Sailor Moon
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This article may reveal major plot points, especially considering the game, film, episode, season, or series has either been released recently or not in specific countries yet. Suppose you do not wish to know vital information on media elements in a story. In that case, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That's all. |
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Emi Shinohara, who was voicing Sailor Jupiter (August 8, 1963-September 8, 2024), may she rest in peace. |
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Sailor Moon (Japanese: 美少女戦士セーラームーン, Hepburn: Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn)) is a Japanese anime series created by Toei Animation and based on the manga series of the same name. The English dub was dubbed by Viz Media.
Plot
A trouble-prone schoolgirl receives the ability to transform into a powerful heroine and assembles a team of friends and allies to battle the forces of evil that threaten the world while learning about her past as Princess Serenity.
Why It Managed to Fight For Love and Justice
- It's a very cute and entertaining show. Due to it's simplistic and endearing plot, charming characters, and even the animation style itself plays into this factor.
- Adorable animation even for 90s standards. As already discussed in the previous point, the animation style helps the already endearing and cute story and tone of the show stand out and pop a lot more.
- Most of the characters are lovable and complex, with distinctive personalities and backstories.
- Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon; white) is the main protagonist of the series. Usagi is a careless fourteen-year-old girl with an enormous capacity for love, compassion, and understanding in spite of her ditziness and laziness. At the beginning of the series, she is a self-described immature crybaby who resents fighting evil forces and wants nothing more than to be a normal schoolgirl. As the story progresses, however, she learns to embrace the chance to use her power to protect those she cares about.
- Ami Mizuno (Sailor Mercury; blue) is a quiet but intelligent fourteen-year-old bookworm in Usagi's class with a rumored IQ of 300. Ami's shy exterior masks her very passionate for learning and taking care of the people around her. She hopes to eventually become a doctor someday like her mother, and tends to be the strategic and practical one in the group. She is secretly a fan of pop culture and romance novels, and becomes embarrassed whenever this is pointed out. Ami also uses her handheld computer, which is capable of scanning and detecting virtually anything about which she requires information.
- Minako Aino (Sailor Venus; orange) is a fourteen-year-old perky dreamer. Minako first appears as the main protagonist of the manga series, Codename: Sailor V. She has a companion cat called Artemis who works alongside Luna in guiding the Sailor Guardians. She leads Sailor Moon's four inner Guardians, while acting as Sailor Moon's bodyguard and decoy because of their near-identical looks. She dreams of becoming a famous singer and idol, and attends auditions whenever she can.
- Rei Hino (Sailor Mars; red) is an elegant fourteen-year-old miko (English: shrine maiden). Because of her work as a Shinto priestess, Rei has limited precognition and can dispel or nullify evil using special ofuda scrolls, even in her civilian form. She is very serious and focused, and easily becomes annoyed by Usagi's laziness and cowardice, although she cares about her very much. In this anime adaptation, Rei is portrayed as boy-crazy and short-tempered.
- Makoto Kino (Sailor Jupiter; green) is a fourteen-year-old girl who is a student in Usagi Tsukino's class and was rumored to have been expelled from her previous school due to fighting. Unusually tall and strong for a Japanese schoolgirl, she's the most physically strong of the main 5. Both of Makoto's parents died in a plane crash years ago, so she lives alone and takes care of herself. She cultivates her physical strength and domestic interests, including housekeeping, cooking, and gardening. Makoto excels at hand-to-hand combat. Her dream is to marry a young handsome man and to own a flower-and-cake shop.
- Haruka Tenoh (Sailor Uranus; dark blue) is a good-natured tomboyish girl who is a year older than most of the other Sailor Guardians. Before becoming a Sailor Senshi, she dreamed of becoming a race car driver, and she has excellent driving skills. She tends to dress and, in the anime, speak like a male, resulting in her constantly being mistaken for one. When fighting the enemy she often disapproves of outside help and prefers to simply work with her girlfriend, Sailor Neptune/Michiru. Before later being joined by Sailors Pluto and Saturn.
