[News] Sailor Moon Cosmos

hey everyone long time no see

I come with good news.

today they held a live stream and they announced STARS!!!!!

it;s going to be a 2 movie setup again, and the name is Sailor Moon cosmos

the art is LESS moe, THANK SERENITY!

but you know me I will have things to say once I see it

it comes out next summer

here’s a trailer

cc for eng subs

[SMC rewatch] Usagi is ultragay for her girls

I do a rewatch of the Sailor Moon Crystal to prepare for the sailor moon eternal films, and here I am stating the obvious 🤣Usagi is flipping gay! okay she does love Mamochan, so she’s interested in men too I guess, but yeah bi/pan Usagi all the way.

The moment she sees Amichan, she thinks she is super cute, then after Amichan wins the sailor V game she thinks she’s super cool, they both blush when they look at each other😊

AMICHAN can not hold her gay either you know, she’s using a bus to go home and she has noticed a super pretty girl riding the bus and gets Usagi to come along by telling her exactly that! The moment Usagi sees Rei, she has literal heart eyes (she didn’t have them for Mamoru at all) and then she follows Rei because she’s so beautiful.

When she meets Makochan, she thinks she’s cute and cool, and compliments her femininity and she’s all blushing.

have yet to reach the episode with Minakochan, but I’m pretty sure she’s going to have a crush on her too lol.

Reichan blatantly disapproves Makochan running after guys, since men can no be trusted🤷‍♂️

EDIT: changed the title from s*per gay to ultra gay since s*per has been appropriated by transphobes

More on the NHK Sailor Moon poll

NHK the National television network of Japan, ran a massive online poll about sailor moon from 16th of Oct to 23 of Nov, with nearly 83k people voting in three categories, 1. favourite sailor moon character, 2. favourite episode from the anime(90s and crystal), 3. favourite song from the anime (90s and crystal)

as I mentioned in the previous post about it, it was all in Japanese, and you had to write a small text to explain why you like what you chose.

The results of the poll were broadcasted the other day on NHK in a special program just for that

You can see the results here

as I said before I was surprised that Sailor Uranus won the character poll, and not only that, her alter ego Haruka came up 3rd. Michiru was also at 6th which was surprising as well, because I honestly didn’t expect her to be in the top 20 let alone in the top 10.

why am I surprised though? Well I was led to believe (from the amount of exposure some character have) that Ami was everyone’s fav, and also Chibiusa, but Ami was only 9th, and Chibiusa was back in 23 and her alter ego black lady at 19.

What surprised me even more was that several episodes which were key to HaruMichi background were also amongst the favs

With the songs, eternal eternity and other HaruMichi songs were in the list, but not as high, which can boil down to musical preference, and well it is actually hard to choose with all the amazing songs in the Sailor Moon franchise.

I will post here the character ranking you can see the others on the website.

1. Sailor Uranus

2. Sailor Moon

3. Tenou Haruka

4. Aino Minako

5. Seiya Kou

6. Kaioh Michiru

7. Sailor Saturn

8. Kino Makoto

9. Mizuno Ami

10. Sailor Mercury

11. Fish Eye

12. Sailor Venus

13. Princess Serenity

14. Sailor Neptune

15. Tsukino Usagi

16. Sailor Mars

17. Tomoe Hotaru

18. Luna (human form)

19. Black Lady

20. Sailor Jupiter

21. Hino Rei

22. Sailor Pluto

23. Chibiusa

24. Prince Demand

25. Sailor Chibimoon

26. Chiba Mamoru

27. Tuxedo Kamen

28. Yaten Kou

29. Nephrite

30. Luna

31. Sailor V

32. Zoicite

33. Elios/ Pegasus

34. Neo Queen Serenity

35. Sailor Star Fighter

36. Saphir

37. Oosaka Naru

38. Sailor Star Healer

39. Coan

40. Eugeal

41. Usagi Princess small lady Serenity

42. Prince Endymion

43. ParaPara

44. Kunzite

45. Berthier

46. Tiger’s Eye

47. Artemis

48. Meioh Setsuna

49. Mistress 9

50. Sailor Galaxia

Looking at the list again, Sailor Pluto and Taiki/Maker are not in there from main characters, and only Galaxia from star season villains. characters with most exposure got a position in this poll, and is not surprising that most characters in the poll are from season 1, 2 and 3, since it’s been 25 years since the 90s, Crystal has only produced 3 of the 5 seasons, and the Musicals tend to tell the stories of 1 and 2 arcs more than any other.

