Disclaimer: This is an account of how International Sailor Moon Day played out from 2015-2017 in Los Angeles, California. During this story, I will not be dragging anyone, blaming anyone, or calling names.
I’m not trying to hide who’s who. If you wanted to do the digging, you could easily figure out who I’m talking about. But I’m not going to say everyone involved was wrong or right. I’m simply explaining how everything played out on my end. I’m also explaining why you might not see another event happening soon in Los Angeles.
It is, however, a secret hope of mine that someone sees this and decides to restart these events. I’m now living far, far away from the epicenter of what happened. Maybe someone has the star seed needed to restart these events the right way. Hopefully, they can create something everyone can enjoy together.
What International Sailor Moon Day Was & How I Found It
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, Anime Expo 2014 had its giant Sailor Moon addition. It was already a massive convention, but Sailor Moon made the event even more exciting. There, they announced that a new Sailor Moon Crystal series would be made. They also announced a new edition of the manga and a handful of merchandise.
I was super bummed that I didn’t go to the announcement. But it wasn’t meant to be.
The next year, after the premiere of Sailor Moon Crystal, I happened to be scrolling through Facebook. That’s when an event appeared in my feed. It was an International Sailor Moon Day Picnic at Griffith Park.
ISMD (International Sailor Moon Day) LA 2015
At the time, I didn’t live too far from the location. I packed up my family, and my husband drove us to the event. It was hard to find, but once we got there, we fit right in. My little girl sat in her car seat on top of my Sailor Moon comforter. I talked with other fans about what we loved about the show. We also talked about how much Sailor Moon meant to us.
Our Standpoint on What it Should Be – Organizing the 2016 event
I loved what they had going; it was small but had so much potential. After attending and seeing what it was, I reached out to the organizers. I had some ideas that could make it even more family-friendly. It wasn’t much, but I had some knowledge of events and organizing. I had also completed my business management certificate and wanted to offer my two cents. It basically boiled down to me knowing where to get really cool Sailor Moon coloring book pages and wanting to have an official coloring table there in the future. Maybe even have a coloring contest like they do at dentists’ offices and stuff.
However, things were complicated from the beginning. By that point, three of us were actively planning the 2016 event. It was the other two organizers from the previous years and me. One of them had proved to be wishy-washy and kind of a flighty sort of personality. I’m talking about the same person who was extremely late to her own event. In fact, she only showed up as people were packing up and leaving.
At the time, we all began discussing what we wanted the event to become. We agreed that it should be a free public event where everyone felt welcome. We wanted people of all ages and backgrounds to attend. There would be no limitations based on sexual orientation, gender, or other personal characteristics.
One of the original organizers also wanted to turn the event into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This would allow the event to operate entirely as a nonprofit. Any money raised would go directly toward organizing and supporting the next event. That was what I was signing on for. That is what we had all agreed to.
ISMD (International Sailor Moon Day) LA 2016
So for International Sailor Moon Day 2016 we had an even bigger gathering. One with vendors, live music, a cosplay contest, and a whole lot more. I brought a couple of large folding tables, awnings (because I knew it would be hot), and coloring pages, crayons, a small DVD player, and the original show on DVD. My area was by the water station, so if people were getting overheated, they could come sit down. Not only that, but we also had some face painting going on, so they could also get a tiara or a moon on their head while cooling down.
It was honestly one of the best things I think I’ve ever helped put on. Even though the stress of it was something I’d never experienced before in my life. It was something I’ll remember forever. I met a lot of people who I wish I still kept in touch with, but I’ll explain why I dropped out of contact with them later.
Momentum Online – Being Noticed & Bringing in the Wrong People for Our Vision
2016 was a hit!
It was the first Saturday of August, which means it’s time for fans to celebrate their love for Sailor Moon! After (Redacted) started International Sailor Moon Day in New York City, the Los Angeles chapter followed soon after, run by (Redacted) of (Redacted), (Redacted) of Sailor Moon L.A. and (Redacted) of (Redacted). Angelenos gathered at Sycamore Grove Park in Mount Washington for a themed picnic, cosplay contest and day of all things magical. The synth-pop, experimental, one-woman band Plasmic performed for the crowds during the closing ceremony.
We got a mention in LA Weekly in a post that’s nearly non existent now.
Plus, we earned $600 bucks! During this event, we had a sponsor that donated $600 to the get-together. This $600 would be the catalyst and set off some terrible things that went down during the planning of the next ISMD event. My understanding was that any unused money would support future free ISMD events. However, there was never any explicit agreement as to how the money had to be used.
ISMD (International Sailor Moon Day) LA 2017 – The Divide, Goodbye Free and Family-Friendly
With all of the glitz and glamour of International Sailor Moon Day 2016, we started gaining a lot of momentum outside of our small Facebook Group. We were on a high and were already planning the next year’s event when new people became involved in planning, inserting themselves rather than being invited. That was when the idea for Legend of the Moon entered the discussion. And when I lost my willingness to be involved. At that point, some of us still wanted to continue the free, all-ages picnic separately rather than replace it with Legend of the Moon.
One of the people who became involved wanted to change things from our original vision. Instead of a picnic, it would be at a nightclub for 21+, burlesque dancers, drinking, and (of course) NO KIDS allowed. Which is fine; I get it, not everything can be kid-friendly. However, it also crossed the line of our original cause in another way. It was paid admission. And that was something that, at the time, was the most taboo thing ever.
The event itself went off; I didn’t go because I had my daughter and no one to watch her, but it did gain a following online that there are still crumbs for. An Instagram, A Facebook page, and a YouTube video showcasing the dress that the person who took over made from scratch. A lot of the original organizers didn’t attend and kind of boycotted the event altogether, not that it made a difference in the amount of people who showed up.
