Faith and Spirituality in Naoko Takeuchi's Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn

abstract:Bishojo Senshi Sera Mun has been an influential part of the childhood of many of the girls who grew up in the 1990s, both in Japan and in the rest of the world. Yet it is rarely examined in the context of its peculiar tragic and philosophic traits. The main objective of this study is to bring to light the deep spiritual and metaphysical thread of a work overflowing with religious and cultural references, specifying how both eastern and western traditions find their own way all along the story. While not denying the typical mahō shōjo topic of the magical girls, this article tries to show how the whole narrative can be read as a tangled metaphor of the inner and spiritual growth of the half-human and half-divine main character, Sailor Moon, whose infinite power resides in faith itself. As such, this article addresses the theme of this special issue, in exploring the superhuman abilities of Sailor Moon, focusing not so much on a humanist or posthuman framing but from the vantage of religious concepts of spiritual transcendence.