- Michiru Kaioh (Sailor Neptune; turquoise) is an elegant and talented violinist and painter. Similar to her partner and lover, Haruka Tenoh, she hails from a rich family (in spite of the family not being mentioned in the series). While initially arrogant and aloof, she still reamined to the other soldiers. She worked alone for a while before finding her partner, Sailor Uranus/Haruka. Neptune ultimately gave up her own dreams and became fully devoted to her duty as a Sailor Guardian, and is willing to make any sacrifice for it. Sailor Neptune's talisman is her Deep Aqua Mirror, which aids her intuition and reveals cloaked evil.
- Setsuna Meioh (Sailor Pluto; black) is a mysterious woman who appears first as Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Spacetime and Change. She has the duty of guarding the Space-Time Door from unauthorized travelers. Later she makes her new residence on Earth, living as a college student. She has a distant and cold personality and often acts more stern than her peers but can also be quite friendly and helps the Sailor Guardians when she can. After her long vigil guarding the Space-Time Door she carries a deep sense of loneliness, although she is close friends with Chibiusa. Chibiusa calls her by her nickname "Puu". Sailor Pluto's talisman is her Garnet Rod, which aids her power to attack and temporarily stop time.
- Hotaru Tomoe (Sailor Saturn; purple) is a sweet and lonely young girl. A laboratory accident in her youth significantly compromised her health. After overcoming the darkness that has surrounded her family for so long, Hotaru is finally able to transform into Sailor Saturn, Guardian of Silence, Destruction, Annihilation, Ruin and Rebirth. She is often pensive, and as a human has the inexplicable power to heal others. In spite of her ability to end a planet with her Silence Glaive, she still chooses not to due to her good heart.
- Chibiusa (Sailor Chibi Moon; pink) is the future daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion in the 30th century, and she's incredibly cute. While initially spoiled and rather bratty or even hostile at times (particularly during her introduction where she believes that Usagi has the silver crystal), she still means well nonetheless. While she and Usagi sometimes don't get along due to their incredibly different personalities, they develop a deep bond by the time Chibiusa must return to the future. Chibiusa wants to grow up to become like her mother.
- To increase their cuteness and tomboyishness, both Usagi and Minako wearing school uniforms, which are doubled as their most iconic everyday outfits, including white socks and very shiny black Mary Jane shoes, to become both of Japan's cutest tomboys. Cue the audiences: Awwwwwwwww...
- The voice acting both in the Japanese and the Viz English dub are pretty good. All of the voices and casting choices perfectly fit the characters and the vocal performances are expressive and passionate.
- Has it's share of funny moments, like when Minako has to take care of the other sailor guardians because they're sick but ends up making a mess and Usagi gets drunk by accident and smacking Mamoru, calling an English Man Cream Stew and Ami a big bowl of curry.
- The character designs are so cute, with pretty much all of the Solar System Senshi (barring Hotaru (Sailor Saturn) and Chibiusa (Sailor Chibi Moon), who are children and firmly in the moe category) being attractive young ladies each with a unique spin.
- Beautiful background music and iconic theme songs especially Sailor Stars' Theme Song.
- The fights are both epic and exciting. And despite the fact that many of them share similar themes (the Sailor Soldiers' attacks that are used to defeat the villains), they all still have factors that distinguish them from one another. Whether it be the roles that the Senshi play during the battle or the attacks that are used to defeat that villain or the villain themselves.
- It features tons of heartwarming and tear jerking moments as well such as Minako’s origin being revealed as her being Sailor V and how she faked her death and Rei's last words expressing how she should've kissed Yuichiro Kumada when she had the chance.
- The villains (Queen Beryl, Wiseman, Pharaoh 90, Fiore, Sailor Galaxia, etc.) are amazing and a great threat against the Sailor guardians.
