Final Blossay

         Even if we are in a position to ignore them, or solely eat them, animals play important roles in the lives of humans. What motivated me to choose this anime topic is that during my childhood, my mother rescued and rehabilitated stray animals from around the city. I grew up with many animals in our apartment and therefore, many different personalities. When watching films I always enjoy animals and roles that they play because being friends with them was such a big part of my childhood. Here I mention and describe the personalities of animals from 3 different anime shows that played vital roles in character developments like the animals I lived with did for me.

Let’s begin with the oldest anime of the bunch which is also the one out of the three that is made for the youngest audiences:

Magical Princess Minky Momo

In this anime we are introduced to the animal characters as soon as we are introduced to the main character, Minky Momo. As Momo suddenly appears in her new room, so does her animal friends, Shindobook, Pipiru, and Mocha. They vary in age and bring in different perspectives. Shindobook is an older dog, he is grumpy, gets tired easily, and sometimes grumbles. However, with his wisdom in age, he is the animal character with the best ideas! Pipiru is a cute little bird that makes sure we know she’s cute! Throughout the show her focus is on her good looks, which often causes her to argue with her friends especially Mocha. Mocha often gets tired of the vain comments and/or disagrees with Pipiru on her ideas about romance. 

These small disagreements add diversity and outside perspectives in the show. Mocha the monkey is a very authentic character who says whatever is on his mind.

All three of them serve as a great team for Momo and are there for her when she needs them... Well they’re there for her all the time. They all are very faithful to her and represent loyalty and healthy friendships. With their differences they all remain a strong team and promote respect and love among friends with different personalities and opinions.

Next we have one of my favorites:

Sailor Moon

Sure you can’t put Band-Aids on your actual cats, you didn’t meet your cat by it magically following you home, you probably didn’t save your cat from getting jumped, your cat doesn’t wake you up for school, help you fight crimes, yours doesn’t know how to use computers, I doubt your cat is boy crazy, and I know your cat doesn’t use forks to eat! But have you met these cats…

It is saddening to hear people mention Sailor Moon without giving credit to the animals that are the foundation of the characters successes. These adorable felines that help the girls achieve mental, emotional, physical, and magical obstacles along their journey as Sailor Scouts are worth crediting! 

The animals in this anime are three cats named Luna, Artemis, and their future daughter, Diana.

Before advisers to Sailor Moon and Sailor V, Luna and Artemis served as advisers to Queen Serenity. Tragically, the moon Kingdom had come to a fall. Luna and Armetis were then sent on a mission to be the mentors of, advise, protect and guide the future Sailor Senshi on Earth. Needless to say, these cats served as a catalyst for the events that occur throughout the series. They are also responsible for supporting and assisting the girls through their own personal transitions and journeys into their new roles as Sailor Senshi. Before encountering Luna and Artemis, the girls were living their daily lives as we are, experiencing life on Earth in the present without and recollection of their previous lives. 

Here in the present, Luna and Artemis stand by as the girls take on their missions. However, they are always close by providing the girls with advice when they need it and always reminding them to watch their back in battle. Even though they are cute cats compared to the girls being big humans, if the situation requires it, they are always ready to engage in combat on behalf of the girls!

Luna, Artemis, and Diana all act as mentors, loving friends, and advisers to their humans. Thankfully for Usagi, each has the power of speech. Each of them also has a crescent moon symbol on his or her forehead. Luna and Artemis, the older cats, used to live in the Moon Kingdom, millennia before we meet them in the show. As stated above they were advisers to Queen Serenity. Diana is much younger than Luna and Artemis and was born on Earth. The cats are sources of information and serve as valuable confidants. They also provide the human characters with valuable tools. They have a deep backstory, awesome powers, additional physical forms, and the ability to love and feel human emotions. In the show, Luna takes the largest role out of the three. However, Artemis was the first to appear with a predominant role in Codename: Sailor V, the manga series which preceded Sailor Moon. While most of the characters are humans with superhuman strength and magical abilities, and cats alike, the cast also includes anthropomorphic animals and extraterrestrial lifeforms.

