The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon S are now available to stream on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week’s shows are all about love as episodes 94 and 95 deal with romance. First we have Unazuki dreaming of her first kiss and then we have a deepening of the romance between Umino and Naru.
Episode 94, Protect the Pure Heart: The Three-Way Battle, is all about the purity of the first kiss. The main character and target this week is Unazuki Furuhata. Upon listening to this episode it seemed that Unazuki’s voice sounded a lot like Sailor Iron Mouse’s. This is because Miyako Endou, the actress who normally portrays Unazuki, did not voice her for episode 94. Instead she was voiced by Eriko Hara for this episode only. Eriko Hara also provided the voice of Sailor Iron Mouse in SailorStars as well as a number of monsters including the Dream Princess from episode 11. The main plot focusing on how pure a first kiss is. This all seems a bit silly. Yes Unazuki is young and there’s no shame in saving yourself for the right person but this story takes it a bit far. This kind of purity is often associated with a first sexual experience which is in itself a bit silly, but even more ridiculous when applied to something as innocent as a kiss. There is this pervasive idea presented in this episode, and throughout the series in general, that a young woman’s feelings are somehow embarrassing and that she should protect her innocence as if it was something sacred. We see this in Usagi’s reaction every time it’s asked if she’s kissed Mamoru. To me this seems like a somewhat antiquated point of view, the opposite being to allow women to be free to decide how to pursue their sexual interests without worrying about being shamed for it. When Unazuki has her pure heart removed what remains is a sort of husk without a soul intent on kissing anything that moves, which happens to be Makoto and Usagi. This insinuates something very impure and wrong about promiscuity which seems a bit too much like slut shaming to me. Rei needs to use her scroll to suppress her sinful desires.
In one scene Michiru mentions that the first kiss was between Adam and Eve. This is subject to some debate but I’ll avoid getting back on my soap box for this minor point. Usagi imagines the first kiss being being Adam and Eve who look just like her and Mamoru. She pictures two naked people kissing, complete with the somewhat visible outline of a nipple. No censoring on this one. It looks like they’re lying in grass. Must be the Garden of Eden.
Episode 95, Let Moon Help With Your Love Problems, once again focuses on Umino and Naru’s relationship. We’ve actually seen this touched on a number times at this point. Umino is trying to advance things, because saving someone’s life a bunch of times isn’t quite cutting it, so he goes to Usagi for advise. The brilliant idea is to enrol the two in a kind of game show for couples. Unfortunately Haruka and Michiru are also competing! Too bad the Death Busters have their eye on the monument they are doing all of this around. Luckily Haruka and Michiru drop out at the last minute. Why is this fortunate? Well if they hadn’t then perhaps the Daimon would have targeted them for their Pure Hearts instead of Umino. How differently the series would have played out had that happened. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Umino confesses his love to Naru in an impassioned speech which brings the audience to tears just as the Daimon bursts out. Naru is targeted and once again Umino shoves her aside and takes the attack for her. This is becoming a habit for him! Oh well Umino doesn’t have a Talisman. A humorous scene takes place during the battle. Some eligible bachelors invite the girls to dance. “Let’s dancing”. They accept and then they turn into monsters and attack them. Never accept an invitation for a dance during combat!
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I have to respectfully disagree with you on your views of promiscuity. There is a difference in being sexy and perverted. Men as well as women should show a little restraint (in public at least). Miley Cyrus is a good example of promiscuity being overdone.
I do think the first kiss is highly romanticized in this episode, treated like virginity, but to be honest it didn’t bother me, though I found Inazuki annoying.
Isn’t this the last time we see Umino and Naru? I’m pretty sure Inazuki is in SuperS, but I can’t remember seeing Naru after this episode. That’s kind of sad.
Naru and Umino have one more episode in SuperS where Tigerseye targets Naru’s dream mirror. I love the love game show episode but one thing I’ve always wondered about is why is Ami always the one who points out so and so happens to be gay? She does this in the R movie with Fiore and she does this again in this episode, pointing out that Haruka and Michiru are both girls and she randomly starts blushing when she wonders if Haruka and Michiru really are in THAT kind of relationship. I also wonder why the Inners always have to talk about Haruka and Michiru’s relationship in euphemistic terms and just can’t come out and use the word gay or lesbian.
