I was meandering through various web forums when I came across the page of an old acquaintance. He had replaced his page apparently. Gone were his fiction writings and the dark and forboding atmosphere. In its place was a simple message in white text on a black background.

The author had returned to the Sailor Moon community because of a new anime series that is in production in Japan.

Papillon Rose is written by Xxx and is a parody of Sailor Moon. The official website says that the main character is a schoolgirl with a job in a pub. However, there is an "evil boss who tries to ruin the whole world of sexual industries", and the girl, Tsubomi, discovers that it is her destiny to defeat these nefarious plans. At the same time, she discovers her identity as the heroine Papillon Rose.

The last I heard, the series is currently in production, but the authors have been swamped with other work, so Papillon Rose has been put on the back burner.

So far, there are two lines of thought about the series. I'd have to say that 3/4 of the response on the official website's message board is favorable...people have a lot of interest in the new anime and have been pressuring the Japanese producers for English support on the website and an English dub or translation of the series. And I remind you, the series hasn't even been released in Japan yet.

The following is an example of the typical supportive response, and this one is from Italy.

"Hello! I'm from Italy! I know just a little bit about Papillon, but I think it's fantastic! I saw the promo clip; very nice! ^_^ I have the same, boiring question... WHEN? WHERE? And HOW can we see it?! The show is complete or the authors are still at work? Anyway, this site is wonderful! Keep up your work! Bye! ^_^"

In fact, the response has been so intense that fans aren't paying much attention to the people at the site when they repeat over and over, "We are not good at English, there is no English support here, the series is in production, the series production has been halted for the moment."

Fan hype over the series has been such that one fan has already produced a fan translation of the Papillon Rose theme song, "Everlasting Love." At first, there was some complaint over the fact that the fan had not asked permission to do the translation, but it was eventually accepted.

Other people believe that perhaps the parody hits a little too close to the object it parodies. In fact, some of the wording in some quotes and some of the poses are extremely close to being directly copied from Sailor Moon. There is even a black cat that is a dead ringer for Luna.

Disapproval over the series is quite vocal, as demonstrated by the following post on the official message board:

"This is not a parody because they claim it's original... I feel it's wrong. And I feel you are imature to correct my spelling when I am only expressing my thoughts based on what I know and what I've read, through translations and another website that provides me with this information. I know of paradies, and everybody knows it's supposed to be a parody of that particular animated show, but this one is pretending to be original. There is no way that they themselves came up with a Pappilon "V" (like Sailor V) and shouting "Make Up!" to transform. They never even claim to be "inspired" by Pretty Soldier Sailormoon. Therefore, I think it's wrong.... I'm sure you have good reasons for thinking this is ok, I just wish you went about a better way with it...."

In all of this, one thing that has been largely overlooked has been the series' emphasis on sex. Again, the series revolves around a young girl who has a job in a "sexy bar", and her destiny is to fight against villains intent on destroying the sex industry. If the characters, drawings, and B-stories are done good, this might be the only downfall of the series...depending on the nature and quantity of the sexual material in the series.

Until Papillon Rose actually becomes a completed anime, I am not going to judge it either way. However, to my knowledge, this is the first anime whose creators openly admit to being a parody of another anime. Being a Sailor Moon fan, I am proud that Sailor Moon has inspired TWO other animes...the blatantly hentai "Venus 5" and Papillon Rose. It will be interesting to see the finished product.

Artemis

(comments welcome - please email me at lunahq@yahoo.com and I will post your comments here as well.)

Links

Official Site

PR Promo - Short
PR Promo - Long
Everlasting Love MP3