But I really don't think that Sailor Moon could even work as a Western adaptation. The naval fuku is strongly tied to its Japanese identity and the closest that we could get to it would be a prep school uniform ...but then you'd lose the "Sailor" part of it.
You mean "Sailor" which is an English word with an English meaning, and a U.S. Navy uniform that serves as a base for those naval uniforms.
Never mind that Mugen Adacemy uniforms, which come later, are essentially Catholic school uniforms.
I understand what you mean about the cultural context, but there are plenty of Western hooks to hang it on and a really good adaptation would bring it back to that.
What's wrong with Jupiter being black? It's not set in stone she has to be white or even asian. I picked Sydney cause she'd be the perfect fit imo, she can get Makoto's personality down.
While Jupiter is often fan cast as being black for three reasons (Toonmakers did it, Amanda C. Miller, and most of all because she's the "tough" one who doesn't take smack), there is a problematic aspect about that reading of her character.
She's a domestic who can actually kick butt. While this juxtaposition is seemingly positive, for a black character this portrayal can come downright stereotypical. One of the big problems faced by black women is being seen as the "strong" (and thus unfeminine) tough woman who can also run a household and take care of everyone. Unlike
Silk Hiding Steel, there is no refinement or class, and she is canonically shown in the old anime to be not good at school. Remember that Makoto is also rumored to a delinquent, leading to both a tendency towards violence and hypersexualization. So she's a mammy, a maid, a seemingly low-class thug, and the "hot" boyish girl.
Yeah, that's a bunch of yikes.
I'm not saying you can't cast a black actress as Jupiter (heck, Viz
did) but that such a casting does bring some troubling overtones to her character.