If you grow
up in the 90th or in the 2000th you might have heard of an anime called Sailor
Moon.
In season
one of this anime two interesting male characters appear. Their names are
Zoisite and Kunzite (Kunzite was called Malachite in the American version).
What is so
special about them? Well, they looked like a gay couple, but in the original
anime there is no real evidence that could prove that they are actually dating
each other.
They never
kissed on screen and never said anything about their feelings for each other.
The only exception is Zoisite’s death scene.
Dying Zoisite tells Kunzite “お慕いして下りました、クンシャイト様”.
In English transcription that
would be “O-shitai shite orimashita, Kunsaito-sama”.
The meaning of these words
in unclear since the verb “shitau” is difficult to translate. If you translate “shitau”
as “to love”, then what Zoisite’ve said is “I loved you, Kunzite”. But “shitau”
can mean both a romantic love and the love parents would have for their
children. In Russian version of the anime Zoisite’s words were translated as “I
loved you as a father, Kunzite”.
Anyway,
this article is not exacly about the death scene of Zoisite. In this article I will
present some other evidence that can prove that Zoisite and Kunzite were deffinetely lovers in
the 90th version of Sailor Moon.
If you are interested in Zoisite's death scene here is a very good article about that:
http://mostlikelytofangirl.tumblr.com/post/119978572282/%E6%85%95
http://mostlikelytofangirl.tumblr.com/post/119978572282/%E6%85%95
And here is my evidence:
I have accidentally found some pages from the offiсial Sailor Moon anime book, named TV Magazine Deluxe. Here it is one of them:
The text in the red circle is: 四天王の中で、一番つよいみたいだけど、ゾイサイトとは恋人どうしみたいになかがいいのよ。
In english transcription: shitennou no naka de, ichiban tsuyoi mitai dakedo, zoisaito to wa koibito doushi mitai ni naka ga ii no yo.
English translation: He (Kunsite) seems to be the strongest of all shitennou but his relationship with Zoisite is very close, as close as a relationship between lovers can be.
The message of this text is clear - they are lovers. The text does not say it directly, but it seems very unlikely that someone would compare a friendship between two men, to relationship lovers usually have. That would confuse readers a lot. Such thing I believe can only be done if two man actually are lovers, but noone wants to say it directly.
And here is the other evidence i've found.
This is a card from Sailor moon card collection:
The text in the red circle reads: 恋するゾイサイト
English transcription: koi suru Zoisaito.
English translation: Zoisite in love.
The heart between words "koi suru" and "zoisaito", I believe, does say a lot about what kind of love this can be.
So here is my evidence for the fact that Zoisite and Kunzite actually were lovers (at least in the Sailor moon of the 90th). I hope you found this article interesting.
It's a bit difficult to read the text on the images i've posted here, so if you want to read the original text yourself please contact me.
Charlene Veta
#anime #yaoi #sailor moon
Hehe, really enjoyed reading this, thank you for sharing your thoughts! In truth, I think that someone would have to try very hard NOT to see them as a gay couple! XD All the proof you need that they were in fact romantic m/m lovers is that in the North American dub they made Zoisite into a woman. Why would they have done this other than due to their homophobic fear that precious little children will otherwise be exposed to the horrors of sweet, sweet boy on boy love? XD
ReplyDeleteSo true. XD
DeleteThank you for leaving such a nice comment!
In this interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em_EndLNcLQ
ReplyDeleteKeichi Namba (Zoisite) says that according to the plot, Mr. Kazuyuki Sogabe (Kunsait) and I are beloved.
Gays? The issue is controversial.
Beloved, definitely!
Director Kunihiko Ikuhara has a similar pair in the anime Sarazanmai. Leo and Mabu.
They love each other too, they are also the fallen generals of their prince.
But... they are no longer gay in their souls, but very close friends.
Ikuhara brought them back to life in the end, which he did not do in Sailor Moon.
Thank you, that's very interesting.
DeleteZoisite and Kunzite themselves are actually based on Bankoran and Maraich from Patalliro. Bankoran and Maraich are definitely gay, and neither of them die in the original manga/anime. The fact that Zoisite is based on Maraich does not even need to be said, it's obvious, the resemblance is huge. Personally I think that people at the time tried their based to not say "homosexual" while it really is quite obvious that the relationship between Zoisite and Kunzite is not some sort of a "platonic male friendship" really. In this article I write about official printed evidence that proves that they are in love with each other. Luckily for us such evidence exists. Because the actors and the director in their interviews obviously did not want to define their relationship as anything, and when this is the case we just have to find other official sourses if we want to answer the question.
Personally I am not satisfied with people trying to hide the obvious because in the end of the day this is about representation of LGBT+ in Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is huge worldwide and this is an important issue. In the case of Zoisite and Kunzite it seems like both director and actors at the time were saying something like "Yes, they love each other, yes we admit that this is more then a friendship, yes Zoisite (a grown male) literally sits on Kunzite's lap, yes Zoisite is literally a copy of Maraich who happens to be a definition of a" feminine, flamboyant, homosexual boy"but we still don't want to admit that Zoisite and Kunzite are "gay".
I try not to be biased but I just don't buy it. So I searched for other evidence.
When examining the work of director Kunihiko Ikuhara, you should always take into account that he is a very intelligent person who has read a lot of European and Japanese literature.
DeleteOur Russian specialists tensed and selected the most accurate translation of Zoisite's last phrase: "I am in awe of you, mentor Kunsite."
The most accurate analogy for the relationship between Zoisite and Kunsite is the relationship between a Jedi and his student (from Star Wars).
George Lucas was then inspired by Japanese motives.
Lord Jadeite is already a reference to Star Wars.
He controls "force", shoots lightning in the 13th episode.
A plus. In the work of Ikuhara, everything always has many meanings.
The melody of Solveig's song refers to the drama Peer Gynt. The sunlit "garden of time" is also from there. This garden is mentioned in the song "moon revenge" in the anime "Revolutionary Girl Utena".
Including the chapters of the Sailor Moon manga released at the time of Zoisite's death. Ikuhara already knew the history of the 4 celestial generals of the Earth (Golden Kingdom).
A plus. Here, one must take into account the history of homosexuality in Japan (it was common among the samurai).
A plus. Ikuhara outwardly differs from most Japanese: taller than 170cm, a thin man womanizer.
Which probably considers homosexuality to be sadomy. Time code:
https://youtu.be/GRsWNBW_Mkc?t=63
"Sodomi no yami" - Sodom darkness.
And if with Zoisite and Kunsite everything is ambiguous.
So Haruka and Michiru are classic lesbians. In the course of my political career, I had to work with a lesbian woman. Therefore, I know this LGBT community.
By the way, due to the fact that Sailor Moon's manga was black and white. The animators of Life studio misunderstood Naoko Takeuchi's idea. They took as a basis the green variety of the mineral Zoisite. And they decided that Zoisite was in the "distant past" the boyfriend of the Princess of Jupiter. And they formed pairs there: Ray - Jadeite, Ami - Nephrite, Mako - Zoisite and Minako - Kunsite.
Ikuhara dragged this idea ... dragged ... And he leaked everything!
Its weaknesses have long been known:
1) Inability to correctly distribute the narration time between important and unimportant episodes of the anime.
2) Inability to write beautiful, logically complete endings.
And point 2 is a direct consequence of point 1.