I've made clear on this blog that I love the Doom Tree Saga, the first 13 episodes of Sailor Moon R. The Moonlight Knight plotline is it's one issue, the one thing I have to ask people to try to ignore or look past as they watch it.
He is pretty unconnected to why I love this Arc so much. I love it for how it's the last time a lot of characters and elements of season 1 are truly prominent, I love Ail and Ann and their wacky antics, and I love how looking forward this is the first time Sailor Moon truly looks like what the Magical Girl Warrior sub-genre will become. I love most of it's one off Filler episodes but I also love it's Eucatastrophe of a finale.
So if someone today did a remake or adaptation of this Arc I would not have a problem with The Moonlight Knight being removed. In fact I would remove him myself even though in the American set Sailor Moon reimaging I've been writing in my head I intend to cast Darrien Shields (name subject to change) as ethnically Middle Eastern, and then maybe just homage the concept by having him Cosplay as the Moonlight Mask at a Halloween Party or something. Referencing the Moonlight Knight is not even my reason for that decision, it's more a result of my comparative mythology theories where I compare Endymion to Dumuzid/Tammuz, so I want Prince Enydmion to look like a plausible Iraqi in the flashbacks. (On an off topic note I do want people to know that Usagi herself will remain Ethnically Japanese in this adaptation I'm imagining.)
This post is only an Apology for this plotline in the sense that it's important to remember Japan doesn't relate to "Race" the same way America does. Now it's wrong when some reactionary Twitter Weebs want to make it sound like Japan is unaware of the very concept., modern Japan has clearly become aware of it, and Racism has been a theme in some Anime. But it's not their main ancient grudge breaking to new mutiny like it is for the United States. Tropes related to American Racism pop up in Japanese media because of how Japanese media has been influenced by American Media with originally no knowledge of the context, hence why the further back you go the more often Black people in Anime are full on Loony Toons style Black Face.
But more importantly Japan is not one of the countries constantly bombing Middle Eastern countries back to the Stone Age. Rather they are a Nation that knows what it feels like to be Bombed and so when 21st Century Anime does address the War on Terror in a show like Canaan it tends to do so from a very anti-American Imperialism viewpoint.
Positive Stereotypes are still a problem, I'm well aware of that, the stereotype that Asians are good at math for example makes things more difficult for Asians who struggle with math. But I do feel like it's worth noting how the positive Stereotypes that used to exist for Arabs and Muslims have been pretty much gone from American Pop Culture since 9/11, they've just been Terrorists or in media critiquing the War on Terror passive victims. Americans haven't been in the mood for a revival of 1000 Arabian Nights style fantasy. And Arabs are kind of the only American Minority for whom that is the case.
So in that context discussing a character like the Moonlight Knight is a good opportunity to remind people that a lot of the tropes we associate with Chivalry and Courtly Love are the product of Medieval French writers borrowing ideas first innovated in the Arabic Literature and Poetry they were exposed to during the Crusades. And those tropes are somewhat baked into Sailor Moon right from the original Manga, so acknowledging the Arabic version of that was probably well intentioned, I just wish it hadn't been done so poorly.
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