Stu Levy

I read this years ago and tried giving it another shot, out of curiosity, and it's so terrible I can't even read it out of "this was written for young children but is still Sailor Moon". For the record, this will do nothing for you if you are reading this with your kids, because this is based on the Americanized Frankenstein's monster first US dub of the first anime, that pretends that the characters live in some vague version of 80s/90s America rather than Japan, and drastically changes just about everything about who they are and how the world works. Rather than help younger folks understand the characters, it will make them more confused, because it's likely that the most easy to reach version of the first anime for kids to watch these days is thankfully the uncensored, unmodified sub or dub of the show, which directly contradicts this in almost every way.

On the first page of this book, they have this sentence: "Serena's favorite animals were rabbits, which is why some friends gave her the nickname, "Bunny.""

Serena is the name the US dub company gave the protagonist because they tried to Americanize anime back then, and Serena is a more "familiar" name to presumably white audiences. The protagonist's name is Usagi. Usagi is the Japanese word for rabbit/bunny. That's why people call her bunny words. That's why she's got so much bunny stuff. On top of her hair style, which is two buns that lead into long tails on either side of her head, kind of like bunny ears. She's also Sailor Moon, which aligns with the moon rabbit folk tale (Makoto actually makes a joke about this when they go to the moon). This painful rewrite is just that: painful. There are multiple shows right now with "Usagi" in the title that star rabbits or are otherwise rabbit themed, including one show on Netflix that stars a samurai rabbit. This is not a difficult concept for children to grasp, and yet these "tweaks" and changes are endemic to this. Maybe Usagi's favorite animal is a rabbit, too, and that is actually why her friends go so hard on the rabbit stuff. But she's so buried in other rabbit stuff it's kind of unavoidable.

Don't read this to your kids. If you really love all Mooniebilia, sure, go for it. Maybe you can get through the cringe in a way I can't. The "GQ-looking henchmen" and Dennis the Menace reference were just too much for me.… (mere)

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favourite films of all time, so it's only natural for this Halloween obsessed reader to pick up Zero's book!

Zero is lost, so Jack must go on an adventure to find his friend and keep him safe! While he's away, Zero finds a reindeer who is in trouble. Both Jack and Zero find themselves getting into some Christmas-filled mischief as they find their way back to one another. Also, Sally's along for the ride too!

I really liked this book. It appears to be aimed at a children's audience, but as a Disney and Tim Burton loving adult I totally was digging it too! It's a great graphic novel to jump into for a fun adventure with our favourite characters.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.… (mere)

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favourite films of all time, so it's only natural for this Halloween obsessed reader to pick up Zero's book!

Zero is lost, so Jack must go on an adventure to find his friend and keep him safe! While he's away, Zero finds a reindeer who is in trouble. Both Jack and Zero find themselves getting into some Christmas-filled mischief as they find their way back to one another. Also, Sally's along for the ride too!

I really liked this book. It appears to be aimed at a children's audience, but as a Disney and Tim Burton loving adult I totally was digging it too! It's a great graphic novel to jump into for a fun adventure with our favourite characters.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.… (mere)