Sailor Moon Exposed Part 1 Chibiusa's Character

We all know Sailor Moon, a teenaged girl that has to save the world from multiple monsters however there is a glaring problem across all of the mediums except PGSM, and that is the role the character Chibiusa plays in the story 

She is revealed to be 900 years old but looks like a child.

  

In Sailor Moon Crystal when Chibiusa's design was revealed, women complained that her skirt was too short and it was made for pedos. Frankly I  see the difference in character design comparing the manga to Crystal Season 2 and this design choice was very strange.

Through out the manga she is protrayed to be a rival for Mamoru's affections. The first time we meet her she was her falling from the sky and kissing Mamoru on the lips. He is 16 years old by the way.

Chibiusa latches  onto him and Usagi gets jealous of their relationship. Chibiusa is a child though. As seen by the screencaps and manga pannels, Usagi was trying to imply something else towards Mamoru. Why is her mind even going there? Look! He is reassuring her that it is okay, she doesnt have to worry and expects the audience to brush this off.

Usagi  just  insults her future kid 

EDIT: I realised Usagi still felt weird about it after she discovers that Chibiusa is their child and is hung up over Mamoru spending time with her. Chibiusa had to go through so much as a physically 8-9 year old and I find this really inconsidorate of Usagi, noting the fact Chibiusa had to relive her trauma when she saw the Dark Crystal earring and retell the tale of how her home was destroyed which made her understandably sad. 

This attitude being displayed towards Chibiusa not fair to a child and I wish this dynamic was cut out of the story. It really paints Usagi in a bad light. That is a KID and their CHILD so depicting this in a manga is really weird when you look at it in reality.

Black Lady & Mamoru as seen in Usagi's dream  after she is kidnapped by Prince Diamond

Please remember Mamoru is Chibiusa's FUTURE FATHER and when she gets corrupted and aged up (and sexualized with her design) we later see in a vision that Sailor Moon experiences, Black Lady taunts Sailor Moon (her future mother) by embracing and kissing him ON THE LIPS. 

Also Mamoru is brainwashed in the scenes above  and when BL kisses him  he does not  consent to the kiss. People have made excuses about this scene saying ' she was brainwashed’. NO this that was written in the manga and approved was sending a clear message. The normalization is pedo beliefs and incest.

I also found this panel close to the start of the arc.  This is foreshadowing that maybe Mamoru and King Endymion are connected.

i am using this image  to reiderate my point I will make below.  

Later confirmed in the story and Chibiusa recognizes her father  imediatley

There is no excuse for Chibiusa  to not recognize Present!  Mamoru as her father, because despite Neo Queen Serenity and King Endimyon having sharper,angular features and different hair colours (manga,Crystal) they look the same as their present selves.

The reason for this age up into Black Lady in this arc is because Chibiusa  was kidnapped and brainwashed by Wiseman, the villian of the Black Moon arc.

After Chibiusa went to look for Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon  after she ran away from home due to overhearing what Usagi said about her (this is after  Chibiusa's identity is revealed as Usagi and Mamoru's child) To return to the 30th century and be with Pluto for a while, she goes through the fog wanting to go back to the ppast but gets lost in the Space Time continium via  a thick fog.   Chibiusa  is  abducted by the entity known as Wiseman and he  brainwashes her to become Black Lady after he  snatched her up with his Death Hand. 

In context: A child who is traumatized,starved of love is desperate to fix her home life goes to the hands of a PREDATOR unknowingly when she is seperated from her parental figures. The perpertrator  manipulates and changes her perception of the world.

 Black Lady reveals  her  true intentions, she is jealous of Neo Queen Serenity, her MOTHER and wants everything that she has, so it seems that Black lady wants everything that she has even her own FATHER.   

She  embodies the darker traits Chibiusa feels deep inside  and with the corruption  from Wiseman thar  twisted her thoughts into becoming this version of herself. Disturbingly her actions as. Chibiusa after this arc  can be read differently after she is de-brainwashed and the 'gag ' of fighting over Mamoru with Usagi.

How is she freed from that form? When her friend , Sailor Pluto DIES in front of her. Seeing Pluto's  lifeless body  causes Black Lady  to cry and that trauma awakens her own Silver Crystal and  her Shenshi form as well as  breaks the brainwashing from the Dark Crystal earrings.

Thank goodness Helios was introduced because this has not aged well. 

Manga pannel is from before the start of Infinity, when Chibiusa leaves for the 30th century at the end of the Black Moon Arc.