Luna (ルナ Runa)

Is the black cat with the yellow crescent moon on her forehead that Usagi rescues from the human boys surrounding her in the beginning of the show. Her mother is Queen Serenity and she was a devoted servant to Princess Serenity. Unfortunately, the Kingdom eventually falls because it was destroyed by Queen Beryl's invasion.

 Luna and Artemis are put into a long deep sleep, or hibernation, then sent to Earth to look after the Sailor Soldiers who were born there. Lunas memory is suppressed so that she could have success in finding the Sailor Soldiers. Luna first encounters Usagi Tsukino and guides her into becoming Sailor Moon. Luna is unaware that Usagi has actually reincarnated as Princess Serenity. Luna is extremely helpful in providing the soldiers with many of their special needed items. Beautifully, over the course of the series, Luna develops a close unbreakable bond with Usagi. Though it took them some time… initially, Luna would often upset Usagi by providing her with unwanted advice. Throughout the show, Luna also becomes good friends with Ami Mizuno. Audience members can kind of tell that Luna and Artemis have or had some sort of romantic relationship, but it all confirmed when they meet their daughter from the future, Diana.

Luna serves as the voice of reason and logic that Usagi needs to make sense of the dire and tough situations that she faces as Sailor Moon, essentially acting as both her guardian and mentor throughout the series.

Luna first meets Usagi, and later gives her a magical soup that would arouse her as Sailor Moon. But as this was the first time she had transformed into Sailor Moon, Usagi was forced into battle without any prior training. Usagi swiftly put her sole trust and faith in Luna, as she used her proficiency and information of the Moon Kingdom to help her battle. Luna then guides Usagi on how to control her powers and helps her learn the attack "Moon Tiara Boomerang" so she could face the youma, Morga.

Luna is also responsible for giving Rei and Makoto their transformation pens so they could respectively transform into Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter. She also gave Usagi a disguise pen that would allow her to change her appearance to what she wanted to be on missions.

The time when Luna and Sailor Moon weren’t together Luna was typically at the secret command center conducting her own individual research and surveillance. Luna is usally depicted as a more serious personality due to her deep concern for the accomplishment of their missions. In spite of this, Luna still maintains her loyal and loving affinity for Sailor Moon as she is present through their ongoing friendship. Particularly, after Luna finds out that Usagi is the Princess, she begins to feel guilty for not allowing herself to put her trust in Usagi since the beginning, thinking about the hardships Usagi had to face. Unlike their previous lives together, Luna and Usagi have the opportunity to resume their relationship in a different environment (a whole different planet). Luna empathizes with Usagi not just as the Princess she formerly loved and served, but as the same young innocent girl who was swept up into being the leader of a group of interplanetary guardians almost overnight. Through the observation of Luna and Usagi’s relationship, it is safe to say that Luna provides a motherly role to Usagi and her development. This can be attributed to Luna’s strong bond with Queen Serenity, serving as the impetus for her feelings of affection towards Usagi.

Now to Luna’s lover, Artemis:

Artemis (アルテミス Arutemisu) 

is the astonishingly beautiful white cat companion to Minako Aino. He is the only male cat in the series and bears a crescent moon on his forehead as well. Artemis trains her to become Sailor V, and remains by her side when she takes on her proper role as Sailor Venus. Artemis is first seen guiding Usagi Tsukino through the Sailor V video game at the Crown Game Center arcade without revealing his true identity. In the anime series, when some technical problem reveals Artemis’ true identity, Luna is really annoyed to learn that he has been the one guiding her all along. Artemis is later the one who fills Luna in on all of the details of her true mission.

Artemis plays a big role in the Sailor V manga and the live-action series. He is responsible for giving special items to the Sailor Soldiers. However, unlike Luna he does not seem to produce them himself. At first glance Artemis may be mistaken for lady cat due to his sheer beauty. Artemis doesn’t mind this and he does not seem to mind the fact that he is named after a female goddess, even when teased about it by Minako. Artemis’ character comes off as more laid-back than Luna. He has kind of a "big brother" relationship with Minako, although an attraction to her is sometimes implied. Through it is evident that he cares very deeply about Luna, often comforting her when she is stressed out and constantly stating his admiration of her. It is also important to note that he is a great father to Diana, as evidenced by her affection for him.

