put your hands inside my face and see that it's just you.

[samatethecookie]

Found this old meme!

a. I want to talk about how my ships and concept of shipping varies with fandom, so name me a fandom and I'll discuss what I ship and what shipping means to me in that fandom

Comments

[samatethecookie]

Sailor Moon is always great to ramble about! I haven't watched the entire series in years, but I'll take a crack at it. XD And I've never seen the live-action show, so this is strictly anime vs. manga.

a. I still ship Mamoru/Usagi; I've been a fan of them since I was nine years old. I think it's because the whole aspect that their love transcended through time really touches me; it really is a classic fairy tale and I'm a total sucker for those. Although, I prefer their canon relationship in the manga, because anime!Mamoru is such a jerk. A lot of things that Mamoru does for their relationship - such as breaking up with Usagi without even assuring her what the real reason was - really annoys me. Like, I was a kid and I still screamed at the TV every time he made her cry in Season R.

Then there's femslash. For the manga, I like Rei/Minako, and it's all thanks to this ship manifesto and the Exam Battle extra story where Minako sneaks into Rei's school to figure out who Rei really is. Oh, and then there's this fanmix. For the anime, Rei/Usagi, except it's kinda weird because they remind me of my relationship with an old friend of mine. Then there's Chibiusa/Hotaru.

Concerning boy slash - because I like it too, though not as much as the femslash - I always liked Kunzite/Zoicite from the anime. For no real reason other than lulz and because, I'll shamefully admit it, it's eye candy for me. (Also, I think I started realizing what homophobia could do and how wrong it was - I was barely twelve years old, mind you - when I discovered Zoicite was actually a man dubbed as a woman. :/)

I have to say though, if I had to pick something I prefer from the anime over the manga canon? Nephrite/Naru from the anime, hands down. It stems back to my love for the dynamics in villain/hero-ine pairings. I love how it can go either way: the villain can be redeemed or the hero-ine can be corrupted. With them ... she just had this faith in him that was so stupid at times but she was also right about him the entire time. And I liked how, eventually, he did start questioning his role - which is something that should've happened with the rest of the generals, as it did in the manga canon if I remember right - and wondering about his feelings for her. Another thing I liked about them was that both of them were willing to sacrifice their lives for the other; Naru stood up to the Senshi and attempted to pull out the thorns from his chest (even though it was physically impossible for an average human to do), and Nephrite, well, died because he saved her from getting stabbed with the thorns. Really, just their entire story breaks my heart, because I always hated how the entire fandom forgot about it and how she was paired off with Umino as lazy closure to her story - and I hate Umino. Like, he had a blown-up picture of Naru on the wall over his bed in an episode from season S. Which is kinda creepy, imho. :\

I hope the rambling makes some sort of sense? I haven't watched the series in its entirety in a really long time. I have to order the DVDs sometime, if I can find them.

b. Um... I really do love both inner and outer senshis, but I have to say I prefer the inner senshi. I don't have a specific reason for it, though. I always liked how dedicated the outer senshi were to their jobs and how powerful they were. It's just that the inner senshis were there first and I always think of them when I hear Sailor Moon. (Though, my favorite sailor senshi is still Sailor Pluto. When I heard Pluto was no longer recognized as a planet, I was devastated. >_>;)

[monalisaofpasta]

My problem with Usagi/Mamoru in the anime, (aside from the stupid break up thing, I mean who would send a messae to their past self telling them to break up with your future wife? What a douche) was that I felt like the anime gave us no reason for them to be together other then the fact that he was Tuxedo Mask and she was the princess. Like they seemed to have no reason to be together other then that, whereas in the manga there seemed to be something between their present lives. I am not a fan of destined love, and the anime played too heavily into that (the manga did too a bit, but there was at least established connection prior to the reveal, I also liked the identity reveal in the manga more.)

Their relationship in PGSM is actually one of things I recommend about it, they don't automatically get together when they discover their identities or their past lives. That and they get to build a relationship solely on Usagi being Usagi and Mamoru being Mamoru. One of my favorite parts of their relationship is where Usagi basically rejects Tuxedo Kamen in favor of Mamoru (not knowing of course that Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen)

Also if you ship Rei/Minako in the manga, the subtext is fantastic in live action. (I am convinced that Rei at least has some sort of romantic feelings for Minako. It is awesome).

I was always iffy about Umino as he felt like a rebound, I liked that he was there for Naru after Nephrite's death, but then again I didn't like how Naru and other minor characters that were big in the beginning kind of disappeared later on in the series. Otherwise totally word on everything you were saying.

Also yay for someone else who prefers the inner senshi! I find the core group just so awesome. They are on par with the Gaang or the Scoobies from Buffy in terms of group dynamics of heroes.

