Sunday, July 24th, 1:38 am
Update
- Jay Navok
Animated Ramblings -
Part 3
Before we begin, let me update you on the status of the Ayaka diaries.
While the nay responses made some good points that I agreed with, the answer
was resoundingly yay, so we'll continue with the Ayaka diaries for the time
being.
I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to send us an e-mail, we did
read all of them. I'll be sending e-mails to the winners of the forums
accounts later tonight.
------
There's a phrase that pops up a lot in Ayaka diaries, it came up a ton in
the online diaries of the other senshi back in the day as well, that I've
spoken of before. Gambaru - to do your best. Often it's the
verb at the end of a phrase, but when translated into English it makes more
sense in the middle, so you may not realize the extent to which this same
word reoccurs over and over.
When I was a sophomore in college I took comparative politics and one of
the case studies for Democracy was Japan. The professor began the lecture by
discussing gambaru. To me, someone for whom Japanese is a non-native
language, the term has felt cliché. I've thought, how much can you use one
expression, in how many circumstances can it fit, before it becomes so
stretched that it ceases to have any meaning at all? It's just a generic way
to end a sentence on a positive note.
I've gradually come to respect the idea of gambaru a bit more
since my cynicism with it last year, having had to translate it over and
over with the senshi diaries. It is a corner-stone concept that one has to
accept, especially if you want to understand the messages that Sailor
Moon seeks to send.
Let's try to break down those messages a bit more. From what I can tell,
Teamwork and Perseverance are two of the most important. Teamwork is
obvious- only when the senshi work together can they defeat their enemies-
but perseverance less so. Perseverance is our gambaru concept.
Usagi strives to do her best and never give up, except when it comes to
homework. Even if Chibiusa is thrown off a platform, if all her friends are
killed, she'll see the battle through to the end. Over the course of the
anime and manga series she grows in this respect; the Usagi who goes to the
north pole and asks to go home after some of the senshi are killed is not
the same one who cringes in anguish then stares defiantly as Chibiusa is
taken away by one of Badiane's faeries.
These messages are important because that's what the kids, who are
the target audience, are supposed to be getting from the show. Teamwork and
perseverance are reasonable values for the society in which they'll be
growing up. It's interesting to consider, though, how this differs in
respect to western animation. What I've begun to think is that it's not a
difference in what is valued, but what's most important.
As I've said, Teamwork and Perseverance are the top for Sailor Moon.
I've been watching a lot of Justice League Unlimited lately and
tried to think about what this show is telling young kids. After all, their
viewers don't have superpowers, they can't grow up to help save the world
through invulnerability or superspeed. Perhaps they could be a detective
like Batman, if they had a few billion dollars. But, like in Sailor Moon,
it's not the superpowers that are the lesson.
Some of the most important messages in Justice League is thinking
things through (something Batman chastises others for not doing), using
power wisely, and believing in yourself. Ami is the Batman of the Sailor
Team and while her thinking through of traps and such is valued, there isn't
a complexity of traps as there are in Justice League. For example, in a
recent episode I saw, Lex Luthor tricked Superman into destroying a city
after thinking a power generator was a bomb. Had Superman been patient and
investigated first, he wouldn't have caused problems. Because he was
impatient and careless, he caused millions in damages while the Justice
League received a lot of bad publicity and mistrust from the public. This
also relates to the idea of using power wisely, on the heroes side at least.
The sailor senshi have a lot of power, it's never taken for granted that
they'll use it to do good. And if mugen island is destroyed, Usagi can just
rebuild it with her magic rock.
"Believing in yourself" is tricky. Is this the same as perseverance? Not
really, the two concepts are slightly different in these two cartoons. The
idea of believing in yourself in Justice League is being able to trust that
you'll make the right decisions when put in complex moral predicaments;
where who's right and who's wrong is vague, and the "good of the many" vs
"the good of the few" isn't something that can be solved by wishing upon a
silver crystal. It's having to accept that you may not have the power to
save everyone but at least you did what was right and shouldn't have
regrets.
In contrast, Sailor Moon is always clear on what the response is
in moral quandaries- Usagi will choose life. Whether it's Sailor Saturn or a
phage, she won't let the person die. She believes in herself but she also
has the power to make her wishes come true thanks to the ginzuishou.
In order use the ginzuishou, though, she has to ganbaru,
she has to believe in herself and persevere. If she can overcome those
hurdles, she can make anything possible.
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