ComplainingQoheleth

Right, I'm going to pull out my dart rifle and shoot the elephant in the room right away. Anyone who came here hoping for some lesbian action will most likely be disappointed, the most intimate thing Haruka and Michiru do is hold hands, indoors (fully clothed). Anyone who decided that watching this anime would somehow do something for the gay movement will also be disappointed because in one episode the other Senshi (apart from Haruka and Michiru) suspect that Jupiter is a lesbian becuase of her hero worship of Haruka with 2 or 3 saying that that would be a bad thing. At no point did any character say anything else about homosexuality in this show, whether pro or anti so on balance the show actually looks(only looks, mind) anti-homosexuality especially given that in the first season of Sailor Moon 2 of the Shitenoh (Beryl's 4, mainly useless, generals) were gay and in the S movie they wonder if Mamoru is gay with again nobody saying anything about homosexuality one way or another (in both the movie and show Mercury was adamant that neither Jupiter nor Mamoru were gay and being the brainy one* she was right) and finally I read an interview Naoko Takeuchi (she wrote the manga, in case you forgot) did that Haruka and Michiru's relationship was one of friendship that became love and that these things happen (becuase young children wouldn't have understood how 2 girls could be in love with one another she made Haruka a butch lesbian, that is one who acts like a man, Usagi even seemed to be in love with her when she smelled her cologne, with Michiru being a lipstick, that is, girly girl lesbian though nowadays in the west the girly thing to do seems to be to try to be all strong but overdoing it, I presume by accident, and ending up being mean) and she didn't say whether she was OK with homosexuality or against it so I'm not saying the Sailor Moon franchise is anti-gay or pro-gay just that it's one of the few things on this Earth that contains homosexuality but isn't about homosexuality, it's a part of the work but not a part of its premise and isn't there to make a political point. I've typed this before and I can't stress it enough that I'm against people bringing up their views into anime discussions where they don't have a place. Sure you can bring up your views into anime with messages or political viewpoints but it's partisan and out of place to bring them up about anime with no messages or politics but this being the internet, this being a review in English (Ireland** was occupied for so long that the Irish language was nearly killed off and I don't live in a Gaeltacht, that is, an Irish-speaking region) and 2/3 of English speakers on the internet being American (300 million people from majority English-speaking countries use the internet and Americans are 200 million of them, yes I actually bothered to check) and America being the most politics obsessed country on the planet (or at least it very much appears that way) and given that shonen-ai and shojo-ai are 2 of my 3 least favourite genres I of course have to give my views on homosexuality lest people think I'm some reactionary fundamentalist homophobe (not likely, being from Europe and a young but rural person I think that extremely liberal, militant atheist relativists are as bad as the aforementioned reactionaries. In Europe we're not apolitical, we just have more moderate views because we've seen firsthand the wreck that both fascism and communism cause while in America the parties argue over what freedom to give, social or economic but the people want both so they label one party fascist, the other communist and the people take extreme positions to be as different from the party they don't vote for as possible while not being all that keen either on the party they do vote for, heck, the internet of all places only supported Obama on a lesser evils basis in his 2nd presidential campaign). Sex is nothing more than 2 (or for health and threfore religious reasons alike, rules are usually made to acheive results and not to oppress people out of nothing but sadism in spite of what anarachists think, God forbid more than 2) people putting 1 or 2 of where their urine or poo comes out in or on the other person and it's only fun so we'd bother and so humanity would continue to inhabit the Earth so there's no way I could possibly be OK with homosexuality though we all have our faults so do unto others... so I don't think it's fair to think of homosexuals as lesser or subhuman and certainly people who rape people for being gay or asexual are far more in the wrong than anyone who is homosexual. I also don't like censorship as it's covering up for the person who commited what the censors supposed was a wrong so for moral reasons I gave up on the dubs of Sailor Moon and on principle I now only watch the subs unless I can't find them. I know I've spent far longer on this section alone then I would on an entire review usually but as aforementioned most people who read this will probably be American and have seen what my least favourite genres are so I had to bear this in mind and discuss in depth my views on the homosexuality in Sailor Moon S and what I feel about homosexuality in general because it did affect my viewing experience, I felt tense because of it as opposed to disgusted watching the original Sailor Moon series because being a heterosexual it's only natural that I'll find 2 males in love to not be appealing to say the least though on balance the original series is slightly better though I'm not really sure why. I have marked Haruka and Michiru as hated and it's not just because they're lesbian; it's mainly because they're machiavellians (they don't care who dies even if they're not the enemy even though as Usagi knew nobody had to die unless they were an enemy) and machiavellianism isn't a trait to be appreciated in anyone (which is why I also hate that creep Paul von Oberstein from Legend Of The Galactic Heroes and Treize Khushrenada from Gunam Wing). Machiavellianism is named after Nicolo Macchiavelli, a Renaissance Italian politician who wrote that "politics bear no relation to morals" (he is more famously quoted as "the ends justify the means" but what he actually wrote in that sentence was more along the lines of the long term must be taken into account) and so machiavellianism is just doing what you want to get results no matter how small or short term, no matter how many people you screw over in the process, no matter how badly you screw them over and no matter how much wreck your actions will cause and no matter for how long. So Machiavelli was no worse than the politicians of today in other words.

* Her intelligence along with her gentle personality and cute appearance and knowledge of German are what make her my favourite Sailor Moon character by far. Chibiusa is just plain annoying, Sailor Moon is cowardly especially when things are at their worst (the time when you should least be cowardly even though it's the hardest time to not be), Sailor Mars is foul tempered and the rest apart from Haruka and Michiru are just OK though I can't put my finger on why.

** One of the things that Simpsons episode about Ireland got right was that Irish people are OK with homosexuality, the worst that happens here is someone would get playfully mocked for it but that's nothing compared to the blatant racism showered on the travelling community and red-haired people. Not blacks though. In spite of what Hollywood thinks (Hollywood got something wrong, no surprise there) the racism Irish people showed to blacks wasn't based on prejudice but rather competition gotten out of hand in America in the late 1800's and America in the late 1800's alone where being poorer than the majority who were descended from English whites the Irish and blacks competed for the low-paying jobs.

On at last to the quality. In this regard it's like every other entry in the Sailor Moon franchise that I've seen so far so there's no point in doing separate reviews for them. The animation is OK and nothing more plus there's quite a lack of detail in the backgrounds though that's a minor complaint really and in terms of entertainment Sailor Moon shows are easy to look at so you can keep watching and watching while the dark animation of Zeta Gundam means you may need to take a while before watching the next episode. (I brought up a Gundam show; you knew it was coming I bet and are rolling your eyes right now. Sorry but it was just the best example that came to mind.) The voice acting is mediocre from everyone, yes everyone. The opening and ending themes are fair. The story is your usual Sailor Moon episodic stuff with few episodes making any difference to any to come and not much happening beyond this person has a little problem, it's solved after the latest villain of the week is foiled and the episode ends and that I think is the main or perhaps sole contributor to what makes the Sailor Moon series yet another bunch of anime that are 3/5, 50%, slap bang in the middle kind of things. It's not slightly below or above average, it's just plain average.

27th November 2013 Update

In Sailor Stars Usagi gets a loveletter from a girl (the girl meant for her to give it to Seiya) and says that she isn't a lesbian but they can be friends if she likes and that it's better to be in love with a man. In the Sailor Moon Memorial Luna says that she guesses that some people are into that (homosexuality) and then Usagi says "Eww, disgusting!" then again Naoko Takeuchi said (in Kappa Magazine in Seoptember 1996) "The truth in their feelings is that they have a very serious and pure friendship." She was referring to Haruka and Michiru.