power
(Tokyo Mew Mew is the original title). They did a really good job of Americanizing it while keeping it VERY girly. But that magical girl series was not as successful in the US in comparison to Sailor Moon and Card Captors.
@@rachelk7784 I had the Kero talking plush and the book of clow cards. I remember the packing would come in colors like red instead of the pink they’d use in the Japanese originals. And I’m googling toys now, and I see there were lots of action figures not and not just dolls for it. I also remember they had toys on Burger King too! Little things like this made it a bit easier for boys to have “permission” to like and play with the merchandise. Sad that’s the case. But yeah…
The US dub gave card captors a bit of Harry Potter like appeal. A mostly gender neutral show about kids and magic. I think they did a good job.
@@rachelk7784 Tbh CardCaptors voice acting was better than the Animax dub but it did keep everything from the Japanese version in but I can't stand the new voices much. Japanese was the way to go for the full version.
This reminds me of transformers which largely excluded any significant female characters as hasbro had no interest marketing the show towards girls. A writer for the show and original cartoon movie had a daughter who loved it and wanted to see a female transformer. He had to fight tooth and nail with the suits to include one. Eventually he won and we got Arcee as well as some other female bots. But she had no toys until the mid 00s, around 20 years after her creation. She was even excluded from the 2007 adaption because Michael bay (blegh) said he didn’t want to explain transformer genders. In the next movie she is there and never has this explanation but is killed unceremoniously with little screen time. She is thankfully set to be a main character in the reboot film next summer and has received significant roles in recent cartoons and has an abundance of toys and fellow fembots
as a kid, I wondered why so many boys were into Transformers-- without (widely marketed) girl characters, little me simply dismissed it as boring and not worth watching. I was probably wrong of course, but I still wanted a dynamic where multiple boy and girl characters could get along and share the spotlight. even in the 2000s it sometimes felt like it was too much to ask
@@itsstudytimemydudes4345 I agree. I think by time it was the mid 2000s a lot of action shows for kids that were intended for boys did a good job of including girls. Ben 10, monster buster club, Danny phantom all had good female characters and didn’t sideline them too much. Kim possible was the ultimate it’s for anyone action cartoon. The next transformers film has 3 confirmed female robot characters and there’s possibly a 4th. So lol transformers could still do better but really hoping they do because I love it so much
@@CJthePLAYA I hope so too! I wish I couldve been allowed to watch Danny Phantom as a kid, I wanna try to find ways to watch it now. Id also like to watch Kim Possible and Ive never heard of Monster Buster Club but it sounds cool. luckily with Ben 10, my friend plans to let me borrow his dvds to watch it so Im excited for that
The best part is, since they hated the concept of having female transformers, the writers made it so all transformers are born male. So, when female transformers were introduced, that meant they were, hilariously, canonically transgender. In an effort to reduce inclusion, one of, if not the first transgender character on children's tv was born.
i've never watched transformers, but the more i read/ hear about michael bay, the more i understand all the hate towards him. >.>;
All these years I've thought to myself "I wish these American companies knew how much shame and insecurity they've imparted in me and likely many others - for being a girl and liking girly things." But now I realise they did it on purpose.
All dogs go to Heaven.
All marketing execs go to Hell.
@@MajoradeMayhem Amen.
Here in Brazil, ANIME was marketed for everybody, so I've watched Sailor Moon(with NO censorship, just the Americanized names for some characters, Setsuna, Hotaru, Haruka and Michiru remained with their names), alongside with Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Yuyu Hakusho and so on, rarely TV broadcasters censored something because it's expensive to edit and censor.
We also had ALL the arcs, ironically, the anime was extremely popular, but the Manga took 20 years to show up and get a proper translation, but many fans petitioned and managed to do so.
The only Sailor Moon property that never aired around here was the 2003/2004 live action(THAT did had excellent toys and dolls by the way).
And Sailor Moon it's still the less toxic fandom I've ever been, including dolls fandoms and shows fandoms, everybody most of the time is very chill.
omg I loooove the dolls for the live action series! I wish they weren't so expensive, but I guess they didn't have the same run as the ones for the anime
@@DarlingDollz Yeah, I think it was Japan exclusive, but they are really cute.
Aí que bom saber que tem BR vendo esse conteúdo uhu
Sim ♡ Ah, aquela época maravilhosa pra ser fã de anime!
Fortunately, Yu Yu Hakusho was one of the few early animes that didn't get "Americanized" with different names and whatnot. They were some scenes that were censored like Yusuke groping a trans demon's breast, or flipping up Keiko's skirt, and so forth but I can understand why they had to cut those out since the show was targeted for kids.