I still can’t believe Sailor Uranus is the most fav character, especially considering that polls back in the day ranked her 6th and Haruka 10th (according to wiki). Maybe Crystal/manga Haruka is more likable overall and that played a role in the voting? I really don’t know, but it’s rewarding to know that the character you have loved for so long is also loved by a massive part of the Japanese fandom.

I can’t get over the fact that 3 lesbians and a flamboyant gay man are in the top 20 with 2 of the lesbians being there twice, and one of the winning it all.

Uranus won the massive NHK poll!

wow I wasn’t expecting that to be honest

【全美少女戦士セーラームーンアニメ大投票】
キャラクター投票 ベスト10 決まりました！

1位 セーラーウラヌス
2位 セーラームーン
3位 天王はるか
4位 愛野美奈子
5位 星野 光
6位 海王みちる
7位 セーラーサターン
8位 木野まこと
9位 水野亜美
10位 セーラーマーキュリー#全セーラームーン

— NHKアニメ (@nhk_animeworld) December 5, 2020

NHK the national Japanese network, ran a massive polling like a month ago, it was of course in Japanese and to vote for your fav characters and episodes and all that you had to leave a text explanation of why you picked who you picked.

Uranus came first, with Sailor moon as runner up, and Haruka in third!

Michiru came 6th so we not only having lesbian winner, lesbian in third but also have lesbian in the top ten!!

considering that Seiya is 5th we have a 3rd lesbian in the top 10 as well.

Sailor Moon Crystal New art

it is for a cafe promotion but still it’s in the smc3 style

【更新】2020年12月より全国5都市6会場にて、「セーラームーンカフェ-Eternal-」の期間限定開催が決定いたしました！
カフェのために描き下ろされたオリジナルイラストも公開となりました！
今回のカフェコンセプトは「ETERNAL MEMORIES」。https://t.co/PFfO266jPR pic.twitter.com/zgOLaYMxRj

— セーラームーン30th公式 (@sailormoon30th_) November 19, 2020

what I want to point out is another proof of Haruka in a dress, also heels.　It’s well know for those coming to this blog that I’m not a fan of the artstyle, I prefer the smc1-2 style better, with actual lips. but anyway, I have one thing to say, feet are not good, whoever was in charge either had no time (which is possible with Toei) or they just don’t know how to draw feet. they are just not good at all for a steel picture.

I love Michiru’s dress, I could use a better design for Haruka’s but hey, at least it’s a dress

Makoto’s is my fav with Michiru’s as close second.

SMC3 bad translation is a result of Crystal hate

I have expressed my disgust for Crystal haters before, I have addressed the hate in a long post in the past, but what I’ve never spoken about is how that hate resulted in a mediocre translation for the 3rd season of Sailor Moon Crystal.

There are lot more things I dislike that were results of the hate such as:

– the generic moe animation

– the copy-pasta attacks/transformation

– the lack of outfit changes for everyone but especially Haruka

– the lack of lips

– the girls look like 8 year olds instead of teenagers with said moe animation

– the lack of uniqueness in the art style

– the fact that there are no more anime series but 2 movies instead, let’s see how much more character development they will manage in 3 hours, than they did in 13 episode (that apparently was not enough for the haters)

I can go on and on, but there is one thing that has created more controversy and misconceptions about the characters, than anything else before, and that’s the HIDEOUS English translation for the 3rd series.

Sailor Moon Crystal 1 and 2 where an official international release, with English translation being done by professionals who actually understand Japanese culture and reviewed before the release.