Well, they’re in junior high school. Every junior high student, particularly ones from the 90’s, might feel a little nervous about such a subject. As for why Ami keeps pointing it out…maybe she reads lots of BL or yuri fiction? It’s a bit of a stereotype that people who seem studious and only care about academics have a hidden freaky side. Maybe Ami’s one of those types.
Then again, we might be reading too deep into this and making things up just to find explanations. It could just be odd coincidence.
There’s also a scene in Sailor Stars where this girl gives Usagi a letter and asks her to deliver it to Yaten for her and everyone misunderstands and thinks it’s a love letter from the girl to Usagi and Ami makes a comment about how she thought Usagi was “that kind of girl.” So apparently Ami thought Usagi was bi?
I’ve noticed that about Ami too. XD
I think the joke is that she is the one who seems most innocent but she’s also the most observant.
In response to the whole talking about Haruka/Michiru with euphemistic terms thing, while I definitely wish more media was willing to say things like gay and lesbian outright, part of the deal here may be that those terms don’t quite fit with the more vague/fluid orientations and gender identities that they could be going for. This is especially prevalent in the manga, for example Haruka’s masculine identity is so solid that the racecar magazines actually refer to Haruka as a male outright (in the translation I’ve read at least), yet also in the manga we sometimes see her in very feminine clothes (not just her Senshi uniform but as a civilian). When Usagi asks her whether she is a man or a woman, Haruka doesn’t label herself as a butch lesbian or trans or bigendered, but says “Man, woman, why should something like that matter?”. With that in mind do we know for sure that Michiru is a lesbian? iirc she does flirt with guys at times, maybe she’s bi, or even mostly into males -with Haruka and her irresistible masculine swagger being the one exception. I really appreciate how the series explores some less-binary gender identities and sexual orientations like this. While the anime doesn’t always address this quite as directly as the manga, I feel like the vague way it talks about Haruka/Michiru is a nod in that direction.
If Haruka and Michiru aren’t using words like lesbian and girlfriend to describe themselves, it makes sense why the Inner Senshi would dance around such terms as well. Of course at the end of the day I guess it’s hard to tell how much of this is a matter of intentionally non-binary character identities, and how much is a weird 90s phobia against speaking plainly about the same-sex relationship that is obviously happening in your show…
Interesting point about Michiru. She may simply be attracted to Haruka for her masculine tendencies and not hung up on labels enough to be put off by it. Trying to think of other instances where she’s expresses attraction to other women but coming up blank.
The specifics aren’t terribly important. They are simply two people that love each other.
I’ve always felt that away about them too, without knowing exactly how to put it.
Haruka and Michiru do not really display any stereotypes that I can think of and I’d guess they don’t get hung up on it or really care what others think.
Now that you put it that way, I’m glad they don’t use labels and such in the show or manga and I hope that continues if Crystal gets to the Infinity Arc.
Naru gets targeted by Tiger’s Eye during SuperS. That’s their last appearance.
Naru and Umino also show up in the Ami’s First Love mini movie.
Oh, thanks everyone! I’d totally forgotten that Naru had her dream mirror targeted and that she’d appeared in Ami’s first love.
Restraint is a bit hard to quantify. Miley Cyrus’s behaviour is a bit over the top but that is far from what we see here. I tend to think people should be free to act with as little or as much restraint as they feel comfortable with. Like I said I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Unazuki’s feelings of wanting to save herself. I just feel it goes a bit far in this episode especially given the lack of soul leading to promiscuity angle. It’s cultural and I don’t know a ton about Japanese culture but my understanding is things like kissing in public are very frowned upon. As a North American it’s bit shocking to see such prudishness on a simple kiss. I think Sailor Moon is simply a product of the culture it’s made in, which is where these behaviours come from. This episode is just a reflection of that culture. It just makes me uncomfortable to see women ashamed of expressing their feelings. All in all the series is very positive about so many things that this is just a minor gripe I have.
Yes, it is very cultural. Here in the United States it’s not rare at all to see two people making out in public. Personally, I think that’s going to far, but I don’t mind at all to see people showing affection in public while keeping it decent (again, I know that’s subjective for many.)
I’m sad that we’ve supposedly come so far in society but now friends can’t even hold hands without being labeled or even ridiculed and heaven forbid two guys hug without a fist between their chests or saying “no homo”. (I hate that.)
I hope I didn’t come off as unaffectionate or against affection. It’s not that, I just think people should show some restraint and respect while in public. Even if it is mostly subjective I think we all know what lines not to cross.