#v-chan

This is my birthday tribute to Venus. It doesn’t necessarily focus on one moment but a series of my favorite moments from the manga. Venus wasn’t one of my favorites as a kid or as a teen even. But over the years, I’ve really come to love her. For me, she represents power, leadership, fun and one of the greatest examples of sisterhood in pop culture. She’s also my bestie’s favorite, and since the two of us are ride or die, it’s inevitable that I came to love V-Chan. When we first meet Sailor Venus in the Sailor Moon manga, it’s when she saves the day helping Moon and the others as they are being attacked by one of the Shittenou. Moon and the Senshi feel a special connection with her immediately. Her touch triggers a type of deja vu for them. She says she’s the Princess, (bc she’s Serenity’s body-double) and Usagi finds it strange that even though she’s the Princess it seems like she’s trying so hard to protect the rest of them. Hello, sweet irony. After it’s revealed that she is not the princess, we find out that she is the leader of the Senshi. While Moon is their princess, the one in charge of the Senshi is Venus. As leader, she’s the one who is able to pull the Holy Sword from its resting place on the moon (which the anime leaves out. Seriously, swords are cool. Why leave it out?!). Even Jupiter with her super strength couldn’t pull it out (although in one of the musicals, they have Jupiter doing just that). Venus is the one who is able to call forth the sword in battle. And in fact, *Venus* is the one to wield it against Beryl, killing her.

💫Lemme say it again, Venus kills Beryl!💫 And at this point she’s the one with the most intact memories of what it was to fight in the SilMill and watch everyone die because of Beryl. The anime and Crystal changed this scene to make Moon the one who defeats Beryl. But nah, it was V-Chan, Leader of the Senshi.

I’m sure y’all already know the precursor to Sailor Moon was the Sailor V manga. It was revised to make Sailor Moon the protagonist. Here’s the breakdown of the two volumes:

In Codename: Sailor V, Minako is portrayed as an athletic, strong-willed, girl who loves to sleep and gets bad grades. Remind you of anyone? Once Artemis awakens her, her memories aren’t fully returned but she’s all in to fight bad guys whether they’re gangsters or monsters. She has a transformation pen and a disguise compact, like Usagi will have. She’s also constantly falling in love for the “first” time and kissing a bunch of dudes. There’s one guy who makes an appearance repeatedly, Phantom Ace, he wears a mask and always saves her. She falls in love with him, of course. But, he seems to know her more than she knows herself. He taunts her that she doesn’t really love him. That she doesn’t love any man, because there’s someone else who holds her eternal devotion. She denies it, thinking she truly does or can love him, but as she’s about to kiss him, something feels wrong. She feels that “this love isn’t the real one either”. Phantom Ace doesn’t take kindly to it and tries to cut her down, telling her that she will never have love and will always fail her duty (which she doesn’t remember yet). He reveals himself as working for the Dark Agency (aka the negaverse). His name in the past was Adonis and he used to watch her from the castle on Venus. He watched her eternal devotion to Serenity and how that always took the place of any lovers’ interest, including his own. Apparently, it’s her “curse” to never find love

(cursed by a man who was rejected. GTFOH). But I’d argue (and Venus herself says it) that her one and only love is Serenity. Any other form of love, while nice, isn’t as important and doesn’t *feel* as real, as she herself says when she almost kisses Phantom Ace. While the curse is aimed at centering romantic, sexual (probably hetero) love as the most important emotion for Venus, she defies it with her yearning for the Senshi and Serenity. Anyways, battle ensues and as Ace dies, her memories come pouring back. She remembers “the only people who could ever really know me. Those who share the same feelings as me.” She’s realized that even though she took on fighting as Sailor V, this greater purpose is what she’s been searching for. It’s the “one and only love” she needs moreso than any man’s kiss. She remembers that she’s “a champion born to protect one, and only one, very special person.” She packs her bags and heads to Japan to find those with who can truly ever know her (Usagi also has to explain this to Mamo. That she can only be her *real* self in his presence. Just so, the Senshi are their truest selves in Serenity’s presence). I know a lot of fans don’t like or fail to comprehend the devotion and love the Senshi have towards Serenity but I think Codename does a great job of explaining it. Minako falls in love with a new dude all the time, but those infatuations are never to the depth of her love for Serenity. And before ppl start getting it twisted, it’s not sexual. It transcends the sexual. Serenity and her Guardian Goddesses are the epitome of sisterhood, and I 👏🏽love 👏🏽 it👏🏽! Patriarchal conditioning to expect sexual, non-platonic, usually heterosexual romance as the greatest achievement or happiness that a female can acquire is so prominent in most mediums, so I love how those ideals are so casually replaced with this yearning and devotion between the Senshi for each other in the manga.

Old vs New