Because of the hate, things changed, Sailor Moon Crystal 3 was not an international release, there was not official translation from the Japanese side, it was sold on crunchyroll and they did their translation or whatever I don’t really know, it was not one that was supervised by TOEi.

We ended up with lazy mistranslations used for the manga decades ago, instead of something that was true to the original material and not bastardized by ideologies and ignorance.

I personally know enough Japanese to not need much of a translation, but since it was provided with English subs I could see all the mistakes that got on my nerves but also created the biggest misconception of all time in this fandom.

if you haven’t figured out what I’m referring to yet

Of course I’m talking about the whole “Haruka is both a man and woman” bs

the mistranslation of what Neptune says is so frustrating, I’m tired of trying to explain to so many people.

and then seeing them going back to the same bs because of the stupid translations.

I HATE EVERYTHING!!!

「ウラヌスは男でもあり女でもあるどちらの性もどちらの強さもあわせもつ戦士なのです」

“uranus wa otoko demo ari onna demo aru dochira no sei mo dochira no tsuyosa mo awasemotsu senshi nano desu”

“URANUS has both a man’s and a woman’s strengths as a WARRIOR”

it is one flipping sentence, not two, not separate, said in one breath, not with a cut.

now if you take the first part only

「ウラヌスは男でもあり女でもある」 “uranus wa otoko demo ari onna demo aru”

then you have “Uranus is both a man and a woman” (which at the very least would mean that she is non binary, not intersex)

but that’s not what is said, it is not how it’s said.

because that is not the end of the sentence, it is just the first part that is in one dialogue balloon and the rest is on another, but there is no period closing the sentence therefore there is no ending there.

25+ years, not one, not two TWENTY FIVE WHOLE ASS YEARS

people try to invalidate Michiru as a lesbian, they have tried everything from “Michiru flirts with men!!1!!” when she has just spent 30 seconds talking to Mamoru in the entire manga. To “Haruka is a man, because the dub I grew up with said so” and everything in between, including disgusting things like “Michiru is too pretty to be a lesbian”

Haruka has been confirmed by the creator herself that she is a woman, we can clearly see her naked body as a female one, so ciswoman if I may add.

In the manga especially she also presents as a woman for the better part of the story, with the only instance that she is not is during the stupid mission at the beginning of their introduction arc, before Usagi figures it out and their cover is blown.

THAT’S IT!

the only man in the show is Mamoru and even though he has Earth’s crystal he can’t be a sailor warrior because he is a cis man!

Michiru is a lesbian and she is in a canonical relationship with Haruka ANOTHER cis woman lesbian

Seiya is based on a Lesbian model

I was freshening up my trivia for characters and Material Collection popped up of course

I have seen it multiple times that Seiya was modeled after someone, but I never paid much attention to it since I didn’t know who that is.

Apparently the person is Jenny Shimizu a well known lesbian model

the resemblance is quit striking!

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/296604325438336998/

And then people ask why I think Seiya is a lesbian, as if her being in love with Usagi is not telling enough, Naokosensei goes and bases her off of an actual lesbian 😀

Let’s talk about Horatu

I mostly talk about HaruMichi in this blog but, I was watching Un Nouveau Voyage, today and Hotaru’s scenes hit me, again, Karin is phenomenal and conveys Hotaru’s feelings exceptionally, therefore I decided to make a post about her, her journey and her life.

The Musicals and Crystal are pretty close to the manga, but the 90s watered down her suffering and redeemed her father. 90s has redeemed a lot of characters that didn’t deserve it but the one I have the biggest beef with is Tomoe Kyoujyu, Demand was an ass but he was manipulated to be one, still I hate the fact that he was redeemed, but with Tomoe, he decided to USE his daughter, not because he wanted to save her but he wanted to finish his experiment, sure Pharaoh 90 gave him an ultimatum, but the moment he heard that Hotaru will be a host of something not human, he wholeheartedly sacrificed her for his experiment.

Hotaru had died in that accident when she was 8 years old, when we meet her she’s around 12-13, so her torture has been going on for at least 5 years.

