awesomeee *W*

SEIYA <3

*Faves this until it squeaks*

Whoo! Awesome! I knew you could draw him/her well. Now you just need to make some Usagi x Seiya fanart. XD

"Is Seiya trans? Butch? Just plain lesbian? Or maybe this means that, in the alien species to which Seiya belongs, male bodies look like human female bodies. Has anyone written that fic? Because I would love to read it."

In the manga, Seiya is always female, so she's just a tomboy (she also does better than Haruka at sports, much to Haruka's chagrin). The manga doesn't have Seiya express any romantic feelings toward characters - the most she feels to Usagi is a sisterly bond, so her manga sexuality is unexplored.

One reason I prefer the anime of Stars to the manga is that they add a lot of characterization to the Starlights.

In the anime, he's considered trans, physically. However, it's also an exploration of multiple personalities: Seiya himself strongly implies that he exists as a separate (though not completely) person from StarFighter, a new being created for the necessity of disguise. Where one begins and the other ends is a matter of incredible ambiguity: they share the same memories, but have different personalities when it comes to interacting with people. Seiya is cheerful, outgoing, and easy going, while StarFighter bears the guilt and anger from Kinmoku's destruction and longs to be reunited with Kakyuu.

You could say Seiya is StarFighter's "coping mechanism," the persona she put her old self into to handle the pain. Interestingly, Taiki and Yaten are more similar in behavior to their senshi forms, implying that one reason they didn't reach out to humans as readily as Seiya is because he was able to keep up a healthier mind.

Seiya's love for Usagi is rooted in two things: her similarity to Kakyuu (the anime implies StarFighter and Kakyuu have a very close bond, which could be friendship or lovers) and the SM anime rule "Everyone is hot for Usagi." (The manga is more "Everyone is hot for Mamoru," since all the senshi - even Haruka - have a physical attraction to him of varying intensities.) The former is what drives the deeper, more spiritual attraction, since both sides of him feel it. As a separate personality, Seiya's "heart of a boy" is unique to him, which is likely what the latter operates on.

StarFighter's attraction to Sailor Moon is bumpier: she distrusts her at first, but comes to respect her as a warrior (the "power you emit"). And when he finds out they're the same, that's when he goes from crush to "one-sided Love" with a capital L.

The prologue (which is told from the perspective of Seiya) is working through his confusion over which of the two attractions is the primary: the physical attraction from the male side or the spiritual one shared by both. The anime never has StarFighter express romantic love for Usagi or Sailor Moon (protectiveness, yes, but not love), so it's only the interaction and hints from StarFighter and Kakyuu that we can go on. If you think Kakyuu and StarFighter are lovers, then the female side would also feel physical attraction (making StarFighter a lesbian who's interest in females remains constant; Seiya falls in love as StarFighter would if she wasn't feeling so bad). If you think Kakyuu and StarFighter are just close friends (ala Moon and Mars), then StarFighter's preferences are undetermined.

I like the third option: the Starlights are aliens and it's implied in the later eps they can turn into pure energy at will. Physical gender has no real meaning to them. You could even go as far as to say physical attraction (pheromones, hormones, etc.) itself is a new concept, brought on by the adoption of Seiya's form (here, "heart of a boy" means a heart that can be influenced by physical attraction). This would mean StarFighter's only interest is on a person's character, not their bodily attributes. Seiya's the one subject to material interests. This would make Seiya het and StarFighter an aestheticist (similar to Michiru).

(It is interesting to compare the sexual interests of the three male Starlights: Seiya is attracted to girls, Yaten is very much not into girls, and Taiki is neutral. This may or may not imply things about their sexualities in original senshi form.)

I'm working on a comic series (with kuroitenshi13) exploring this, among other things. I'll let you know when it starts up; still in the planning stages right now.

Nice! I love how she fades into the background!

*claps*

I always figured her for lesbian, since in the manga she just crossdresses