Magical Girl K

Why Sailor Moon Matters – The New Anime and Media Representation

Recently, there’s been big news in anime fandom – Sailor Moon is getting a new anime in 2013. I couldn’t be more overjoyed by this news. Considering how many equally or less popular anime properties aimed at boys had been rebooted, I had just been thinking it would be a bit of a travesty if the franchise about girls fighting together for love and justice wasn’t given the same treatment. But some might ask, why does it matter that Sailor Moon is coming back? What does that even mean for anime and for media?

Eternal Sailor Moon, holding her battle rod, emotionally exclaiming that she “believes in the future we will create together”. The panel has background text, that states “And now we will battle”.

At its core, the premise of Sailor Moon is about women banding together and determining the fate of the universe. It’s about women literally drawing power from community with other women and being the most powerful in the galaxy and growing up to lead the world into peace and happiness. The celebration of women and showcase of girls developing, growing up and forming their own identities is enough to make the series great, especially considering how it influenced other media to take a closer look at female heroism and relationships. But I actually want to focus on what Sailor Moon means for queer women (and other queer people) in particular and what I feel the rebooted anime should do about queer representation.

A lot of fans are hoping the anime will stick a little closer to the original manga by Naoko Takeuchi, or at least draw on the manga’s best elements. I’m certainly hoping for that with regards to queer representation. Haruka and Michiru, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, are one of the most famous gay couples in manga and anime. The original anime was pretty blatant about their relationship, to the point where the couple’s presentation caused controversy in their home country and beyond. Most know about the English dub’s censorship that turned the couple into “cousins” (this did very little to hide their queerness). Yet, there were no girls kissing in the original anime and no character ever referred to Haruka and Michiru as a couple in a non-speculative fashion. The manga, meanwhile, showed Haruka kissing a girl, and it was stated that they were lesbians and in a relationship. I’m hoping now that twenty years have passed, these aspects of the manga can finally make it into an anime. In fact, I’d like to see even more detail about their relationship. I want to see these two lovebirds kiss and tell all over the place in this new show.

Haruka, a blonde haired butch woman, and Michiru, an aquamarine haired femme, together.

Some have argued Haruka and Michiru weren’t good representation because they followed traditional masculine and feminine gender roles and therefore were stereotypes. It’s true that Michiru was femme and Haruka was butch, but that doesn’t mean they followed a strict binary. Just for starters, Haruka was generally more emotional and sentimental than her femme partner and Michiru tended to rescue Haruka a lot. What was more important to me about their presentation is that they were a gay couple who had a stable relationship and were heroic and successful people always admired by women around them, and neither one of them died (well, not permanently. This was a franchise where every character rode the revolving door of reincarnation). I’d like all of this to be intact in the new anime. I’d also like them to be more like the mentors and big sister-figures of the team they were in the manga, and less the adversarial separatists they could be in the original anime.

The dark-haired brunette “Rei Hino”, the civilian alias of Sailor Mars, in the live-action version of Sailor Moon, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

But my demands regarding queer representation in the new anime don’t end there. In the manga, Rei Hino (Sailor Mars) was depicted as not being interested in sex and as having a distaste for men. Not so in the original anime, their version Rei is very much interested in pursuing relationships with boys. Rei’s arc in the manga meant a lot to me as someone who identifies as asexual. There was a chapter that focused on Rei feeling confused and insecure that everyone around her constantly talked about romance, specifically romance with boys, when she herself wasn’t interested in kissing men, or pursuing a sexual relationship at all. A villain took advantage of this and tried to convince her she had to kiss a guy and get into a relationship with him, even if she wasn’t interested in sex or men, so she could fit in and be “taken care of”. Rei fought off the monster, asserting her confidence in her identity. In another story, she told her friends she didn’t need a relationship, and she was content with having allies who shared her purpose. The text didn’t specifically say Rei was an aromantic/non-heteromantic asexual, but Rei’s story is the closest I’ve seen to solid exploration of the struggles of an asexual person in popular media. The fact that the point of Rei’s story is about the overcoming the pressure on her to be hetero-normative, and the fact it ends with her being happy and comfortable with her identity and with her disinterest in both boys and sex- these things were great to me. So I really want to see Rei’s identity and story represented in the new anime, not erased like it was in the original.

