Arama They Didn't

Ah, I think it was confusing for people. But I thought it was better and kinder to them. I know Naoko wanted it to be the case that only females can be senshi, but those three are deities which are not just physically male, but also spiritually male, and probably wouldn't appreciate that very much. They're also not old myths or anything but part of a modern day religion. Like, Seiya = Shiva, who is usually worshiped via a male fertility symbol! :P So, I agreed with the anime letting them have the power to pick their own forms, as that seems much kinder than forcing them to be FTM transgender as they seemed to be in the manga. So I think the idea there was to keep Naoko's insistence about all senshi being female, but also trying give them more power so they could maybe be happy, and have their wives and families, etc. Because, they have soul mates and will be searching for their lovers (who are female and spiritually female). Stars season anime was accurate about what type of girl they'd each be searching for. Like, for example, Yaten is Vishnu/Krishna, he's a (very pretty) life protecting god, representing love and compassion (green is color of the heart chakra), his wife is maha Lakshmi, goddess of gold and beauty, and they're parents of Kama deva, the little love god that shoots things with flower arrows to make them fall in love-- so, he gets a crush on Minako-chan, right? :P So in Stars season anime, I think they were trying to treat them more kindly, in general. <3 :) They also changed the ending as not to show them dying. So, I'm honestly a little worried if they go with the manga version of things, in regards to these three, as I thought the changes in the anime were actually done to try and show them greater respect. I don't know what Naoko was thinking to write what she did, really. ^^;;

I understand you aren't familiar with the material, but, I actually don't consider it a theory at all. Like, some fans had this idea as a theory, but they didn't know. But personally, that is nothing like my feeling. I understood the content (it's definitely familiar to me) and would not bother to ask Naoko, even if she were sitting next to me. I know those deities, so I can understand the anime is written as such and don't mind to simply state the same. They're literally acting out some scenes I know with them, etc. It's just like how I would not doubt that Venus might be connected to Venus, or that the Holy Grail might be connected to the Holy Grail... ^.^ (I can even point to Vaishnava texts where Krishna is called as "healer" or "the divine physician", etc).

I personally would doubt their interest in cross-dressing was limited to finding their princess. In the manga, after finding Kakyuu, they put on clothes from their homeworld, which appears to be Indian men's clothing (a style like sherwani or kurta pajamas, and the curled toe shoes like Kakyuu has are calls khussa). (You can also see the Beauty Change Dolls, those clothes are also loosely based off of those, though you actually wouldn't wear clothes like that with fetish boots, but, haha~). It also says in the notes in the Materials Collection that Taiki is 200% Takarazuka, which, those are plays where female actresses can play the male romantic leads. It just really seems Naoko was writing while knowing about these deities being purusha, or, inherently consisting of the masculine energy within creation. ^.^

Anyway, they are given less attention in the manga. But, IMHO the anime has definitely been written under the assumption, that's who they are. I'm not sure it's even possible to understand everything they're talking about, if you don't know this. For example, the scene where they're in the car and talking about ladies that give passion/energy/inspiration? Probably few people in the west could understand that conversation at all. But I know the answer, they are talking about their shakti.

That is true, Hinduism is not majority religion in Japan. However many deities from the Hindu pantheon actually appear in Japan via Buddhism, like the Shitennou/Four Heavenly Kings. Or Taiki's wife, her name is Benzaiten in Japan, that's who Ami-chan makes him think of. Yaten's wife, Lakshmi, is called Kichijyoten in Japan, that's his interest in Minako. But another name for her is Jaladhija, "ocean born", she's kind of the same as Aphrodite and it's considered that the Greeks had added her to their pantheon from further East. I think if Naoko had an idea to draw Sailor Jesus getting beaten to death with crosses, I would kind of hope someone would intervene and let her know it's not considered very polite, and would prevent the show from being aired overseas. As it is, I don't think BSSM could ever be aired in India. But you can certainly ask anyone from India if Three Lights would remind them of anyone, haha~ ^.~ <3

Edited at 2012-07-08 03:00 am (UTC)

::nods::Sometimes she makes things follow directly, sometimes she's taking artistic liberties. For example, the Holy Grail was taken from an existing item/concept, I think she said she saw it in a book... and I'd say it is still an item associated with spiritual purity, but of course it didn't belong to Sailormoon before - so, that's new. Just, as she's been digging around religious texts looking for ideas, I do kind of hope someone would maybe tell her if something wasn't coming across as polite because it's something people would generally take more seriously. And I truly do believe that's what happened here, with the anime, she likely got some backlash/objection because of *who* she was writing about. I know she didn't like that, but I do feel that I understand what has happened.

