Due to the HiDive paywall, I’m stuck for the foreseeable future digging through only half the anime I thought I’d get to see…

…and so, one of the important things I did a few weeks back was to go back to Sailor Moon. Lately I’ve only been watching new episodes of the 90s version to celebrate milestones (e.g. my birthday) because it’s so influential in my life and preferences, but since I snagged a disc with a Christmas bargain, I still had an excuse for finishing a few episodes with the Viz Media dub/Japanese dub.

Some of the episodes I hold the most dear, and love regardless of when I watch them because of the fact I saw them with that cheesy 90s dub:

The first episode/”Crybaby Usagi’s Beautiful Transformation”

Of course I love the first episode. Who doesn’t want to discover they have a talking cat, a mysterious ally and a destiny battling monsters instead of maths problems?

Ami’s debut episode/”The Girl Genius is a Monster: The Brainwashing Cram School of Horror”

If I had problems sleeping due to stress or plain inability to keep still, one of my tactics was to re-enact certain stories and moments I loved very time – eventually this morphed into an ability to imagine stories vividly, but one of the things I’d re-enact would be Ami’s debut episode, specifically how her forehead is lifted to the computer monitor and it causes her symbol to glow, allowing Sailor Moon and Mercury to defeat the juku monster. The introduction to a character I found relatable back in the day strengthened my love of both Sailor Moon and the subgenre of magical girls.

The anime episode/”Protect the Children’s Dreams! Friendship Through Anime”

Specifically, this introduced me to Castor and Pollux, two complete opposites who worked together to overpower the Sailor Scouts…at first. I loved the idea so much that I’ve incorporated the concept into some stories of my own. Not to mention it hints at a Sailor V movie which still hasn’t been made yet…*sigh*

“Usagi’s a Model: The Flash of the Monster Camera”

Usagi’s backflip off the mirror inspired me to look into more action stuff, to the point where action is one of my most-watched genres of anime. Also, the fact girls were getting kidnapped via camera flash was pretty horrifying for lil’ me.

“Romance under the Moon: Usagi’s First Kiss”

Little me probably forgot about the “first kiss” bit…or maybe it was edited out? Nonetheless, I still remember this for the gorgeous ball gowns and the Princess Dia subplot more than anything with Tuxedo Mask…however, seeing it with the Japanese dub and Viz Media dub revealed something new about this episode: Usagi got drunk. That would have definitely have been edited out in the 90s…

Notably, I never watched episodes after Japanese episode 22/90s dub episode 18, because I definitely don’t have memories of Neflyte dying or Molly sobbing over him. When I watched those episodes, I ended up laughing at Nephrite’s green blood more than crying…then again, I did get interrupted around that time, which made it even harder to take the climactic episodes more seriously. That would also explain why Jupiter and Venus are missing from my memories – Jupiter’s introduction is in Japanese episode 25/90s dub episode 21, which is immediately after the cutoff…

Curse the 90s all you want for making me so forward about certain things, but you gotta admit exploring the past makes you more certain about why you are the way you are, even if your memories are a bit spotty after so many years.

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So has the lull before (or even during) the winter 2019 simulcasts made you able to revisit series from your past? Did you make any important discoveries or rediscoveries?