Television was part of my winter afternoons while growing up, and I got to see some of the best and worst cartoons the '90s gave birth to. In honor of the recent and premature departure of Susan Aceron that happened on October 10, the voice actress of Sailor Moon S, I thought it was appropriate to talk about a chunk of my childhood.

Sailor Moon was, hands down, my favorite anime growing up.

I remember one time, after I’ve gone home for lunch from kindergarten, I was watching one on the first episodes of season one. I recall Tuxedo Mask in his sartorial piece with his white mask talking charmingly to a blond Serena Tsukino drooling over him. His red rose cutting through the air to stop a villain. The monster outrageously surprised of being interrupted in the midst of their evil plot. Sailor Moon star struck (pardon the pun). Her saving the world after a full two-minute transformation that could have gotten her killed in real life.

Tuxedo Mask’s top hat and cape shaped my fashion sense for a few years afterward, sadly. His gallantry was an example of how a man should have acted in my presence — according to my five-year-old self — all to foster the fairy tale.

Then, Darien Shields appeared onscreen and brought a sense of reality to the whole thing. I could see the relationship between the protagonists and its reflection in my file: little boys making fun of girls or pulling at their pigtails in the way that indicates they like them. The parallel was uncanny even for a kindergartner.

Right then and there was when I decided that Darien Shields/Tuxedo Mask was my ideal man (I obviously changed my mind over the years when I had my healthy dose of realism, but that’s another story for another time). The character Sailor Moon was the perfect example of bravery a shy little girl needed at that stage of her existence. On the other hand, Serena Tsukino herself didn’t appeal to me all that much. She wasn’t exactly the brightest tool in the shed, but she had a great heart and that was all that mattered to me then.

This was my favorite game of pretend I have ever played during recess with my friends at school. Each one of us pretended to be one of the warriors and fight against evil. We would always win, saving the world from its destruction without anyone realizing it, just like on TV. I was the boss of the group, fan-girl number one of my beloved heroine. I decided who was who and led the group according to what happened in the previous day’s episode.

Season one was definitely the best one in my opinion. To be honest, I still listen to the theme song when I feel nostalgic, it never fails to bring me back to that wonderful time where everything was much simpler and there weren’t gray areas hard to understand, the world was either black or white, good or bad, right or wrong. Plus, she was a princess — speaking of striking right to the heart of a little girl.