My interest, personally, isn't in that they should be one thing or another, I just wanted them to be happy. :)

So the things that worried me -- they actually did not stop cross-dressing when they find their princess, in the manga, so it's suggested that perhaps they do this normally. When they find Kakyuu and put on their clothes from home, it's men's clothes, and their figures are still drawn in a triangular shape without curves. You can also check the notes about them in the Materials Collection Art Book, which suggest cross-dressing may be a normal interest of Taiki ("Taiki is 200% Takarazuka!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takarazuka_Revue), and also makes a comment sounding like Yaten is uncomfortable with femininity. Maybe I'm mis-remembering but I think Seiya uses "ore" even in female form as Fighter, and the same in the manga... which is way more masculine than anyone would need to say, if they didn't want to. They're also still attracted to women. So, you can see why I'd get worried about them, if I'm checking them for signs that they have survived the gender switch emotionally ok, right? ::shrug:: Maybe Naoko has in mind they'd actually be emotionally ok, and just thought it would be cute to make them "be men", but I actually could not tell. So of course, I was worried for them, as the context here is that they're deities which are specifically spiritually male, and seen as inherently masculine in the same way you would consider Venus as inherently feminine... (like if she made Venus be born male, and Venus kept wearing women's clothes I wouldn't necessarily assume it's just a joke, you know? If that happened, I'd feel much better about her emotional health to hear it confirmed that the change was ok, if that makes any sense.)


"I actually think the anime changes were done more to avoid controversy than to show them respect. Seiya and Usagi have a semi-romantic relationship, and in the 1990s a woman who dresses as a man falling in love with another woman wasn't exactly easily accepted."

That's a good point. I think they know the preference of those deities, but it also could be the case they didn't want to deal with the social ramifications of drawing two females? They did already have Haruka and Michiru drawn that way, so I guess they have shown they *were* willing to film it, but, it is possible they were getting hate mail or something, I have no idea.

I've always consider them female, never male because in the manga, their bodies didn't become physically male like they did in the anime, they were cross-dressing women. Naoko was really unhappy that they changed that on her, because senshi are only female.
Also.. No offense to star_healer, but the Hindu - Starlight connection was never confirmed by Naoko as far as I know. It's speculation, and there are some things that may be based of Hinduism, but again, it's unconfirmed and should be taken with a grain of salt. Naoko is supposed to have more say in this series, so I hope it clears up a lot of things that the last anime left untouched.

Oh, I'm not saying that it couldn't be based off of Hinduism, at all! But I disagree with the fact that she meant for them to completely represent those Gods. Most likely, she just liked some of the elements of the story and added it to her own, as she did with a lot of the main characters. Naoko is pretty open on how she created her characters, I remember doing a lot of research on it when I was younger, and she never brought up the subject of Hinduism. Either way, I still see the Starlights as full women, and always will.. haha. However, I respect your opinion, and it makes my view on those characters a bit broader.

It's pretty open knowledge that Takeuchi used elements of different religions and spiritual belief systems to create her characters - Greek and Roman mythology, Shinto, and here Hinduism. It's pretty common for mangaka to do that in magical girl series. But I'm pretty sure she didn't mean for the Starlights to actually be the three Hindu gods, just that she used spiritual elements from those gods to create a magical system/basis for her story. I very much doubt that the entire plot was taken from Hinduism.

I don't think she says anywhere in the Sailor Moon manga that the senshi are deities who take the forms of avatar to fight enemies, much less that the Starlights are Hindu deities who fight enemies. She took inspiration from the different mythologies/spiritual systems to make the series more authentic/give it some magical interest.