So weird that the lady complained about the dolls looking “child” like where there literally 14 years old 💀
It’s very disheartening that boys were prioritized over girls even with animation, I grew up watching shows that were marketed towards boys like sonic x and teen Titans (which ironically was also cancelled because they didn’t sell enough toys and the head of CN believed it was because too many girls were watching it) I’m glad that despite the changes made Sailor Moon managed to be one of the most successful animes in America. It’s like a big f you to the people that didn’t believe a girly show could be popular
When Sailormoon was first released here in the Philippines, it was clearly marketed for girls. There was no attempt to try to market it to boys. Here in my country, girls are the primary target for shows anyway. Boys do watch shows (like Power Rangers, Transformers, etc) but there are shows that are unabashedly for girls as well. I love Sailormoon! The people in America are so weird. Why did they think that there is no market for really girly shows? There is always a niche for this. Contrary to some people's beliefs, some girls are not falling over their feet to be "like the boys." Some love their femininity and rightly they should!
I think they have misconceptions even till this day
Same here in Indonesia (at least in the 90s} we're pretty chill with Sailor Moon. The show was marketed for girls, but lots of boys also secretly like it. So if the girls bought the Sailor Moon dolls (the Japanese imports thankfully), the boys bought the Sailor Moon Mega Drive game or the SNES ones.
The problem is the people making the products were all men. So they could think about what theyd like as a kid, but girls were mysteries apparently. So they were largely ignored like 90s because they were a risk. They could spend all this money, and a product would fail.
Then (at least in my experience) it was part of the occult panic of the time. So people were afraid of magic, and girls were supposed to be "pure" so boys could play with ninja turtles due to that not being "magic" but "science", but girls would be frowned upon for liking the same. Then any magic shows would be thought to be "satanic".
@@petirgarda1005 Yeah and when other anime came into Indonesian national TV, there was never any gender-specific marketing to it, which was why I a lot of my male and female friends in elementary school liked shows like One Piece.
The same with Malaysia, I don't mind femininity, rightly and innocence when it comes for anime shows (and don't get me started for Chibi Maruko-chan series. This show hits in Malaysia and I remember watching it with my cousins since childhood)
Was anyone else not allowed to watch Sailor Moon as a kid because it was "too girly"? And I'm AFAB...the 90s and early 2000s fear of femininity was out of control. That's why it warms my heart to see the girliest toys and celebs from that era remembered with the most nostalgia today.
I’d argue the 90s/2000s was more accepting of high-femininity than of what is of today. Or at least a vapid femininity?
Now adays we get more variation on girl characters which is good but I think that super girly sensibility is fading out. I wish both can coexist. 😞
I never watched Sailor Moon when I was young, mainly because it wasn't on TV at the time.
Though I don't think it would've been a problem since I watched a few shows aimed at girls when I was little.
@@VintageToilet yeah i wasnt allowed: monster high, barbie, bratz, sailor moon or any magical girl animes, or mlp. I managed to watch mlp though and saw monster high/barbie at sleepovers on occasion. They only let me read or watch "feminist" or "educational" things.
I wasn’t allowed to watch cartoons of any sort at all.
@@stargirlabi_111 The pain 😭
I remember that I wasn't allowed monster high dolls because it was "diabolic". 😭😭😭
I grew up with the Latin American version of sailor moon since I lived in Dominican Republic; what I’m surprised about is as far as I can remember there was very little censorship between the Japanese and LatAm version of SM. We didn’t have any dolls in the market for SM tho
In Brazil I believe we got bootleg dolls, but much later I guess?
@@robin2666 in Brazil we also had the Bandai dolls (the European ones, not the ugly North American ones 😆), but as they were so much expensive (they were imported), they didn't sell well and it was one of the factors Rede Manchete couldn't exhibit the second season.
Same here in the Philippines . In local TV stations censorship is rare but they do change up the names tho not their full names but the name their friends call them like jian was changed to demulag and in cable TV stations like cartoon network we rarely have censorship compare to the American version of CN . We didn't get sailor moon toys tho . shows in CN , nick , Disney channel , are usually the once who gets toys . Doreamon was Hella popular here . We even got our own tagalog theme song
Did they censor the wlw relationship?
@@ahhh4117 the Latin American versions (🇲🇽 & 🇧🇷) were quite faithful to the original, the only changes I remember were the main character names, female voice for Zoisite and male voices for the Sailors Starlights (before they transform).
A mixture of ignorant male executives and anti-feminine feminists is an awful combination.
Some girls are "girly" and some guys like "girly" things too. I'm glad Sailor Moon has persisted in spite of all the obstacles. I personally think that the Dic dub, for all its issues, still retained the femininity pretty well.
It got me when the lady tried to equate the original dolls' cuteness as 'sad and not strong' and they awful redesigns were 'strong and heroic'.
The new dolls looked....constipated.
As a girl who grew up watching GI Joe, He-Man, and Transformers more than Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and My Little Pony, I kind of find the idea that "girls wouldn't like action show" kind of weird. Even into my teens I was loving Batman:TAS, TMNT, and X-Men. To be fair, I lost interest in dolls long before Sailor Moon came out, but just the idea that executives were saying "We don't want to attract a girl audience with this show that features a primarily female cast" is a bit insane.
