gay af™

“But then how will anyone see it?” peer review.

“How do you get engagement?” by talking and engaging with other people. Or making a devastating typo. Either way.

His job was just to show up and believe in Sailor Moon so overwhelmingly resolutely that she remembers she's a fucking demigod long enough for HER to fight the monsters.

I like to think I'm hilarious

which amounts to some weird inconsistencies like tuxedo mask, chiba mamoru (darien shields for all you old dub viewers), being 1) too old for sailor moon 2) kind of a JERK for no reason.

because in the manga, and you see glimpses of it in the original anime (and obviously in the reboot), Mamoru is the ORIGINAL Ken. he is doing a REAL man's job /j - supporting his bad bitch girlfriend and her bad bitch friends. standing there, looking cute, being supportive in the moments when usagi doubts herself, and taking care of their daughter chibiusa when everybody else is focused on fighting. Sailor Moon is Barbie, he is JUST Ken.

when he shows up, throws a rose, and doesn't do jack shit and then leaves, it became an ongoing joke, but the point is that he shows up to ENCOURAGE her to win her own battles and sometimes provide a little assist, instead of rescuing her and doing it for her. at the start of the series she's a scared 14 year old girl, one who loves manga and love stories and falls in love easily, and this cute guy comes to encourage her in some of the SCARIEST moments of her life, and then she turns around and kicks ASS because of it. her friends are her comrades, watching her back, doing the first few attacks, even shielding her. her boyfriend mamoru, while he obviously has stepped in a few times to take a hit for her, too, is there as emotional support.

this sometimes becomes literal - she evolves into super sailor moon with the chalice/grail thing that she creates by combining her power with his. in the anime, it's sort of explained away by their love for each other being a transformative power, which is totally great, but in the manga and overall lore, he ALSO has his own crystal and his own power, that he combines with hers!! he LITERALLY lends her his power as well!

yeah that's right - they take out a LOT of the lore about him as basically a sailor senshi/scout himself. every celestial body basically has its own guardian and crystal etc etc, and boys technically can't be senshi, but for some reason earth is the exception and we have Tuxedo Mask, Mamoru, formerly Prince Endymion, and his golden crystal. in the manga he isn't just like wearing a tuxedo for funsies he transforms just like sailor moon does too!! his staff when he's a king in the future is a magical item just like sailor moon's wands/etc!

and this doesn't even get into how they MASSACRED his personality - not only do they make him inappropriately older (in COLLEGE. WHEN SHES IN MIDDLE SCHOOL. JAIL. JAIL FOR 1000 years!), but they kind of make him a jerk to her, when in reality he's just a quiet, nerdy and nice guy. he still tells her off when she's making a fool of herself in public (in japan no less), but he's 16 when she's 14 and he's a scared kid himself with a giant crush on a girl. the original sailor moon movies get into this a little bit, but he lost his parents at a young age, doesn't remember a lot, and lives alone - usagi and her friends become basically his family. he cares for her AND for them an incredible amount. he hangs out with them not just because they're usagi's friends, but because he enjoys their company, including even the outer senshi later on (who he entrusts with his daughter both in the future and the present!)

and he's not even the only love interest for usagi that they massacred their character - let’s look at our favorite sailor starlight, seiya. and while the manga really clips along in the plot and the original anime had to have more monster of the week and fill more time, their solution to that to round out seiya’s character was to ..... also make him a bit of a jerk. now some of this could be chalked up to the whole "it was the 90s and they did this in a lot of media in general bc that’s i guess what people thought women thought was attractive,” but seiya isn’t like this originally either.

seiya is, by modern standards, gender fluid. the starlights are sailor guardians and in their transformed forms are girls but are perfectly fine with being referred to as boys in every day earth life - not just masculine presenting girls, but with guy names and as a guy idol group. they are much like haruka, sailor uranus, who’s gender is 🤷🏻‍♀️ whatever the fuck she feels that day, and is known as a famous MALE race car driver but in regular life dresses and presents femme or masc depending on the day and as a sailor guardian is a girl. in the original anime though, they kind of mess with this a bit - the sailor starlights’ BODIES THEMSELVES transform (still a slay!), and haruka’s scene in the manga of “are you a boy or a girl” “does it really matter” isn’t there. and both the outer senshi including haruka AND the starlights especially seiya are made to be kind of jerks to usagi. it’s not that they don’t have antagonistic moments in the manga (and the reboot), but especially for seiya they make him parallel mamoru’s jerk behavior on PURPOSE to make usagi confused, miss mamoru, etc, and it makes for a very wild season 5 (which i love don’t get me wrong but also god damn? leave her alone???)

i remembered watching the original anime as a teen and being like wait i want to like mamoru, i want to like seiya, but why are they so MEAN sometimes and then go back to being normal? is this just how boys are??? and yes some of it is usagi is annoying sometimes but like damn??? and then i read the manga and saw they were both stripped of their original personalities a LOT, and the pieces clicked.

I made this illustration of Serenity a while ago. I was inspired by the elegant and beautiful watercolors of Naoko Takeuchi, since I was a little girl I have always admired her ethereal style.

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If you like my art please support me with a like or rebloggin on tumblr.

sailor moon s3: the inner guardians’ heterosexuality dies one by one in their encounters with haruka