Is there a reason the '90's made Mamoru such an asshole?

No. Rei’s grandfather was in the manga he just looked completely different and appeared a lot less.

Supposedly the 90's anime writers just didn't like him, especially Ikuhara who's known as a big Usagi/Rei shipper. I wouldn't be surprised if in order to push his ship he tried to make Mamoru as unlikeable as possible so that the audience would ship Usagi/Rei.

Is there any proof Ikuhara didn’t like Mamoru? This always seemed like some fan speculation that just got passed around as gospel.

If he hated Mamoru that much why in the flying [BLEEP] would he make him the focus of the first Sailor Moon movie?

i hate how mamochan was treated in the 90s anime. the producer hated him.and made him.useless

I feel he was treated quite good in the latter seasons honestly.

Again, source?

It is.

I think I read an interview once where he said something like "I actually want Usagi all to myself and that's why I keep killing him off. But he keeps coming back!" but that's it.

I think the a**hole is abit strong, I look at it as 90s Mamoru just didn't have the patience for Usagi's immaturity due to him being very much older than her. I mean come on he was a whole college student while she was in middle school. The stark age difference in the 90s version plays apart on how he saw things and plus add a traumatic car accident with losing both parents it kinda make sense how he would come off very cold at times but he does become more endearing by S

I don't even think he's that much of a jerk in the 90's anime outside of some early episodes. The rest of the time he's just as supportive as his manga self, just with corny speeches against MOTWs.

As for the break up arc, I honestly prefer it over the manga where Usagi gets jealous of Chibiusa for no reason, even after finding out she's their daughter. At least Mamoru had an actual justification to distance himself from her, whereas manga!Usagi just threw a fit over Chibiusa, ran off crying, and sulked alone in her room before doing it all over again.

We always hear about how evil and abusive and toxic anime!Mamoru, Rei, Haruka, etc. are for the same handful of scenes from manga purists, but we never hear about the handful of times the manga characters act like jerks.

I thought Usagi’s behavior towards Chibiusa in the manga is interesting. Usagi, too, is a kid. She may have super powers, but she is still a middle school student, she is still a girl wanting to enjoy life like any human being, and she suddenly realizes that she has to share Mamoru with a kid—and that the kid is her daughter.

By the end of the Black Moon arc, Usagi is no longer the kid she once was; she has matured, she is a mother, and in the manga, specifically, she acts and behaves like a mother.

Both Crystal and the manga depict the girls becoming more mature—they become adults when they are essentially still kids.

By the end of Stars, Usagi is getting married. The 90’s anime, on the other hand, kept Usagi a kid forever.

To be fair, he wasn’t treated fairly in the manga, either. He was the protagonist‘s Prince and loved one. He was brainwashed a lot. He was given some attacks and a chance to shine in the Dream arc—and that’s it.

But the 90’s anime, in comparison, made him even more formulaic and predictable.

She matures plenty in the 90's anime. The manga is just constant plot so the girls' personalities get lost most of the time. If the side stories are anything to go by, they still act like their usual selves when nothing serious is going on. Maturing doesn't mean you become a completely different person who's serious 24/7.

tuxedo unmasked has the sources

Hmm I looked and there is no such article. Try again chief

I think Sailor Moon fans don’t realize that Ikuhara loves to troll in interviews, like the one time he said one character’s pocket watch in another anime held the secrets of the universe or something absurd a long those lines.

He’s obviously joking since he directed the Sailor Moon R movie which gave Mamoru a huge role and even delved into his childhood (something the manga barely did).

I don't know if there's a reason, but he is definitely a major league jerk.

His first interaction with her in this life is berating her for getting an awful score. He's not offering any sort of encouragement. He's not trying to help her. Instead he's just being a jerk for not reason to be a jerk.

Then it gets worse. Despite being a grown man, he keeps running into her and still bullies her, then conveniently ends up going out with her best friend because he's supposedly too spineless to say no to the forceful Rei. It's only when he's seriously hurt that he decides to finally open up, and after that, everything that happens next is out of his agency.

