Monday, September 6, 2010

Sailor Moon Usagi Tsukino Variations


Usagi often seems inconsistent from version to version within the series. In the manga, while she starts out as a crybaby, she quickly matures and learns to make decisions for herself. The series often portrays Usagi as just lazy rather than lacking intelligence. This shows when she passes her high-school exams without trouble when threatened with separation from her friends.
The anime often portrays Usagi as relatively more flaky and child-like. She often bickers with Chibiusa, begs Mamoru to buy her things and bickers with Rei very childishly, but shows just as much caring as her manga counterpart. She does evolve during the course of the series, but generally lacks the maturity of her manga counterpart except in the last few episodes of each story arc.
The dubbed version made Serena more of a ditz than Usagi, featuring for example lines such as "Hi, you look like da bomb in those kimonos", which emulates stereotypical valley-girl usage. By contrast, in the following episode, Neo-Queen Serenity talks without this pseudo-valley girl dialect, showing this was intentional and inherent to the voice actress.
Usagi in the live-action series differs slightly from her manga and anime counterparts. She appears much more outgoing and extroverted, and seems to make friends very easily, which immediately puts her personality in conflict with her fellow Senshi, all of whom were loners to varying degrees. She rarely uses formal grammar with those of her age (though she does with adults), and refers to everyone as "[given name]-chan," which is very informal and a way of expressing closeness. She even teases Ami when Ami continues calling her "Tsukino-san," a formal way of speaking to classmates, saying that it is as if they are not friends. Every time a new Senshi appears, Usagi immediately tries to make her a friend, even though almost all of them resist. However, through Usagi's influence, the other Senshi gradually begin to realize that they are stronger together than they are alone. Usagi also has a habit of forcing her interests on the people that she makes friends with. This is prominent in her relationship with Rei, when she tries time and time again to get her to sing.

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