Category: Articles
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Reaching Out: How Video Games Let Us Own the Transformation
We have seen transformations in manga panels, animated cels, live-action footage, and theater stages. But there is one medium where…
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The Transformation on Stage: How Sera Myu Makes Magic Live Without Screens
Every transformation we have discussed so far relies on the editing power of its medium. Manga uses page turns. Anime…
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Two Transformations, Two Lives: The Ultimate Cost of Magic in Minky Momo
Among all the magical girls in history, Minky Momo holds a unique and deeply bittersweet place. Her transformations were not…
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Transformation Without Transformation: How Cardcaptor Sakura Rewrites the Rules Through Clothes
In almost every magical girl series, there is a transformation sequence. The girl says a magic phrase, light surrounds her,…
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Before the Brooch: Usagi Tsukino’s Wardrobe and the Fashion of Being Ordinary
We have spent many articles analyzing the light, the spin, the ribbons. But there is a question that deserves its…
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Prism Restart: Digital Aesthetics and Manga Loyalty in Sailor Moon Crystal
In 2014, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon, Toei Animation launched Sailor Moon Crystal. This was not a…
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Gravity and Grit: The 2003 Live-Action Sailor Moon Transformation Revolution
In 2003, a live-action Sailor Moon TV series aired in Japan. Many fans were skeptical. How could you possibly recreate…
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Water and Fire: How Ami and Rei’s First Transformations Were Designed for Their Personalities
In the 1990s Sailor Moon anime, Usagi’s transformation is the crowd-pleaser. But the real artistry of character design appears when…
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Flowing Ritual: How the 1990s Sailor Moon Anime Reinvented Transformations
If the manga gives us a quiet, still transformation, the 1990s anime gives us the complete opposite: a flowing, musical,…
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Sailor Moon Manga Transformations: The Beauty of Stillness
When people think of magical girl transformations, the first image that comes to mind is usually from the 1990s anime:…