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An unfortunate attribute of anime is that it paints the picture that women suck. Women are frequently oversexualized, infantilized, not included at all, or just never get important roles. Sailor Moon is one of the few that people have praised for fighting that problem. On paper, it seems to check all of the right boxes. There are female protagonists who fight, there are episodes that preach body positivity through condemning not eating and over-exercising. But it's a short-lived victory.In season 1 of Sailor Moon, released in 1992, there are five female 'sailor soldier' protagonists who fight bad guys to thwart their plans, though there is one main protagonist: Usagi. Usagi is everything that is wrong with this series. If you just removed her, I could see how it may be a feminist-leaning anime, but there is just no hope while she remains in the series. For goodness sake, her introductory phrase each episode is literally "I'm just a little clumsy, and a bit of a crybaby." She definitely lives up to this description as well.For the first quarter of the season, the episodes play out like this:
• Something minorly bad happens to Usagi and she falls to the floor and cries about it
• She finds out about something cool and becomes obsessed with doing it
• Luna (the cat who is there to keep her on task) tries to stop her and fails
• The thing she wants to do happens to be related to a ploy by the bad guys
• She gets in a "fight" with the bad guys
• She falls to the ground crying, accepting her fate of death
• A guy, Tuxedo Mask, comes to save the day and defeats the bad guys no problem, then leaves
• Usagi melts from her love of Tuxedo Mask, the guy she has never met, nor knows the true identity ofThe next quarter of the season is the exact same thing, except she has other sailor soldier friends who help. They're more competent, but not always. It's around 75% Tuxedo Mask saving the day while the girls scream in fear, and 25% the girls being successful alone.The third quarter of the season the girls become much more competent, and the percentages drop to a 50/50 split. Usagi's introductory line also changes to now saying how she thinks the other two girls are competent but she is falling behind.The final quarter of the season the girls become even more competent, with the percentages dropping to a 35/65 split. And Usagi's self-deprecating introductory line changes to her saying that with four sailor soldiers they'll manage to get it done.While this is likely done to show her personal growth, the writers overdid it like crazy. The season is 46 episodes, for it to take until the last quarter of the show to not actively trash herself is insane.The fact that the girls rely on a man to save them in their desperate moments, when the whole point is that girls are capable, is absurd. If it were a female, the girls could look up to her as a role model for their future selves. Instead, because Tuxedo Mask only appears when the girls are struggling most, and he beats the monster alone with no problem, there is an implication that the one man is better at this than the five girls combined are, which is quite the opposite of what a feminist anime would be trying to get across if you ask me.Not to mention the fact that every girl has a man that they fall in love with at first sight for no reason. Most of these men being way older than the girls are as well. Usagi (14) likes Tuxedo Mask (17) and Motoki (17), Rei (14) likes Mamoru (17) and Yuichiro (17), Mako (14) likes Motoki, Naru (14) likes Nephrite (19). Ami (14) has the only sane relationship as she likes Ryo (14). Some of these relationships were official as well, not just crushes. It is also heavily implied that Usagi and Tuxedo Mask will get together by the end of the show, and seems to be the main premise of the show. There are frequently flashbacks that each of them have saying that the relationship between them "feels familiar."Put it all together and what do you have? Not a feminist anime, that's for sure. It may have been progressive for its time, but that does not mean it's still a feminist anime. While Sailor Moon likely helped a bunch of girls during its prime years, it would do more harm to girls growing up nowadays. It's okay to remove a title from the feminist throne it once sat on.