Hurricane Lohan '06 seems to have passed with little damage. This wasn't a storm of the magnitude of Davis '98 or even Sailor Moon X '01, but it was our first one in quite a while. I want to talk now not about the contents of the rumor, but about the rumor itself and reactions to it.

The thing that really amazed me about this story, and I think Chris at Anime News Network has covered it pretty well in some of his forum posts, is the power that one site had to spread a rumor that could have easily been checked, as ANN did.  All of a sudden five other rumor mill sites pick up the story that another person wrote, forums start talking, and meanwhile the only proof is a couple words on a blog which (and I don't know about any of you but) I'd never heard of before nor plan to visit after.

If there is something we can learn from the last two weeks, it's the fact that this rumor spiral wouldn't have happened if there wasn't enough interest in the possibility that it could happen. For those general movie sites that ran the rumor that interest stems from the mass media power that Joss Whedon and Lindsay Lohan have. Those names bring hits to the movie site's webpages.

But for Sailor Moon fans, or just those who are interested in anime and fandom, we glean something different. Read some of the comments at the movie hottie's page. You'll see how rabid much of Sailor Moon's fandom remains but moreover, the extent to which stereotypes of both American and Japanese culture played highly into reactions to the rumor. Fear of a destructive transformation when a cultural property is to cross borders, concern that what is essentially a Japanese cultural property MUST stay Japanese or else lose its identity, the idea that everything must stay in its "proper place" and format. Most importantly, we see that the ethnic background of pop culture plays an important role in determining its value.

Consider some of the following.

"Wtf. The dub was bad enough. USA should leave the series alone. >.>"

"WE CAN'T LET THIS HAPPEN! SAILOR MOON HAS BEEN RIDICULED ENOUGH BY AMERICA!
... Sailor Moon was made in Japan, born in Japan, and should stay in Japan."

"WTF Lindsey be Sailor Moon gross!!! She will ruin it! America will ruin it!"

"Umm, the cast should not be japanese. The show was based in japan however it was about "funny american girls", blond, brunette, and blue haired american girls (in sailor outfits)."

"If those people are going to take a Japanese series and turn it into a film, then they should use an all-Japanese cast, unless they intend to rewrite the entire story to suit American audiences, in which case, it won't even BE Sailormoon anymore."

"But Sailormoon, USAGI, is japanese. how stupid is it going to be set in america with an all american cast"

"I love anime and even though I don't like Sailormoon as much, I still respect that only if it sticks to Japan."

"animes should be made by and cast be asians."

"dont even let the cast be considered as non asian...it'll ruin so much of sailor moon is about."

"Americans cannot imitate Japanese things for crap."

Someone else in the comments blog made the charge that these posters are racist. By the definition of the term, that is a half truth. What we read in their posts is the following: the interaction of one culture's creation with another culture will result in a dilution, and the category of culture is being compromised by race. This is complicated by the fact that "America" is not a race, and according to some, nor are even the Japanese, but regardless, throughout history similar rhetoric has resulted in catastrophe. Before I become accused of needlessly stirring things up, I'll point out that what is written above is harmless and we won't be seeing anime fans leading liquidation squads any time soon.

As Jon Mays pointed out to me, what's happening here is not a racial reaction but a reaction to a bubble burst. Many of these readers are teenagers who have clung onto anime and manga because they wanted something different, they're at an age where they're looking to define themselves and they sometimes find that definition by searching for something alien to their current existence. This is the idea of "Greener grass" that I discussed in several previous editorials. When their 'other' becomes recategorized, something which is still different but at the same time mainstream, and most importantly when their peers can evaluate their interests on the same playing field, the reaction is a backlash and they struggle to latch hold onto whatever is available, in this case it turned out to be a the purity of a cultural production.

The idea of a new level playing field is important when considering why many found the suggestion of Lindsay Lohan as Usagi Tsukino to be offensive. Fans reacted the way they did because they were confronted by the possibility that their cultish hobby many not be so cultish after all. Lohan is a mainstream teen idol actress who is often being ripped on by programs like Saturday Night Live or even (ugh) David Spade. Some teenagers who appreciate Sailor Moon do so because the want the appearance as enjoying something apart from what everyone else enjoys, and because it's much harder to insult someone for liking a production by Sawai Miyuu (who the hell is she?) than Lindsay Lohan. Sawai Miyuu is no where near that level of fame; if I said to a Japanese friend that I like her and her works, they would probably not know who she is, but for those who do know her and aren't otaku, the reaction would likely be similar to saying to someone 'I find Lindsay Lohan to be a fine actress and I thoroughly enjoy her performances.' At least Lohan has had several major hit films under her belt.

Many fans who look to anime as other and appreciate it as a niche product remain unaware of its appearance in Tokyo. True, there are many anime which are niche even in Japan, but I suspect that for those which did hit the big time, like Sailor Moon, the idea of Lindsay Lohan as Usagi Tsukino would be fitting to most Japanese. A mainstream actress whose films have long been popular with children (and more recently for adults), for a mainstream series whose target audience is young girls and the parents who'd be forced to chaperone. If anything, Lohan as Usagi added credibility to the story because it seems so fitting that film executives would appreciate a big-name former child-star like herself to play the lead role in a children's movie.

There is no reason why Sailor Moon, like Akira, Evangelion, or Battle Angel Alita, wouldn't be a good choice for an American motion picture company. Comic book heroes and heroines are hot commodities these days, manga is mainstream, the Grudge 2 will be out in theatres this year, and American moviemakers looking to Asia for inspiration will only continue. We shouldn't be afraid of cultural transmission and transformation, but embrace it. Although from the looks of it, this rumor is not going to happen, I would enjoy another American take on the moonlight legend, and hope that it's possible sometime in the future.