Sailor Moon was my very first anime. She is, to this day, the only superhero I've ever fangirlled in an animation & comics medium. In total? She's one of two superheroes I've ever fangirlled...the other being Buffy. Who also didn't get to be called a superhero.
Sailor Moon is actually part of the reason I keep looking with curiousity at comics, wondering if I should get involved. Even though it was flawed, I adored Sailor Moon. I loved that she was a superhero who spent all her school day exhausted because she spent half her nights running around in a ridiculous outfit fighting monsters and crime. I loved that she had to balance having a real life with having a superhero responsibility.
And then she had a team! A whole team of other superhero girls with the same superhero problems! And she had a superhero boyfriend whose identity she didn't know IRL, but kind of knew anyway and had contentious flirting with! When I revisit the fandom I still tend to read/watch stuff from the first season--the season when identities were still secret, when the pressure to be normal vs. super was at its most realized.
All things considered, Buffy was a better superhero because she got more done and did it better than SM. But Buffy wasn't a traditional superhero. She didn't hide in a costume, and her identity was known. Even to the point that she, by the open name of Buffy Summers, was the Boogieman of all low-level vampires and demons in the town. She felt the desire to be normal, but after the first two seasons she didn't have to hide who she was.
I like secret identities, and costumes, and mistaken identities and hidden roles. I've always liked that about superhero stuff. SM was the only show I've ever really fangirlled that gave me that.
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Sailor Moon is actually part of the reason I keep looking with curiousity at comics, wondering if I should get involved. Even though it was flawed, I adored Sailor Moon. I loved that she was a superhero who spent all her school day exhausted because she spent half her nights running around in a ridiculous outfit fighting monsters and crime. I loved that she had to balance having a real life with having a superhero responsibility.
And then she had a team! A whole team of other superhero girls with the same superhero problems! And she had a superhero boyfriend whose identity she didn't know IRL, but kind of knew anyway and had contentious flirting with! When I revisit the fandom I still tend to read/watch stuff from the first season--the season when identities were still secret, when the pressure to be normal vs. super was at its most realized.
All things considered, Buffy was a better superhero because she got more done and did it better than SM. But Buffy wasn't a traditional superhero. She didn't hide in a costume, and her identity was known. Even to the point that she, by the open name of Buffy Summers, was the Boogieman of all low-level vampires and demons in the town. She felt the desire to be normal, but after the first two seasons she didn't have to hide who she was.
I like secret identities, and costumes, and mistaken identities and hidden roles. I've always liked that about superhero stuff. SM was the only show I've ever really fangirlled that gave me that.