Beam's Blog of Writing and Other Things.

This is going to be a rather short blog post because I only just recently bought the Sailor Moon manga volume that officially starts the anime's S season arc, but in that small amount of time I've already noticed some pretty interesting differences between the two and wanted to talk about them a bit, largely because my Meioh Shirou continuity deals with the S season of Sailor Moon.

So, shall we dive in?

First off.... whoa is the Haruka/Michiru lesbian antics turned way up to eleven compared to the anime, and that isn't even getting into the mutual 'catch and release' thing Usagi and Haruka have going on for much of this arc. Speaking of Haruka and Michiru, while they're pretty aloof like their anime counterparts, they don't seem as hellbent as trying to be cold-hearted anti-heroes. I kind of like that, even though I know a large part of the difference is because the manga never had the 'find the talismans' arc that the anime does.

As a side note, manga Michiru in civilian dress seems to like wearing a ribbon in her hair. I've already decided to at least touch on friendship!Shirou/Michiru, so that opens up some fun possibilities for me.

Hotaru and her father.... eh. I'm gonna have to wait and see how this develops, but I have to admit so far I'm preferring the anime take on it, where Hotaru is more shy and withdrawn and kind and her father is actually a decent man who got himself into a very bad place trying to save his kid all of those years ago. I'm just a sucker for the whole tragedy of the fact that her father honestly tried to save her and meant no harm, as opposed to the 'evil/uncaring father figure' the manga seems to be building him up towards.

And as a general note: Mamoru. Oh, Mamoru. I have to admit I wasn't too thrilled about him as he was portrayed in the anime, but the manga has really made me warm up to him as a character. I'm still not completely sold on Usagi/Mamoru, mostly because the mangaka seems incapable of writing decent chemistry between characters if they're two mains, but Mamoru himself is a pretty likable guy. He might make a good friend for Shirou.

Setsuna's skin tone seems to vary depending on where you're looking, it seems. In the actual black and white coloring of the manga she appears pretty dark, but on a colored page she's actually even lighter than Archer. Dunno why, I just find that interesting.

.... Also I will admit without shame, the SetsMina shipper in me squealed shamelessly at how bothered Minako seemed by the fact that no one knew about Sailor Pluto's existence and how lonely she was. God, I'm never going to stop shipping these two, am I?