Her father, without her consent, turned her body into a cyborg, so it could sustain Mistress 9. Hotaru was not aware that she was a host of another entity. she hated her scared body, she had no friends because she was too frail and she was considered weird for having healing powers (powers that could not heal her own body however). She was in constant physical pain, and her father was experimenting on her.

Hotaru up until becoming Saturn. she was a tortured abused manipulated child.

I both fucking love and HATE how dark the sailor moon themes are.

The way they used the prosthetics, in the live stage is brilliant, the scene of Karin removing one by one her garments, in complete silence is chilling.

in Crystal what Hotaru says, is almost identical with the song lyrics Karin sings in the Myu. She thinks that Chibiusa is now hating her because of her scars, that she lost the only friend she ever had, and what’s there to live for.

hello depression, I haven’t missed you one bit!

To me Hotaru’s story is the darkest in the series, and that’s telling when the others are

a. Mamoru spitting cancer for an entire arc without knowing what’s going on, and he is basically rotting inside because the Earth is dying, and

b. Demand’s attempted r*pe towards Usagi

Honestly when I hear people saying that Sailor Moon, is a light hearted show, I have to laugh, even in the 90s anime that the entirety of the filler episodes were for comic relief, when things would get towards the end, all hell would break loose, the inners died horrific deaths at the end of s1, Usagi saw her future daughter turn evil in s2, she lost everything in s3 and attempted to sacrifice herself to save everyone, she jumped off a cliff to save her falling daughter in s4, she watched everyone die in s5.

To conclude Hotaru had a horrible life when she was with her father, Hotaru got a second chance to be a happy child when the gays adopted her. They loved her, they cared for her and they raised her at the best of their abilities and gave her everything she needed.

Happy Hotaru is everything and my fav gays and of course Puu too have my eternal gratitude!

[Sailor Moon Crystal 4] The Dead Moon version

【更新】「美少女戦士セーラームーCrystal」第4期に関する新情報を公開しました！
劇場版アニメ前後編として公開予定！今千秋監督が担当します。https://t.co/xtQAKI0eyY

— セーラームーン30th公式 (@sailormoon30th_) June 30, 2017

In today’s event of Usagi’s birthday it was decided that the forth part of the Sailor Moon story “Dead Moon version” will turn into a movie.

Kon Chiaki will be the director.

More info will be released later.

[Sailor Moon] The “controversial” themes of the story

Trigger warning: This post contains descriptions of non-consensual acts, and attempts of sexual assault. Including vocabulary. If this type of thing triggers you, you are advised to skip this post.

—

I see a lot of people calling out themes of the story as controversial, and that Naoko Takeuchi kept them there, even though she could have dismissed them.

Namely, non-consensual kissing all over the place, including an incestuous one.

Let’s take things from the start and say that this is a fictional work, and not reality, therefore elements that are an absolute no no in real life, can work as plot tools, or character development in a fictional story. If some readers are unable to recognize the purpose of those, while others have no issue at all, then it’s up to those readers and their ability to comprehend. This also has to do with how familiar are those readers with short stories.

You see a short story is harder to comprehend mostly because where a long story explains a scene in three pages, the short story does it in ten lines. That means the reader has to be observant, because many things are not explained but only implied.

With this out of the way, let’s talk about the controversy

Mamoru kissing a sleeping Usagi

people have gone as far as to call that “rape” …

Don’t get me wrong consent is ABSOLUTE, in real life! But this is a work of fiction.

And no it doesn’t give the wrong message to little kids, simply because Luna bursts in and calls him out for kissing Usagi, a.k.a: painting the action in a bad light.

You know what would have been “normalizing” the non-consensual? Luna standing by daydreaming of “oh how romantic” it is. But that’s not the case.

And since we are talking about fiction, intentions matter way more than in real life. He likes her, loves her even, he doesn’t have bad intentions, as a character he’s not a bad person, and we as readers/viewers know that.

In real life, yes it’s super creepy, in fiction not so much, because it’s fiction!

