What concerns me when I look at Sailor Moon and its lack of diversity is that Takeuchi exploits her medium's penchent for white characters and actors and has not taken the last 20 years to grow as a person who has had a global platform since Sailor Moon's inception.
When Naoko started Sailor Moon, I doubt she realized it would become so huge internationally. So she decided to make everyone Japanese because that was her audience. It's incredibly presumptuous and insulting of you to think that just because she wants her characters to remain true to her original work, she has not grown as a person and is some kind of white-worshipper. Most artists are protective of their creations and attempts to drastically modify it.
I understood that all the characters were Japanese as a kid, albeit with weird hair and eye color. It was the only show back then with an Asian female cast on North American tv. Maybe it didn't matter to you that you can so casually dismiss it, but it was huge to me and my Asian friends. Even now, shows in the West lack strong female Asian characters. Changing the ethnicity of the Sailors only further reduces the Western media presence that female Asians have. There are a myriad of all-white shows out there, this is not the show to zone in on for changing ethnicity.
I'll just come out and say that people who have a problem with turning Johnny Storm black are racist.
The general public don't care about those changes because they have no connection to the characters. I don't care that Johnny Storm is now black because I didn't grow up with the character and he isn't iconic to me. Are there racists out there opposing "blackwashing"? Of course. But hardcore fans always have difficulty accepting huge image changes, just as they do when a male is changed into a female, a character is significantly aged, an ugly character changes to attractive, etc. People get worked up about things that are important to them.
If they wanted to add new characters, I'd be fine with that. I'd also be fine with an AU that changed the characters completely (i.e. Sailor Mercury would no longer be Ami Mizuno - like what they did with Saban Moon). However, the point of Sailor Moon Crystal is to present a more faithful adaptation of the manga than the original anime. Adding new characters or changing ethnicities would fly in the face of that objective.
Perhaps it isn't your prerogative to be pandered to as you put it, but when Naoko chooses to make only white heroes, she is invalidating the fans with darker skin.
Sailor Pluto is the Keeper of the Space-Time Door, that's pretty significant. You feel Naoko is invalidating dark skin, but that doesn't mean all dark-skinned fans feel that way. I don't.
This is a simple question of biology and social structure.
It really isn't - imaginary aliens do not need to follow the rules of human biology or evolution. They only need follow the rules that their creator puts forth. Whether you like Naoko's "whitewashing" of aliens, she likely used the same logic that explains why everything in the show happens in Japan.
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