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Everything is a Sailor Moon Rip Off by sixrabbits

I don't know why it bugs me so much when people call every magical girl anime a "sailor moon rip off"

I know because Sailor Moon is the most enduring and popular magical girl anime/manga that people tend to base their understanding of similar animes around it... but for fucks sake, it's not the first magical girl anime ever!

Technically the magical girl theme has been around since the 50s/60s (depending on how strictly you want to define the genre). Maybe that's why it bothers me, because these people would see Sally the Witch(made in the 60s) as a Sailor Moon rip off.
Sailor Moon did a lot to update the genre and make it popular again, but its nothing new, and let's be honest, the plot is not ground breaking. It's the same plot that's been used for decades (especially in male centered stories)

-A chosen one/task forced upon a hero
-Villains set on conquest
-Comrades join hero along the way and provide aid
-comrades sacrifice themselves for the hero

Hell, I could just as easily be making a bullet list for Lord of the Rings, King Arthur, Cabal, billions of animes etc. The main difference is that those stories feature a predominately male cast.

The outfit transformation thing I think is probably a Sailor Moon thing, I don't know for sure, but let's face it the newer magical girl stuff takes it to a new level. Sailor Moon had a school girl meets gymnast thing going on, later incarnations of the genre have veered further into Lolita territory with a lot of the designs. The "magical transformation" bit isn't even 100% exclusive to Sailor Moon, previous animes did have male heroes using devices to transform from their civilian selves to their super alter ego- Sailor Moon just made it pretty.

What I'm saying is, just because it features a team of girls (or guys) using magical powers to fight monsters does not mean that it is ripping off Sailor Moon.

((this all being said, I still love Sailor Moon and magical girl stuff in general...))

Everything is a Sailor Moon Rip Off

sixrabbits

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    Gen

    Nailed it.
    The transformation stuff certainly was stepped up a notch in Sailor Moon, but it basically built upon the Cutey Honey stuff. Though she used it to transform into disguises a lot too, not just her magical girl costume.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnoYDHy0mpI

    A later 90s series was done by the team who made Sailor Moon, and it looks exactly the same, lol. Complete with posing and calling out the villains afterward.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Df5TTVGp4

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      sixrabbits

      I really should have put a disclaimer that I greatly dislike Cutey Honey...

      but yeah.
      It's pretty annoying when people use the term "rip off" in relation to something that has similar elements to another, more popular series. Like anything pirate themed is a "rip off" of POTC.

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    Velantian

    You could possibly trace them all back to the story of Gilgamesh written around 1200 BCE. There is really nothing new.

    The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh by David Damrosch

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      sixrabbits

      This is super true!
      There are always going to be similar elements with stuff that fits into a certain genre. Hell, there's an article (maybe more) comparing Daredevil to The Odyssey.

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    FeyPhoenix

    That happens frequently through all forms of media.

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      sixrabbits

      Yeah, I've heard various things that parody or just simply occupy the same genre as another thing being called a rip off. I think part of it has to do with people really lacking in their vocabulary, or their knowledge of the whole genre.