They are strong women, they do not need a man to recognize their worth. In my opinion it would go against everything Sailor Moon is supposed to stand for. Takeuchi's feminism is not perfect I agree but the historical/geographical context also matters too, Sailor Moon was written in the nineties by a japanese woman after al. The girls's willingness to fully devote themselves to a "higher" cause (eternay serve their queen/godess) is a behaviour highly commended in Japan. About Manga Mamoru lol can't say I disagree with you
So... let's change that into 'they are strong men, they do not need a woman to recognize their worth' - does this sound good?
By 'recognizing their worth' I mean a strong man, who is wholly capable of feats, recognizing that the girls surpass him BUT at the same time, fights at times with them and both sides share ideas and respect towards each other resulting in a healthy and positive representation of females and males being equals and can act and perform duties together regardless of social traditions.
Shounen mangas of the times were already doing it so why not a 'revolutionary' manga as Sailor Moon too?
Instead, in Sailor Moon, at times it seems women are the superior gender (and it seems that's what Takeuchi thinks via her interviews).
As for the girls' devoting themselves to a higher cause, like I said, my problem is that
their higher cause is Usagi not the greater good.
They are her followers and will do anything she says but they are not developed as characters for us to see them as individual champions of justice.
Instead, they all revolve around Usagi because of their destiny - their destiny is something that is regularly brought up by Haruka and Minako.
If you go and see other works, you'll see that the protagonists actually
go against their destiny and break traditions because that is an actual problem in Japan - men are expected to be the main breadwinners, while women are the housewives; that has been the rule and tradition since forever and the modern generation hates it.
The breaking of traditions and challenging destiny is a metaphor used to resonate to this wish of the younger generation to have a more liberal freedom.
In Sailor Moon, we see the girls still wishing to have normal lives but it's out of a blinded love and attraction towards Usagi (because she's their princess) that they give up on their futures not out of a willing decision to dedicate their lives to the people.
is that related to those French Box Sets or is it something completely different because I don't remember.
That's different.
Toei and Takeuchi gave the French a number of illustrations to choose from to make their Box sets.
The French then did their work and used those very illustrations to finalize the design and apparently both Toei and Takeuchi gave their OK.
However, when it came time to actually release the sets, Takeuchi was like 'No'.
And it seems her demands are actually ridiculous with the people working on those sets having a very hard time to work with her.