Boys in the Magical Girl Universe: Don’t Leave the Men Out!
By Aki 8.23.04

All too many times I’ve heard that there can be no male senshi. This is one thing that really irks me as an otaku senshi creator and a creator of male senshi.

Yes, I own up to creating male senshi for my Olympian team. I personally have no problem with males in the magical girl universe and love to see other creative male senshi, too.

But this is the problem: Almost all of the otaku creators that I know personally seriously and strongly dislike the idea of boys being able to hold the title of “sailor senshi.”

I’m here today to show that boys can play a role in the magical girl universe, too. I will be pointing out frequent arguments that I’ve heard while trying to get my point across.

“But it’s the magical GIRL universe for a reason! Girls can save the day too!”

By all means, yes, women are more than capable of saving the day as well as any man can! No question there. But it doesn’t mean that men can’t be a part of their team and help out.

It doesn’t say anywhere that men cannot be a part of a team with females and share the same mission. They’re both working for the “greater good”. But this doesn’t mean that the men are going to take all of the “glory” of the battle. They’re just there to help!

“Most male ‘senshi’ are Tuxedo Kamen recolors. We don’t need any more of those!” or “Guys would look pretty dumb in the sailor uniform.”

For one thing, I do agree that we don’t need any more Tuxedo Kamen recolors…I’ve seen enough of those out there. This is why I normally tend to stray away from making my male senshi look like the retard in the top hat.

No one says that they have to wear a tux and throw around a cane and roses and the thought of some bishounen male senshi running around in the sailor uniform is pretty fun to think about ^^;; but you don’t have to be so unoriginal!

This is why I like to make my own original fuku for them. My Olympian males wear Grecian armor and suit it to their respective colors.

But yes, for the record, I don’t need to see anymore of these Tuxedo Kamen wannabes.

“Male characters can’t hold the title of ‘senshi!’ or ‘Sailor [enter name here]’!”

Where does it say that? I feel that any character, male or female, can hold the title of “senshi”.

Although I don’t call my male senshi ‘sailors’, I call them soldiers instead. I find that it suits them more because they’re masculine (even though senshi really translates directly to the word “soldier”).

I see that more people, who make male senshi or male characters, they give them the title of “knight” which is a great substitution, too.

--CONCLUSION--

I know by now you at least must be thinking why this girl feels so strongly about the discrimination against male senshi. Well, I’m going to try to answer this as best as I possibly can for you. Personally, I feel that you can create any character for the Sailor Moon universe, whether female or male, and still make the series work and keep it centered around the “Magical Girl Universe” where girls still save the day.

I also feel that is common sense that no one person, male or female, can fight all by himself or herself. They need help from others and you know that girls can’t always get along all the time (I swear its something about having too much estrogen in one place). But its also good to mix things up a little bit, and guys have great personalities that you can totally toy with to fit into your group for a great mix of personality types.

If you think about it, by playing around and adding some male characters into you’re stories and teams, it also helps you better understand the opposite sex and all of their loveable quirks.