And it’s not like they follow traditional gender roles within their relationship either. Haruka identifies as more masculine than Michiru. Yet it is Michiru who tends to swoop in and rescue Haruka (she’s done it at least three times to Haruka’s zero) like a knight in shining armor. Michiru was the one who approached Haruka and convinced her not to run away from herself (wow, now that I think of it that episode could be seen as a metaphor for coming out of the closet) by being all *heroic* and *self sacrificing*. She was the one who initiated everything- the relationship, the mission, the meeting. Michiru is the one who’s more likely to take the lead in general, to push Haruka around and tease her and she’s the one who tends to hit on Haruka in the midst of battle and make the blunt sex jokes while Haruka actually blushes in response. And Haruka seems to sort of look up to Michi in a way, and always struck me as the one more likely to be all gushy and emotionally romantic.

(And it all makes sense because Michi is just a little more sure of herself, while Haruka is established as being someone who occasionally wavers, plus Michiru has the whole “calm waters connection to spirituality” thing going)

So no, they definitely subvert rigid gender roles in how they relate to each other and it’s definitely a relationship of equals and there’s no conceit of “the more masculine woman takes the lead/wears the pants”.

It’s also not like the couple with opposite personalities but the same values isn’t a huge motif in fiction and specifically Sailor Moon. The only other significant couple- Usagi and Mamoru- are the same way. In fact, Usagi and Haruka (playful, hotheaded, emotional) and Michiru and Mamoru (serious and studious) have a lot in common, which is why there was that whole thing of Haruka approaching Usagi while Michiru approached Mamoru in the manga. Haruka and Michiru are basically the lesbian Usagi and Mamoru in a way (I SAID IT), of course their personalities would be pretty much opposites in every way.

There’s also the fact Haruka and Michiru got to raise a kid with Setsuna. Hotaru was raised by three mommies and it was just not a big deal at all. Isn’t that cool? I mean, I have no analysis or anything for that, I just love it.

tldr; I love them, they’re well developed characters who just didn’t get enough screentime, and I think it’s kind of silly to call them stereotypes when there’s so many different angles and traits to their characters and lots of real people share those traits? Yeah so.