- Queen Beryl Once a member of the Earth Kingdom, fell in love with Prince Endymion but was heartbroken to find that he loved Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. This lead to Beryl crossing paths with Queen Metalia, who offered to give her the mean to exact revenge by declaring open war on Silver Millennium itself. Ultimately, having gathered a large majority of Earth Kingdom residents to join her campaign, Beryl ended up killing Endymion in a fit of rage before Queen Serenity put a stop to Metalia's evil. However, Beryl reincarnated in present day and was subconsciously guided to the ruins of the Earth Kingdom at D-Point in the Arctic. There, Beryl undid Serenity's seal on Metalia and regained her memories as she established the Dark Kingdom with Endymion's four knights Jadiete, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Kunzite as her Four Kings of Heaven. While claiming to seek the Legendary Silver Crystal for Metalia, using the being's power to revive Endymion as her thrall, Beryl actually intended to betray her benefactor and use the crystal's power for her own agenda. But Beryl was killed when Sailor Moon used the Moon Kingdom's sacred blade to destroy the necklace that bound Beryl to the mortal coil.
- Wiseman, who was revealed after his debut to be an incarnation of Chaos, was originally named Death Phantom and he was a human being who lived in Crystal Tokyo before he was exiled from Earth by Neo Queen Serenity for using his powers to stage an uprising. Death Phantom ended up on the barren planet of Nemesis, gradually losing his humanity as he became the planet's sole inhabitant. But upon death, Phantom's consciousness became one with the planet itself while producing the Malefic Black Crystal. Cloaking his decayed human body in robes, Death Phantom took on the alias of Wiseman and enlisted the Black Moon Clan to aid him in wiping out the Legendary Silver Crystal.
- Pharaoh 90 He had Germatoid possess Doctor Tomoe, and his most powerful servant, Mistress 9, the Sovereign of Silence, possess Tomoe's daughter Hotaru. Mistress 9 and the Bureau of Bad Behavior wanted the Purity Chalice to awaken him, but Sailor Moon got it first. Eventually Mistress 9 was able to get the Purity Chalice and awaken Pharaoh 90, who came to Earth.
- Fiore was a lonely alien who took great strength when he befriended a young Mamoru Chiba just after the boy lost his parents in a car crash. But as Fiore cannot survive long on Earth's atmosphere, he left with the promise to give Memory a flower in return for the rose the boy gave him. But Fiore ended up finding the deadly Xenian Flower, which poisoned his mind to bring her to Earth while eliminating anyone who gets in the way.
- Sailor Galaxia was the most powerful Sailor Guardian in the universe, tasked with the burden of fighting Chaos for all eternity. In a moment of desperation, she sealed Chaos within her own body in an attempt to prevent it from ever coming back, but was soon overtaken by it. Before losing her body entirely, she freed her Star Seed into the universe in the form of a crimson butterfly and advised it to find a person worthy of wielding it against her corrupted self. As her Star Seed reached Earth, it transformed into a little girl, Chibi Chibi. The infected Sailor Galaxia then started invading and destroying planets across the universe in an attempt of smashing any form of dissatisfaction or rebellion, brainwashing true guardian into serving her cause and stealing true Star Seeds for her personal collection.
- Even some of the less developed antagonist with fewer roles in and impact on the series like An and Ail are very memorable and tragic antagonists who are trying to steal energy from people to save their species.
- The shows morals are great towards both kids and teenagers. And like most of the best media to incorporate life lessons into their stories, the lessons aren't outright smushed into the audiences' faces but rather naturally and gracefully inserted into the story in a way that doesn't make it feel forced in the slightest.
- The chemistry and the interactions between the Sailor Guardians are enjoyable, especially between Usagi and Minako.
- The lesbian romance between Haruka and Michiru (Sailors Uranus and Neptune) is very well written, heavily emphasizing the emotions rather than the sexuality of the characters. This may be a bad quality to more conservative parents, so it's advisable to introduce this show to young teenagers (around 13 years of age) rather than small children.
- Each character undergoes their own development, like Usagi getting stronger and braver and Rei becoming less weird as the series progresses.
- Tuxedo Mask is also a likable and interesting character. He always comes to give help to the Sailor Guardians when they’re in a serious situation. In spite of the fact that he can be unlikable at times.
- It is faithful to the manga for the most part. It also took elements from the prequel manga Codename: Sailor V.