The incident of Black Lady, the abduction and possible trauma Chibiusa experienced is handwaved and forgotten in the Infinity arc but when she is aged up again for a short period of time during the Dreams Arc, it is acknowledged other than a refference but not elaborated upon. 

Pannel from Chibiusa's dream in the Dreams Arc.

 She automatically thinks this imaginary voice is Mamoru.  I am glad this arc removed this crush on Mamoru and replaced him with Helios due to that crush and the strange dynamic presented is uncomfortable to read.

Epilouge of the Dreams Arc , compare to above pannel from the end of the Black Moon Arc

Also for this panel/ screenshot in the Eternal Movie  Usagi is 15 years old so it is creepy seeing this scene when you start looking at it in context.

I noticed that Teen! Chibiusa is busty compared to her child like form but this re enforces the belief that in order to be older in fiction  a woman must have a bigger chest when in reality some women and teens have smaller chests. 

It reminded me of this scene in Full Moon after the MC transformed from 12 years old into a 16 year old she said her body was "grown up" simply because her bust size increased but the alter ego is still A MINOR and nit an aduot (16 years old)

This is the only time Black Lady is refferenced

This is his future daughter

When Chibiusa is in the body of a teenager, there is a focus on how gorgeous Chibiusa looks  and Mamoru tells her that now she is grown up that she looks really pretty, that is her future father AND he is 18 in this arc. Wasn't Chibiusa pretty before? Now this could have been a harmless compliment but Chibiusa blushes in response and in another scene thinks about what he said. This is really weird and further muddles the dynamic between Usagi, Mamoru and her. 

Context: Chibiusa's body is 15 years old, so what is really being said here is thst teenagers are hot because they look like grown women. No Chibiusa is not "all grown up". 

Her body is still of a minor. (15 years old)

 This is a common trope in the magical girl genre, the  sexualizing or admiring the older alter ego. The age ranges  from the form of a grown woman (20s) or a 16-18 years old and stating a teenager looks grown is  in itself is harmful because teens under the age of 18 are still underaged and this is giving the message it is okay to look at teenagers as attractive in a creepy way when this is not okay at all.

This is awkward. The indication that Chibiusa is now older is a shot of her thighs

 The reason for this tempoary change due to a spell  is because deep down inside Chibiusa  wanted Usagi's beauty after seeing her sleep naked. (prior to this scene in the manga and Crystal, Usagi often wore pajamas to bed).  

( I remember reading that panel for the first time and I was appaled and weirded out.)

 Instead of identifying Usagi's traits like her courageousness, Chibiusa wants her physical beauty and objectifies her future mother. This is refferenced again in the pannel below.

 You could make excuses like 'she is insecure about her child body’ as Chibiusa  states in the above pannel to avoid an akward situation of the core of Chibiusa's character. 

Here is the solution:

Do not write stuff like this, if a character is older, make them LOOK OLDER. 

Just because a literary trope is used, popularised or is normal in a genre does not mean as an artist or aurthor you need to impliment this into your story.

 

Edit: Chibiusa says to Helios later after they DE! Transform to their regular ages and they defeat the enemy that attacked Sailor Mercury. Chibiusa feels insecure and after she uses her Twinkle Yell to summon Helios, she says that she cannot be who he is searching for and one of the reasons is  Usagi has a beautiful body compared to her child like one. Thats... her future mom by the way.  

She also stated she wanted Hellios to meet her as 'a real young lady ' before they part ways. I get it,  she feels weirdly about her pre pubesent body. 

This is a contrast to her in her real body and the rapid aged up one making a pose of longing for her own prince by the start of the arc and it turns out to be Helios by the epilouge.

There is this running gag of Usagi being jealous of Chibiusa for Mamoru's attention and it is played for laughs. In context, A mother jealous of her child over a man. This is weird and not a funny gag at all because this dynamic between the two could have been written differently but it was not. It comes across as uncomfortable to see and the only time Usagi and Chibiusa act normal was in the final Arc under dire circumstances.

This is the start for me why I  had desentisized myself from excusing "oh shes 1000 years old but looks like a child archetype."  This trope as well as promotion of pedo is prevalent in the Shojo and Magical Girl genre. When | realised this was wrong, | dropped anime and sold my Sailor Moon manga because I could not ignore the gross feeling | got consuming that content.

No this is not okay nor " just a fantasy". Promoting these themes as normal or a fantasy desentisizes people into replicating these things in real life.