there’s Serenity’s silhouette in this picture
I told this many time in my blogs, and maybe this will be a repetitive prologue to much of my posts: I raised in a religious family. When I say ‘religious’, this means they’re ritualistic, in which their Christianity is defined by rituals, not actual means of living. But this is a talk for another post in the future, for the sake of not digressing. This Christian-centred upbringing made me a close minded person for some early years in my life. Not in a sense of closing myself up for another thing beside Christians morals and mithos, but more like I didn’t have any access for any other thing.
My source of entertainment were Christian children’s magazines and Bible stories. There wasn’t any other world. For a couple of years, we didn’t own any television set, which was the only window to the outside world way before the internet came along. Educated in a Christian school didn’t help the case either. It is save to say that for me, the
only world that existed, the only that was real, was the world of Christianity. I remember one time there was a Moslem friend among us. It was very strange and almost exotic, to have him around us. That’s how close minded I was.
I remember one time me and this Moslem friend decided to engineered a floating motorcycle (we were 10-11 years old, and we’re quite sure that every vehicle would be floating in the year 2000, so we decided to help). He claimed that in his belief, he can asked for the Djinns to help the vehicle airborned. I resisted, not because he had this other belief that was different form mine, but more because of my concern that since I’m a Christian, the Djinn would refuse our proposal. So the plan was dropped. God this is hilarious. I just remembered this while writing this post, I feel like sharing it.
Anyways, one day a friend introduced me to the Sailor Moon manga, and boy, how my world was shook by it, violently. I was familiar with comic books, but not really into it. I know how comic books supposed to be drawn, but Sailor Moon was very different. It was drawn in a very all over the place style. The drawings were hectic and jumbled with many things happening and superimposing one another. Only when I’m older, I know that this was a familiar style of the shojo manga only later in life. It’s still years and years for me to realized genre classifications. But for my simple, limited mind, Sailor
Moon was a treat, a magical treat. Something inside me just explode alongside it’s chaotic beauty, and I was a fan instantly. By the time I finished the first volume, I longed for more.
This was the time when I took my drawing skill into a more specific style. For the longest time, I only drew in Naoko Takeuchi’s style. I only wanted to create Sailor Moon. I didn’t care for any other style, I know I’ll survive only with Sailor Moon. This was the first manga that hit me so hard, it was the first time I felt so free. My mind was smacked open and actually boldened to venture into the strange world I never knew was existed: IMAGINATION. Holy sh*t, guys. Typing this while remembering how it felt is really emotional.
I started to create ‘comic books’ of my own with my bestfriend (he’s a doctor now). We bought notebooks and just created stories (which very much mirrorred Sailor Moon in many ways) straight on with ballpoint pens. No planning of the story arcs before hands; we just updated it page after page after page everyday and it’s getting very popular in my class. People would asked us every morning if there’s any update, and the notebook would be passed from person to person the whole day. People just loved to experienced the adventure we created, no matter how the story itself just Sailor Moon ripoffs. This
will continued to my junior highschool life where we already moved on to another manga fanbase (Magic Knight Rayearth). My imagination was running wild and my hands tried as they might to keep up.
chaotic beauty
These notebooks full of my childhood imaginations were already destroyed. Everytime I did bad scores at school my parents would blame my drawing activity and ripped them up (“you’re too busy drawing so you don’t have time to study!”). I remember my mom stated her concerns about why I always drew skimpy dressed girls with exposed legs. Well, the
reason was Sailor Moon wears short skirts, never sexual. I didn’t stop. I just drew a new one. Oh how I wish I still have them today. Oh my … this post is getting more emotional than I intended to be.
Then there’s another thing. Sailor Moon was a story which introduced me to cultures outside my Christian upbringing. I remembered when I first saw Mercury symbol on Ami’s forehead right before she became Sailor Mercury, I thought it was a symbol that the mangaka created, although the shape is very peculiar and seemed out of place with the upbeat and innocent girly feel of the manga. Almost, religious? But when I came across Sailor Mars’ symbol, I was curious. Is that a male symbol? Why was it appeared on Rei Hino, which is a girl? What was it to do with Mars? That’s when I try to read encyclopedia (this is still eons from internet times, guys). Then I read that those 9 planets (Pluto still considered as a planet) had symbols, and each symbols had stories behind them that leads me to finally came across Greek mythology.
Reading Greek mythology made me a rebel in a sense. I found that their stories are somewhat similar with Bible stories, but more exciting (and ultimately made me come to question Bible’s originality, since Greek myth came first). And I read another mythology, and then another. I became a bookworm. I loved mythology. I enjoy many stories, many adventures, and they in turn opened my eyes to something else entirely new, and shaped how I think and what I do today. Years after I left Sailor Moon fanbase behind.
I’m still drawing. I’m a professional illustrator by day, and struggling writer by night. There’s no amount of work ripping could stop me, because of that power. The moon power. Lol.
And then they rebooted the series. By God I’m going to love it all over.
Wrikudoro 