It also is incredibly dumb that they didn't want to use 50% of their market, which is painfully undersaturated even today
It reminds me of what happened with Justice League. Cartoon Network canceled at the show because there was more females than males watching the shows, and they thought that females were not going to buy any of the toys. It was such a dumb reason.
maybe they prefered girls to stay in the kitchen with their mom, learning how to cook for their future husband...
Even though they did Sailor Moon dirty with those dolls, I still can't help but have a soft spot in my heart for them. I grew up with Sailor Moon. Actually before it even came to the states. My best friend in preschool was Japanese and I remember her drawing Sailor Moon characters for me and giving me tiny figures of Jupiter and Venus. Even now, 30 years later, I still adore Sailor Moon.
Grew up with Sailor Moon in Germany ♡ we've had a pop group named "Super Moonies" who created songs for an album and of course even a own opening theme, completely different from the original one. The group members dressed like Sailor Moon characters and had some concerts. We also had a weekly magazine with comics and extras like jewelery or tests like "which soldier would you be". Also we've had a lot of merchandise as well. Dolls...the wands and broochs. Also clothings with Sailor Moon printed on. I can remember that the dolls looked very similar to the japanese versions but I'm not 100% sure because I was never allowed to get one when I was a kid 😅
I am born 1990 and watched the Anime when it came out 1995. So I was in kindergarten at the time. I'm a huge fan since today and still love it. Now...in 2021 the poplarity from SM is on a new level because you can buy Sailor Moon Sweaters in several stores again. Even mercandise like luna shaped pillows or coffee cup etc ♡
I feel the way old cartoons were so heavily segregated is so similar to how video games were during those times. In the ways a lot of young kids felt they couldn't watch certain shows, I felt that I couldn't play certain games. It's pretty interesting but also mind-numbingly irritating how vastly split things were at the time, and that kind of aggressive marketing lived well into the 2010s
Definitely. When I was in elementary school, I once confessed to a boy that I was into BeyBlade when it was targeted towards boys while a male friend of mine had confessed he watched Totally Spies which is also marketed towards girls.
Not sure were you lived but Boys and irls wtched each others cartoons and plyed with each other toys. Crossover of more boy focused franchises and girl focused franchises were common. More feminine shows had male trades in it (MLP with demons to fight) and boyish caroons had feminine traits in it (romance, cure characters) (Gargoyels). He-Man and She-Ra were the peak of that. It is the best sibling show.
What a strange time. Barbie back in the mid 90's has short skirts and wore heels. Also Tyco Ariel from 1990 had kind of big anime eyes, as did Lisa, the American import of Licca Chan from Takara. Although the Lisa version wasn't widely available. I guess Bandai was just being over cautious and putting too much thought into their Dolls. I only remember the Irwin ones. The only thing I remember Bandai releasing back then were the Power Rangers which were wildly popular.
Although, Barbie have, and stil has her fair share of critism. Especially from the so called 'mommy-maffia'.
It seems to not matter what they do with Barbie, there will always be people complaining about her.
The power rangers dolls use a licca base which is surprising. Thats why they are 9" and not Barbie. I dont get why they couldn't do it with Sailor Moon. The PGSM Live Action dolls are also Licca.
我有芭比娃娃
as a doll customizer, this makes me really want to make a sailor moon fashion doll as like a reimagining of the westernized version we COULD have had. frankensteining a good head sculpt and posable body with a similar body type to Usagi, maybe as a future project 😊
I'd watch that vide
I'm very glad my brothers and I watched Sailor Moon together. It had universal appeal - lore, strong character arcs and writing, dramatic stakes, and girls who goofed around and cared about each other in the same way my brothers and I goofed around and cared about each other. Yes, it's girly. That was not a problem for us in the slightest. It was a good show and that's all we cared about. My oldest brother actually got the Sailor Mercury doll for his birthday one year and was unironically hyped; we played with that doll alongside our Power Rangers and TMNT toys, because Ami was just as heroic as any character from those franchises, and being girly didn't detract from that, it was just simply a part of that.
My dad also sat in on a fair number of episodes because my parents believed in watching what their children were watching in order to make sure that they could understand if/when we wanted to talk to them about something in the show, and my dad loved it. But he was always good about validating and praising girly things, so at the time I had no idea that was unusual. (He later watched My Little Pony with his granddaughter, my niece, and also liked that series and thought it was good. My dad kicked toxic masculinity's ass.)
Luckily in Brazil they didn't make Sailor Moon "palatable" as they did in The US.
We had the same Bandai dolls and the merchandise as in Japan. And the music/dub was also translated from the original Japanese. It became a huge success!
Did they erase the gay relationship and crossdresser?
@@Marigold98 No, the only thing they did was dub Zoisite as a woman but apart from that everything was just like the original 🙂
I honestly prefer Sailor moon over modern female heroes. I love that anime allows their female characters to be feminine while conveying their strength. I think Hollywood still sees femininity as weak and makes the characters more masculine to show power especially in comics.
Sailor moon is the prove of how much something created with passion can be deformed by corparatives
I grew up with Sailor Moon in Germany back in the early 90s and we got both the Bandai as well as the Giochi Preziosi dolls, though even those I wasn't all that interested in. I feel like Naoko's art is just so breathtakingly stunning, that none of the playline toy lines could ever capture that essence truly.