The Three Sailor Starlights, in decorative knee-high boots, bikini tops and elbow-length gloves posing to attack.

One final hope for the representation of queerness in the new anime- in the manga, there were three characters who presented themselves as male when they weren’t fighting as Sailor Soldiers. There was no justification given for this, though these characters had vaginas. One of them was attracted to Sailor Moon and kissed her. The original anime tried to dodge controversy about this by having these characters able to magically switch sexes and the sex-switching was supposedly a “disguise” for the sake of their mission. It was still really queer, what with one character being comfortable in the “male form” and pursuing girls, but the cover-up was annoying, and I hope in the new anime these characters will be presented without apology or explanation.

Setsuna, a long-haired, dark-skinned Roma girl and the civilian alias of Sailor Pluto, wears a lab coat and greets her acquaintances in her office.

I also want the new series to rectify some other things. Both the manga and original anime of Sailor Moon could be really fat-phobic. Not only did every character have the same thin body type, but the idea of gaining weight was presented as a horror. The new anime has an opportunity to be more inclusive. There are also some other fumbles that could be erased- romanticized dubious consent situations and occasional traces of cissexism or heterosexism. Another thing is that Naoko Takeuchi went on record saying Sailor Pluto was half-Roma. The manga never comments on her heritage, but this character is always presented as darker skinned than the other characters. Not only did she get less screen time in the original anime, it was also incredibly inconsistent about her skin color, and at first she wasn’t presented as darker than the others. I’m hoping for a noticeably darker Pluto with at least as much presence as she had in the manga, and I would love it if the new anime stated she was half-Roma. It’s really rare to see characters with Roma heritage not being represented as stereotypes in the media, so Pluto needs all the love she can get.

I adore both the manga and original anime of Sailor Moon. Both broke ground in a lot of areas, especially in regards to queer representation and breaking gender barriers. I’d recommend anything Sailor Moon to anyone. It’s twenty years old, yet I still see it as having a lot of progressive elements our modern media unfortunately tends to lack. I see the new anime as an opportunity for Sailor Moon to sore to greater heights. If Sailor Moon could be so groundbreaking and influential twenty years ago, imagine how many different hearts it can touch today!

(Source: theuntitledmag.com, via flashblade122285)

Why Sailor Moon Matters – The New Anime and Media Representation

Recently, there’s been big news in anime fandom – Sailor Moon is getting a new anime in 2013. I couldn’t be more overjoyed by this news. Considering how many equally or less popular anime properties aimed at boys had been rebooted, I had just been thinking it would be a bit of a travesty if the franchise about girls fighting together for love and justice wasn’t given the same treatment. But some might ask, why does it matter that Sailor Moon is coming back? What does that even mean for anime and for media?

Eternal Sailor Moon, holding her battle rod, emotionally exclaiming that she “believes in the future we will create together”. The panel has background text, that states “And now we will battle”.

At its core, the premise of Sailor Moon is about women banding together and determining the fate of the universe. It’s about women literally drawing power from community with other women and being the most powerful in the galaxy and growing up to lead the world into peace and happiness. The celebration of women and showcase of girls developing, growing up and forming their own identities is enough to make the series great, especially considering how it influenced other media to take a closer look at female heroism and relationships. But I actually want to focus on what Sailor Moon means for queer women (and other queer people) in particular and what I feel the rebooted anime should do about queer representation.

A lot of fans are hoping the anime will stick a little closer to the original manga by Naoko Takeuchi, or at least draw on the manga’s best elements. I’m certainly hoping for that with regards to queer representation. Haruka and Michiru, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, are one of the most famous gay couples in manga and anime. The original anime was pretty blatant about their relationship, to the point where the couple’s presentation caused controversy in their home country and beyond. Most know about the English dub’s censorship that turned the couple into “cousins” (this did very little to hide their queerness). Yet, there were no girls kissing in the original anime and no character ever referred to Haruka and Michiru as a couple in a non-speculative fashion. The manga, meanwhile, showed Haruka kissing a girl, and it was stated that they were lesbians and in a relationship. I’m hoping now that twenty years have passed, these aspects of the manga can finally make it into an anime. In fact, I’d like to see even more detail about their relationship. I want to see these two lovebirds kiss and tell all over the place in this new show.

Haruka, a blonde haired butch woman, and Michiru, an aquamarine haired femme, together.

