The earliest known sketch of Sailor Saturn, dated November 1993, shows her brooch as being shaped like the planet Saturn, a somewhat cutesy idea.
Naoko evidently found the idea a little too cutesy for the Soldier of Destruction, and quickly simplified it to match the plain brooch design utilized by the other (non-Moon) Sailors, as shown in the Materials Collection. (Saturn's image color was also changed at this stage from yellow ocher to purple.)
But in the final product, Saturn's brooch design ended up being a rather ornate crystal, unlike any other brooch worn by any other character in the series.
In the anime, even if Saturn's brooch isn't necessarily literally her Heart Crystal, its design at least recalls that of a Heart Crystal, and so it makes sense from a general aesthetic perspective. But there are no Heart Crystals in the manga, which raises the question of what the significance is of Saturn's brooch.
Is it possible that the Heart Crystals were Naoko's idea? That she had intended to include that concept in the manga at some stage, but ended up going in a different direction, with Saturn's brooch being a vestigial holdout? Or is her brooch meant to be her Sailor Crystal, suggesting Naoko may have intended to introduce that concept a little earlier than what ended up happening? Is it meant to be some sort of counterpart to the Taioron Crystal?
What do you think?
Naoko evidently found the idea a little too cutesy for the Soldier of Destruction, and quickly simplified it to match the plain brooch design utilized by the other (non-Moon) Sailors, as shown in the Materials Collection. (Saturn's image color was also changed at this stage from yellow ocher to purple.)
But in the final product, Saturn's brooch design ended up being a rather ornate crystal, unlike any other brooch worn by any other character in the series.
In the anime, even if Saturn's brooch isn't necessarily literally her Heart Crystal, its design at least recalls that of a Heart Crystal, and so it makes sense from a general aesthetic perspective. But there are no Heart Crystals in the manga, which raises the question of what the significance is of Saturn's brooch.
Is it possible that the Heart Crystals were Naoko's idea? That she had intended to include that concept in the manga at some stage, but ended up going in a different direction, with Saturn's brooch being a vestigial holdout? Or is her brooch meant to be her Sailor Crystal, suggesting Naoko may have intended to introduce that concept a little earlier than what ended up happening? Is it meant to be some sort of counterpart to the Taioron Crystal?
What do you think?