Have any of you seen the Nostalgia Critic's review of Sailor Moon?  Normally I'm a fan of the Nostalgia Critic and I usually find his video reviews to be pretty funny, especially when he reviews older bad movies but I found his review of Sailor Moon to be disappointing.   First of all, I don't understand why he chose to review the DiC dub of Sailor Moon rather than the Japanese version.  I think most Sailor Moon fans acknowledge the DiC dub was heavily flawed and not very good so I don't know why he went with reviewing that version instead of the real Japanese version which is the one that most represents Sailor Moon.  

Second of all, I find his analysis of the sexist themes in the original anime to be rather superficial and annoying.  Sure, there are some outdated and sexist themes in the original anime that I think most fans would acknowledge, but I feel like he's overly fixated on the brief nudity aspects and the length of their mini-skirts.  The brief nudity in Sailor Moon wasn't any worse than a naked Barbie doll and the show was targeted at an audience that may have grown up playing with Barbie dolls but might want something a little more sophisticated or he complained about their mini-skirts being too short.  Really, if you compare Sailor Moon to a lot of other anime series, both from that time period and modern times, I personally find the Sailor Senshi's outfits to be rather modest in comparison.  It's not like their outfits show their chest or anything and again, the brief nudity is really tame, even more so in the dub version Nostalgia Critic was reviewing over the Japanese version.  He could have focused on more complex issues like the way the original anime portrayed Usagi's relationship with Mamoru and the problems with that but he focused on superficial issues instead that were easier to turn into a punchline. 

I also found his jokes about his teenage self fantasizing over Sailor Moon to be rather gross and not very funny and ironically rather sexist of him.   Most of all, I also got annoyed with how he seemed to get basic facts about Sailor Moon completely wrong.  Like he made an annoying joke about Queen Beryl being named after a barrel when it's obvious she's named after a gemstone.  Likewise, he accused the show of ripping off of Star Wars with Jaedite's name when again, it's obvious Jaedite is named after a gemstone.   I felt like Nostalgia Critic didn't bother to do any sort of research of Sailor Moon before he reviewed it and he personally picked the worst version of the series to review just as an excuse for him to bash anime as he seems to have something of a particular bias against anime in general.  Here's the video if any of you haven't seen it.  For those who have, what do you think of it and the points he made?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mziTsgji7to

I think I can answer a few questions here. Keep in mind that I'm not defending his review, since I have my own problems with it, but just trying to explain some things.

First, he reviewed the dub since that would be what his audience remembers most. He's the Nostalgia Critic. A good anime reviewer on that site would be Bennett the Sage, though I know he doesn't do subs, only dubs.

On that second part, again, it's just seeing things from his viewpoint. I didn't know a single boy when I was younger that didn't comment on the nudity aspect. We can acknowledge that Sailor Moon being 14 and shown in such a way on screen can be problematic but we can still like it all the same. I'm sure he didn't mean for his jokes to come off as mean. Most of the reviewers on that site are feminists or respectful toward women. Just check out any of his Avatar reviews and you'll see that he's far from sexist.

As for the name stuff, I think that could be part of the joke, but it could be ignorance all the same. Doug Walker and the Nostalgia Critic aren't the same after all. My personal grievance with the episode is that it's clear he didn't watch more than eight or ten of them. Honestly, I can't blame him. The original anime takes forever to get to anything. All in all, it could have been better, but I don't think it's a terrible review.

Honestly he probably reviewed it because the fans asked him too. He gets a lot requests and he has mention that he gets a lot requests for anime. He's really not into anime to begin with. But yea the NC and Doug Walker are not the same. I think Doug puts some of his views into his character, but they're still completely different people. 

I bet it's easier to review animes in dub format so you can notes along the way without pausing. It would be nice to see one of the anime reviewers of TGWTG website review Sailor Moon. Especially since Viz is redubbing the 90s anime. I don't think Bennett would review it though. It doesn't seem like his kind of show, but I could be wrong.

Sailor CJ wrote:

On that second part, again, it's just seeing things from his viewpoint. I didn't know a single boy when I was younger that didn't comment on the nudity aspect. We can acknowledge that Sailor Moon being 14 and shown in such a way on screen can be problematic but we can still like it all the same. I'm sure he didn't mean for his jokes to come off as mean. Most of the reviewers on that site are feminists or respectful toward women. Just check out any of his Avatar reviews and you'll see that he's far from sexist.

As for the name stuff, I think that could be part of the joke, but it could be ignorance all the same. Doug Walker and the Nostalgia Critic aren't the same after all. My personal grievance with the episode is that it's clear he didn't watch more than eight or ten of them. Honestly, I can't blame him. The original anime takes forever to get to anything. All in all, it could have been better, but I don't think it's a terrible review.

I don't mind that he brings that issue up.  I just feel like he could have focused on other stuff too and the way he kept going on about it, he was acting like Sailor Moon was some softcore porn or something.  I feel like there were other more problematic issues he could have brought up, like Tuxedo Kamen's infamous kiss in the ballroom dance episode.  I understand it's part of his character and all that but I feel like he was much more fair with his review of the Digimon movie.  Like he actually brought on the Nostalgia Chick to help explain things and give the movie context as she was a big Digimon fan.  I feel like for a show like Sailor Moon, he should have brought in someone like the Nostalgia Chick to get an actual female perspective and from someone who seems a bit more knowledgeable about anime than he is.  It just annoys me because I always got teased for liking anime back when I was in middle school and Sailor Moon was first on the air and kids would always act like all anime was pornographic or something and I feel like the NC is repeating that stereotype of anime.