I agree! Though the Giochi dolls probably come the closest imo for the dolls made outside Japan
@@DarlingDollz do you have one?
Don't forget the IGEL dolls.
@@sofijones5048 oh yes, I remember those. they weren't exactly the prettiest but there was an attempt made to have them look faithful to the Anime.
It's kind of weird how the idea that Anime is too soft and too feminine is still prevalent today in American remakes. Even just feminist remakes of franchises always tries to make women look powerful and strong, always denying their femininity in their quest of female empowerment 😳🧐
There's something so exhausting to me about American remakes getting rid of femininity as a way to make a character 'better'. The implication that there's something wrong with being feminine is so gross. Feminine and badass can coexist in one person.
Yes, this is an interesting problem. Feminism often sees feminity as a bad thing, I think it's just weird. As my big bro once pointed out, there was once an old black&white movie clip where an old sovinist man says: "But why can't women jusy be more like men?" and it sounds weirdly much the same thing modern feminism often aims to. Hmmmmmmmm...
I really can't get my head around what these men were thinking. Little girls are just as likely to buy toys as little boys. And if toys aren't enough, make t-shirts, make fancy dress, key charms... and how do you even know how much if your audience is female? Did they do any surveys to allow them to compare profit from shows with predominantly female audiences to shows with predominantly male audiences? It's stupid. Test your theory before you state it as truth!!!
The limitations from the corporate obsession with aggressively gendered marketing at that time still have an impact on so many things even today. Take for example video games. Despite the fact that many women were involved in the early creation of video games, this sort of gender bias decided to market them as a “boys” thing… resulting in a slew of hyper masculine trends in game designs and unhealthy stereotypes and gatekeeping attitudes that still make many fandoms in gaming somewhat hostile space for women to participate in even today. I find it so sad and laughable that they even tried to do this with something so overtly feminine as sailor moon due to this narrow way of thinking.
you said it so well, it's endlessly infuriating.
"hostile"ß Outside of twitter weirdos and fake gamers ruining franchises I don't notice anything hostile in that scene. Only the hostile part of those claiming to be oh sooooo oppressed.
@@BlackCroft666 ahh ya wanker, you don't get it
What's funny about video games is that before they were heavily marketed towards boys, they were actually market as something for everybody. It sucks how gender marketing can ruin so many things.
@@BlackCroft666 You don't get it because you aren't a female gamer. We sometimes get incels insulting us for no reason at all in game.
In Spain (I’m from Barcelona), we had lots of uncensored and true to the original shoujos, Sailor Moon included. It was beautiful 💜✨
"Power Rangers for girls" I want to know more about this.
Also, I still have my American Sailor Moon doll somewhere in storage; her Moon Stick is long lost though. I also had 3 of the larger dolls, Sailor Uranus, and the Serena and Mini Moon two pack (that you showed at 9:49). In my play room they were the ultimate protectors of my toy kingdom, keeping all my other toys safe from evil.
I had one of those dolls the Kimberly one. It was ok but not very show accurate. It had long curly hair! The hair on it was poor quality. The dolls were about 8 inches tall.
Naoko was actually inspired by Power Rangers, Super Sentai, and the tokusatsu genre when she created Sailor Moon (or initially the prequel series Code Name: Sailor V). So much so that she was involved in creating a live action Sailor Moon series in Japan in the early 2000's. It was all about having a team of fighters defeating monsters and villains together, except girls. She very purposely tossed a lot of tropes upside down for the entire franchise. I feel like a lot of that inspiration is pretty obvious in the Sailor Moon Musicals as well. Their costume designs always reminded me of some of the flashier tokusatsu costume designs.
@@pikapal91746 Awww your pfp is so cute
@@pokeypoker6208 thanks
I never undestood the American marketing concept that believes that "action shows arent meant for girls" or "no kids would buy merchandise with a female protagonist"
I didn't watch Sailor Moon until I hit middle school (2014 for me). Had been watching anime since I was a very young kid (Thanks 4Kids), but it took me a bit to get to Sailor Moon. I rented some DVDs of the DiC dub from my local library and I had a blast with it! Looking forward to getting the series on Blu-ray and getting the dolls at some point!
Disney still plays to this mindset. The Princess and the Frog was really the last film given a “feminine” title and marketed for girls. Which is why we have ambiguous non-gendered titles like “Tangled” instead of “Rapunzel”, “Frozen” instead of “The Snow Queen”, Brave, etc. At least Moana’s title was relevant. Princess movies can’t just be princess movies anymore.
