Homosexuality in Sailormoon
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Japanese free-minded expressions thoughout
the anime has always been a...well known stuff to anyone who experienced this appointment,
though what Sailormoon, an anime dedicated to the youngest generations, was about to
bring on US TVs happened to be a little too much: Resulting from the Japanese religion and history, the spiritual contents of a human is rendered naked (or when changing into a higher spiritual entity, like the final battle: Galaxia vs Serenity). Nakedness is, in Japanese mental conscience, next to the most natural thing in the world - public baths for example (unlike the US censorship law). A typical feature of many anime series, including Sailormoon, are 'partially naked' scenes. Partially because there is not a single shot in the whole series, which would expose some of the woman's secret parts...meaning to say breast or, for gods sake, the womanhood. In other words, the characteres are found ,,at the edge of nakedness". Yet, the US officials modified all scenes containing transparent, but nothing-showing clothing (the transformations for example). The less variable scenes were simply cut out. -Second extraordinary phenomenon, the point of this article and possibly the reason of Sailormoon's aborted translations/dubbing, is the unhandable, yet well latent, appearance of homosexual characters. But Sailormoon's fame and popularity predicts it, making it almost irresistible to any distributor, in any state. The sexual guise of Sailor Moon is unlike anything west public has ever seen and yet, because of exaggerative aesthetic feelings of cartoon distributors the whole anime obtained more or less massive modifications. First time I heard that...there could be possibly something more then mere friendly relationship between Haruka and Michiru (straight and rude, that they're lesbians), I outrightly disagreed with with any such gossip with the fact that it's just a forgery some anti-moonie came up with. Although, the more I study around this section, the more I'm getting in the conviction that...the author intentionally made their relationship a bit excessive, not directly revealing their mistaken sexual orientation. However, some of the dialogs are undoubtedly indicating the homosexual tincture. The homosexuality itself appeared in Sailor Moon four times (approximately): 
1. BSSM - Zoicite's loving relation to Kunzite. As you may already know,
Zoicite is originaly (in Japan BSSM) a male. He and Kunzite are (or at least apparently should be)...what we call gays.
Such nature may NOT appear on US, for kids dedicated, programes as well as on other TV programes, which is more
then understandeable. Therefore, in the US Sailor Moon, Zoicite was ,,turned" into a woman.2. BSSM S, Haruka and Michiru - well known couple that doesn't need any background. Because of these two rascals, most of the TV distributers, along with DiC, didn't even dub the rest of the sessions and ended project with R session. I've copied one article showing references leading to Haruka and Michuru's homosexuality on this page (author: Ken Arromdee) 3. BSSM Ss, Fish Eye - According to what I heard (because I saw the modificated version), Fish Eye is a male and according to what I saw personaly, both Tiger and Eagle Eye had crunch on him. Even through he clearly look like a woman, one scene, when Fish Eye's breast was revealed, could possibly indicate a bi-sexual gender, but according to classified information, Fish Eye is originaly a guy and so, possibly a gay too. I never really understood Japanese mental consciousness in both, Zoicite's and Fish Eye's case. 4. BSSM SailorStars - Also, the bi-sexual appearance of Star Lights is not a fiction, but cruel reality. In human form they're guys, in senshi form they're of contrary gender. It kinda' look like Naoko never wanted to acknowledge the existence of Sailor Senshi of male gender. Why?? Back to the translation. I've found one internet site containing detail information about each and every dub version (includes: number of episodes released, music aspect, name changes and censorship of the following: violence, lechery, nudity, homosexuality), few references leading to Haruka and Michiru's homosexuality (also the link above) and loads of other articles. Author of this five pages long FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is...Ken Arromdee I think. Since I don't remember the URL of the source site, it's gonna be available directly on this page. It's really interesting stuff, highly recommended. Ken's Sailor Moon FAQ, part 1 Ken's Sailor Moon FAQ, part 2 Ken's Sailor Moon FAQ, part 3 Ken's Sailor Moon FAQ, part 4 Ken's Sailor Moon FAQ, part 5 |