Tuxedo Kamen-sama! Suki desu!!
Or more appropriate for me, Mamoru-san, suki desu...
Ah, Mamo-chan. Everybody's favorite black-caped, inspirational-speech-spouting
wonderboy. Well, not everybody's favorite. In fact, there are quite a few people out there
who can't stand poor ol' Mamoru. But I still say that they just don't like him because all
they've seen is the dub, and who would like him in the dub? But if you've seen
Japanese Mamoru and you still don't like him... okay ^_^
I absolutely hated him when I started watching the show. Man, you don't even know how much Darien
got on my nerves. He was such a creep to Serena, and that voice... Oh well. I finally saw the Sailor Moon
R movie and fell unconditionally in love with Mamo-chan. But on the subject of the dub, Darien's
gotten a lot better since the show started being played on the Cartoon Network. Maybe it's just because
he doesn't have any reason to be nasty to Serena and so the voice actor doesn't have a chance to mess
up ;) Anyway, that's neither here nor there, so I'll stop my mindless dub-bashing for now...
How about a little Mamo-history? After all, as the webmistress of "For The Love of Chiba" said,
"Mamo" makes a great prefix. Too bad the link I have to her site doesn't work... wow, I'm really wandering today,
aren't I? Anyway, Mamoru's history is a little more complex than the other guys on this page, owing to the
fact that he survived more than one season.
Not a lot is known about Mamoru's past except that he was orphaned when he was a little boy, and suffered from
amnesia at the same time. As such, he lives by himself and goes to either the high school or the college, depending on
if you're reading the manga or watching the show. At the beginning (season one, simply known as Sailor Moon or
Sailor Moon Classic) he was Tuxedo Mask, but he didn't know
that he was Tuxedo Mask... see, he would sort of blank out whenever he turned into Cape Boy and he wouldn't remember it afterwards.
Sometimes he'd get little flashes and stuff, but that's it... that is, until the whole deal with finding out that Usagi was Sailor Moon
and that they were the reincarnations of Princess Serenity and King Endymion. Anyway, he tried to collect the rainbow crystals (much to the ire
of Zoisite) because when he touched them, it made him feel as if he could almost remember, and he thought that if he gathered all of them he would
be able to. He also kept having dreams of a long-haired woman calling out to him
to find the Silver Crystal, or ginzuishou. During this season he also found out about his former life as
Endymion, prince of Earth. His name means "Earth Protector" after all...
He had been engaged to Princess Serenity (who he found out was Sailor Moon/Usagi) and he had died protecting her and her Kingdom in a war between the
Earth and the Moon, lead by Metallia. Evil evil Metallia.
A while after finding this out, Queen Beryl somehow gets him in her horny clutches and brainwashes him, making him into
Evil Endymion, who causes a whole helluva lot of trouble for the Sailor Senshi. Tuxedo Kamen now uses black roses instead of red ones,
and tries to hurt the senshi instead of helping them. Even though he always winds up stopping before he can do anything too terrible to them.
Convenient, ne? Anyway, I've got a tiny little side-page dealing with this whole evil Mamoru thing...
Evil in the Closet
Yeah. Pathetic, wasn't it? ;) Moving on... Eventually, Sailor Moon used her little Moon
Healing thing, and purified Evil Mamoru. It didn't quite work, but at least it sent him into regression
and Queen Beryl had to re-brainwash him, making sure didn't hurt the Senshi anymore than he had. At the end
of the first season, after all the other senshi had perished, Sailor Moon made it to the Dark Kingdom and
challanged Queen Beryl. She had successfully turned Tuxedo Mask evil again, and he almost strangled Usagi to
death before she snapped him out of it by showing him the little music box that he had either dropped or given her.
He turned back to normal, but was zapped before he could do anything significant. Usagi freaked, of course, and
went back to the outside to annihilate Beryl and Metallia. After she had saved the universe, everything reverted back
to normal and all the senshi and Tuxedo Mask forgot what had happened and that they
ever knew each other. And I thought that really bit. But it's not my show ;)
As for Sailor Moon R, I can't really say much about the first half because all I saw was the dub.
