Any tea for the discourse regarding the UsaMamo age gap?
Is there much tea to be had about this? I feel like pretty much everyone can agree that the age gap in the original anime/PGSM is bad and it’s fine in manga/Crystal. But sure, here’s my thoughts.
I think that to the extent there’s something there to criticize, you need to place the blame on the right people.
In the manga and Crystal? Mamoru is a kid just like Usagi is. He’s only two years older than her. Even when Mamoru is over the age of 18 and still dating Usagi, I still can’t even bring myself to care in the slightest, since they’d been together for years at that point and they’re destined moon lovers and jfc just enjoy the romance.There is basically no age gap to speak of. In the original version of the story, thought up by the 22 year old STEM-educated woman who wrote Sailor Moon, there is no objectionable age gap to even make tea over.
It was Toei and the 1992 anime team that made Mamoru a grown-ass man for absolutely no discernible reason. Mamoru already being in college adds literally nothing to the story. No episodes take place at his university. We learn nothing about what he’s studying. Not even a single filler episode has to do with him having an issue with a professor, or applying for internships, or anything. Maybe there’s a handful of throw-away lines relating to Mamoru’s university education in the entire 200 episode run time.
Pretty much the only important thing that comes from Mamoru being in college is when decides to go abroad to America, but that also happens in the manga! So again, there was no fucking point in making him a college student.
I hate the fact that they aged him up so much because it makes people hate his character. Not only did the show seem uninvested in making him a real character (especially, famously, Ikuhara) but then they had to make him a creep on top of it. They weren’t even trying to make him a real part of the show, and since the 1992 anime had an overabundance of episodes to work with, they could have easily squeezed it in among the pointless swimsuit episodes and Scooby Doo antics, but they didn’t.
To me, 1992 anime Mamoru isn’t actually Mamoru. He’s a completely separate character that I have to project manga!Mamoru onto in order to truly like. And that’s a shame, because he should have been the wholesome, supportive, loving, mature, tragic, lonely teenage boy that he was supposed to be. But instead, he’s a weirdo dating a 14 year old. Wow, thanks, I hate it.
…maybe I had more tea to serve up over that topic than I realized. It kinda just turned into a rant about the original anime, lol. >u>;;;
izzy806
turnnoffyourmind
discoholicmusic
areudirty
andulkaphoto
germansingergirl