Then we see him in the first part of R, memoryless, and while he's not as much of a jerk in that part, he's still not Mr. Personality, either. (What do Usagi and En see in him?). If the deleted material is anything to go by, a big part of the reason why he "chooses" Usagi is due to him regaining his memories...but what type of a choice is that if it's made based on his past life?

I'm guessing the people in charge were going for a grown up version of "a boy liking a girl and not knowing how to express it so he teases her" dynamic. Except that works for five-year olds, not anyone three or four times that age.

Part of it could also be cultural. Again, I'm no expert in Japanese culture, but I have heard that in many Eastern cultures, being "rude" is actually a sign of closeness and familiarity. Much like how Rei and Usagi's bickering is supposed to be a sign of them being good friends.

But to me, he's just, as Rose called him...Chibaka.

It doesn’t seem to me like she does—again, the reason might be because the 90’s anime focuses too much, perhaps a bit excessively on comedy.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Minako in the 90’s anime, she is the funniest and my favorite character—but the Minako that we see in the 90’s anime is not the same Minako that we see in Crystal and in the manga. Ditto for Rei.

oh but he choose usagi before only because she was defending him from the attacks but i dont know to said is was love owo
the moments i didnt like him were when he didnt put a stop to chibi usa crush on him and even in s he was mean well in the motocicle episode he didnt wait for her and even go in the bus i know how usagi is but please you could wait for her i dont know if some watched tokyo mew mew but when ichigo go to another place because she have to fight a chimera aoyama waited for her and was angry and you told me mamoru couldnt
even i know usagi dosent have something with seiya but she even waited for him in the date episode and ask him where he go and mamoru couldn't? mostly is her girlfriend

that was the 90s i remember much of the super s episodes when that happen and in some of s and r
but in the manga when usagi know it was her daughter she didnt do that, and in 90s we have the fight over and over again between chibi usa and usagi, most that episode when some girl was interest in mamoru, chibi usa said was her girlfriend and usagi was angry or the super s movie she have to ask mamoru who he loves more puf
and even angry because chibi usa and mamoru go to buy a t-shirt
jealous of who give mamoru takoyaki in s well in that time mamoru at least told them to back off

Not to defend bad behavior as even in the real world it would look weird (if not outright pathetic) for a college freshman to antagonize an 8th grader he’s barely acquainted with...Mamoru is obviously a bit stunted himself. I know the anime tries to write him as this sophisticated mature guy (more so in S onwards) but really 18 years old tend to not be that mature they’re just teenagers with more freedom and maybe more responsibility. But also as far as we know he grew up in an orphanage for 8-10 years without any sort of parental figure and we have no evidence he was close to anyone. His only friend (Motoki) was someone he met at college. A reason is never an excuse for bad behavior but I do think its not too surprising he would date a girl barely in her teens as well as antagonize one.

This is also something I feel the second part of R dropped the ball on. His excuse for breaking up with Usagi was valid (We shouldn’t date just because we were lovers in another lifetime) but it ended up just being an excuse and he never actually believed it it was just him wanting to protect her from a bad omen that turned out to be a test from his future self because...reasons? (I kinda liked that the DiC dub originally implied Wiseman was responsible as that would have made a bit more sense)

We kinda sorta see Usagi and Mamoru bond in the babysitter episode and the last two episodes of the Ail/En arc but even then its so underdeveloped we have no reason to believe these two would date if not for getting memories of their past lives and the opportunity to have Mamoru fall for Usagi for who Usagi is not who he and Usagi were was just squandered so bad.


To my understanding its not that different than the West where close friends are more likely to be more rude toward each other than acquaintances. Usagi and Rei bickering never felt like “close friends” (at least not for the first series) as much as personalities clashing as Usagi was immature and Rei, really wasn’t any more mature but tried to put up the front of being sophisticated. They don’t actually start becoming friends until Rei is able to move on from Mamoru.