Ok so sailor moon marketed in japan was so sparkly and feminine. It was like barbie almost. The cosmic makeup was very much like that little girls in commercials would transform too. It's like that for many magical girl shows nowadays. There is now makeup theme for women who grew up watching SM
When I asked my cousin in her 40’s if she watched ThunderCats, her response was that it was a “boy’s show”. This is despite the fact that I know of at least two separate women who liked and watched it when they were kids, and Cinematic Excrement watched Jem and the Holograms for the Science Fiction aspect
Thundercats was my first fandom! I remember being four and pretending to be Liono. I suppose it may be significant that I never identified with Cheetara, but I also remember that my slightly older brother never watched it despite being part of the intended audience. I think they had weird ideas about what boys and girls liked back then, because I also introduced my brother and his friends to Sailor Moon years later and they loved it. Turns out lots of boys like pretty girls and girls like shows with plots and action. Go figure.
I'm an 81 baby and Thundercats was one of my favorites! Along with HeMan haha. But I also loved MLP, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, and SheRa.
Huh?? I’m a female born in 1980 and *loved* watching Thundercats! My older brother and I used to watch that and other “boy” cartoons like He-Man, Mask, and GI Joe together. I have a memory of my older sister telling me not to watch cartoons with my brother because he “watched bad cartoons.” I couldn’t wrap my head around why they were “bad”, was it because they didn’t have giggling, had nothing pink, or only had action??? I didn’t listen and watched anyway. 😂
I think the "ugly mold" could have worked. . . It's the hair and paint job.
The OG English dub was canadian. . . Serena/usagi shared her actress with Care Bears Shrieky. Oh yeah, and the retooling of the theme. . . That makes it pretty clear the marketing had changed
Love the fact sailor moon had LGBTQ characters too when I was younger. They had some non binary characters later dubbed in the American version. This was extremely rare at the time for cartoons.
omg i grew up watching the spanish dub with my mom in the early 2000s and had one of the japanese style dolls (a pretty good knock off ngl) that my aunt got me when she went to mexico, i remember the first time i saw one of the american sailor moon dolls at a thrift store years later and almost cried at how ugly they were 😭😭
The marketing for this show reminds me of the US marketing of cardcaptor sakura 😅
This is why they over here in America they tend to cut out Sailor Saturn from every promotional material and her merchandise is extremely horrifying because when you have a Sailor Scout literally called the guardian of silence and death it might put a little Gap in your little pretty princess concept
"they were very beautiful dolls"
one second later
"their eyes were....sad"
I am French and anime were imported, dubbed and shown on TV from the late 70s. I litterally grew up on shojos and other anime, I loved DBZ as a teen. I am now in my early 40s. I am shocked that some Americans executives had so much prejudice against shows aimed at girls when it was obviously a massive success in other countries. Such a conservative and reactionnary approach!
So the little blurb where Naoko talks about the American dolls with the illustration: it looks like it’s from the Mixx Manga release. I believe there is some confusion as to how authentic those “Naoko’s notes” really are. Would love more info from fellow moonies.
I'm from Poland. We had the same "Naoko's note" about american dolls in our release of manga volumes.
Man that clip of tuxedo mask calling zoisite a loser really speaks to me on a spiritual level
Incredible that bandai America thought the high heels would be too sexual as if Barbie hadn't been wearing heels for decades up until that point.
As a male "moonie" I have to say I watched this show when it first broadcasted on ch 13 at 700 am M-F and I loved the show. For me it was the first show that I recognized was Japanese animation. Most cartoons during that time was episodic and so I liked the fact that they were episodic, but was overall serialized, leading to a bigger story. As for the romance since I was 13 at the time and just barely understanding what love is, I liked the fact that there was a guy who throws roses, says inspirational stuff and doesn't do anything to really help the scouts and they love him for it. He was and I would say to this day still is my hero lol. They also had an amazing soundtrack, and that's saying something for a kid growing up in the 80's when we had badass theme songs for Thundercats, He-Man, She-Ra etc.
As for the dolls, well, of course I didn't have it, but I remember those dolls because I still have the 2 dollar off coupon that's on the back of the Sailor Moon cd which I own to this day :D
I started watching Sailor Moon in 2013, in college. That was after I'd become a Brony, so was more willing to watch less "manly" shows. There is a lot of stigma around boys watching "girly" things in the US, which makes the male oriented marketing in the 1990s all the more befuddling. In fairness, I think age of the demographic plays a roll, I think maybe the US audience skewed much younger than the Japanese audience: teens regardless of gender are I think more interested in romance plots than younger viewers. I always like strong female characters though: I loved Chetara & Storm when I was little, and Lt Uhura too.
I have noticed, as a collector, that some companies really struggle with the rooted hair aspect of dolls: GI Joe tried to add a nurse who came out looking awful because the forehead was way too big. The (I think) Brazilian rights holders used that mold again though and their characters (aside from not being nurses, but rather real action heroes) had better executed hair that made them much better looking. So sometimes I think more "action figure" oriented lines do a better job of capturing characters, since they don't have crushable hair.
The American doll reminds me of the foreign dolls from the flea market
Thank god for Japanese brands like Banpresto and Sega for blessing us with BEAUTIFUL dolls and figurines. They even have been making dolls for American properties like adorable Disney princess dolls.🤩
Dolls or Figures?
