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The Beginning of the End

6/1/2014

 
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On May 16, 2014, Viz Media announced it had acquired the license to distribute Sailor Moon in the United States and Canada. In their communication they proclaim that Serena is "no more" and that The Other Name -- Tsukino Usagi -- is to be used when referring to Sailor Moon's secret identity.

The immediate reaction of the fandom was mixed as shown.  A plurality of fans clearly supported the change.  Others were hostile, some were accepting, if disappointed, and a few were confused.  The fandom was not united, but it is the decision made by those parties legally in charge. For this reason, we will no longer update or maintain our site with one exception -- which we well get to shortly.


Following this announcement, a large number of visitors stumbled onto our site and provided us with feedback both critical and helpful. As a result of the feedback, we have permanently disabled the Testimonials section. Given that the decision has been made to officially refer to Sailor Moon as Usagi, updating this section would prove futile.  The future of the Tumblr account associated with our site, Serena Is Sailor Moon, is also uncertain.

We would like to stress that there has been a misunderstanding as to the nature of this site.  This site represents all those who want Serena in a dub.  This is not the position of one person or one fan, and despite the zeal of certain notable fans of the dub, not all of us wanted the old series to remain unlicensed. Many of us were hoping for a redub that much like many fan projects, used the names of the old English-language version of Sailor Moon but retained the characterizations, plot points, and relationships of the original version.  Some of us are even happy with the new, more accurate dub, but are disappointed that the old dub is not likely to be licensed.  We do not all think the same.

As a group, we are not supporting any boycott of the series. As a group, we are not supporting a return of.the original voice actors. These are the actions of individuals, but this site represents all that want "Serena."  We will continue to support fan projects with the name "Serena" and while many of us will hope for a rerelease of the old English-language version in the future, as a group we will not actively advocate for it.

In fact, in order to provide a more balanced view, we have decided to provide a section for rebuttal. If someone who disagrees with our opinion contacts us through the form and gives us explicit permission to publish their words, we will review the content. If it meets our standards we will post it at our discretion.

As for our collective mission forwards, we will take a cue from one of the first people who responded to this news, the Twitter user "Teresa" with the screen name goggleboi.  Sailor Moon will always be "Serena" in our hearts and heads, and we will always think of her as "Serena" first, no matter what her canonical name is, That is how we will remember her legacy.
Rebochan
6/1/2014 03:03:39 pm

Serena is dead. Long live Usagi.

lolwut
6/1/2014 04:41:32 pm

Nangbaby, are you fucking seriously trying to distance yourself from this by writing about yourself in the third person? Lmao.

vien
6/5/2014 02:59:51 am

Sailormoon is just a childhood to most people, but not really a fandom.
Why I say this? Because you're stuck with the English names that you were used to as a kid that you can't seem to accept their real names.

Typical 'murricans.

Anonymous Poster-Type Thing
6/5/2014 08:34:54 am

Let's get a few things straightened out.

Usagi *is* the original Sailor Moon, while Serena exists thanks to a hackjob dub that cut out episodes, erased gay people, altered plot points, and damn near mocked Japanese culture. You say you don't support a boycott of the anime re-release, yet Nangbaby clearly said otherwise on their Tumblr. You say you won't advocate for a re-license of the original dub, yet Nangbaby has clearly said otherwise on their Tumblr.

So how about y'all start telling the truth, hmm? Y'all want the original dub back regardless of the cost to artistic integrity, authorial intent, and authenticity to the original product - oh, and yes, the Japanese version of Sailor Moon (the one made by, in, and for Japan) is THE original and definitive version of Sailor Moon.

