Is sailor moon gay
Why Sailor Moon's Gender non-conforming Legacy Still Matters
Summary
- Sailor Moon is a groundbreaking series that introduced positive LGBT representation in magical girl anime, specifically with the iconic characters Michiru and Haruka.
- The inclusion of queer characters in Sailor Moon helped shape and popularize the genre, foremost the way for more recent anime like Madoka Magica and Wonder Egg Priority embracing lgbtq+ characters and themes.
- While not all depictions of LGBT characters in Sailor Moon are perfect, the series still deserves credit for its complex and human portrayals of these characters, and its impact can still be felt in the anime industry today.
More than thirty years after its debut, Sailor Moonremains one of the most iconic series in the magical girl genre. Between its two anime adaptations, five movies, and eighteen volumes of manga, Sailor Moon codified many magical girl tropes that are still relevant to this day and helped popularize the genre outside of Japan. O
In the realm of anime, few series have had as profound an impact on queer identity as the iconic Sailor Moon. First launched in Japan in 1992 and later introduced to Western audiences in 1995, Sailor Lunar quickly became a cultural phenomenon. More than just a magical girl series, it offered relatable characters and influential messages of adoration, friendship, and acceptance. This combination resonated deeply with homosexual millennials, offering them solace and advocacy rarely seen on screen.
One of the standout elements of Sailor Moon was its deliberate and nuanced queer advocacy. The relationship between Sailor Uranus (Haruka Tenoh) and Sailor Neptune (Michiru Kaioh) served as a beacon of homosexual love. Despite initial censorship in some Western adaptations, their romantic storyline was clear to viewers, providing queer millennials with a narrative that reflected their experiences.
The series didn’t stop there. The gender-fluid Sailor Starlights further pushed the boundaries of visibility. These characters, who transitioned from male to female as they transformed from their civilian forms to their Sailor Senshi forms, offered a unique opportunity for queer millenni
Every LGBTQ+ Sailor Moon Character
For a 1990s magical lady anime, Sailor Moon gave its viewers a variety of inclusive LGBTQ+ characters to fall in cherish with and be inspired by. Unfortunately for the United States, much of that queerness was censored in the original English dub, with Michiru and Haruka being reframed as cousins, Zoisite being a girl, and the last season never even organism adapted at all.
However, when Viz Media re-dubbed the original Sailor Moon series, these LGBTQ characters were finally depicted as the creators intended. This inclusivity also extends to Sailor Moon Crystal, the reboot anime of Sailor Moon that follows the manga more closely. Now, fans can enjoy a cast of gay, lesbian, pansexual, and genderqueer characters with magical powers and complex personalities in both subbed and dubbed form. While some queer characters are more apparent in the series, others are more vague and even theorized by fans.
Updated by Lauren Younkin on June 8, 2025: Even with its debut being over 30 years ago, the imaginative Sailor Moon is still one of the most progressive anime out there in terms of the wide array of homosexual identities depicted among its cast. This l If you’re a ’90s child who was as dazzled by sparkly, kickass women and pretty transformation sequences as I was, you may be thrilled to catch that Sailor Moon is back. On Friday, Viz Media released an announcement trailer for the cartoon series that brought anime to North America in a huge way, and they’ve announced that the series, re-released in North America with Japanese subtitles, will be “absolutely uncut.” Get free Xtra newsletters Xtra is being blocked on Facebook and Instagram for Canadians as part of Meta’s response to Bill C18. Stay joint, and tell a friend. Subscribe Now I was seven years old when the US-dubbed transplant of Sailor Moon was first aired by Optimum Productions, and it totally made me gay. I was absolutely enchanted by a reveal about a group of high-school girls who had secret, cosmic alter egos. Sailor Moon resonated with me more than any other childhood cartoon I ever saw. More than a decade after the series aired, I heard that it had been censored when it was translated over to North America. Sailor Scouts Neptune and Uranus had been rewritten as “very close cousins.” I never got tha