It is not as confusing as some people make it here. The manga has the Three Lights as females with female bodies, both in civilian and in Senshi forms. They basically crossdress when posing as normal people. The 90's anime then took this and changed it so they have actual male bodies in civilian form, and Takeuchi was not a fan of this editorial decision.
As to why they did this, well, we can only speculate, but consider this: it was the 90's, and a prominent feature of that entire season was Seiya romancing Usagi (before anyone brings up Haruka and Michiru, their romance was something of a background thing, only expressed in rare innuendos and rose petals flying across the screen). Seiya's pursuit of Usagi, and the latter nearly reciprocating on numerous occasions, was front-and-centre. It also happens that most of the romancing scenes take place when Seiya is in her civilian form. You also have to take into account that this was a mainstream anime, massively popular back then, and not really advertised as yuri.
last edited at Jun 14, 2019 4:36PM