[samatethecookie]

I always liked the pairing, but yeah, you're right about their automatic relationship. The pacing was fine with me when I was nine years old, but uh, yeah. It isn't simply "well we were together in a past life LET'S GET BACK TOGETHER RIGHT NOW". I do like to think that they had underlying feelings for one another before they discovered they were from another past life and maybe that stirred everything up, and I did say that their love could transcend through time is touching, but based on what you're telling me, PGSM did something with them that I always wanted to see. I wanted to see the awkward transition from merely being acquaintances to something more after realizing they had a past life together.

(Stemming off of the same problems with PGSM but not really, what I like about my other favorite pairings with Usagi is the major conflict of her past/future relationship with Mamoru: should she, could she, do they have to, etc. Not enough fics explore this at all.)

One of my favorite parts of their relationship is where Usagi basically rejects Tuxedo Kamen in favor of Mamoru (not knowing of course that Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen). ... REALLY NOW? Oh man. Now THIS I have to see. XDD

I heard that Rei and Minako have a similar - or stronger - dynamic going on in the live action series! I saw a video with them ... a few years ago, I think, and it surprised me that they kept the manga canon. I always got the impression that manga!Rei was attracted to Minako, physically or emotionally or both; I'm glad to hear Rei's feelings for Minako in PGSM can be interpreted in the a romantic way.

Naru/Umino made no sense to me, because Nephrite is never mentioned again after he dies - and after Naru is rescued by Umino in the graveyard. Even if she was that fickle with her feelings, Nephrite died in front of her. You just don't take a week off from school, meet another boy and then move on. It just really made Naru seem shallow. :/ That, and I know the two have enough context to make it work, but I didn't like how Naru almost automatically got together with him because he rescued her and he was showing an interest. And Umino had this crush on Usagi in the beginning, and then he develops these feelings for Naru instead? I always thought Umino settled for Naru because Usagi didn't want him.

...I didn't like how Naru and other minor characters that were big in the beginning kind of disappeared later on in the series. THIS. So much. I have a bad habit of getting attached to minor characters in a series. I always want to see more of them if they play a huge role at the beginning of the series. (And I always liked Naru because I kept suspecting that she was a sailor scout. I was sad when I found out she wasn't.)

Dude, I LOVE the inner senshi! Comparing their dynamics to the Gaang makes me smile. XD The outer senshi are cool, but they don't come anywhere close to the inner senshi for me.

[monalisaofpasta]

She doesn't like solidly reject him as in turning him down, but it is clear that she realizes that she is in love with Mamoru before ever knowing who he was and on Valentines Day she was making a scarf for him, and she bought chocolates to help prod another girl to confess her own feelings, and she ends up giving them to Tuxedo Kamen as Sailor Moon (he knows her identity before she knows his), and he knew that she was making a scarf so he asked her why he didn't get that because he assumed that she had feelings for Tuxedo Kamen, and she basically said no, there was someone else that she wanted to give it to first so he gets chocolates just as a thank you for saving her all the time.

I just like PGSM's take on it, it is different from the manga but is absolutely different from the anime. LIke I like that it was made clear there was feelings before the whole Serenity and Endymion thing.

I don't know if I have ever made it clear that Rei/Minako is my Sailor Moon OTP to end all OTPs Like anime wise I crack!ship them, but then I read Rei to be at least bisexual, like I am one of the few people who didn't like the whole thing Yuuichirou, and I can't tell you my hatred of the whole Senshi/Generals thing. And I like to think that Minako being the embodiment of love is pansexual. Yeah I have thought about this way too much. (I do ship one Senshi/General pair but it is in PGSM only and is not one of the traditional General/Senshi pairs)

Yeah the just forget about them thing was weird, but I never liked that the Generals as a whole were forgotten completely, I didn't like that their connection to Endymion was omitted and everything. I felt like that depowered Mamoru a bit by taking away his calvary.

I don't know if you have seen stars, but the part where the inners die. Makes me cry every freaking time. But then again the only Outer Senshi that I feel fannish about is Haruka and that is just because she is such an awesome character.

[samatethecookie]

Aww, that's really sweet. I'll have to watch the live action series sometime whenever I get the chance. It sounds like a great adaption.

Yuuichirou is that guy with the surfer accent from the English dub, right? Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of that, either. Like, I liked them, because Yuuichirou was a nice guy, but I didn't have any major love for them.

I always thought the way the Generals were handled in the anime, especially when they and Endymion had a connection in the manga. That, and I hated how in both versions, they were supposedly with the inner senshi and the inner senshi were able to kill them without any second thoughts or regrets after they rediscover their past lives. I don't know if it's a plot hole or if I just forgot something important, but I never liked that aspect about the Generals and their canon.

I haven't seen the stars series - which I reaaaaaally want to see one of these days when I feel like tracking down the episodes on YouTube or elsewhere - but I did see the scene where they died, especially the death scene with Mars. That was so sad to watch. :( Haruka and Michiru's death scene is depressing, too. I wasn't crazy about them as the rest of the fandom, but still.