Sailor Moon Wand, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

Back in 1999 or so, I honestly can't remember, the Sailor Moon craze was going full steam.  I watched it on Toonami with my brothers.  In the late 90's it was hard to get toys from the anime, unless you found them online.  I found one of her wands on Ebay with a bid getting ready to close.  I convinced my Dad to buy it, which he did, in disbelief  . . . and I never gave him the money!!!  (Heh, not one of my proudest moments.  I should pay him back.)  Since then we've had many good laughs over it.

 What's fun is that each of my nieces have really enjoyed it.  It's one of their favorite toys to play with when they come over.  And now I have a little niece that isn't quite walking yet, but as she was crawling around she found the wand and figured out how to push the button to light it up and make the wand sound.  So cute!

I have four nieces now!  My poor nephew.  I remember Krista asking him a month or so ago if he wanted a brother, and I swear I saw him shake his head no.  The next time he's over I'm going to ask him.  He's entered the "why" phase.  Had quite the conversation the other day.  He was very pleased at getting the bar-stool to turn, and then getting on it to spin.  I have three brothers, always wanting a sister, and it seems like my lack of sisters is being made up in nieces.

Sailor Moon's wand with Sailor Neptune's Mirror (a greater treasure).

My nieces are not allowed to play with the mirror.  It's not a toy.

Sailor Neptune's Mirror in Real Life

I regard the above mirror as a family heirloom.  It's not that old, yet it is very special.  My Mom found it in 1987 at a French flea market in Paris.  I was five when she brought this back, so it's part of my childhood.  Often I would go into my Mom's room just to look at it, and because I loved it so much she gave it to me.

Fast forward to the year 2000.  My last semester of High School was when I was first introduced to anime through Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.  Escaflowne and Card Captors were running on Fox, though I don't think the English versions ever finished their run.  Then there was Cartoon Network with their Toonami lineup.  Thanks to Toonami I was introduced to my favorite--and still overall favorite anime--Gundam Wing.  But Toonami was also responsible for introducing American audiences to Sailor Moon.

Of course I got obsessed, which included getting the manga (Japanese comics) as well.  While reading I discovered something quite extraordinary: Sailor Neptune had my Mom's mirror!  The details are so close that Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi had to have had one of her own, which she modeled Neptune's mirror on.

It's fun to think that a 1987 treasure from France was imitated in a famous anime/manga.  While searching for pictures I found the below image, which is the first time since 2000 I found someone else with the mirror, so I'm not the only person who thinks this!      

 (Source Info)

 (Source Info)

 (Source Info)

Overly silly, I know, but I've always found this quite fun.  BTW, Sailor Moon is behind one of the worst mistakes I made in college.  There is a live-action version of the show called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.  I found it during the first week of one of my college semesters, and I managed to watch all 49 episodes in 4 days.  -_-;; I went to class, but got behind in my class work.  It was sadly addicting.  

On another note my niece LE learned a very sad truth on New Years Eve: Manga are not coloring books.

Sarah