adventuresofcomicbookghoul:

You know I have to ramble about Sailor Moon.

I actively adore both the anime and the manga and think both have their place in my dorky shrine of excellent inspiring tales about ladies. 

But I think it was correct of Naoko to note when asked about the difference between the manga and the anime that her story is a story by a woman, about women, and for women and that men are involved in the anime so there’s a male influence there. Does this mean 100% bad, and do I think she was trying to say it’s terrible? No. But I do think it’s a thing to consider, especially in regards to the male gaze that definitely could be present in the anime. Both the anime and the manga had like, sexualized content, but the content in the anime is seen through a different lens because this is men doing it. And Takuechi herself allegedly was critical of the male gaze sometimes (like, on one hand she thought the transformations were pretty and on the other hand was a little squicked out is pretty clear)

Let’s look at the pos and neg here in major changes

1. Usagi and Mamoru.  Naoko has straight up said she crafted Mamoru to be her ideal dude, and that’s reflected in how she made him basically the most supportive boyfriend in the world who admits pretty immediately when he screws up and is basically constantly open about how much he completely adores Usagi and thinks she’s the most kickass girl in the universe 24/7. Seriously, once an arc you have Mamoru going “THANKS FOR SAVING MY LIFE USAGI UR MY INVINCIBLE HERO” and Usagi being like “NO PROB BB I’LL ALWAYS PROTECT YOU”. Naoko worked really, really hard on presenting a positive relationship to girls so they could see “yeah, it is possible for a guy to really respect you, don’t settle for less.”Really, manga Mamoru is probably one of the most healthy, feminist boyfriends in all of shoujo. There’s also the fact the manga flat out said Mamoru was going to take over the rearing of Chibiusa so Usagi could do what she wanted, and also presented their mutual miscommunications and drama and jealousy as real problems they had to work through together by communicating.

Mamoru’s main problem in the manga is he actually is this kid with really low self esteem who feels he lucked out way too much by landing with Usagi and he *burdens* her, and Usagi helps him work through that- in the anime, it could be kind of the opposite, with Usagi demonstrating really low self esteem in regards to Mamoru at times and feeling she’s not good enough, even being told by others she better shape up or she’ll lose him. Kinda not as subversive.

 I think the animators don’t really have Naoko’s idea of what the ideal boyfriend is, so they had a certain idea of how boys and girls should interact, that guys need to be stoic and tough and all that shit, and so we got shit like the R break-up and paternalism and Mamoru swooping into save the day rather than his manga role of being like “hey sailor moon im yer backup i’ll give you some of my power i’d die if it meant you could fight go get em gurl”. and stuff. On the other hand, the fact they were not as interested in presenting the relationship meant that the anime tended to focus on the friendships and side characters more than the manga did and Mamoru was less prominent and also a lot more in the mold of being this domestic guy who is there to support Usagi in later seasons.

However, I do feel even in later seasons it didn’t reach that height of equality. And it’s reflected in small things like, in the manga when Mamoru left he basically babbled to Usagi that he’d miss her so much and he’d write to her, while in the anime Mamoru was all “I’LL BE REALLY BUSY” and Usagi was the one being like “I’LL WRITE TO YOU THO”. The anime was clearly kinda uncomfortable with having a guy be so openly devoted, dependent and emotional in that situation.

It’s not that Mamoru isn’t a subversive shoujo love interest in the anime who clearly totally believes in Usagi- it’s just that he’s a lot moreso in the manga, and that actually makes the relationship both more feminist and more real. On the other hand, as I said, it’s kind of nice that the anime doesn’t focus on him as much.

2. Sex- Usagi sort of subtly is interested in sex with Mamoru in the anime and propositions him for it, and it goes over his head. In the manga, she similarly is the one who’s more aggressive and interested in sex, and Mamoru like…well, he responds. They have sex in the manga, or get close to having sex a lot.

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(Source: adventuresofcomicbookgirl)