A few days ago I shared the starts of a brand new posting challenge – Magical Girl May! I am so happy to see how many people have shared this challenge with the intent to participate. This year has been a pretty tough one and I’m excited to have my feeds flooded with beautiful Magical Girls! 

Today is the first of May and thus the first of the prompts! Today’s prompt is:

Your First Magical Girl Series

I’m sure I share a first Magical Girl series with many of you. My intro to Magical Girls (and anime in general) was Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon! In the early 2000’s Sailor Moon would play on Toonami in the after school block. I can remember running as fast as I could to make it home before the day’s episode began. This photo is from the early 2000’s, I wanna say I was maybe 5 or 6 here. I’ve always loved dressing up as my favorite characters. I made this Sailor Moon “Costume” out of construction paper and taped it to my clothes so I could become my hero!

When Sailor Moon was at the height of popularity in the US there were tons of toys and merchandize – I was always excited to get the next Sailor Moon comic or to find a new doll at Toys R Us. There was even a table top card game for Sailor Moon! When I was little my Dad and I would play lots of Pokemon together so the Sailor Moon game was right up our alley. I can even remember going to the local mall (which has been shut down for 10+ year now – yikes) to buy new packs of the Sailor Moon game. 

At the time I had no idea what a Magical Girl was. All I knew was that Sailor Moon and her friends were the most incredible and inspirational girls out there! I admired Sailor Moon for being true to herself – even if that means crying over nothing at all, I admired Sailor Mercury for being so smart and always willing to help other learn, I thought Sailor Mars was cool with her fiery attitude – while she may seem mean she always helps those she loves, I loved that Sailor Jupiter was tough yet feminine, and I loved Sailor Venus for her sparkly personality. 

Little did I know that in my teen years I’d become obsessed with anime and Magical Girls! My love for Sailor Moon stayed on the back burner until 2014 when Viz Media announced that they had relicensed the original Sailor Moon anime and would be bringing it back to the US with a brand new english dub! I spent the next few years making as many Sailor Moon costumes as I could get my hands on, including my childhood hero herself; Sailor Moon. It’s crazy to look at these photos next to each other. While many years had passed between these photos it doesn’t seem like much had changed at all. I think 6 year old me would be very proud of where I’ve been and where I’m going. 

I will always love the love, joy and positivity that Magical Girls bring. They never fail to make me smile. This month is going to be full of strong and beautiful magical girls, I hope you’ll stick along for the ride!

As always, Keep Sewing, Stay Positive and Have Fun! ♡

-Eli