I'm born in 2000 and I'm from Germany. Back in the early 2000s, every kid's show tried to be for boys or girls, nearly no show tried to capture both. But things were not so bad over here when I do remember right. We had quite some shows here, especially because we have a kids channel run by public service broadcasting called "KiKa" (short for "Kinder Kanal", children channel). They had quite some cooperation with Japan so we got a lot of shows early and could dub them. Most of them are true classics, based on European children books like "Niels Holgerson", "Wickie und die starken Männer"(English: Vicky the Viking), "Heidi", "Pinocchio"(English: The Adventures of Pinocchio) or "Biene Maja"(English: Maya the Honey Bee). Those shows were produced in the 70s and are known by everyone here. (They are all Animes and they are except the first one produced by Nippon Animation).
Nearly all of those shows, and we had them in original for a very long time - at least 40 years in television - were made for boys and girls.
So I think we had the heavily advertised for one gender shows but also the good old classics for both. That probably made a big difference to the US.
I grew up with the Latin American version of Sailor Moon (dubbed in Mexico) and I love it, to me Mexican dubbing was great in those times. They did have a bit of censorship, but it was very good. She was super popular along with other animes airing at the time. I did get an Usagi/Serena doll, and I still have it (I loved it when I got it as a little girl) but I have to say they’re super ugly lol I can understand why the mangaka was upset when she saw them.
I completely lost it when you referred to them as the "ugly face" molds ! 😆
I was lucky enough to have a fairly large sm doll collection at one point *mostly sold now* and my husband and I always called them that. I still loved them lol 💜
Did the word, "Barbie," ever cross these people's minds? Marketing girly dolls to girls can be a gold mine. Boys don't want to buy Barbie doll style dolls...well, some do, but for the most part, they simply don't. Anyway, if they had portrayed these characters as they were and allowed the show to speak for itself, they could have sold the heck out of these to young girls. The later success of Bratz and Monster High makes it very clear that girls like girly things and fantasy. What a missed opportunity.
Bandai US: To us their faces looked very childlike, THE EYES WERE SAD.
US Sailormoon Dolls faces: 🙁😐😳
i love all of the context you brought together in this video, dd. it was very on topic, and yet this is a much larger conversation than what i'd expected at first. i really appreciate how you didn't shy away from discussing the sexism of the marketing of 90's children's action shows.
As a kid I always watch a lot of Disney princess movies on VHS and girly cartoons back in the 2000's, and this was normal to me and never feeling so alienated or questioning my gender identity of how girly as many males think they believe.
Not until I heard about Sailor Moon back in the early 2010's and finally found something that I've been looking for because nobody ever talk about this anime since TV is starting to decline or any guidance to find a way to watch Sailor Moon
My kindergarten teacher surprised me with a two pack of Sailor Moon dolls (the Toys R Us exclusive with Serena and Rini) when I was moving away at the end of the year. Best surprise ever ^_^
I’ve seen the entire series and I’ve never been interested in the dolls because of their faces and there low quality of hair.
Why do the ‘Adventure’ dolls look like McDonald’s toys?
Idk I have one and I said the same thing LOL
Honestly, I quite liked the ugly faced dolls! The mini ones that is, they had a certain so ugly you can’t help but love them type of vibe!🥰
I kinda agree 😅 They're fun in that ridiculous 90's kinda way
@@DarlingDollz precisely !
I'm listening to that old promo and those statements from DIC and just shaking my head with how out of touch adults were back then with thinking boys and girls were just put in simple boxes of different likes and dislikes. I remember how I loved the old Teenage Mutant Turtles as a kid and had a lunch box for them as a little girl. And there were guys in high school who loved all the shojo animes like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura. Worrying about marketing is one thing, but I feel like they didn't understand us at all.
Hello! I am a huge Sailor Moon collector ( my UA-cam channel is mostly unboxing and reviewing new Sailor Moon items) but I wanted to say I really enjoyed this video! You did your research and it clearly shows
germany also had a queen beryl doll :P they where made originaly by giochi preziosi and sold under the brand "igel" in germany.
2:40 everytime I see miss Tuy Trang, my heart melts. Rest in Peace, you beautiful angel ♥
I had the later Irwin dolls and they were my absolute favorite toy, even with the quality problems. Their legs popped off a lot. This video brought back a lot of great memories :)
I'm confused, the 90s have always gone strict with the idea that girls like girly things. Look at barbie and my little pony. Those things are girly. It's fine that they want to try to market a girl doll line and a girl TV show where it's not too girly. But sailor moon has always been a girl show and is girly. So why did they think that the girls don't want it to be girly and that it's unappealing to them? It's worse that they changed the dolls to look more strong and less anime and cute because it was assumed they don't want it to be cute when barbie is literally adorable.
