Sailor Moon Exposed Part 3- How Sailor Moon Re-eforces The Sexualization of the Sailor Fuku

This analysis seeks to examine how Sailor Moon's base design further re-enforces the sexualization of the sailor fuku in anime & manga.

The Sailor Fuku is a staple in Japanese media, in various anime it is commonplace to see middle schoolers weaing this to indicate their place of education or in some cases, wear it as though it is casual wear.

In Sailor Moon the fuku got a Frills of Justice treatment. Frills of Justice is a trope that occours in the magical girl genre when an outfit inspired by real life fashion and has the addition of lace, bows, shortened skirts, frills, ribbons, pearls andpuffed sleeves. .

Due to the popularity of Sailor Moon's outfit this has inadvertedly increased the popularity of fetishizing the sailor fuku uniform in popular media (other than porn and anime that has sexualised school uniforms and school girls as a fetish).

In anime this is so normalized fetishizing sailor uniforms, that there are machines that

sell used schoolgirl uniforms with the intent to arouse men. (As discussed in my Amime Influences Reality article) This is the result of anime's protrayal of a fantasy influencing peoples real life choices.

Let us look at how Sailor Moon has further promoted this normalization by her Sailor Moon design ( Seen in Arcs 1-2) by comparing her transformed outfits to the sailor

fuku she wears. (until she goes into high school).

Please keep in mind that in the manga Usagi is 14 and 15-16 by the end of the Stars Arc.

We will only be analyzing her first- 3rd forms in the manga. In the Infinity, Dream and Stars Arc, her outfit has changed drastically. It has the base of a Sailor fuku but has changed colour and has additional elements that differentiates it from it's first appearance.

Usagi's school uniform in Act 1

In Sailor Moon's first transformation in comparrison to her school uniform, the skirt has shortened considerably, the sleeves are shorter, she wears a cape, mask, a white leotard and high heeled boots.

In her second form, the gloves and cape are removed however most of her core design remain unchanged. Which is the sailor fuku base, gloves, jewlery, chest and back bow, high heeled boots and the primary colour scheme however she wears a different Tiara.

In this image compared to her school uniform

(in some manga panels , her blouse exposes her midriff. (which she is often seen wearing pink

lipgloss and has a beared midriff in her school uniform in some manga panels.

That is not common in sailor fukus in real life so even in her casual form, there is a slight sexy element.)

The differences is noticeable in the above image where she is holding a chibi form of her first manga appearance.

In her second form in the Epilouge of the Dark Kingdom Arc and through out the Black Moon Arc, her Tiara changes and we see her brooch has changed as well to be a circle shape with a star pattern on the inside but the design elements remain the same.

During the Infinity Arc

By the end of the Black Moon Arc with her new cosmic heart powers grated by her future self. Her brooch becomes heart shaped instead and no other changes has occoured to her design. This lasts in the Infinity Arc before transforming into Super Sailor Moon.

In these forms that I mentioned above , she appears older than her actual age (especially in some pannels where she wears pink lipgloss/ lipstick) and frankly I do not think a 14 year old should be depicted wearing something like this.

Keep in mind that panty shots can be evident at that length and that was put to use in the 90s anime (to an uncomfortable level).

An example of that is seen above in the artwork in Sailor Moon Act 17 with Sailor Mars

The top in her SM form is actually a leotard which is handwaved but it is the same effect. Whoever tells me that this is not based on a Sailor fuku, the evidence in the third image as seen in the comparisson between her Sailor Uniform and Sailor Shenshi uniform.

The chest ribbon, top and skirt are the same colours and different material compared to her uniform.

Due to the popularity of this franchise we see many parodies and a trend of further renforcing in the media the sexualizationof the sailor fuku.

The high heeled boots, coupled with the miniskirt and makeup Sailor Moon wears is sexualizing a minor under the disguise of ‘She is being ‘empowered by a supernatural force’.

This was the theme for the designs from the prototype "modified sailor fuku".

Usagi (and the other Sailor Shenshi's concept

designs) leaned into ‘that where the blouse is cropped, skirt is shortened and high heeled boots is worn.

A left over from this concept was Sailor V's uniform and she wears a Mask and a modified Sailor uniform.

Characters that are 14-16 (common age range for magical girls) should NOT be wearing something like this because mini skirts are meant to be sexy, to show off the legs of the wearer, which in popular culture is a point of admiration (bare or with leggings).

School uniforms should NEVER be sexualised no matter what excuse is given because people will start to think that a regular school uniform is meant to be sexy when it is NOT. This is why some people in real life sexualise sailor fukus and actual schoolgirls in Japan due to the

prevalent of these uniforms bwing used to encourage sexual allure when it is a uniform a middle schooler wears it to school to learn.

Further Thoughts: I used to think those tropes were harmless but now I see that these character design choices are harmful because it influences the minds of real people to create a sexual connotation to something that is not supposed to be sexualized. Some people end up acting out on those fantasies which is a serious problem.

The intent of these choices is to fetishize the sailor fuku and in this screenshot below , here is an explaination of uniform fetishization and example of clothing pieces that falls under that category.

Here are panels of Sailor Moon's other forms as well as the Sailor Shenshi (they use a base of the sailor fuku but have different shoes, shades of makeup and jewlery as as well as colour schemes)