‘Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie’ on Netflix: Heck Yes, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are a Couple!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie — say that three times fast — premieres on Netflix today and gives ’90s Sailor Moon fans something they always wanted: Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune in all their LGBTQ+ romantic glory! Spoilers, but all of the Outer Guardians show up to help save the day in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie Part 2. But before that, we get introduced to their glamorous personal life. And, yes, Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaiou, aka Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, are definitely a couple.

Now none of this is probably a surprise to hardcore Sailor Moon fans. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie is both a continuation of the series Sailor Moon Crystal and an adaptation of the Dream arc of the classic Manga series. So, duh, Sailor Uranus walks around in male attire and gets mistaken for Sailor Neptune’s “boyfriend.” However seeing it in 2021 felt revolutionary for me, someone who grew up watching the original Sailor Moon anime series on American TV.

Yes, I was one of many millennial girls who became obsessed with Sailor Moon when it aired back in the day on Cartoon Network’s Toonami. At the time I was a nerdy tween, aka the ripe target audience for Sailor Moon, and I’d watch it every day in the summers with the twins who lived in the cul de sac across the street from my house. We’d obsess over Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon’s romance and pick favorite Sailor Scouts and comb the dial-up internet for more information on our favorite show. That’s how we learned that we weren’t getting the full scope of the Japanese anime. Later seasons introduced the Outer Guardians, whom we could only read about on Angelfire fansites. We immediately wondered why we weren’t getting stories featuring Sailors Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. (They looked cooler and darker and edgier than Sailor Moon’s inner circle of peppy girly girls!) And then we learned that two of them were in a lesbian relationship and it all made a sad sort of sense.

Homophobia still lurks in our culture, but the strides made for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the last two decades have been nothing short of miraculous. Today shows like The Baby-sitters Club and Arthur proudly introduce kids to transgender characters and the concept of gay weddings. Many of the most popular animated series feature out and proud queer characters and even, like Yuri on Ice, focus their attention on gay romance. But in the late ’90s, even a whiff of two girls holding hands and swooning over each other was considered inappropriate for kids. When we learned that Sailor Uranus wore boys clothes and Sailor Neptune was her love, my friends and I understood that their love was taboo for Cartoon Network. Perhaps the official reason given for why those seasons weren’t on Toonami came down to licensing, but still we knew the truth. We’d have to wait a long time, if not forever, to see them in action.

I haven’t kept up with Sailor Moon over the years, so I honestly don’t know how often Uranus and Neptune have been seen openly together on screen. But when I started up Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie Part 2 on Netflix and realized that the film was giving audiences the characters, stories, and emotions that were banned from my version of Sailor Moon as a kid, I was thrilled. I always wanted to see the Outer Guardians join the good fight. Heck, I wanted to see another, different romance portrayed in the series. I just wanted to see Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune on screen as themselves! And Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie Part 2 does that.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie gives us the Outer Guardians and the queer Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune content that was once banned on my childhood TV. And I love it.

Where to stream Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie