| Sailor Star Fighter | |
|---|---|
 The Sailor Starlights--Sailor Star Fighter at bottom | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Kodansha Limited |
| First appearance | Sailor Moon Act 43 |
| Created by | Naoko Takeuchi |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Kou Seiya / Seiya Lights |
| Identity | Female crossdresser (manga)
Super gender bender (anime) |
| Abilities | Light-based magical powers
Angelic wings |
| Allies and alliegances | Sailor Starlights
Princess Kakyuu |
| Enemies | Sailor Galaxia
Sailor Iron Mouse |
Sailor Star Fighter is a member of the Sailor Starlights, a trio of Sailor Senshi in the Sailor Moon manga and anime. They were created by Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi and published by Kodansha Limited.
History[]
Sailor Star Fighter is the leader of the Sailor Starlights, three Sailor Senshi who were the lone survivors of the planet Kinmoku after Sailor Galaxia attacked. When on the planet, they served as protectors of Princess Kakyuu. Upon coming to Earth, the Starlights disguised themselves as a male pop group called the Three Lights.
Kou Seiya (星野 光 Seiya Kō) is the lead vocalist for the band as well. In general, she acts arrogant and tends to be confident in her own abilities.
In the manga, Seiya becomes the star player of the local high school football team and becomes the school's star athlete, upsetting Haruka Tenoh, as she was the previous star athlete of the school (though on the track & field team). Eventually, she raises the suspicions of the Sailor Soldiers as to her identity. She also develops deep feelings for Usagi, kissing her and thinking as she walks away, "We are of different stations in the universe. It might be unrequited love."
In the anime, Taiki and Yaten consider him prone to bouts of childishness (such as when he shows off his basketball skills in front of the school), but generally follow his lead. He hates losing, giving up, or being told he's not good enough. He also behaves arrogantly, saying once, "Usually girls are happy when they see me." "Why?" Usagi asks. "Because I'm cool," he says.)
Over the course of the series, Seiya develops strong feelings for Usagi and his attempts to forge a bond with her provides the primary romantic tension of the season. From their first meeting on, Seiya calls Usagi odango, like Mamoru does. The two even go on a date at an amusement park, which prematurely ends when Sailor Iron Mouse attacks. Seiya makes his interest in her clear when they spend time together practicing softball, telling her, "I like your light." However, Seiya's feelings are not fully reciprocated and acknowledges the one-sided romance, finally kissing her cheek and saying "I wish I had met you sooner." After Galaxia's defeat, before leaving earth, Seiya tells Usagi he will never forget her while Usagi, oblivious to what he really meant, tells him that they will always be friends.
The relationship between Sailor Star Fighter and Princess Kakyuu is slightly ambiguous. In the manga, the princess had a lover who was killed by Galaxia. In the anime, it is implied Seiya's romantic feelings for Usagi may be a confusion with similar feelings for Kakyuu—when he daydreams of his home planet, he thinks lovingly of an image of his princess, which is suddenly superimposed by an image of Usagi (much as Usagi had seen Seiya's image overlaid by Mamoru in previous episodes). In the image poem released for his CD single, however, he suggests that his feelings for her are because he is "carrying the heart of a boy" and because he was attracted to her light.
Seiya's responsibilities in the band are lead vocals, keyboards, lyrics, and composition. S/he was seen in the anime playing the drums very angrily in their hideout because they think their princess has not heard them yet. After this, Seiya is not seen on the drums again. S/he also enjoys football and belongs to the club at school. Seiya is meant to give the impression of a combination of Haruka and Mamoru, and was modelled after Jenny Shimizu.
Powers and abilities[]
Like all Sailor Senshi, the Sailor Star Fighter is given special powers and items that aid in her missions as a soldier of her their planet and ruler.
- Fighter Star Power, Make-Up! — Changes Seiya into Sailor Star Fighter (and, in the anime, back into a female).
- Star Serious Laser — her attack, a focused light blast.
- Star Fighter Kick, Star Fighter Punch, Star Fighter Uppercut, and Star Fighter Attack — additional attacks listed in the Materials Collection for her. It was never specified what they did nor were they ever used in the any version of the series. The names alone show that the first three attacks were likely physical attacks.
- Starlights Fusion Tempest — A special combined attack from all three Starlights and the only physical attack other than the Sword of Sealing able to physically hurt Sailor Galaxia. It is only named in the Eien Denstesu musical, but something similar is seen in Episode 199 of the anime. In the manga, Sailor Kakyuu uses a similarly named attack called Kinmoku Fusion Tempest.
- Star Yell — The palm sized star-shaped device used by the Starlights to launch their attacks. It is also sometimes called the Sailor Star Yell. It only appears in the anime.
- Sailor Change Star — According to Bandai, this is a two piece set of the microphone and brooch used by the Starlights to transform. According to Naoko Takeuchi's own notes, the brooches contains the Sailor Crystals of the Starlights, similar to those of Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon.
- She can grow a pair of angelic wings in the manga.
Sailor Star Fighter in other media[]
Aside from the manga and anime, the character has appeared alongside the other Starlights in various media. They appeared in the Sailor Moon musicals Sailor Stars, Eien Densetsu, Ryuusei Densetsu, and Kakyuu-Ouhi Kourin, as well as their own songs, due to their cover as a music group.
In the musicals, it is not clear whether they are crossdressers or magically change their forms, though they keep the personalities characterized in the anime. Seiya is generally portrayed as more eager to help the other Sailors in these productions. Unlike the other Starlights, as well, she maintains a relationship focus in these productions, as her relationship with Usagi is still presented.
Actresses[]
In the anime, Kou Seiya is voiced by the late Shiho Niiyama. In the musical version, Seiya is played by Sayuri Katayama and Chinatsu Akiyama.
Censorship[]
In the Italian dub, instead of changing sex of the Starlights, there were six people - the Starlights were always men and simply summoned their twin sisters instead of transforming, as the original depiction was very controversial in Italy. Similarly in the Russian dub, the Sailor Starlights were consistently referred to as men, even in their Senshi forms (despite the visible breasts). However, they had different voice actors in their civilian and senshi forms. Some countries implied that they were still men, even when transformed, or were women in civilian form. The North American, French, Swedish, Dutch, and Hungarian dubs did not get the rights to this season, so they never appeared. In the Korean dub, the Sailor Starlights were female in both their civilian and senshi forms. This change was made to make them become straight women, but this made Usagi's and Seiya's relationship more like a homosexual relationship than a heterosexual relationship. Surprisingly, the Latin American dubs, specifically those from Mexico and Brazil (which also refused to change the romantic nature of Uranus' and Neptune's relationship) kept the nature of the Starlights gender intact, the same done in the Hebrew dub, except for them keeping male voice actors for the both civilian and senshi forms.
In fact, the anime made them transsexuals instead of cross-dressers to avoid the controversy caused by Uranus and Neptune's relationship. This made Seiya and Usagi's relationship heterosexual in the anime.
The Starlights are usually falsely attributed to the fifth season not being dubbed into English. Despite popular belief, this is really because Toei would not sell the rights to it. However, it has been reported that an independent British company attempted to produce a dub, but later backed down claiming they were dressed provocatively for a children's program. The French dub reportedly did not dub the series viewing the idea of transsexuals too risque for children, however.