My most disliked characters in Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon has a fantastic cast of characters. You might disagree with me on that, but I think that's a pretty well agreed on point. Almost every single character I either really enjoy or feel basically neutral on. That said there are a few characters I don't like, usually ones with VERY small roles in side-stories, and wanted to make a blog on them. I should note that this is not how much I dislike them as a person. The character I like least as a person would probably be Demande for attempting sexual assault and acts of terrorism but he's a villain and I like him as a villain.

I think the best characters in general are is the heroes of the series who are each majorly influential on the genre, and many of the magical girl archetypes directly trace back to Sailor Moon. The villains are pretty 90s style, that is to say most of the time they focus more on being intimidating and sinister rather then particularly fleshed out human characters. I personally don't mind this, as they're usually threatening and entertaining enough to make up for their lack of particularly deep personalities. The civilian characters are probably the least interesting. For all Naoko's strengths as a writer; creating fantastical lore and ideas, evoking emotion, connecting explicit events with emotional and narrative meaning, writing mundane situations and characters are not her forte so she generally limits it where possible. Her civilian characters tend to come out as flat stereotypes, as lacking in depth as her monsters of the week but without the entertaining factor of their threat: for instance Umino is the "obnoxious nerd" trope, Ikuko is the "overbearing mom" trope, Shingo is the "annoying little brother" trope. 

So these are my top 5 most disliked characters in Sailor Moon, most of them being these characters with very small roles in the story.

5: Kaidou

While Rei's father is never seen in the manga, Kaidou is his secretary who comes up in Casablanca Memories. Kaidou is just a depressing character to think about both in terms of how he affected Rei early in the series and in what he represents. Kaidou started out as someone who Rei actually trusted, the two of them both having no desire to lose their independence for a relationship or sacrificing their morals for politics. That would be a pretty cool dynamic to explore, given he literally worked for Rei's father someone who in Rei's eyes at least embodied both those things. But then he changes and gives up on that dream, and it really breaks Rei's trust and it's just really sad. Like I get the symbolism behind it, but I still don't really like the character. He seems only there to twist the knife in Rei's side at her father's actions towards her and her mother.  

4: Taiki Kou

If you asked me who my least favorite character in Sailor Moon is, my short answer would be Taiki because Taiki is my most disliked character in the main 60-chapter manga, the rest of these options are from side stories or things like that. Despite the fact that Stars is my favorite arc, I've never been that into the Sailor Starlights though they are much better in the manga than they are in the anime. That said Seiya and Yaten are both fine, Seiya I mostly recall for having a cute little unrequited crush on Usagi (and doesn't try to force Usagi to love her back like in the anime), and Yaten is prickly and sarcastic that leads to a funny gag with Michiru. Taiki however is... According to Naoko she was aiming for a Setsuna-like character with Taiki but while Setsuna has lots of introspection, Taiki is just made weirdly improbably good at everything. "Not only am I a big league idol singer, but I'm also part of the schools computer club who can make music on my computer that makes the girls swoon, and I read poetry, and I am in the gardening club where I impressed Makoto and I got a better score on my exams than Ami." That one really rubs me the wrong way because Ami's civilian power is supergenius intellect, and has been the intelligent girl for the last 4 arcs, and to build up a character like that only to undermine it feels wrong and kinda unfair. Taiki also just seems to have this weird pretentious attiude towards everyone but like the other Starlights and the royalty. Like she introduces herself as having for hobbies "reciting poetry and computers." Yaten gets prissy at times, but she feels a lot more human and funny then Taiki. I don't know, Taiki just rubs me the wrong way.

All these things are way worse in the anime though, where Taiki had to be coerced into showing any compassion towards a seemingly terminal ill child fan of the Starlights in the Hospital.

3: Mrs. Aino

There's a big gap between the fourth spot on this list and the third spot. The Sailor Senshi have a bad tendency to have parental problems but while Hotaru's dad is an outright villain, and Ami and Reis' dads for their faults are never actually seen in series. Minako's mom on the other hand is seen numerous times in Codename: Sailor V and she's always complaining to Minako. She constantly complains Minako isn't acting ladylike enough or isn't doing well enough in school. On some level that's relatable enough because Minako, certainly not the easily child to raise, but she does weird cruel things like tell Minako that if she didn't apply herself in school she'd end up like her father in earshot of their father. Given Minako's father seems to be a pretty ordinary saleryman this is a bizarrely humiliating and hurtful thing to say to both of them for no apparent reason. Ikuko could also be overbearing and strict with Usagi but she shows moments of compassion towards her, even in the first arc when Kenji and Ikuko are talking about how no matter how old she gets Usagi will always be their little girl. I can't remember a single time Mrs. Aino said anything nice about Minako. Given that both Mrs. Aino and Ikuko are based of Naoko Takeuchi's actual mom, I think Ikuko can be seen as improved version that's more realistic and balanced in portrayal. 

2: The Parallel Senshi

There is another big gap between the third spot and the second spot. The 5-2 spots could be filled with these 4. These 4 comes from the parallel timeline. In it, all 4 Guardian Senshi have one daughter, all the same age, all with the same names as the mothers, all with basically the personalities of their mothers. Why? It's so uncreative. I get that Naoko likes things being nice and neat, I have that tendency too, but this is just ridiculous. And beyond having NOTHING to call their own, the 4 of them are all really mean to Kousagi, Usagi's second daughter in the alternate timeline, for no reason other than she eats a lot. They're not fun at all to read, they're not interesting. But there is someone even worse.

1: Taku

Taku is meant to be an antagonist, so maybe I shouldn't consider him worse than the Parallel Senshi but I just really hate this character. The Senshi battle all kinds of villains in the series; from other times, dimensions, magical, alien, robotic etc. Taku is the only antagonist without any powers and he lacks any menance. I'm 99% sure Minako could beat him up even in her civilian state. He's made out to be this pathetic loser, this misogynist nerd who only cares about preserving his video game arcade space from girls. There's no threat coming from this guy to the point that I could probably beat him. He's not entertaining to watch, he's gross and annoying being a misogynist and arguably a pervert who attempts to sexually harass Minako. He's obviously not compelling at all. With every other character on this list I can at least tell what Naoko was thinking but I don't get the thought process behind a character like this. Yeah I understand he's supposed to be a strawman so you can feel good when he's beaten but I've never liked that kind of character and I don't get the appeal. I don't want to watch a strawman, even of people I don't like because then I have to watch the views of people I don't like in my entertainment, something I use to relax from that. Some people don't like the weaver stars from Chibiusa's Picture Diary as antagonists but give them credit at least their not trying to sexually harrass men, and they actually have magic powers and connection to the lore of the world being living stars. They're not just two human women being like "ewwwww boys." That's barely an exaggeration for Taku's character. He's my least favorite character in the series.