And in that sense Usagi kissing Mamoru without consent few episodes later is not a big deal either, because it’s fiction!

Now these two kisses, even though not consensual they still have as base mutual attraction. The kisses that follow are of a different kind.

Naoko all through out her story, has been using “forced love” (and I use the word love very lightly here, and in the way Prince Demando has used it), and kissing, as intimidation.

First you have Queen Beryl who wants to force her love into Endymion.

Then you have Prince Demando, and his forceful nature in general, he kisses Usagi in Crystal, and he goes as far as attempting rape in the manga AND the recent musicals. (yes you actually experience a live action scene of Demando trying to rape Usagi)

His explanation to all these is that “forced love” is a type of love too, and that he is not wrong for feelings it.

Then you have Black Lady kissing brainwashed Mamoru. This skyrockets the creepy, since Mamoru is her father.

Does the story paint both as something nice? Definitely not, on the contrary, you have Usagi screaming and yelling that this is not a way to love. She uses “you lost control” to Black Lady, and straight out screams to Demando that “people are not objects!”

The story pretty much shows that “evil people do evil things” “brainwashed people do evil things” “good people, do not see those as good things” “good people fight to right those wrongs”

The overall message is extremely positive and it paints good as good and evil as evil.

On top of that, through these scenes both Prince Demando and Black Lady are fleshed out as characters. They are both manipulated and brainwashed. In the case of Demando he doesn’t get a redemption story. On the other hand Black Lady does, but not without consequences. She pays the price of her wrong doings with the loss of her only friend, and not only that but that loss is caused by her. Returning to being good, Chibiusa is rewarded with new powers and the awakening of her mom.

So why should these scenes be excluded?

With that out of the way, we get to the final kiss so far which is the one Uranus gave to Sailor Moon.

And the “I have no idea how to read a scene” is big in this one.

At the beginning of the episode Haruka and Michiru have a talk about what are the measures they have to take to save the world, they understand that some of those are unethical. The inners are in their way though and they have to paint a picture of themselves as pure evil, so in their mind their actions can be justifiable.

When Haruka meets Usagi at the arcade, the inners tell her that she should stay away from  her, that means the inners are already convinced that Haruka and Michiru are bad news. Haruka also plays with the moment and tells Usagi that fighting games are dangerous.

When Sailor Moon doesn’t give up and chases after Uranus, the latter needs extreme measures to convince Usagi to stay away. She says that it is dangerous to play fighting games, and she gives her a (non-consensual) kiss to convey the point, that she is indeed dangerous and she should stay away like her friends told her.

The kiss is not romantic, and its only use is to serve as intimidation.

It works for a moment because Usagi has feelings therefore she is occupied with something else. Usagi has shown attraction towards Haruka for the very first moment she met her. (the same with all her guardians).

Do I find the kiss romantic or good? No and no, I do see why it’s there though. Haruka, for Usagi, is all the barriers she has to break to be free.

What is important is that in a later episode, both Haruka and Michiru seem distressed and embarrassed of their doings, they also ask for the Princess to forgive them. So they recognize their actions as wrong doings, and as a part of their overall plan.

Fiction is not just happy things, flowers, and butterflies. Sailor Moon was never intended to be one either. From the beginning to the end the story of Sailor Moon had a dark vibe to it. From the destruction and war themes of Silver Millennium, to failed Utopias, to abusive parents, and the abuse of science, to outcasts going berserk, to manipulation of power.

I mean to me, Hotaru’s story is way more controversial than Mamoru pecking Usagi’s lips while she is napping.

Hotaru is literally kept to life, turned into a cyborg, and a vessel for an evil entity by her own father who didn’t give a damn about her as long as his plan was successful. She didn’t consent to any of this, in fact she didn’t even know what was wrong with her body. She was in extreme pain and suffering because of her father, but hey let’s focus on how kissing equals rape. (extreme sarcasm here)

By the way, when you do that equation, I just mentioned, you help rape culture thrive, because you make rape sound like nothing.

Words have power, and when you use them irresponsibly you only harm the cause you are trying to support.