Sailor Moon is a work by Japanese manga artist Naoko Takeuchi who serialized it in Kodansha's monthly manga magazine Good Friends in 1991. As the pinnacle of women's comics, "Sailor Moon" was widely praised as soon as it was launched, and once triggered a wave of discussion in society.
The predecessor of the manga is Naoko Takeuchi's short manga Sailor Suit Warrior V, which depicts the story of middle school student Minako Aino becoming a righteous warrior Sailor V fighting the forces of evil. However, at that time, "Sailor V" was already a registered trademark of other merchants, and in order to facilitate the future development of the work to other media, Naoko Takeuchi recreated "Sailor Moon" with the same world view.
Such a super popular work, naturally will not be let go by Toei Animation, immediately got the copyright of "Sailor Moon", and quickly launched the animation of the same name in 1992.
The style of animation prints is quite different from the original
Manga and animation go hand in hand, almost synchronously launched, the company's big men naturally make a lot of money, but the animation director Kunihiko Kihara, not only to create some plots, but also according to the audience's current preferences, change the personality of some characters. For example, Naoko Takeuchi portrays Rei Hokuno based on her personal experience as a witch, and in the manga her personality is cold and detached, but at the request of Kunihiko Kihara, Rei Honano in the anime becomes fiery and acute.
Fire Wild Li
Nevertheless, after all, it is all for the sake of being able to consider the audience to the greatest extent, and such an adaptation is understandable. This is also true, the animated version further increased the audience of Sailor Moon and became a classic memory of a generation.
However, some adaptations have angered the original author Naoko Takeuchi.
In Sailor Star Stars, directed by Takaya Igarashi, three Star Warriors starry warriors, Hoshino, Atmospheric, and Night Sky. In the original manga, they have always been supporting female characters dressed as neutrals. I don't know what the director of Igarashi had in mind, but in the anime, they changed their settings to be: male before transformation, female after transformation. It even added a lot of drama to them.
Naoko Takeuchi has publicly stated that she was surprised that Toei Animation made Starlight Warrior the main character, and was angry at the practice of changing gender.
Starlight trio
Why the director came up with this idea is unknown, but in Naoko Takeuchi's original manga, there are also gender-ambiguous characters.
The emotion between Haruka Tenno and Neptune has always been a topic of conversation among fans, and there is also a great deal of controversy among fans about whether Haruka Tenno is male or female.
Tenno Haruka
Tenno Haruka is tall, has both male and female personalities and strengths, and has a relationship with Neptune, who is a woman, which inevitably makes people question his gender. In addition, the Chinese version of the manga mistranslation "He is a warrior who can change according to the situation". As a result, many readers mistakenly believe that The King of Heaven is a warrior who can freely change genders.
In response, Naoko Takeuchi personally identified Haruka's gender at a North American meeting in 1998: "All the sailor scounts are girls, Haruka has always been a girl and always will be." (All sailor warriors are girls, and Haruka has been a woman from beginning to end.)
Neptune Man and Heavenly King Haruka
As a leading manga artist at that time, Naoko Takeuchi has always been at the forefront of the times. In the manga, in addition to the costume design comparable to the fashion show, there are more depictions of women's independence and freedom than in the works of the same period.
In "Sailor Moon", women are no longer attached to male characters, nor are they like the "Mary Sue" in the dog blood drama, there are always men around them, but they can rely on their own strength, do not have to please anyone, live their own tenacity and courage, and control their own lives.