America gets yet another chance to experience DIC's dubbing of *Sailor Moon* in this collection distributed by Buena Vista. Five volumes of the first series are available (for a total of ten episodes) and also the complete "Doom Tree" saga (available in an attractive boxed set). The high quality packaging is a key selling point as many fans already taped these episodes from their original broadcast. Collectors will appreciate the glittery original artwork on each box; these tapes literally leap from the video shelves. Buena Vista itself is a mixed blessing; Disney's clout ensures that Moon will be available to the masses, but Moonies have to sit through adverts for poorly animated episodes of *The Little Mermaid* and *Aladdin*.
The *Sailor Moon* episodes are presented as originally syndicated by DIC, which means that no further cuts have been made. Even the "Sailor Moon Says" segments are here, as are the commercial blackouts. Except for the Doom Tree episodes, the installments chosen tend to be those episodes that are relatively self-contained. Even so, a new viewer may be puzzled about why Queen Beryl has a rotating line of henchmen, or how Serena and Darien's relationship evolved. More episodes *could* have been included per tape (each video runs only 42 minutes) but why should Disney take the high road when other anime distributors such as US Manga and Streamline haven't?
For the uninitiated, *Sailor Moon* is the story of a teenage girl and her friends, all of whom possess magical powers that help them fight otherworldly evil. The series mixes comedy with melodrama.Its appeal comes from the contrast between the everyday teen adventures and the dreamlike Magical Girls-style combat. In good fairy-tale tradition, most of the villains are older females (perhaps a surrogate for evil stepmothers and witches?). It's one of the least violent anime available in the USA and to many fans, the most enjoyable. This is all you need to know in order to enjoy the series. If you want to know more, go to my essay entitled Can Anime Make It In The USA.
The Doom Tree episodes, though pricey, might be the best introduction to the series. The Doom Tree did not appear in the original Sailor Moon manga, and in these episodes the animators and writers are clearly having fun with Naoko's characters. They represented a kind of holding pattern until new manga installments were published. Watching this self-contained sequence of episodes will provide a good feel for the series and why it appeals to so many. There are some wonderful comic sequences (such as the production of Snow White and the Virtual Reality arcade), a couple of romantic triangles, and extremely appealing villains. Alan and Ann (the alien twins) are among my favorite characters in the series. The Sailor Scouts themselves seem to be all things to all fans: heroines to young girls, superheroes to young boys, nostalgia for older females, pinups for many male fans, well-written characters for all. They provide comedy, adventure, romance, and a far-fetched interplanetary reincarnation plot worthy of cult science fiction. It's likely that no two fans view the show in exactly the same way.
Buena Vista's choice in episodes ranges from the obvious (the origin episode, for example) to the less-obvious (the "love boat" episode). Thankfully, none of the series' clinkers have shown up on tape. Since Buena Vista has opted to release a mixture of "crucial" episodes and self contained episodes, and since DIC has recently dubbed over a dozen episodes for Canadian release, it would be nice if the two companies could get together and release some of the "missing" episodes on tape (especially the ones with Sailor Venus. Buena Vista would also be well-served to officially release the Sailor Moon feature films on video, as they are currently available as bootlegs in the States. Many fans would gladly step up to a professional quality dub or sub of these films. This may be a pipedream, but Disney's clout could help the merchandising of *Sailor Moon* finally break free of the comic store ghetto it has been confined to in the States.
I strongly recommend all animation fans to check out *Sailor Moon*. As I write this review, the current season of children's television has served up more poorly written Saban sentei series and some truly stiff action animation (such as *Calamity Jane*). *Sailor Moon* outshines virtually everything broadcast in animation or children's entertainment today. It deserves your attention.
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