Exactly, the 90’s anime 4 main BMC members were basically expies of the Shittenou in their roles and even personalities. (In the case of Rubeus and Esmeraude at least)
Rubeus = Jadeite with a bit of Nephrite mixed in
Esmeraude = Zoisite
Saphir = Nephrite with a bit of Zoisite
Demande = Kunzite
I accidentally got cut off there but I was also going to say that it’s never made clear whether Demande and Saphir are blood related to begin with anyways, so that’s also what makes it a more palatable ship.
Usagi still being jealous after she found out Chibi-Usa was her and Mamoru’s daughter was also pretty creepy, not gonna lie. (Though at least she gets over it in the manga and the subject is actually tackled seriously there)
This is interesting new info I just learned, if that were the case why Bandai constantly breathing down both Naoko and Toei’s neck with their insistence of turning it mainly into a marketable tool for toys? Look at all those Japanese Sailor Moon commercials aired in the 90’s and the age of the little girls featured in it… That’s pretty much the exact same demographic Precure was aimed at.
Even Naoko and Toei have both gone on record admitting they got complaints from angry parents over Classic’s finale and that it made their kindergarten aged kids cry, prompting the toning down of all future finales and never daring to make any other season finale ever that brutal again.
Or are you perhaps suggesting that rather than being just aimed at the preschool audience 90’s Sailor Moon was more akin to a family show in the same way Disney and Pixar movies are perceived?
Interesting considering the Sailor Moon manga is probably the most shonenesque shojo I’ve ever come across. Some could even argue it’s even more Shonen like than the 90’s anime since the manga tends more toward hard-core power scaling.
Why leave them out? I’m interested in hearing about these other reasons.
On the contrary, a lot of Seinen and Josei is simple fetish material, see also Usagi Drop and every male gazey Moe/lolicon series ever.
It would still be considered a classic, but not the worldwide legendary jauggernaught and mainstream Shojo equivalent to DBZ it’s
Come to think of it, I never thought about this before but you’re right! Yugioh basically follows the same template of Sailor Moon what with a long lost ancient civilization, reincarnation and the protagonist being a ruler of said ancient civilization and having a whole nother being living inside them.
Series like Wedding Peach, Tokyo Mew Mew, Madoka and Fruits Basket also all feel like they’re taking direct influence from Sailor Moon.
In Wedding Peach’s case the main villain is basically an expy of Beryl and the manga deals with the issue of two warring worlds and the protagonist being the daughter of the ruler of one these realms. (Heck, some previous SM Toei staff members even worked on the anime and snuck in a little Ami cameo in one of the episodes)
Tokyo Mew Mew Mint and Ichigo’s dynamic in the anime resembles that of 90’s anime Rei and Usagi, plus Zakuro acts a lot like the Outers and Kisshi is basically an outright expy of 90’s anime Demande.
Madoka I think it’s all obvious now that it takes at least some influence from the manga Stars. Homura is a combination of both Galaxia and Hotaru combined and her relationship with Madoka resembles that of the Chibi-Usa/Hotaru dynamic, they even look similiar based to the respective characters they’re based off of.
Even Fruits Basket while it doesn’t look like it has many similarities on the surface due to it not being a Mahou Shojo, still has something akin to a destined “Miracle Romance” (but a dark, deconstruction version of it) and recycles the rather creepy plot-point of a mother getting jealous of her and her husband’s own biological daughter taken straight out of Sailor Moon with the whole Black Lady plotline!
Don’t even mention Yashahime, it’s about as much of a disaster as early Crystal was.
Some fillers truly were pointless though, such as Artemis’s Animal Kingdom episode and the infamously deleted R Beach Dinasour episode which was so bad and contributed so little that even Toei felt the need to erase it from canon.
In Japan the manga is actually aimed at a significantly older audience than the anime, the 8-13 demographic as opposed to the 90’s anime preschool one. So not
quite 13 and up tier, but almost reaching that.
Manga is also generally allowed to get away with much more graphicness due to the fact that it’s not publicly broadcast, this is why Crystal was so censored despite being initially targeted at adult women who grew up with Sailor Moon.
Also they should’ve used that extra space to actually develop and delve deep into the Inners background like side stories such as Casablanca Memories did.
If even the manga could do it on it’s limited time watch, why couldn’t the 90’s anime in all it’s 200 episode run? (Though to be fair some characters did objectively get shafted in the manga background wise such as Haruka and Michiru)