- Compared to some of the other Toei anime like Dragon Ball Z and One Piece, Sailor Moon only has a single major filler arc, and that only due to the fact Naoko Takeuchi needing more time to extend the manga past the first arc (which was written as a conclusion in case the show failed to take off).
- Amazing transformation scenes, even though Usagi and Chibiusa are the only one to get a unique sequence, and the ones in Sailor Moon Crystal arguably improve on this factor due to the more unique transformation sequences between the soldiers and better music and visuals for the scenes.
- Sailor Stars and S are awesome seasons due to having more dark and interesting plots, new characters and much more enjoyable filler.
Bad Qualities
- Some of the characters' flaws may come off as extremely annoying, especially in season 1:
- Usagi (Sailor Moon) is a little whiny, moody, and sulky at times. She then comes across as a crybaby, and her constant whining in battles can be quite irritating. Her also being a bad student and doing other things comes off as a cliché that is all too common in anime. Though she becomes less of a crybaby, less lazy, less whiny and more brave and smart as the anime progresses
- Rei (Sailor Mars) is very hot-headed and short-tempered (which fits given she's the Sailor Guardian of Mars, the Fire Planet), but oftentimes she directs all the criticism to Usagi which comes off as very meanspirited. She grows out of this, thankfully, by season 2. She is more meaner towards Usagi in the DiC/Cloverway dub.
- Minako (Sailor V/ Sailor Venus), much like Usagi is also dumb, crybaby and clumsy.
- Mamoru Chiba (Tuxedo Mask) is a very unlikable character in the first 2 seasons as he is a jerk to Usagi. Thankfully he becomes likeable in S.
- Naru (Usagi's best friend) is very one-dimensional and uninteresting
- Umino is another stereotypical nerd comic relief
- Chibi-Chibi (Sailor Chibi-Chibi Moon) is a toddler version of Chibiusa, but on the other hand, she is more likable, Funny, interesting and less-bratty than the latter as She shares her candies with Usagi.
- Continuing off from the first point, while most of the Guardians have a clearly defined personality, this is not the case for Usagi and Minako, especially during season 1. This was due to the show being expanded from the concept of a Sailor V show, and Usagi was hastily created as a carbon-copy of Minako from the start of the Sailor V manga (klutzy, crybaby, likes video games and sports, does bad at schoolwork) without some of the more interesting aspects of Minako (her love of volleyball and singing and the amorous approach to life only Minako has). This is thankfully rectified as the show goes on and both finally come onto their own terms as fully developed characters by season 5.
- The season 2, Sailor Moon R, despite it is sometimes considered the most important and loved of the 5 seasons, and for the fans, is sometimes pleasantly decent and dramatically underrated.
- Chibiusa (Sailor Chibi Moon), while likable and incredibly cute, can be an annoying character, unlike in both the original manga and the Crystal series. Though she is more worse in the DiC/Cloverway dub. While she is somewhat bratty in the Japanese version and Viz Dub, she's nowhere near that bad. Though she becomes likable after season 3 and while she still has a couple of bratty traits here and there, it's now to a lesser extent since she was starting to mature for the most part.
- The Sailor Starlights are very different than their manga counterparts (where they're female aliens who crossdress as male humans in the manga, while in the anime They are female aliens with the ability to change their genders). The fact Mamoru (SPOILER ALERT Though he was dead in Season 5), Chibiusa and the Outer Guardians were displaced by them didn't sit well with most fans. Though it is better than SuperS focus to Chibiusa as Sailor Starlights were new characters and we didn't know who they are unlike Chibiusa who we knew her from the R season.
- The DIC Entertainment/Cloverway Dub is really bad as it cut out some scenes, skipped episodes and had inappropriate voices which sometimes sounded too old and unfitting, whilst also having some blatant censorship (the most infamous of which was Haruka and Michiru's "cousins" status which came off as incestuous and the gender swap of Zoisite and Fisheye, as well as not dubbing the fifth and final season, titled "Sailor Stars", due to Cloverway losing their rights and being hard to censor until Viz Media claimed them after over 2 decades).