I watched Sailor Moon from the jump in 95, it came on early morning so I'd record the episodes on blank VHS tapes to watch when I got back home from school. It just immediately entranced me, it was nothing like anything I saw before. My mom was really kind and supportive and took me to toys r us, kaybee, FAO Schwartz etc to look for the dolls, I never did find the 12" Sailor Mercury from the first set. I collected the trading cards they had in a machine at the front of TRU, I joined the fan club, introduced my friends to it. It was a great time, and I'm glad I still have all my dolls and merch from back then
Same! I’d leave it recording on VHS tapes too lol. Good times 💕
It's so dumb that media exec's or whoever thought that the age group that is most open, curious, and receptive to new things would be unable to be interested in a new thing.
"The faces are too childlike" BECAUSE THE SAILOR SOLDIERS ARE KIDS?????
Man, that was a fun and informative watch! Thanks for explaining it all. I remember being SO SO excited to find toys of Sailor Moon, I would literally stalk every aisle at Toys R' Us whenever we went, search the fan sites for toys they had overseas that we didn't get yet, refresh the save-our-sailors page as we fought for recognition... it makes me SO MAD that they didn't think girls liked toys!!! I went through the same frantic search for toys with Sonic the Hedgehog stuff! And it was so hard to find! Ugh. One of my favorite memories though was actually the 'Quarter' vending machines that dispensed trading cards for Sailor Moon! I never did get them all but it was so exciting to try! The dolls were so ugly though... i always felt like their faces got mashed in lol. I tried to force my Barbie clothes to fit their odd body shapes but that wasn't too easy either, and I got frustrated by the design limitations.Those execs were so tone-deaf!
Like… your research and perspective on how sailor moon was first perceived has added so much perspective to me. I currently live in Japan and as an adult I understand so much more context on anime and manga that I never had before living in Japan. But some how, sailor moon has remained a beloved show that stands out from the rest and I never could explain why. It’s the part when you said “a show of girls, being girls, and doing girlie things”… it was SO revolutionary to my young mind that even today I seek out. Sailor moon did it perfectly because they never were “trying” to cater what they thought I wanted to see… Takeuchi was literally in middle school when she drew and wrote sailor moon. The show was foreign to America, but not because it was from Japan, rather because it was more honest and free than anything else on television in America.
I was in Japan (military brat) in 1994 and that’s when I first fell in love with sailor moon. I always wanted the regular sailor moon doll but my mom bought me the sailor moon wedding edition. It definitely a product of the time- the dress was straight up 80s. Pink bows galore! I still have her m, she’s in pretty great condition considering, no stains, all her hair, and all her accessories ( minus the moon crescent for her forehead) and I’d love to have her restored. I wonder if she is worth anything?
Look up Tamas Room here on YT, she has tons of Sailor Moon doll restoration videos! They're super entertaining and relaxing, but should also give you a good idea of where to start as far as fixing her up goes!
@@DarlingDollz thank you so much! I absolutely will look her up!
If she is in good condition she is worth a lot!
I grew up with Sailor Moon in the 90's in the US. I had the plush Sailor Moon dolls. My opinion may be unpopular but I don't think the dolls made by Irwin in the 90's were that bad. Sailor Moon's face didn't turn out great imo but the other ones weren't that bad. Just my two cents.
Loving your content! So refreshing and interesting.
This was fun to watch! I like when you do the deep dive videos on doll lines
We had im Spain the original Japanese fashion style dolls and the plastic figurines. As well as castle and wands. The 90's we had sooo many cool anime here that we were lucky and got nice toys.
I love how the 90s tv advertisement features the serenity and beryl battle scenes REMOVED FROM DIC FINAL EPISODE OF SEASON 1 LOL
Even though I was a teenager when I discovered Sailor Moon (airing on Fox Kids UK in 2001 or so) it was massively formative to me. I remember being so excited finding the Irwin dolls in branches of Woolworths (Woolies in the UK sadly now long dead but it used to be an institution practically) restickered by Vivid Imaginations their UK importer (literally just had the Vivid logo on a sticker over the Irwin one!)
I really enjoy your commentaries! I always learn something interesting!
These dolls look like sleep paralysis demons. I think there was an effort to market to boys and erase their anime origins but also an attempt to fit her into one of the few categories allowed for girl toys at the time. Toy companies seemed to think the only reason to give girls toys was to teach them to be women so you've got all these doll lines for little girls that are either babies or animals for you to practice being a mom to or grown women with jobs & glamourous lives like Barbie & Jem. The idea that little girls would want to play with dolls of teenagers doing teen stuff (going to school, talking about boys, complaining, fighting crime, etc) didn't fit into an available category so they were like "We'll just say she's a glamourous superhero, that's kinda Jem, right?".
我有美少女戰士的人偶s h f figure
GREAT VIDEO :)) I recently started collecting sailor moon dolls because ri had the 2000 Irwin SM one. As of now I have mostly Bandai dolls cause they are definitely cuter, but my goal is to have some dolls from each line. I’m definitely gonna be watching your channel!
Your video essays are so informative and I always learn so much!