“Flagship Event”
It also was kind of insulting that they used the Legend of the Moon event and labeled it the “Flagship Event” when clearly there had been two previous events created especially for International Sailor Moon Day.
The Legend of the Moon was a good event, just not what the people who ran the first two ISMD Los Angeles events had in mind. Especially since they charged admission, etc. It was more of a produced event than a get-together from the heart, and that’s kind of what the issue was. This was also during a time when the co-organizer spoke up about the conflicting event.
Drama, Drama and MORE Drama
To understand why everything fell apart in 2017, I need to go back and explain some problems already happening behind the scenes in 2016.
This is the same person who was late to the first meet-up. She gave me so much anxiety because she was always plotting against the founder of Sailor Moon LA, the other half of the organizers for the first ISMD event.
It was always one against the other, and that type of situation has never made me comfortable. I finally just had to cut ties with her due to her effect on my mental health. She made the statement above because of the trouble she had planning with him. And to people who didn’t have inside knowledge, it read like she thought the problem was the co-organizer and that since she couldn’t work with him, he was probably also the problem with the new event. He was the one who had that $600, and he was the one who would decide how it was spent. I don’t know what ultimately happened to that money. At the time, I wondered whether it was even still available, but that was only speculation on my part.
The “Official” International Sailor Moon Day’s Stance on Our Application. Why There Couldn’t be Two Separate Events
The one thing that should have brought us Moonies together was the one thing that was gatekept by a community online that just kind of made itself up. Much to our dismay and to my surprise, there was an “application” for any event using the International Sailor Moon Day name to be listed on the official website.
They said we submitted our application after their deadline, so our separate event wouldn’t receive promotion or a website listing. A fan-run International Sailor Moon Day website was telling us we couldn’t have a competing event. It was not Toei Animation or Viz Media, and its approval wasn’t legal permission to hold an event.
This was the make-or-break (or so we thought at the time) of how well an event would do.
Here’s the most toxic part. If your event was deemed ‘unsanctioned’ at the time by the folks running International Sailor Moon Day, they would have people commenting in your event’s posts saying that no one should go because x,y, z, and that it was unofficial and therefore not a place to go celebrate ISMD.
And then, to try and appease everyone, they posted this notice, one that said that they would try to have both events team up in some way. For us, this was not possible. They also tried to mediate when it came to that $600 I was talking about. The allocation of those funds ultimately wasn’t up to them. And we had an issue handing it over to someone who wasn’t part of the event that earned the money to begin with. From our perspective, this new event’s organizer wanted to use the money for her nightclub event. We believed those funds should remain with the free ISMD events that originally generated them.
Toxic Fandom – The Abuse That Led to Someone Being Put on a 24-Hour Mental Hold
During the fallout, the conflict became extremely serious. One founding member of the Sailor Moon LA Facebook group was placed on a 24-hour mental health hold. Police came to Their apartment and transported them to a facility for evaluation. From what I understood at the time, the ongoing online conflict and bullying had contributed significantly to their distress.
This is the type of bullying that you would expect to see probably anywhere else but a Sailor Moon group. And ironically, Sailor Moon teaches acceptance, love, and letting others live without worry, as long as no one is getting hurt.
Why You Might Never See Another Event Like Ours in the Future
- What we did to pull it off each year didn’t equal what we put into it, and it broke our hearts.
- Cost – It not only cost us time, but money. Everything cost money: permits for places to have the gathering, paper to print coloring pages, renting tables, chairs, fans, printing posters, everything had a hidden cost that no one who attended really thought about. It was rough
- Logistics – Trying to find a place that would hold what we thought the headcount would be vs. who actually came. Sometimes we’d go overboard and only have a few people, other times we’d have a huge headcount and not enough space.
- Mental stress – the stress of organizing something with groups of people who have obviously different values and having to argue for your space to be held every time something changed is exhausting.
Why I Just Can’t Enjoy Sailor Moon the Same Anymore, but I’m Working On It
If you lived through this and are reading this, you probably also share a special kind of event-organizer trauma. It’s hard, incredibly so. However, hopefully you can still enjoy the fandom. For me, it took years to start collecting Sailor Moon things again and finding joy in it. I still haven’t gotten around to becoming active in any groups online. Especially with all of the toxic hot takes people have that they won’t let other ways of thinking go. Yes, you can like something in a different way from others and NOT have to correct them. I also started watching Sailor Moon with my daughter again so I can hopefully pass the cute moon rod to her when I pass. Because boy do I have a large Sailor Moon collection for her to inherit.
Future International Sailor Moon Day Events? I Hope So
Honestly, I do hope that the Sailor Moon Day events happen for the Los Angeles area in the future. I think if the right people separate from the original teams, it could happen. And if they happen to know the right people, voice actors, etc., it could be more than it was before.
Looking back, I don’t think there was one person responsible for everything that happened. We had competing ideas about what ISMD should become, disagreements about money, and personalities that didn’t work well together. Eventually, something that was supposed to celebrate Sailor Moon became more stressful than fun.
I’m also not sure if the International Sailor Moon Day’s website is still functioning but I don’t see them as the true bad guys, I guess I’m a little like Sailor Moon that way. I just want everyone to get along peacefully. In the same respect, I don’t think that one site should have the power to say yes or no to an event or even be able to put an imaginary stamp on things. So if you want to have an event, do it. Do it yourself, don’t ask for permission, and if you’re going to be doing anything that requires a permit or permissions from Toei or Viz media, get that approval from them, not anywhere else.
