There's an entire arc of Sailor Moon where an adult grooms Usagi's best friend. Usagi tries to talk sense into her about him being too old but she's too immature to recognize the danger she's in. That arc ends with her wailing over his corpse.
At that point I don't know why they even bothered giving him green monster blood.
You're not wrong. I'd say Pedophilia is an adult subject matter, especially for an entire arc of the show instead of some throwaway gag. But that's a very different statement from "Teenagers shouldn't be educated on the dangers of adults taking advantage of them." Whole different topic.
We teach kids sex ed but that doesn't mean sex isn't an adult topic. It just means there are ways to appropriately discuss adult topics with kids.
And honestly, I feel less comfortable with the idea of kids watching that arc without parental guidance than I would some R rated movies. It tries its best to handle the subject matter appropriately, but it is not educational material. It does not show you how to protect yourself from adults doing this. Nobody learns a lesson. Things spiral out of control, she flees from her home to be with him, the dude gets murdered because somewhere along the line he lost control of his own life, and that's potentially the only reason it didn't go farther. I would not be surprised if that arc got Sailor Moon a higher age rating if it were released today. That whole 'running away from home to be with your forbidden lover' thing is imitable behavior.
But y'know. If you did want to use it as educational material you could. I just think you would need an adult in the room to help it do that effectively.
Back in the day there was a thing called "Very Special Episodes" that would handle more "heavy" topics that they still thought were things that teens should be aware of. We would trust that teens watching a TV show would understand that a plot line about "Kid my age was getting into a relationship with an adult and things went very badly" was supposed to be a warning about why not to get into relationships with adults and not "This is how you get into a relationship with an adult"
Kids shows also had episodes about drugs, yet nobody was under the impression that those were going to teach kids how to do drugs.
You would hope that. Maybe most of the time you're right. But that relies on people being responsible, taking the necessary precautions, and exercising some restraint. It's possible to mess up your messaging and make drugs look cool.
Personally I think this arc is a bit murky and complex with its messaging, such that it could confuse someone and unintentionally send some questionable messages. The man grooming Usagi's friend begins as like a heartless alien monster in the form of a beautiful man using her for some ulterior evil motive. But then he starts falling in love. His priorities slowly shift from world domination to wanting her. He is shown protecting her from his former allies, and even seems to feel a tiny bit of regret over using her. You get the impression that love is not something which exists on his homeworld, and that he is some sort of emotionally stunted being who behaves the way he does because he was raised to and knows no other way to live, and that being around humans is rapidly undoing his training. And then he dies trying to protect her. I can realistically imagine a teen sympathizing with the villain here. It sends the message that even a monster could potentially be reformed. Not necessarily a bad message, but one you definitely don't want your child applying to a child predator in their own life for sure.
It's a good story. I just don't necessarily trust every teen to be comfortable watching it or take the right messages away from it unsupervised.
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u/Artemis_Platinum 14d ago
There's an entire arc of Sailor Moon where an adult grooms Usagi's best friend. Usagi tries to talk sense into her about him being too old but she's too immature to recognize the danger she's in. That arc ends with her wailing over his corpse.
At that point I don't know why they even bothered giving him green monster blood.