I remember I would collect the original mixx sailor moon manga and reading takeuchi talking about the irwin dolls and being so glad she felt the same way I did about them. If they had kept the japanese faces I would have collected those dolls like crazy. I was a huge collector of sailor moon merchandise back in the day but preferred to get whatever japanese merchandise I could get my hands on
I'm SOOOOO glad u did a video on Sailor Moon! I discovered this show possibly a bit later than I should have, around '99-'00, when I was 11-12, and it became my absolute obsessionnnnnn for about 5 years lol. I had the early translated manga tankobons, RPG book (which is actually highly rare/obscure now), VHS tapes, trading cards, playing cards, and of course, dolls. The dolls I had were the later Canadian releases I guess, the size of Barbies. I had Sailors Moon and Mars. I also obtained a weird looking Jupiter from a different line that had her tiara jewel light up when u raised one arm (bought that in a hobby shop in St. Augustine). I still own most of my merch from that time, preserved in storage, and can't wait to display my dolls, cards, and books one day. Unfortunately, they r not in their original boxes since I was a preteen who still played with toys then. Thank u for this video, and for giving me an opportunity to talk about my Sailor Moon collection! ❤
Okay this one by far has got to be my favorite video by far!
I didn’t grow up watching the sailor moon anime but I was first introduced to the manga in elementary school. I must say, it’s really disappointing seeing how American companies were so afraid of femininity in animated series and how it manifested in the American release of the show. :( I’m glad the show reached classic status despite its setbacks in the west! (I didn’t get a sailor moon doll BUT I did get a knockoff action figure in the 20th anniversary release lol)
Loved the video, very insightful content. Wish you would’ve talked more about the “pretty face irwin dolls!! As they’re the most sought after dolls in the Sailor Moon community, and they’re beautiful. They got pretty far with the irwin lines too, having 6 inch dolls, 11 inch dolls, and other additional characters like Princess Serena, Chibi Moon, Black Lady (or dark lady/wicked lady), Sailor Pluto, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn & Sailor Uranus.
I used to have crunchy old Mars and Venus dolls. They were 20 bucks each at some anime store and were fun as a collector but I didn't even feel like unboxing them which is bad for me because if I love something I always unbox it. I feel like if someone made proper dolls of these Sailor Soldiers they would kill a lot of peoples wallets, mine included. I got the inner senshi Figuarts action figures that came out in the last handful of years but a poseable 11" Mars with glossy eyes and long purple brushable hair would be like a dream to me. ❤🔥💜🔥
I loved seeing Naoko's critiques for the dolls. That woman's grasp of a e s t h e t i c is invaluable and, dare I say, immaculate. I can't imagine a manufacturer not wanting to properly recreate her designs. That's so wild to me that misogyny is what drove them to give us garbo dolls.
我有一個q posket 神力女超人
im honestly the most curious as to why we never got the transformation wands/compacts overseas- as a kid in 2001 i would look them up on ebay and go absolutely nuts thinking of ways to convince my parents to buy one and have it imported from japan for me. i guess they didnt think little american girls liked toys that resembled Tools or Weapons too much.
I love how much love and research went into this. It would be cool if you're able to make a part 2 and cover the weird toys that were released in North America with the Sailor Moon brand like the infamous Moon Cycle 🤣👍
Omg thank you so much for this video. One of my coworkers and I have bonded over The Toys That Made Us on Netflix, and I tried to explain to him the weird nightmare that is the early Sailor Moon dolls, as well as some of the marketing choices made for the US version of the show early on. This is perfect! I own the Sailor Neptune Irwin doll, and she's actually so cute~!
我有一個q posket 艾莎與安娜❤❤❤
I still have my Sailor Venus. Didn’t play with her much but happy I still have her.
Ok completely random comment, But I love love love your pink sparkle backdrop… I wasn’t sure why it appealed to me Sooo much, but now I know why! I have always been and am still a Huge Classic Pink Panther Fan and it reminds me of the Old School backdrop when the Pink Panther Shorts come on with the nostalgic theme music we have come to know✨🥰! Forgive me for fanning out but that’s it! I love it… never huge in Sailor Moon but this is excellent coverage… as usual and thank you Soo much for the education 😌💎💙 I want you to see it. I’ll put it in my community tab just for you!
Thank you so much!
Sailor moon was a huge part of my childhood, and early adolescence❤ thanks to my sister who grew up in the 90s watching it. I "inherited" her full Sailor moon collection when she went off to college. I also got to have a virtual meet,and greet with Cherami Leigh (She voices Venus in the VIz dub) at crunchy roll expo back in August.
Can you please make a video of the Spice Girls dolls and the history behind them?! They were the only dolls in my elementary school that you had to own.
I got the whole team, plus Queen Beryl and Tuxedo mask for Christmas one year. It was the best Christmas ever lol. My parents still have my very well loved dolls at their house somewhere.
SAME HERE one Christmas I was given the entire set of Sailor Moon 90s IRWIN ADVENTURE DOLLS. Or I thought it was the whole set anyway I'm actually missing the Princess Serenity doll WITCH I GOD FOR BID CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE!
The fact that so many things got messed with and the quality dips soley for the notion that "but girls don't do ____" is really sad and I'm still not sure how people to this day have this belief.