Appendix: Why does everyone hate SOS/Mixx?
Save Our Soldiers (SOS):
The main reason that people hate SOS seems to be a persistent bit of misinformation
on the SOS page about "What Are We Missing". SOS claimed that Sailor Uranus
was really "Prince Uranus" in a previous lifetime. SOS has since admitted
that there was no evidence (they "remembered" an interview which could not
be found). It also contradicts the series (in manga volume 9, act 30, pages
77-82, Haruka is shown alive and female after the fall of the Moon Kingdom.)
Fans complained so much that they pretty much _had_ to take it out (although
they were waiting for word from Takeuchi Naoko at the San Diego Comic Con--if
she had never appeared, would Prince Uranus _still_ be on their page?)
SOS accompanied this by a statement that girls in Japan can be close and that this doesn't necessarily imply the girls are homosexual. I and a lot of other people don't see much reason to say this here except to suggest that just maybe, Haruka and Michiru aren't _really_ homosexual. SOS has to admit that they are, but then puts this statement in, as if there are merely two alternate views and maybe either one can be right.
Ming, owner of the Looney List associated with SOS, has claimed that I was calling Sailor Moon a "gay show" and refused to have the address of his mailing list listed in this FAQ on those grounds.
Some references showing that Haruka and Michiru are homosexual:
Manga: In volume 9, act 30, pages 77-82, Haruka is shown alive and female after the fall of the Moon Kingdom, which contradicts the supposed "Naoko Takeuchi reference" from SOS which has her die as a male with the Moon Kingdom.
Episode 92: When Haruka is asked if Michiru is "his" girlfriend, Haruka answers to the effect that their relationship is more than that.
Episode 95: Haruka, when asked what her girlfriend's name is in a romance contest, says "Michiru". They later leave the contest because if they didn't, they'd win.
Episode 107: A boy, Masanori, has a crush on Michiru and gives her roses.
From Hitoshi Doi's synopsis:Michiru: "Are you concerned?"
Haruka: "A little. Is it from a boy friend?"
Michiru: "Of course."
Haruka: "I didn't know that there was someone who was brave enough to fall in love with you."
Michiru: "It's not often that you would get jealous."
Haruka: "I'm not jealous. I just can't allow you to look at anyone else besides me."
Michiru: "Haruka, that's called jealousy."
SuperS special: Haruka flirts with a maid (who believes she's a guy). Michiru comes in and Haruka immediately ends it.
SuperS movie: Michiru comments to Haruka, when the fairies want to keep everyone as children, that "it's more fun as an adult, isn't it?", whereupon Haruka is flustered and doesn't reply. This implies that Haruka and Michiru are doing something together as adults which children don't do.
Episode 167:
"I think you eat too many sweets these days . . ." -- Haruka
"I never listen to that kind of talk outside of a bed." -- Michiru
Episode 180: Michiru flirts with Seiya, asking him to change her clothes. When Haruka tells him to get out, Michiru asks if she's jealous. Michiru offers to have Haruka change her clothes.
Episode 181: Haruka doesn't want Usagi to go on a date with Seiya but Michiru stops Haruka.
Haruka (to Michiru): You're hurting me!
Michiru (softly): Am I?
Haruka: I want you to touch me gently.
Michiru: Later, when we're alone.
Also in episode 181, Michiru (while in the park with Haruka) says that only couples and pigeons come to the park.
From Kappa Magazine #51, September 1996 (Italian): "The relationship between Haruka and Michiru is quite special. I think the most important feeling in the world is friendship. The friendship between them is so strong that it becomes love. There's not only heterosexual love, but there also can be a homosexual love, in this case between two girls." --Takeuchi Naoko (The scanned magazine page is available at http://www.jacksonville.net/~phoenix/manga/smitem.gif
Uranus and Neptune are associated with homosexuality in some versions of astrology, with Neptune specifically feminine and Uranus masculine. (Confirmed: Charles Carter, "Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology").
I can't include pictures here, but these web sites may be of use:
http://members.tripod.com/~hawks_eye/ (Warning: last I checked, this site included a dojinshi picture; dojinshi are produced by fans and aren't official.)