Cluedo
6/11/2014 11:47:43 pm

You never answered my question before so I'll just repost it here:
If her name is not 月野 うさぎ/Tsukino Usagi, then her name is Serena What? You mention the importance of secret identities in your manifesto (which I find interesting that you mention Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, but not Diana Prince/Wonder Woman) but never stress the missing last name that lessens the importance of Serena as a replacement. The dub gave us the names Darien Shields, Amy Anderson, Maxfield Stanton and Molly Baker, so why no last name for Serena? Wouldn't that give more relevance to the name change to the dub? Also, would you be so adamant about keeping the English name if it had been Victoria as DIC originally planned to use or Celeste as the English branch of Kodansha first used?

We Want Serena link
6/14/2014 08:18:52 pm

Cluedo, thank you for your feedback.

In answer to your question, we do not stress the last name for Serena -- which was canonically Tsukino in the old dub -- for three important reasons.

First, is that for the standard of children's entertainment, family names are treated of low importance for series with teams as protagonists. A modern example of this is NFL Rush Zone. While the main characters do have last names that are given, official profiles do not list them. The same is true of cartoons that were contemporary of the English-language version Sailor Moon.

Second, as mentioned above, the last name of the old version is as close to the last name of the Japanese version as can be transliterated using a Roman alphabet. Serena Tsukino and Usagi Tsukino share a common denominator of Tsukino. Remove that and the difference between the two is the critical difference between Serena and Usagi, which was the focus of this site. Since in the mid 90's Serena was not that common of a name and skewed older, giving Serena that name made it distinctive.

Finally, it is important to remember that while Serena was the main character of the old English language adaptation, Sailor Moon was a television show with a team of protagonists working together. In cases such as these, a last name takes on less significance than it would if Sailor Moon were a solo heroine for the majority of the episodes. Ensemble casts cause a conservation of detail for characters in them in general; last names are not important to characters to the plot. First names are critical identifiers.

Concerning the speculations, we do not know if we would have argued for another name, but Serena is the name received by a North American audience and Serena is the one we see as Sailor Moon.

Rebochan
6/15/2014 06:33:37 am

Oh for the love of god, stop pretending your delusional beliefs are held by anyone but you, Nangbaby. "Serena" is dead for a reason.

Messenger of Serenity
9/27/2014 11:27:36 pm

Serena is Dead!

Hallelujah!

Hallejuah!

Long live Usagi!

Mina R.I.P.
10/22/2014 08:06:37 am

I thought it was funny Calling Hiragana Scribbles!

Sailor Mars Fanatic
1/6/2015 11:18:57 pm

While I diplomatically acknowledge that Usagi is indeed the character's original name in Japanese I must strongly disapprove of the way you all put Nangbaby down. He/she hasn't done anything wrong in creating this website. He/she is entitled to state his/her preference for the name that the English dub gave Sailor Moon. You're all welcome to your own opinion just like Nangbaby also is.

And to be honest I really prefer the name Serena myself. I may one day watch the new dub and take the use of the Japanese name with a grain of salt. But it's the original dub I will always favour.

Please don't be so harsh on Nangbaby.

Laksita link
1/24/2015 10:13:20 pm

I read the pages on this site back-to-back, really trying to accept the reasoning behind this whole We Want Serena thing, but after I was done reading... no such luck. You're just a racist person hiding behind long, carefully-typed-out and elegant-sounding wordcraft. Don't get me wrong; you can like the English dub version without being racist. I respect people's preferences. However, this site you're working on? Nothing more than a racist piece of trash.

Confused Otaku
8/28/2015 07:33:52 am

Hey? How is she a racist?

Shes many unflattering things.

An idiot, a Troll, a Drama Queen, and a ... deeply deluded self promoting martyr.

Seen no evidence of her being racist however.

Sailor Mars Fanatic
8/28/2015 07:00:43 pm

I don't want to come into any part of the argument about who Nangbaby is or whether she's racist, silly or whatever.

I am just a Sailor Moon fan who loves the name Serena. I fully respect people who prefer the original Japanese name Usagi. I am not Nangbaby and I only desire to be considered her friend.

Nangbaby I am still writing my fanfiction that you enjoyed so much. I will let you know when I finish my alternate take on the Black Moon Clan.


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