Temple of Ranma's Sailor Senshi Seifuku

After re-watching Sailor Moon again, this issue came back to the forefront of my mind, and I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on it.

We all know that none of the Inner Senshi find real romance. In the anime, they get to play around with some random crushes that never develop.

Meanwhile, Usagi gets to enjoy a thrilling romance with Mamoru, marry, and have a child, all while her dear friends and guardians remain chaste. It seems.... cruel, and bitterly ironic, especially in Minako's case, since she represents Venus, the Goddess of Love! Sure, they all love Usagi, but if you're going to say that's their replacement for romantic love with a partner of their choice, well, that's more than a little creepy, and bordering on sick.

Thoughts?

In both the manga and the anime(to different extents), it's left pretty open-ended. One can assume Mako and Mina (if we take Kaitou Ace's curse as a metaphorical "this is the price for being in the masquerade" sort of thing) will find a relationship at some point. Rei perhaps has no in interest in a relationship. And Ami may prioritize her career over romance, but may wish for a relationship at some point in the hazy Crystal Tokyo future.

That said this is why you have fanfic filling the gaps in several ways: by Inners shipping, by bringing back male characters, or through Sen/Shi shipping.

It seems.... cruel, and bitterly ironic, especially in Minako's case, since she represents Venus, the Goddess of Love!

Yeah, the events of Codename: Sailor V set that up for us. Minako has a somewhat complicated relationship (for lack of a better term)( with romance, as boy crazy as she is portrayed in the anime).

It seems.... cruel, and bitterly ironic, especially in Minako's case, since she represents Venus, the Goddess of Love! Sure, they all love Usagi, but if you're going to say that's their replacement for romantic love with a partner of their choice, well, that's more than a little creepy, and bordering on sick.

Actually, it is one of the few things I feel sorry for Mamoru for, as I consider their relationship nothing more than a function of the soul bond between them (I call it a slave bond myself), not love. Until their alter egos are revealed to each other, they hate each other... only once revealed do they fall in love...

Sad...

PCHeintz72 wrote: Until their alter egos are revealed to each other, they hate each other... only once revealed do they fall in love...

The transition was quite poorly executed in the anime; re-watching Classic now made me wonder: did I skip a couple of episodes by mistake?

PCHeintz72 wrote:
Actually, it is one of the few things I feel sorry for Mamoru for, as I consider their relationship nothing more than a function of the soul bond between them (I call it a slave bond myself), not love. Until their alter egos are revealed to each other, they hate each other... only once revealed do they fall in love...

Sad...

Do they? Hate each other i mean... They argue and annoy each other greatly, but that doesnt need to have anything to do with hate. As i said elsewhere, this is a common thing to happen when people are too aware of each other, regardless the reason for that. And since it is a classic romance kliché... Just another version of the endless number of variants you can find where a boy and a girl fights and those around comments on how well they´re getting along.

If they actually did hate each other, the revelations would not have mattered. Or it would have made things worse.

SailorStar9 wrote:After re-watching Sailor Moon again, this issue came back to the forefront of my mind, and I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on it.

We all know that none of the Inner Senshi find real romance. In the anime, they get to play around with some random crushes that never develop.

No we dont know that.

But the biggest problem is likely that of finding someone they can reveal their full identities to. Usagi lucked out early in that regard by having someone already part of them to get together with.

I´m actually quite sure they wont remain single ever after. If nothing else, Minako will run herself ragged trying to "fix" it.

Spica75 wrote:Do they? Hate each other i mean... They argue and annoy each other greatly, but that doesnt need to have anything to do with hate. As i said elsewhere, this is a common thing to happen when people are too aware of each other, regardless the reason for that. And since it is a classic romance kliché... Just another version of the endless number of variants you can find where a boy and a girl fights and those around comments on how well they´re getting along.

If they actually did hate each other, the revelations would not have mattered. Or it would have made things worse.

It is not believable the way the anime does it, at least it never has been to me. One does not go from the level of dislike shown each other to all but professing love and destiny upon discovering the identity of the other.

Remember, Rei was dating him, but that was fairly quietly shelved once he hooked up with Usagi.

PCHeintz72 wrote:It is not believable the way the anime does it, at least it never has been to me. One does not go from the level of dislike shown each other to all but professing love and destiny upon discovering the identity of the other.

Remember, Rei was dating him, but that was fairly quietly shelved once he hooked up with Usagi.

Point that you´re missing is that the perceived "dislike" doesn´t have to be actual dislike.
If you want a comparison from elsewhere, the Xander/Cordelia relationship from Btvs is WAY worse but they still get together for a while. And that´s without any "hidden personality" effect adding to it.
http://youtu.be/E26hZe4wMpw?t=1m41s "-It´s just more, i don´t want to."

And yes, there are couples like that for real.

Spica75 wrote:Point that you´re missing is that the perceived "dislike" doesn´t have to be actual dislike.
If you want a comparison from elsewhere, the Xander/Cordelia relationship from Btvs is WAY worse but they still get together for a while. And that´s without any "hidden personality" effect adding to it.
http://youtu.be/E26hZe4wMpw?t=1m41s "-It´s just more, i don´t want to."

And yes, there are couples like that for real.

Shrugs... I view it simple...

- were I a girl, and any guy treated me the way he did, I would not give time of day...

- were I a guy, and had to put up with her antics, and the childish behavior, her wallet draining habits, would avoid her like the plague.

And any relationship that existed as theirs did, and I wanted to see them together anyway, it would not be hate, find out identity, then love... which was exactly what the anime did...

That is not the only issue here though...

I view Mamoru, and all his early actions, along with the memory blackouts and personality changes, as the past life imposing itself upon him... Thus he is slaved to the desires of that personality.

And thus why what people call them as soul mates merely makes me shrug and feel sorry for him... he may be a jerk, and several other descriptions I've given over the years, but on this one point, I merely feel sorry for him.

If he could break that programming... I feel he would be gone in a second...

As for Usagi, I truly feel she is so blind to reality and focused on the storybook romance that Tux boy could have been say Umino and she would have fallen for him... This even is somewhat proven, consider her thoughts on when she hoped the person was Motoki...


The real secret, is I always wondered what Freddie (Makoto's old Boyfriend/Sempai which name was only ever given in dub) was like.

My personal head-cannon for this: the Senshi should have read the fine print that said 'Love is not allowed for the Guardian Senshi as their only role is to protect the Princess.'' before they signed up as Senshi.