Some have argued Haruka and Michiru weren’t good representation because they followed traditional masculine and feminine gender roles and therefore were stereotypes. It’s true that Michiru was femme and Haruka was butch, but that doesn’t mean they followed a strict binary. Just for starters, Haruka was generally more emotional and sentimental than her femme partner and Michiru tended to rescue Haruka a lot. What was more important to me about their presentation is that they were a gay couple who had a stable relationship and were heroic and successful people always admired by women around them, and neither one of them died (well, not permanently. This was a franchise where every character rode the revolving door of reincarnation). I’d like all of this to be intact in the new anime. I’d also like them to be more like the mentors and big sister-figures of the team they were in the manga, and less the adversarial separatists they could be in the original anime.

The dark-haired brunette “Rei Hino”, the civilian alias of Sailor Mars, in the live-action version of Sailor Moon, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

But my demands regarding queer representation in the new anime don’t end there. In the manga, Rei Hino (Sailor Mars) was depicted as not being interested in sex and as having a distaste for men. Not so in the original anime, their version Rei is very much interested in pursuing relationships with boys. Rei’s arc in the manga meant a lot to me as someone who identifies as asexual. There was a chapter that focused on Rei feeling confused and insecure that everyone around her constantly talked about romance, specifically romance with boys, when she herself wasn’t interested in kissing men, or pursuing a sexual relationship at all. A villain took advantage of this and tried to convince her she had to kiss a guy and get into a relationship with him, even if she wasn’t interested in sex or men, so she could fit in and be “taken care of”. Rei fought off the monster, asserting her confidence in her identity. In another story, she told her friends she didn’t need a relationship, and she was content with having allies who shared her purpose. The text didn’t specifically say Rei was an aromantic/non-heteromantic asexual, but Rei’s story is the closest I’ve seen to solid exploration of the struggles of an asexual person in popular media. The fact that the point of Rei’s story is about the overcoming the pressure on her to be hetero-normative, and the fact it ends with her being happy and comfortable with her identity and with her disinterest in both boys and sex- these things were great to me. So I really want to see Rei’s identity and story represented in the new anime, not erased like it was in the original.

The Three Sailor Starlights, in decorative knee-high boots, bikini tops and elbow-length gloves posing to attack.

One final hope for the representation of queerness in the new anime- in the manga, there were three characters who presented themselves as male when they weren’t fighting as Sailor Soldiers. There was no justification given for this, though these characters had vaginas. One of them was attracted to Sailor Moon and kissed her. The original anime tried to dodge controversy about this by having these characters able to magically switch sexes and the sex-switching was supposedly a “disguise” for the sake of their mission. It was still really queer, what with one character being comfortable in the “male form” and pursuing girls, but the cover-up was annoying, and I hope in the new anime these characters will be presented without apology or explanation.

Setsuna, a long-haired, dark-skinned Roma girl and the civilian alias of Sailor Pluto, wears a lab coat and greets her acquaintances in her office.

I also want the new series to rectify some other things. Both the manga and original anime of Sailor Moon could be really fat-phobic. Not only did every character have the same thin body type, but the idea of gaining weight was presented as a horror. The new anime has an opportunity to be more inclusive. There are also some other fumbles that could be erased- romanticized dubious consent situations and occasional traces of cissexism or heterosexism. Another thing is that Naoko Takeuchi went on record saying Sailor Pluto was half-Roma. The manga never comments on her heritage, but this character is always presented as darker skinned than the other characters. Not only did she get less screen time in the original anime, it was also incredibly inconsistent about her skin color, and at first she wasn’t presented as darker than the others. I’m hoping for a noticeably darker Pluto with at least as much presence as she had in the manga, and I would love it if the new anime stated she was half-Roma. It’s really rare to see characters with Roma heritage not being represented as stereotypes in the media, so Pluto needs all the love she can get.

I adore both the manga and original anime of Sailor Moon. Both broke ground in a lot of areas, especially in regards to queer representation and breaking gender barriers. I’d recommend anything Sailor Moon to anyone. It’s twenty years old, yet I still see it as having a lot of progressive elements our modern media unfortunately tends to lack. I see the new anime as an opportunity for Sailor Moon to sore to greater heights. If Sailor Moon could be so groundbreaking and influential twenty years ago, imagine how many different hearts it can touch today!