Sailor Moon Stuff

mybutthurts:

sailormoonlife:

How many people studied Japanese after becoming Sailor Moon fans? Especially old-school fans, when the DIC show was cancelled partway through R and the comic books were not translated yet?

Around 1995, I randomly found the first manga in an American comic book shop, only in Japanese. I made up…

MEEEE!!! I was 8 or 9 when I first started watching Sailor Moon on Cartoon Network and 10 when I started buying subtitled VHS tapes of the last 3 seasons from my local comic book shops. I started singing the theme songs and repeating Sailor Moon’s lines after I watched them (although I had no idea what I was saying) pretty soon afterward. This quickly convinced my mom to hire a private tutor to teach me (my mom signed me up for a bunch of extracurricular stuff until I was a teenager - dance, gymnastics, drums, singing lessons, etc.) and so I was taught Japanese on and off until I was about 15. Today I don’t really watch that much anime but I work in a Japanese restaurant so I am still able to put my skills to use from time to time. Although I’ve definitely gotten way out of practice I’m trying to get better at speaking and reading Japanese again because I have an interview in July for a job teaching English in Japan. Like I said, I’m really not as into anime as I used to be but I’ve become way more interested in Japanese fashion lately and being able to read Japanese really helps me with buying stuff online (and one of the main reasons I want to move over there is so I don’t have to deal with insane shipping fees). Sailor Moon is pretty much responsible for my 15 year interest in all things Japanese.

You’re so lucky! My parents could NOT understand.  

“Why are you watching a cartoon?!  Why learn Japanese? Go do something useful!” over and over.  How could I explain that obsessing over a blond Japanese bobble head ancient princess warrior with an epic romance could be a productive hobby?  I barely got away with 1 or 2 classes in college!

(via mybutthurts)