As far as I can tell, Mamoru didn't remember that he knew any of the other people before, and he had to
become friends with them again. Well, as much friends with them as he ever was ;) An the alien tried to put the
moves on him, and I doubt that it worked. At the end, when the Doom Tree thing attacked Usagi, he saved her, and
finally remembered all that they had been through together. During this time, he wasn't Tuxedo Kamen, he was a white-robed
sheik sorta guy called Tsukikage no Knight, I believe... that translate to Knight of the Moonshadow, or Moonshadow Knight.
Which is a whole lot better than Moonlight Knight, which bothers me because it rhymes. Anyway, that was Mamoru's
soul projecting itself in order to help Sailor Moon and her pals. I'm not too partial to this guy, but maybe that's
because I've never seen him in Japanese. Oh well. I really need to see this season in the subtitled, mostly because
of Midorikawa Hikaru *drools* but I can't seem to find it anywhere.
On to the second part of Sailor Moon R. A little way into the season and after
the arrival of Chibi-Usa, Mamoru mysteriously breaks up with Usagi, bringing much angst onto
both of them (the first time I liked the dub Darien was right after he told Serena he didn't want to see her anymore, but I
think that's because he wasn't saying anything ^_^ ). After a whole lot of depressing stuff, we find out that the
reason he broke up with Usagi was because he was having these recurring dreams where a voice
was telling him that terrible things would happen if they stayed together. Seeing as Mamoru has had precognitive dreams
before, he didn't want to risk anything happening to her, and he decided to avoid her. Even though it was killing him
to treat her so coldly, he knew it was for her own good, and he would rather be away from her than have her life in danger. Tell me that
isn't adorable ^_^ And so the plot continues on, and Mamoru became very attached to the pink-haired toddler who materialized at
Usagi's house. Eventually, she comes clean with them about being from the future and wanting to go back to save her mother, and encourages
supports her all the way. He even holds Usagi back when she was about to slap Chibi-Usa because all of the other senshi got kidnapped by
the Black Moon family. By now, he has told Usagi about his dreams and found out that she had the same dreams. They accompany Chibi-Usa to the
future where they meet Mamoru's future self, King Endymion (must've been an unnerving experience) and found out that Chibi-Usa is Mamoru
and Usagi's daughter from the future... even more unnerving ;) Not much that is focused on Mamoru happens after this... Chibi-Usa
is turned into Black Lady and all he does is constantly tell her that he loves her (just like all the other senshi.) They finally turn her back, and
she and Sailor Moon fight the Wiseman with their respective Silver Crystals. Of course they win ;)
Chibi-Usa leaves at the end of the R season, and Mamoru doesn't really do very much during Sailor Moon S, except act
cute with Usagi and save the senshi's asses as Tuxedo Kamen. Oh, and he also makes Usagi jealous by hanging around
with Michiru a couple times. If you ask me, Haruka would be perfect for him if she wasn't a lesbian ;) Actually, Mamo-chan really
doesn't do much in this season even in the way of saving Sailor Moon, because it's usually Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune who
have that job. When Chibi-Usa comes back to train as a Sailor Senshi, the three do the cute little family thing quite often. This season more
focuses on Haruka and Michiru and then on the whole Hotaru/Mistress 9 thing instead of Usagi and Mamoru's relationship. They're pretty much
confident in their love for each other, and nothing overly compromising happens.
Sailor Moon SuperS goes even more into Chibi-Usa's character, and the rest of the cast get pushed to the back for a while.
Haruka and Michiru aren't even there *grumbles* and Mamoru doesn't do a lot either except act fatherly. He does get his dream mirror taken out, though, and
he has a lot of good bit parts in the episodes, but nothing centered around him until the end. After everyone finds out about Nehelenia and
the Golden Crystal, they also find out that Pegasus (well, Helios) was the guardian of a temple on Earth, and he was closely connected with
Prince Endymion. Mamoru has to help Helios in order to defeat the Dead Moon Circus. But since Nehelenia is choking the Earth with her powers, and
he is connected to the Earth, he gets very sick and is unable to help the senshi fight.
In the manga, the Golden Crystal is actually
Mamoru's equivalent of the ginzuishou, and it's very powerful.
Probably the reason I don't really like Sailor Moon Sailor Stars is that Mamoru isn't there very much. At the beginning,
which is essentially tying up the ends of SuperS, he gets hit in the eye with a shard of the mirror Nehelenia was trapped in
and broke out of. He starts acting all pissy and reclusive, even yelling at Usagi a few times. His own nature breaks through every so
often and he tells her he's sorry and that he just doesn't feel good, but eventually he just stays in his room and stares into mirrors.