SOS's previous big screwup was the Pop-Tarts incident. (Description thanks to Brad Lascelle):
At that time, the date was chosen by David Koenigsberg (referred to publically as Mr. X) and the rest of the SOS inner circle to let the fans of Sailor Moon be heard and let their dollars do their talking for them.
They decided that concentrating all of their support directed towards one product on a specific day of a sponsor that had backed Sailor Moon in the past would be the best way of showing DIC and the other companies involved what kind of impact the fanbase could make.
In this case, the product that was chosen was Kellogg's unfrosted strawberry poptarts. (There was an online survey undertaken that led to poptarts getting chosen... it could have just as easily been Cheerios or Trix Yogurt.)
It was essentially the high watermark of their 9-month campaign at that juncture. At the time, Sailor Moon had been yanked off the air in the United States... the dub could only be found in Canada (where it was incredibly successful and the top toy line for the year) and Australia.
They were publically ridiculed at the sheer absurdity of such an idea by the majority of the public... even those who supported the dub... after the motivations and direction behind SOS shifted after Anime Expo that summer from simple support towards one of proactive influence on the companies involved.
The 'Poptart Procott' as it was then known was essentially the turning point in the downhill spiral that would root itself in SM online subculture for over the next three years.
The ironic part of the whole event was that the green light for production had already been given before the procott ever took place. In light of Sailor Moon singlehandedly bolstering them to one of their strongest Christmases ever, Irwin of Canada funneled the cash down to DIC to finance production of the rest of Sailor Moon R.
The procott meant ABSOLUTELY nothing... and yet there were LOTS of kids who got roped into it. Stories of people who filled their cupboards to the brim with boxes flooded onto the 'Net for months afterwards. Some kids even asked their parents to stock up on poptarts as a Christmas present.
10 boxes... 16 boxes... 40 boxes... 100+ boxes... I've heard personal accounts of people who bought that many and then some... 'cause they bought into the SOS sugarcoated propoganda. I won't even get into all of the people who threw their money away on buying boxes of 'Frosted Strawberry' poptarts instead of unfrosted due to a lack of clarification on SOS's part.
Over time, SOS never could produce any hard data or sales figures or even a comment from Kellogg that gave any indication of their procott having an impact. Naturally, they INSISTED that the procott and the fans themselves played a direct role when they finally decided to pass along that production was indeed restarting some two months later.
The poptart people (as they are affectionately known) decided to play the game of revisionist history with quotes saying 'We Did It!' among others that only served to further mislead and delude the fans that had put their trust in them."
Some other infamous flubs of SOS include:
New dub episodes finally came out in 2000. Any relation to SOS's claims are likely coincidental, considering that they didn't dub the same number of episodes that SOS claimed, and it happened a year after SOS's claims with an intervening time period where it seems DIC was going to lose the rights to the extra episodes completely (if indeed that claim itself wasn't just something SOS came up with for no reason).
MIXX
The main reason people hate Mixx (publishers of the Sailor Moon manga in America)
is because they moved Sailor Moon out of Mixxzine in 1998 and changed Mixxzine's
format to a teenagers' magazine instead of a manga magazine. The current storyline
was continued in a separate comic, with later episodes in Smile magazine.
Unfortunately, Mixx let people transfer their subscriptions to Smile but not
to the separate comic, so there was no way for a subscriber-only fan to get
the continuation of the storyline. On top of that, the change happened right
after subscription renewals, so everyone subscribed to Mixxzine again right
before learning that they might not want it. Both Mixxzine and Smile now printed
the manga pages at half size. And Smile was *really* bad.
Mixx had also been quietly reducing the number of pages in Mixxzine, which essentially means making it more expensive per page and amounted to another price rise.
[Update: Mixx renamed the magazine to Tokyo Pop and cut out much of the manga. Of course this again happened just after subscription renewals. The magazine finally died in 2000. Smile's format was changed to a manga magazine in 2000.]
Other reasons include:
There's lots more, most of which is Ron Scovil's word against Stu Levy's.
The Sailor Moon FAQ was created and is maintained by:
Ken Arromdee / arromdee@rahul.net
/ http://www.rahul.net/arromdee
The FAQ has been HTMLized by Jen Maher-Bontrager of sailormoon.org.
