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 Such a good book:) Nov 04, 2009
I have to say that I loved this book. I think any Sailor Moon buff, or anime fan will enjoy it. Also anyone who wants to learn about Japanese culture will get a lot out of this book.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 heavily padded, poorly edited Aug 25, 2009
I was intrigued with the idea of a book detailing how the characters in Sailor Moon were a window into the society of contemporary Japan, and while parts of "Warriors of Legend" do make fascinating reading, over all I was disappointed with a book that is far more padding than work and a sense that the work could have used one more going over by the editor.
As much as half of the book is used to relate how scenes in SM are based on real places in Tokyo, which is great for a SM fan but does little to explore how the show is a look into the society. Also phrases used in these entries are often repeated such as the history of a particular school or the fact that the creator of SM went to university to study chemistry etc. I felt the writers had written up each part and then cobbled them together without noticing they had repeated themselves.
There is also an annoying tendency to comment on episodes of SM without identifying which episode which would enable the interested reader to play the episode in question and be able to notice what the author was saying. for example it goes on about a particular statue of a girl in red shoes that one of the characters is sitting next to when she comes to a particularly important life choice. They explain the significance of the statue and how most Japanese would understand it, but they do not tell you the name of the episode so that you can go and look at it for yourself! I considered maybe there was as copyright reason for not doing this, but then one or two episodes were given names, which brought me back to the original point of frustration.
Lastly the book ends on a long dissertation on Sailor Venus and the similarities between her character and the Occidental goddess to which she is similar. Sure this can be interesting but it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Japan.
The areas exploring religion, school and family in Japan are fascinating but they are only about half the book. The rest of the book is padding.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Learn where Sailor Moon came from! May 08, 2008
Warriors of Legend is a great book for Sailor Moon fans, and even for people who are curious about the series but never really wanted to get too deep in the manga or the anime. I never knew the scenes were based in real life Japan like Crown arcade and it even explains stuff like why Tuxedo mask drives an expensive sports car. If you read all the manga, anime and visited a bunch of websites to satisfy your knowledge of Sailor Moon but need more. This book will fill that void *LOL*
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Very interesting Feb 17, 2008
I've been a fan of the Japanese version of Sailormoon since I was a little girl, so when I saw this book I wanted to buy it. It goes into detail about specific places used in the series that actually exist (or are based on) in Japan! It also goes in depth on characters and their backgrounds of Japanese mythology, religion, etc. An example: the three talismans that belong to Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are based on the talismans related to the myth pertaining to the birth of the first Japanese emperor. It all ties in together and shows you how much Naoko Takeuchi put into her story.
9 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 Allow me to disagree with the majority of reviewers Jan 13, 2008
"Warriors of Legend" is an unbalanced, incoherent attempt to describe how Sailor Moon comments on Japanese society. Space is wasted, there is little organization, and the conclusion does not naturally follow from the information presented. Though it is a valiant analytical attempt (from what I understand, the first of its kind regarding this particular series), it falls short in many places. One hopes that future analysis will use a more balanced, organized, intellectual approach.
According to the back flap, "Warriors of Legend" purports to be an intellectual view of "Japanese society through the lens of Sailor Moon." Authored by a masters degree holder in Regional Eastern Asian studies, as well as a doctor in political science, the reader is given the impression that there is a good deal of analysis of the societal impact of Sailor Moon.
Unfortunately, there is very little actual analysis in this book. Following a 20 page summary of the characters and story (completely irrelevant to fans of the series), 42 pages are devoted to "exploring the Sailor Moon Universe." We are given a tour, essentially, of all the sites in the Minato district of Tokyo where this series is based. Time and time again, the authors make the point that Naoko Takeuchi set the story in the world she lived in. Young Japanese fans of the show could identify directly with the background they saw, "building the notion that the sailor soldiers could have easily walked alongside them in their travels through Tokyo." This is an interesting and valid point, but is made tediously, time and time again, for a third of the book. This book, at times, reads more like a tour guide for fans of the series than an actual scientific analysis.
The rest of the book is a potpourri of underdeveloped analytical points, none of which flow well together. The structure of Sailor Moon families is addressed briefly, after which the text rushes immediately into the cultural aspects of the show. There is a section on the poetics employed by Sailor Moon before fighting takes place, one on how expensive Mamoru Chiba's lifestyle (in the anime) is in Japan, one on education, religion and so on. All of this is interspersed with seemingly random specific commentary on each of the Sailor Senshi. None of these points is adequately developed (the longest being the section on poetics, which doesn't run 10 pages), and there seems to be no cohesion at all, no gradual progressing toward a broad, general point.
The conclusion is equally flawed. A good deal of the conclusion describes how Japanese children were shocked to see their characters die at the end of the first anime season of Sailor Moon. This is an interesting point, but probably would have fit the introduction better than the conclusion, and is entirely undeveloped besides the "Japanese children viewed the characters as their friends" idea. Nothing, not even a reference, is made to the underdeveloped ideas presented earlier in the book. The reader is left wondering what the preceding 130 pages were all about.
Any future authors of an analysis of Sailor Moon would do well to focus their claims on a single argument, make sure that the argument is generalizable (i.e. can be applied to other shows, or elements of pop culture) and at least include some comparison with other elements of pop culture to give the reader proper context. Additionally, many elements of this book were utterly fantastic. Whatever relationship Sailor Venus has with the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar is still lost on me, and comparisons between Sailor Moon's jikoshoukai and those in Japanese history seem awkward, especially without mention of other anime.
Only a hardcore fan could appreciate this book, but an intellectual hardcore fan would find little more than what can already be found online.
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