Welcome! Have a seat, grab yourself a drink, get comfy, because today – at long last – we will be talking about the Three Lights/ Starlight Senshi. ^_^

In Sailor Moon Stars Part 1, Disk 2, Usagi must say goodbye to Mamoru, who heads to America to study. Unbeknownst to Usagi he is immediately disappeared and will not return to the story, except as a maudlin little plot device.

We turn away from that tragic loss which will never be fully processed, to a new set of complications. A popular idol group, the Three Lights, has transferred into the high school attended by the Senshi. Once again, I note that had there been an actual adult among the children, very little of the conflicts that pass for plot would have worked. Someone – ideally Ami – might have noted that the popular idols and the Sailor Starlights popped up at the same time and hey…hrm. But…no. So the Inner Senshi find their time occupied with fighting a new enemy, the Animamates, to restore people’s Star Seeds, and confronting yet another new set of Senshi(?) Also ideally, the Outers ought to have noticed. I love them unconditionally, but for people’s who sole mission it is to protect the Solar System from invasion from outside, they suck. ^_^

None of that is important, though, because we, the audience have done this before. WE know that the Starlights are not the enemy, everyone will die and we will save the world. And we’re being distracted by the fact that the boy idol group Three Lights, when they transform, are girls. The animation takes great pains to highlight the secondary sexual characteristics as Senshi (e.g., breasts) and in at least one episode we are treated to a detailed cut of Seiya’s masculine 6-pack. In any case, we are to understand that the Three Lights are male.  Much has been written about Takeuchi’s surprise about learning the direction the anime took the Lights. In the manga they are, like Haruka, women who wear men’s clothing and their Senshi form is their true form.  In the anime, the Starlights are women who transform into male form as their disguise on this planet. This has spawned generations of fandom among sexual and gender minorities, every one of whom has a valid personal relationship to the narrative.

I’ve been honest about this – my wife and I have never liked the Starlights. Her because Seiya harasses Usagi, me because Seiya will not take not for an answer, Taiki is nasty to Ami and Yaten is a jerk generally, but especially to Minako. It does not matter to me that Ami changes Taiki’s mind, and Minako Yaten’s, there was no need for them to be asses. We were not children when we saw this the first time and did not need what the Starlights offered. It has been 20 years and my opinion of them is different. I still don’t like them, but I can give them more space to be children and make terrible decisions.

Still, in order to do so, let me let you in to *my* headcanon regarding the Starlights. First, the premise is that The Three Lights are merely a disguise and are not specifically important to their story at all. As it was in the manga. They are, as the Inner Senshi are, young. They are in a sense child soldiers, as the Inner Senshi are, but they lack a Moon Princess, whose sole ability is to love everything so much that it becomes whole. If Kakyuu could kiss a thing and make it better, they wouldn’t need Usagi.

In my 21st century rewrite, I think that the Starlight’s native planet doesn’t have genders the way humans do, hence the apparent switching, which is probably totally normal for them. To me, Seiya would trend more masculine, Taiki more feminine and Yaten would tell us to fuck off generally and specifically about all of this, gender, idols, school, all of it. So I unofficially declare Seiya trans masc, Taiki trans fem, and Yaten is the agender Senshi we all need. That’s how they read to me. In no way does this invalidate your take. ^_^

Now we’re sorted to watch the next 4 disks worth of Sailor Moon Stars.

Ratings:

Art – 4 A little better than the opening arc, but those head – body proportions ouch.
Story – The Inners come off strong so, 6
Characters –  I find the Starlights to be a 5 at this point
Queer – 9
Service – 5 Yes, the Starlights have racks.

Overall – 7

I’m here clutching my aspirin until Siren and Crow.