- On the subject of the Cloverway dub, the less said about DIC/Cloverway dub, the better!
- Though Dic/Cloverway dub wasn't the only dub that censors the anime. In the Italian dub The sex switching of Sailor Starlights wasn't present instead they were the twin sisters of the Three lights. This is because the "psychologist" Vera Slepoj made a stupid and homophobic claim about young boys becoming homosexual just by watching Sailor Moon. In the Greek dub Fish eye became female and Kunzite and Zoisite's relationship was change to being best friends (Though Haruka and Michiru' relationship was unchanged)
- While the Viz dub is decent and way better and more faithful than the god awful DIC/Cloverway dub, certain scenes were not dubbed and were only subtitled for English audiences, which is a common pet peeve to many anime fans.
- Speaking on the Viz dub, for the most part the voice acting is okay, but at times the acting can be very weak, Although not as weak as DIC/Cloverway dub.
- Like every Magical Girl anime, the plots of the filler episodes are often really predictable and formulaic as it uses the Monster of the Day formula. That being said, this is by far one of the best shows following the formula.
- While funny for the most part, there are some stupid or cringeworthy moments, like the infamous scene where Chibiusa sleeps below Usagi’s blanket in which she also pees on her pants and wets the bed.
- Episode 200, the final episode of the series, contains severe nudity for Sailor Moon during the final battle against Sailor Galaxia who was possessed by Chaos. However, it is not intended for sexual purposes, but only represents purity and freedom from chaos.
- Speaking of which, there isn't a overarching storyline throughout the whole series compared to the Manga in where it foreshadows the events of the final arc with Chaos being the main overarching antagonist in the manga.
- There are no less than 99 filler episodes.
- SuperS (while decent) is the weakest season in the series due to too much focus to Chibiusa and Pegasus, The Outer Sailors were absent, not faithful with the manga and the fairy-tale-like plot didn't sit well with most Fans as the previous season S had dark plot
- Queen Nehellenia is often considered to be the worst villain in Sailor Moon due to lack of personality and poor backstory.
- Though on the other hand it had some good changes from the manga such as the Amazon Trio being proper villains rather than monsters of the week
Videos
Trivia
- Episode 20 features a reference to the Addams Family where Usagi, Ami and Rei go to a beach after which they have to spent their day in a creepy mansion.
- This was Toei Animation's most successful show along with Dragon Ball Z at the time.
- Also like Dragon Ball Z it also spawned some memes, like the My job is done but you didn't do anything meme, Rei's surgical mask in Episode 19, I will punish you in the name of the moon meme, Sailor Bubba, Usagi's toast, Usagi and Makoto laughing and the Usagi excited but on the downsite meme.
- Toei originally wanted to adapt the manga's predecessor Codename Sailor V, into an anime, but later Naoko Takeuchi (The creator of Sailor Moon) decided to take the basic concept and expand it to add in more girls (with Minako, the main protagonist of Codename Sailor V, being in a suppoting role), who then expanded it into the Sailor Moon manga we know today.
- In the mythology Pluto was the god of death and Saturn god of time. Sailor Saturn and Sailor Pluto roles are reversed
- In the polish dub Sailor Saturn was mistakenly called Sailor Satan. In the Greek dub for unkown reasons Sailor Mercury was called Sailor Saturn and Sailor Saturn was called Sailor Mercury.
- The Starlights originally was going to have short hair but bandai asked the creator of Sailor Moon to make their hair longer for the Doll designs
- There is a flower named after Sailor Moon called Happy Valley Sailor Moon and it was named by Scientist Shigeru Makoto Kono
- Makoto Kino was originally going to be named Mamoru Chino and she was originaly going to be a gang leader and a smoker
- Taeko Nakanishi (Miss Minchin from Princess Sara and Mrs. March from Tales of Little Women) and Erin Fitzgerald (Nazz from Ed, Edd and Eddy and Juleka and Rose from Miraculous Ladybug Season 1) has the voicing of Makai Tree.
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