But it's not your fault if you can't remember any of those pioneering queer animated stories from the version of Sailor Moon you watched as a kid. The queerness of the anime's original 1992 Japanese release was extremely explicit, with outright gay, lesbian, genderfluid/non-binary, and non-cis characters and relationships with majorly significant plots. Disney's laughably underwhelming " exclusively gay moments" or first gay Pixar characters strategically kept in the background pale in comparison to Sailor Moon 's illustrious history of LGBTQ representation. This decades-old anime show was eons ahead of modern-day Disney (which only just recently started regretting its corporate funding of the legislators behind Florida's so-called Don't Say Gay bill after immense public pressure to do so).
![gay anime characters canon gay anime characters canon](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/59/38/d2/5938d2b171b6777bbff085480d8e5784.jpg)
And I'm not talking about characters merely coded as queer, or LGBTQ fans with popular queer head canon, or even the inherent gayness of an astrologically-obsessed group of girls who collect crystals to ward off bad vibes together. To those in the know, the revolutionary queerness of Sailor Moon was never much of a secret. Watching Sailor Moon right now feels like chicken soup for the queer soul. In a moment when hateful forces of evil seem to once again threaten to shroud our world in darkness, Sailor Moon shines as a beam of moonlight - an unbeatable beacon of hope fighting for love and justice, no matter how impossible the odds seem.
![gay anime characters canon gay anime characters canon](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ef/ca/a2/efcaa2ddaf722a61dacab373f84b7fc3.jpg)
Then, as I witnessed some of the most violently regressive anti-LGBTQ bills (often targeting children) get passed into law again and again and again over these past couple weeks, it hit me. But inexplicably, I found the light-hearted, fun, optimistic anime from my '90s childhood was constantly bringing me to near tears. A few months back, something compelled me to start rewatching Sailor Moon in its entirety for the first time ever.