Other Relationships

  Seiya and Michiru

Seiya seeks out Michiru in her dressing room after the joint Michiru/Three Lights concert in episode 180. He says that he has always been a big fan of hers. Michiru just laughs and tells him that he doesn't look like the type of person who would listen to classical music. And then the scene gets interesting . . .

From Hitoshi Doi's translations:

Michiru: I wonder who you really are.

Seiya: (moves up behind her and rests his face next to hers, almost resting his head on her shoulder.) I want to find out more about you.

Michiru: Oh, do you? (She lifts up her hair and shows him the zipper on the back of her dress.) Then would you please help me change?

At that moment, Haruka and Usagi walk in. Unfortunately, this is the first time that Seiya and Haruka meet each other. Needless to say, they get off on the wrong foot right away.

Seiya and Michiru would be just adorable, if they had had more screen time together. Nobody knows how to flirt as well as Michiru, and nobody can pull off sexy teasing better than Seiya. I also sometimes think that Seiya might have been briefly attracted to Michiru because she's so similar to Princess Kakyuu. But I also think that whatever brief interest Seiya might have felt flew out the window the moment both Usagi and Haruka entered the scene.

  Guest Commentary: Seiya and Michiru

Irina writes:

The scene [between Seiya and Michiru in episode 180] is actually too brief to make any far going conclusions, but still this is how I see it.

Seiya went to Michiru's dressing room because during the concert he had felt some strange aura surrounding her and Michiru had had the same feeling (she had probably felt the aura of all the Three Lights). So Seiya went to find out more about that strange feeling of his. He might not have even been thinking about Kakyuu, just interested. And his flirting was quite understandable.

As for Michiru, I couldn't for a long time understand her behaviour since her flirting ("Then would you please help me change?") was quite dangerous. A sentence like that is not at all innocent but she still said it and even pulled her hair up. So at one point I thought: "What if she knew that nothing would come out of it? What if she knew that her words and actions were without consequence?" The idea is that she wasn't afraid to tell Seiya a thing like this. She wasn't afraid of him. What if that was because she was somehow subconsciously understanding that Seiya was really a woman. Maybe when he leaned to her, maybe from the way he was flirting with her, maybe from his general behavior or from all the things at once.

As far as I understand the characters of both Seiya and Michiru I don't think Seiya would go ahead and unzip the dress, he would probably laugh the situation off somehow and most likely this was exactly the outcome Michiru was expecting. So they were flirting completely understanding one another. But of course underneath this flirting they each of them were pursuing their own aim of finding out as much as possible about the other.

I can be making too much out of such a very short scene but I find this idea interesting.

  Taiki and Yaten (...and Seiya)

The first thing I noticed while watching the Sailor Stars anime was this: Taiki and Yaten are almost always together. The second thing I noticed: Well, duh, that's because Seiya is always ditching them and running off to flirt with Usagi, or to play football, or to mope about and act lovesick and lonely, or . . . You get the picture. Which pretty much leaves Taiki and Yaten with only each other as company, throughout most of the season.

It's a good thing that they're best friends.

Although neither the anime nor the manga ever explicitly states that the two are "best friends", I definitely see a strong friendship between Taiki and Yaten. They seem to understand each other, and to also understand each other's needs to be alone sometimes, and to get away from people. They know when to not bother each other, and likewise, they know how to share each other's laughter or lift each other's spirits. (They're so cute when they're panicking in unison in episode 183!)

I'm guessing that by the time we meet Taiki and Yaten in the Stars anime, the two have developed a kind of emotional dependence (or codependence) on each other. They're strangers in a strange land, and neither is interested in befriending or loving any Earthlings that they've met so far, and Seiya is always out there with his head in the clouds . . . So they really have nobody to turn to for comfort or protection, except each other.

The thing that unifies Taiki and Yaten the most is, well, Seiya. Whether it's sweatdropping when Seiya does something flamboyant, or laughing when he does something funny, or bailing him out of trouble when he's in over his head, or defending his honor in front of the Outer Senshi, the two prove again and again that they care deeply about Seiya, and neither of them wants to see him hurt or suffering.

Ironically, this protectiveness causes a cold rift to grow between Seiya and the other two Lights as the season progresses. The closer Seiya gets to Usagi, the more the other two see only disaster in his future. So they try to keep Seiya away from Usagi . . . Which only causes Seiya to resent their protectiveness, and to complain that they don't understand him.

The problem is that Taiki and Yaten understand Seiya entirely too much.

Throughout the Stars season, Taiki and Yaten are gradually forced into the roles of Seiya's antagonists. Although they only restrict Seiya out of genuine love and concern for him, still, their actions are portrayed in a rather negative light. But despite the antagonism within the group, they eventually learn to completely trust and support each other. (Hence, Princess Kakyuu's last words: "Fighter . . . Maker . . . Healer . . . Come together.") By the time the finale of episode 200 rolls around, the three Starlights have resolved their differences, and are once again a completely unified force.

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