Sailor Moon is a beloved anime classic that fans come back to time and again, as the “Sailor Moon redraw challenge” showed when it went viral on Twitter yesterday.
Started on Korean Twitter in July 2019, the Sailor Moon redraw challenge focuses on a still from the original show, featuring Usagi, the titular Sailor Moon, staring up at the villain with tears in her eyes. The first “redraw” version of the scene is a glow-up of the original, adding texture, details, and three-dimensionality.
Other artists quickly jumped in to share their own take on the image, and the hashtag soon went viral on Korean social media. Though activity on the tag died down for a little while, the art challenge heated up again this week and made its way over to Japanese Twitter and Instagram.
Expanding to include other scenes and characters from the anime, some of the entries are displays of pure artistic skill.
Others went with comedy.
And frankly things got a little weird. Slug Usagi anyone? How about Tiger King Sailor Moon?
Character mashups were born, simultaneously blessing everyone’s timelines with Sailor Pikachu (making a shocked face naturally) and cursing them with a Nigel Thornberry horror.
Even Covid-19 made a cameo, substituting in for the original villain.
Animal Crossing wasn’t going to be left behind either, representing the kinder, fuzzier, and very sold out side of the pandemic.
Though most of the artists were concentrated in Japan, there were entries from all around the world, bringing elements of different cultures into the Sailor Moon iconography.
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