At 09:11 PM 3/20/00 -0800, you wrote:
On Mon, 20 Mar 2000, matthew lewis wrote:
Author's notes:
Well, I've rewritten the third chapter of Balance and Ruin (BGC/El
Hazard fic) three times already, and in the middle of a final, but this
forced its way out of my head. I feel like it's become fashionable to
paint Sailor Moon with a darker brush than the original.
A trend which makes me ill.
Why so? SM darkfics are written no better or worse than are SM
non-darkfics, and some, particularly those concerning the founding of
Crystal Tokyo, are among the best SM fanfics ever written.
"Would it not be better to be dead than to
have this horrible fear that Aslan has come
and is not like the Aslan we have believed in
and longed for? It is as if the sun rose one
day and it was a black sun."
"I know" said Jewel, "or as if you drank water
and it were DRY water. You are right, sire,
this is the end of all things."
--The Last Battle, by C. S. Lewis
I was going to ask just what your problem was with such stories, but from
this quotation it's fairly clear.
I've been watching the (dubbed) Sailor Moon R series lately. The idea
that the population would have to be brainwashed into accepting Serenity's
rule I no longer think holds water; it's quite clear even in R, where
Usagi's using the Silver Crystal to purify souls left and right, that she
can't save a soul that doesn't want to be saved; Rubeus says as much at one
point. So Usagi, at least, _is_ fairly Christ-like, not just in Stars (where
it really is overdone) but in R and S as well. That probably explains why
she's been portrayed that way in many fics. Even you yourself pointed out
how Christ-like Serenity is in your fics--though most people missed the
point that she _isn't_ Christ and her heavenly kingdom on earth is doomed to
eventual destruction (in _Black Moon Rising_). I know I did at first.
Myself I think there are several reasons people find the very idea of
Crystal Tokyo repulsive, and feel that our hero Sailor Moon would have to be
duped or corrupted into creating it at all, or lose her humanity in becoming
Serenity, or both. One is that many people simply don't like messiahs and
wouldn't trust any living human being in the role, not even somebody who
really did have the best interest of the world at heart (as Usagi apparently
does). This is partly motivated by political reasoning; many, myself
included, can't see why somebody as good as Usagi would even want to have
political power over others.
Another, and probably easier to accept because it's psychological and not
political in nature, I think I can show by pointing out just how static a
world is the world of Crystal Tokyo (as Sean Gaffney pointed out in his
story). The very name suggests a static, unachnging structure, and Usagi we
see ruling over the city (with Mamoru and all her friends no less),
apparently unchanged, from age to age. It's apparent without thinking about
it too hard that it's a childish wish that the status quo where the child is
happy might never change, like Lum's wish in Mamoru Oshii's _Beautiful
Dreamer_ to live together forever with all her friends, or the tale about
the princess going to live happily ever after with her prince in his castle
in the clouds. It's obviously impossible; if it actually was realized, as it
is for Lum and for Usagi, from their childish perspective it might _be_
heaven, but for everybody else it might soon become more like a hell, with
no means of escape.
I think the whole business shows up the problem with the character of
Usagi Tsukino. She's a stereotypical child hero for whom genuine maturation,
learning and development really isn't possible. Not even the most traumatic
experiences seem to change her or affect her much for long. (I'm thinking of
her battle with Pharaoh 90, which we don't actually see but from her
expression afterwards must have been horrifying beyond belief, but seems to
actually do little to her but exhaust her; by the next episode she' her old
self again, and of course in Supers she's even more childish than usual.)
It's widely believed that Kunihiko Ikuhara, who directed SMSupers, shifted
the focus away from Usagi more than the manga really demanded, not just to
Chibiusa (though we see plenty of her) but the rest of the cast generally,
because of a belief that there was little more that could be done to make
Usagi interesting. (Attempts to grow her up a bit in Stars don't quite work,
though credit is due for effort, at least.)
In retrospect, Ikuhara's _Revolutionary Girl Utena_ series, which he made
specfifically to make something different from _Sailor Moon_, seems to
criticize the premises of _Sailor Moon_ very harshly, both the idea of the
child heroine as impervious to maturation and the idea that she should be
content to go live with her prince at the end of all her struggles (at the
expense of all her other loved ones). In the _Utena_ movie, which I recently
saw at the Animazement con in Raleigh, where Mr. Ikuhara spoke, the castle
of the Rose Prince Dios looked suspiciously like Crystal Tokyo. I can't say
I blame him for getting so frustrated at the character of Usagi.
When Mr. Ikuhara spoke at Animazement he admitted he stayed on the staff
of _Sailor Moon_ as long as he did because he didn't know just what else to
work on (until he saw the Utena manga). I had to chuckle. His story could be
that of a hundred fanfic writers, who write SM fanfics for want of a solid
idea of what other material could better help express what they have to say.
Mr. Ikuhara is scheduled to speak at AnimeCentral. Are you going again
this year? (I can't; I've a field prelim to take that weekend.) If you are
and you get to ask him a question you'd probably do fanfic writers
everywhere, SM fic writers and others, a big favor if you could get him to
explain if and how he was critical of Usagi Tsukino (and/or) if he
deliberately was trying to criticize the character in _Utena._
I should have, but I didn't. ^_^;
This might interest you--I did ask him about Hotaru Tomoe. Anthy Himemiya
in _Utena_ is a lot like Hotaru in retrospect, both being "dark magical
girls" of a sort. In particular I noted that Hotaru's jealousy over her
father seemed incestuous, like Anthy's jealousy over her brother Akio, and I
asked if Hotaru had influenced Anthy. He had a little trouble answering; but
he did let slip that he had in all his works been interested in forbidden
love of all kinds, between father and daughter (!) as well as between
brother and sister (and possibly between women as well). So I was pleased to
hear that my interpretation of Hotaru in retrospect was on the mark, or at
least fairly near it. :)
How's SMZ coming?
Paul Corrigan
corrig11@pilot.msu.edu
Currently helping to write an English script for a fansub of the _Utena_
movie, God help me...