Recently, cartoons like Adventure Time, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Steven Universe have featured queer women falling in love with one another, but they are far from the first to do so. Sailor Moon, a common source of inspiration for all three, wasn't the first to do this, either. However, it is one of the most well-known, mainstream examples of queer representation in animation, for which it also attracted undue censorship.
There are multiple queer characters in Sailor Moon. Zoisite and Kunzite are a couple while Fish-Eye and Fiore are queer antagonists. It's debatable if the Sailor Starlights are cis lesbians crossdressing or genderqueer pansexuals. Even Usagi Tsukino presents as bisexual. However, of all the queer couples in Sailor Moon, the one that draws the most discussion is Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh -- Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune.
Sailor Uranus & Sailor Neptune's Romance
We meet Sailor Uranus and Neptune during the anime and manga's third arcs. In both cases, the two are a couple of older teens who are engaged in an intimate romance. Haruka is an athletic young woman who enjoys racing fast cars and flirting with every girl she comes across. Michiru, however, is more of an artist, swimming in her free time while also performing the violin -- even drawing enough acclaim with her musical talents to become world-famous.
The two are also fiercely devoted Sailor Guardians. They appear in two arcs in the anime (Sailor Moon S and Sailor Stars) as opposed to three in the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal (the Infinity, Dream and Stars arcs). The pair are open to one another and incredibly close, though they still flirt with other people. But this doesn't detract from their commitment to each other: they would die or kill for one another and their dynamic reflects all this -- teasing each other one minute while confessing their deepest anxieties in private the next.
In the anime, especially, they lack Usagi's sheer optimism, taking very pragmatic and underhanded tactics to achieve their goals, such as trying to kill Sailor Saturn to prevent her from inadvertently destroying the solar system. They do seem, at first, very distant from the rest of the group, which is softened somewhat when Sailor Pluto joins their ranks as the Outer Guardians. This is added to later when they essentially adopt Hotaru (Sailor Saturn) becoming a queer family in the process, with Pluto serving as the cool older aunt.
What Do They Define Themselves As?
What's very interesting about Haruka and Michiru is that, between them, they reflect the broader spectrum of both gender identity and sexual orientation more than you might realize. While Haruka is exclusively attracted to women throughout the manga and anime, Michiru flirts with multiple men, including Mamoru and Crystal in the manga, as well as Seiya later on, who at the time is presenting as male. This indicates that Michiru might be bisexual.
Haruka's gender identity is left vague in the anime but both the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal state that Haruka is neither male or female -- but both. This indicates that Haruka is either gender-fluid or genderqueer. While she usually accepts female pronouns, there are multiple times in the manga where she states that she really doesn't care about gender. With so few genderqueer characters in anime -- even now -- this makes Haruka occupy a unique niche in representation.
Sailor Moon's Censorship
Sailor Moon, upon release in America, was subject to heavy censorship. DiC Entertainment, the company behind Inspector Gadget and Captain Planet, cut many elements from the anime, including any LGBTQ+ content. When DiC lost the license to Sailor Moon, the last two seasons went to Cloverway, who then decided to loosen up on some of DiC's censorship for the last two seasons. However, Cloverway went all in when trying to cut any LGBTQ+ content, which meant flamboyant men like Fish-Eye were turned into women and the queer Haruka and Michiru were turned into the cousins, Amara and Michelle.
By turning the two into cousins, Cloverway clearly thought that it could explain away their closeness and intimacy. However, strangely enough, the studio only changed the script, never cutting out any of the instances of visual intimacy. Nor did it cut the constant cherry blossoms that accompany Haruka and Michiru everywhere. Cherry blossoms, in Japan, are associated with spring and life, and two people sitting under a cherry blossom tree is seen as incredibly romantic.
Laughably, Cloverway went out of its way to make sure every character commented on how close Amara and Michelle were "as cousins" without censoring the romantic musical swells that came whenever the two entered a scene together; their physical closeness or the cinematic shorthand indicating the two were a couple. In fact, a lot of kids watching Sailor Moon at the time picked up on the fact that Uranus and Neptune were way too close to be cousins.
This, alongside many censorship decisions in anime released during the late '90s and early '00s, became the subject of immense criticism and mockery in anime fan circles. One of the big draws to the Viz dub of Sailor Moon is that Viz released the whole anime uncensored and in English for the first time, which meant many fans were finally able to see Haruka and Michiru romance one another in English, as originally intended.
Sailor Uranus and Neptune rank among the most popular queer couples in anime history as, for many, they were the first queer couple children were able to see on television, opening the door to more positive representation for years to come.