Sailor Moon Pink Tint

Submission 9,772

Part of a series on Sailor Moon. [View Related Entries]

About

Sailor Moon Pink Color refers to the discourse surrounding the pink tint in the Sailor Moon anime series being an unintentional result of film degradation and not the original artistic vision of the production studio. The discourse achieved virality on social media in mid-January 2024, spawning memes.

Origin

On January 8th, 2024, X / Twitter^[1] user @kane_hisa made a tweet about the faded coloration of the 1990s anime series Goldfish Warning! and Sailor Moon, which gave them a pink (or red) tint. The post (shown below, left) received over 310 reposts and 1,600 likes in one week. Later that day, X^[2] user @nappasan quoted the post, writing that thinking that the pink tint was an artistic choice should be considered "historical revisionism." The post (shown below, right) received over 680 reposts and 3,200 likes in one week.

On January 11th, 2024, @nappasan posted a comparison video in which the current master version of the series was compared against a color-corrected version representing how the series is supposed to look. The post (shown below) garnered over 5,000 reposts and 19,000 likes on X^[3] in five days.

Spread

On January 11th, 2024, X^[4] user @APE_AHAB quoted the comparison video, writing about the color degradation "accidentally creating an aesthetic." The post (shown below) garnered over 2,200 reposts and 9,100 likes in five days.

On January 12th, X^[5] user @dubudavid posted two images of the anime's protagonist Usagi Tsukino / Sailor Moon, one pink-tinted and the other color-corrected, commenting that the anime is not supposed to be tinted. The post (shown below) received over 2,900 reposts and 16,000 likes in four days.

The initial posts inspired a discourse over whether a preference for a color-shifted version of the anime by some fans was a factor to be considered in the necessity for the restoration of the original version. The discovery and the discussions later spawned memes and references. For example, on January 15th, 2024, X^[6] user @aalong64 posted a Kramer, What's Going on in There? meme that received over 4,400 reposts and 35,000 likes in one day (shown below).