Nehelenia pulls him into the mirror world right in front of Usagi and the gang, and they have to go after him. Lots of pretty psyched-out stuff
happens along the way (maybe three episodes) but the senshi eventually get to Nehelenia's castle where Mamoru has been brainwashed yet again. With
the help of Sailor Saturn (and Usagi's amazing goodness once again) they turn Nehelenia back into the innocent little girl she once was and
save Mamo-chan. After all this, things are settled down for about five minutes until Mamoru springs it on Usagi that he's going to
America to go to college. It's all very cute and everything, the way they proclaim their love for each other and how he gives her a ring, but
it still ticks me off that he's gone for the entire season. Unbeknownst to everyone until the last episode, Mamoru gets abducted off the airplain,
has his star seed extracted and dies. But none of the good guys ever stay dead for very
long in the Sailor Moon universe, so I wouldn't worry. Anyway, Mamoru doesn't come back
until the last episode after Sailor Moon purifies Sailor Galaxia and all the other (previously dead) senshi return.
He is sorely missed, though, during the entire season, and Usagi is shown writing to him almost every episode. Later in the
season, she sorta falls for one of the idol group The Three Lights, Seiya (Evil! Eeevil! ;) ) and she has a lot of angst over it.
But Mamo-chan does come back, and it's all sugary and adorable. It's also wicked funny how, when the Starlights leave, Seiya tells
him that he'd better take good care of Usagi, and he just smiles and says "Hai." Wow, you don't feel threatened at all, do you? ;)
And that's the end. The show ends with them kissing under a full moon, and it's all sorts of kawaii. Now, onto Mamoru's
personality, the real reason I like him. Mamoru (and this is the main difference between him and Darien ;) ) is very, very
low-key. He's calm and cool, and he rarely gets angry. The only time he even yells is when Usagi is in danger, such as
in the R movie when Fiore was about to impale her with his magic speary fingernails. Mamoru is hardly ever mean to anyone... even
when he's doing his funny little speech things, he's being more noble than nasty. And he loves Usagi unconditionally. There have been many
instances that have lead me to dub the guy "Mamoru of the Infinate Patience." I mean, he never gets mad at Usagi for being ditzy or
unfocused. He loves her because he knows how wonderful and good she is, and how pure her intentions are no matter what she does. And he
loves Chibi-Usa for the same reasons... she's his daughter, for heaven's sake. Once, when Usagi asked who meant more to him, he couln't
give her a straight answer. It's like asking someone whether they love their wife or their children more! And with someone like Mamoru,
he loves both of them infinately, just in different ways. This is just one of the many instances of his patients... Once, the first time
Chibi-Usa came back during Sailor Moon S, she and Usagi were both trying to feed Mamoru something. They both shove the food down
his throat, and Haruka and Michiru show up and they're both distracted. Poor Mamoru's sitting there choking to death, and when he
finally can swallow the food, all he does is jump up and say, very calmly, "That's enough!" How's that for tolerance?
Ever since I saw Mamoru in the Sailor Moon R movie, I loved him. It wasn't just that he has an amazingly sexy voice (thank you, Furuya Tohru!)
but he was just so different than the Darien who I despised. I was always under the impression that he was kind of embarrassed and irritated
by his little meatball-headed girlfriend, but watching the Japanese proved how wrong I had been. I mean, he cried when Usagi came back to
life at the end! If that didn't win me over, I don't know what would ;)
As I've said before, I've noticed that a whole lot of people don't like Mamoru. My mother
was one of them, at least before he restrained Usagi from slapping Chibi-Usa at one point in
Sailor Moon R. And I've compiled a little list of reasons why I love Mamoru. If reading them
doesn't make you non-believers at least give him another chance, well, then you can hate him all you want ;)
Reasons to Like Mamoru
Since I don't have as much room on my page as I'd like to (and I'm paying
anyway, due to Geocities' evil new data transfer policy) I have some links here
to pages where they have lots of good pictures. If there's a picture you've seen
previously on this page, e-mail me, and I'll try to fish it out of the vast
space that is my hard drive ^_^
Scarlet Roses: Guarded by the Sun
My Love: Mamoru Chiba
Romantic Tuxedo Kamen Shrine
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