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EP. REVIEW: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: Season III

I know in the manga (and now in Crystal) Haruka dresses in both masculine and feminine attire but I kind of miss the 90's version where she only wore mens cloths. Does anyone else agree?

Ok, so I'm not completely caught up on Sailor Moon Crystal yet, so no spoilers please. However I'm curious to know whether Tuxedo Mask has used the power of his called "Pink Sugar Tuxedo Attack" in Sailor moon Crystal yet like he used "La smoking Bomber" in the anime, if someone could answer it would be much appreciated, thanks?

SailorNaruto wrote:

I disagree. I don't think Haruka has romantic feelings for Usagi at all. I've never really been partial to her, but I do understand her actions from time to time. I think what she feels towards Sailor Moon is affection, just not the romantic kind. She, like the other Senshi, have a great amount of affection for their princess. She's their light, and it's their duty to protect that light. Now the kiss..... I have no explanation for that lol. I just chalk that up to her being a huge flirt.

No worries, even Haruka and Michiru's current VAs have a similar headcanon, equating Haruka's actions as "knightly" rather than romantic.

I just have a lot of baggage with how Naoko handles Haruka, from the way she plays up Haruka presenting as male but stops once Haruka is "revealed" to be female (which strikes me as a badly handled tease rather than a continuing part of Haruka's character), the romantic "floaty-bubbles" that pepper almost all her scenes with Usagi (and "floaty-bubbles" are usually shorthand for "this scene is romantic"), a lot of the poses Usagi and Haruka strike (like the separated door scene) that seem coded pretty romantically, and of course while the kissing is a big part of my interpretation, I think Mamoru's reaction is more telling, since he reacts as if Usagi was "cheating" on him (and that language gets repeated in the make-up scene of the manga). Plus, the manga juxtaposes Mamoru's reaction to Usagi's sacrifice with Haruka's reaction and makes her seem much more devastated than the other Senshi, even compared to the Senshi who've known Usagi for longer.

I do ultimately think that "knightly love" is what Naoko probably intended by the end of the arc, given that she describes Haruka as "the female best friend and the fairy tale prince one", but I don't think it was executed well. We got less "knightly ideals" and more "love triangle drama". It also seems to buy into some really unpleasant stereotypes about butch lesbians, but that's probably better left for another discussion. ^^;