Name: Save Our Sailors (SOS)
Era: Second Moonie War, aka Moon War II (1996-2000); The Great Purge (2001-2004)
NOTES FROM THE ISM ARCHIVIST:
Hoo boy.
Save Our Sailors. The SOS. The great big militant Moonie collective, and arch-enemy of ISM. A whole book could probably be written about these people, but you're not here for long-winded fluff. You're here for fast facts.
In 1995, Sailor Moon was dubbed, syndicated, and brought to the United States by DiC. Initially aired by the USA Network, after the show's second season, USA became allergic to the prospect of ordering more seasons from DiC. The reasons for this are...well, reasonable. Though the show was a mere five seasons in length, ratings for Sailor Moon began to stagnate in late 1995. In addition, the latter three seasons of Sailor Moon featured what was considered to be "questionable content" at the time (blatant homosexuality, religiously charged Judeo-Christian imagery and storytelling elements, transgenderism, etc.)--faire that was hardly in line with the child-friendly tone of USA Network's cartoon block.
Never ones to take a hint or leave well enough alone, the members of the Sailor Moon mailing list on loony (how appropriate) decided that two seasons of a failing Japanese cartoon wasn't good enough, and so they should and would do everything in their meager power to keep this moronically terrible show on the TV Guide Channel rotating schedule. Enter Save Our Sailors: A fan collective created in 1996 for the purpose of, as the name suggests, saving the ratings black hole that was Sailor Moon.
Moonies at the time claimed that the SOS was the single most important activist group online, and seemingly for good reason: If you were a Moonie and simply wanted more Sailor Moon, SOS got results. Unfortunately, these results often came through zany, wacky, and sometimes nefarious Shredder-and-Krang-esque plots to save the show.
In and of themselves, letters and petitions are not a bad thing. Petitioning is secured by the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution, and is seen in our nation as a basic, God-given right. Likewise, everyone is entitled to write letters to whomever they want, to either change a system for his greater good or to express his opinion. But that's not what we're talking about, here.