Upon awaking on Earth, the first Sailor Senshi that Artemis had met was Minako. With Artemis' guidance, Minako was given powers that gave her the ability to take on the persona of Sailor V. This had taken place long before Luna had awoken Sailor Moon (Usagi) and during this time he acted as her own personal mentor and guardian. Also during this time, Sailor V and Artemis solved mysterious crimes in Tokyo by themselves and identified that all the crimes occurring were mysteriously linked to the dark kingdom. Later they would reveal themselves to the inner guardians when Sailor Moon faced trouble and at that moment Sailor V would then become Sailor Venus.

Later when the group travels to the 30th Century with Chibiusa to the Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, it is revealed that he and Luna in the future have a daughter named Diana:

Diana (ダイアナ Daiana)

Diana is a small grey kitty with large pink eyes and a grey collar. Diana is introduced later in the anime series when Chibi-Usa takes Sailor Moon, Makoto, Sailor Venus and Luna to the 30th Century. When they arrive, they find Diana to be residing in the Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo with Chibi-Usa as her guardian with her family. It is then when we receive the news that she is the future daughter of Luna and Artemis. There is not much background information revealed about Diana in the present show, but we find out that during the assault by the Black Moon on Crystal Tokyo she stayed behind at the Crystal Palace with her parents Luna and Artemis.

Just as Luna and Artemis act as guardians and advisers to Usagi and Minako, Diana regularly acts as a guardian, companion, and adviser to Chibiusa. In addition to being adorable and curious, Diana is also sweet, kind, loyal, caring, friendly, eager to learn and help, and is also deeply polite, often referring to Usagi and Mamoru by the Japanese honorific "-sama" and referring to Artemis as "father" and calling Chibiusa by her formal title, Small Lady. Diana has also been shown to have a fairly strong and almost unbreakable bond with Chibiusa, as she is often seen either riding on top of Chibiusa or not very far from her side. Diana also cutley refers to Chibiusa by her formal title, Small Lady. Diana is able to help the Sailor Soldiers on occasion, despite being so young, and often because of the knowledge she had gained while residing in the future.

Lastly, contrastly, here is:

Puella Maji Madoka Magica

The only predominant animal character in this show is one by the name of Kyubey:

Kyubey (キュゥべえ Kyūbē) Looks like a small catlike creature. Also given a female voice, (he) is a "messenger of magic" (魔法の使者 mahō no shisha) who grants the wishes of young girls, but unbeknownst to them, contracts their services as magical girls in exchange. Young naive girls who form a contract with him are tasked to defeat witches and bizarre entities that feed upon the hopes and dreams of normal people.

"I want you to form a contract with me and become magical girls!" - Kyubey, Episode 1

Kyubey cannot exhibit emotions of any kind. There are rumors that he might be an alien in an animal’s body known as the “incubator.” He comes off as very cold calculating and scheming; traits that make him appear villainous in the series. Sometimes we are under the impression that Kyubey is not evil only seeks to achieve a goal; “to preserve the universe from entropy.” But we all intuitively feel that he is evil as hell.

Throughout the series, Kyubey is often accused of trickery and deceit by turning girls into Puella Magi, and subsequently witches, treating humans as energy livestock under the guise of being an impressive miracle granted. In spite of his trickery, Kyubey states that he never intended to "trick" Puella Magi, but simply leave out traumatizing subtext in order to make the process more appealing to a potential Puella Magi. We know he’s lying…

So how much of a role do animals play in magical girl anime? Well I hope I’ve successfully convinced you that they play as vital of a role in the story as the human characters do. In the case Kyubey, he runs the entire story line. He is the motivator of all the girls’ actions and the giver of advice. Though his motives are tricky, Kyubey has an influence on all of the other characters in the series. As for the other two anime mentioned above, the animal characters serve as best friends, loyal companions, and champion motivators that play essential roles in character developments and audience members relation and engagement.

                                       Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sailor_Moon_characters

https://myanimelist.net/featured/617/The_Loyal_Cats_of_Sailor_Moon_Crystal

https://sailormoon.fandom.com/wiki/Diana_(anime)

http://www.mtv.com/news/2231836/sailor-moon-cats/

http://www.oocities.org/tokyo/shrine/8732/htmen/02_02.html