He had Jeusotaku in the Digimon Review.

Oh that's right.  It's been awhile since I've seen it.  I just remember him inviting an actual Digimon fan for the review.

Yamichan16 wrote:

It would be nice to see one of the anime reviewers of TGWTG website review Sailor Moon. Especially since Viz is redubbing the 90s anime. I don't think Bennett would review it though. It doesn't seem like his kind of show, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, he only really does movies or OVA's, so realistically he could end up doing any of the three movies. I'd personally be up for R. It's not a bad movie, but there's so much to poke fun in it.

Yeah R is fun to poke fun at so is the SuperS movie. Although I don't think the dubs for the movies are that bad. 

It would have been nice if he got someone to do the review with, but I find it funny when he reviews animes with no knowledge of the show like the first pokemon movie. Then again that was a movie.

I think the movies would have been a better representation of what Sailor Moon meant to its fans than the first couple of early episodes of the series.  The R movie is my fav of the films and I would have loved for him to review that.

In many ways, I found the review funny. Fromthe perspective of a non fan, SM is pretty redickulous sometimes.  That being said, I'm annoyed that he clearly did not really try to do ANY research.  In fact, they're have been some requests he denied because he didn't know the show enough to comment.

 Overall, I found most of it funny, despite it being pretty flawed

Doug never does his research! People always get on him for that. 

I agree that the review could have been done better, but for the most part I thought it was hilarious. But yeah, the teenage self jokes were dragged out and not funny.

Goddess Yami wrote:

Doug never does his research! People always get on him for that. 

That's not exactly true. He watched the all of the episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender before reviewing the movie.

Avatar was an expectation.

I hate to diss on our beloved Sailor Moon, but it's much easier to get into Avatar than Sailor Moon. There's fewer episodes and they get to the point a lot faster.

There's also a whole lot more Avatar fans than there are in Sailor Moon. I can see why he'd take more time to invest in Avatar. That being said, I still wish he'd done a little more research.

I still haven't watched the review. But yeah he could have just googled Sailor Moon and read up on the basic facts of the show.

From all the reviews I've seen he seemed to have at least some understanding of what he was reviewing. I don't think his Sailor Moon review was the worst review of all time like some fans make it out to be but it was a horrible review nonetheless in my opinion. When you're reviewing something you should actually have actually played, watched, etc. whatever it is you are reviewing. I wouldn't play a Legend of Zelda game for an hour and then go make a review about the game based on my limited knowledge of it. That would be offensive to fans and just plain dumb. He probably should have just let Nostalgia Chick review instead. I don't really find her funny but she would have at least watched the first season in its entirety.

He reviewed Pokemon the first movie with no knowledge. That review is decent, but hey the first movie is bad anyway.XD

But yeah he really should have looked up on Sailor Moon. I guess he did the DIC dub?

Well personally I think it's fine that he didn't watch the movie since most of the Pokemon movies don't seem to correlate with the plot of the show. (The only thing I remember from the first pokemon was that Ash turned to stone and all the pokemon started and I was just like: .) So he could have reviewed the R movie and not have watched the actual show and I would have been totally okay with that.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I've watched it but I believe he did review the dub.

That doesn't make it any better than. XD

It made me giggle occasionally, but I went into it thinking it was a comedy review, more akin to say Honest Trailers, than a piece of constructive criticism. Although, Honest Trailers is way shorter.

I take it TheNostalgiaCritic doesn't like Sailor Moon...or not as much, but he tries to be funny and what comes out is kinda nasty and crude. Be prepared for anything a critic reviews or analyzes a movie or TV show or in this case, a popular 1990s anime hit. I viewed the vid before this forum was aware of it and to me, he's just commenting Sailor Moon can amuse him, but it's not his fave anime to begin with.

Honestly, the man isn't a renowned sexist, and never looks down on women. Like the comical genius of self-claimed feminist men like Tim Allen, George Carlin, Howard Stern and Bill Maher, they try to sound like a "male chav" for humor's sake and that's to denounce sexism. TheNostalgiaCritic would be careful with certain topics or YT would be informed (any flagging on his videos), and he could lose his account.

The only reason it was so poor is because he literally watched one episode and reviewed that one episode. I think it was the DIC dub too.

I still havent watch this.

I'm okay with him burning stuff I watched as a kid. Like the Swan Princess, but for some reason I can't watch this review. I guess I just don't like seeing people dissing Sailor Moon without a solid reason? 

Did he watch only one episode? Wow. He watched more than one episode for his Full House review. Then again anime isn't really Doug's thing.

I think he watched a few. His real flaw here is that he didn't watch in Japanese, he used the dub as a main basis. Though he did do a bit of research on the changes the dub made... And it was never his thing in the first place, so I have no idea what people were expecting with this one.

Because it's the NC and some SM fans take things a bit too personally. I'm sure Doug ticks people off all the time.