An Obscene Amount of Ships and Fangirling

Would you consider Sailor Moon a feminist cartoon? If it is, how I can notice it?

Sailor Moon is absolutely a feminist series. I would go so far as to say it's one of the defining feminist anime/manga series and has overtly feminist messages and themes.

Some examples off the top of my head are:

***A great emphasis is placed on female relationships/friendships. Usagi's romance with Mamoru, while important, is never really portrayed as something that is more important than her friendships with the other girls. All too often in media female characters are shown competing with/being catty to each other (if they're even given other female characters to interact with at all), so it's wonderful to see a series where such emphasis is placed on the strong bonds between girls.

***Things that are traditionally feminine are not portrayed as weak. Rather, they're portrayed as strong. Sailor Moon's attacks involve pink, hearts, sparkles, etc, all things that are seen as "girly" and "lame" by our society, but in Sailor Moon they're devastating attacks. The Sailor Senshi in general are beautiful girls who embrace their femininity while fighting, and they're all the stronger for it.

***Going off of that last point, traditionally feminine traits are also not portrayed as weak. Things like empathy, cooperation, compassion, vulnerability, a readiness to negotiate and compromise, emotional expressiveness, etc are all traits that are associated with femininity and are on full display with the main characters. Especially Usagi. Usagi's empathy, love, compassion, and willingness to forgive literally saves the world on multiple occasions and is portrayed as her true strength.

***This is more prominent in the manga, but there's definitely the idea that sexuality doesn't equal purity. Usagi is heavily implied to be sexually active with Mamoru throughout the manga, and yet still is portrayed as as one of the purest beings in the universe. Because her purity is tied to her heart, not her virginity. This directly goes against patriarchal messages of purity.

***Sailor Moon also does a lot from a queer feminist perspective. Haruka and Michiru (Sailor Uranus and Neptune) are portrayed as two fabulous lesbians in a loving relationship. And of course, they later raise the reborn Hotaru along with Setsuna. Portraying such a non-traditional family- one with 3 moms, 2 of them lesbians and in a relationship- was revolutionary and we still don't see a lot of that today. Moreover, Haruka is genderqueer/genderfluid in the manga and the Starlights have some gender stuff going on as well.

***Sailor Moon goes out of its way to show that women can fill any occupation/lifestyle. Michiru is a violinist. Ami wants to be a doctor like her mother. Haruka is a racer. Setsuna is studying physics. Mako wants to open up a bakery/floral shop. Usagi wants to be a wife and mother. And Himeko Nayotake (introduced in the S Movie/Lover of Princess Kaguya side story) is a freaking astronaut. All of these jobs are varied, some male-dominated and some traditionally feminine, and all of them want to be achieved or have been achieved by a woman in the series.

***The very foundation of Sailor Moon itself are legendary female warriors who protect all sentient life against the forces that want to destroy them. For the first 4 story arcs, it's just the main 10 Solar System Senshi, but then in Stars we learn that this has universal implications. Each planet with intelligent life has a Sailor Senshi assigned to guard it, and they're all women. Women are literally the heroes of the universe. That's pretty feminist to me.

Anyone can feel free to add to this if they want to! There's tons I'm leaving out but this should be enough to prove that Sailor Moon should be considered feminist.