StrangenessAbound’s 見 (Anime) & 漫 (Manga) Page: Reviewing Sailor Moon (anime and manga)

Perhaps the most famous anime to hit the United States and Japan is the Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン) series. Created by Naoko Takeuchi in 1992 as a manga series and a short while later adapted into the anime series, it has been called by many as the turning point for the “magical girl” shoujo genre. Though it had much less success when the anime was dubbed and released in the United States (arguably because of the horrendous job DiC – the company that bought the English rights to it – did of editing and “rearranging” the anime), it maintains a legacy of which few other anime/mangas can boast.

Wallpaper Spread of the Sailor Senshi courtesy of InternationalHero.co.uk

Sailor Moon is the story of a regular school girl named Usagi (Serena in the English version) who, thanks to a stray cat named Luna, discovers that she has the power to transform from a regular human being into a fighting warrior with powers. Due to sets of enemies who are attacking earth during varying seasons, Usagi is forced to mature from a girl into a woman who must constantly fight on the frontlines. During this time, she gathers friends who share powers similar to Usagi’s and together they make up the Sailor Senshi. Senshi translates into warriors, though the group was cleaned up to say Sailor Scouts in the English dubbing.

Being the purist otaku that I am, I refused to watch the Americanized version of Sailor Moon (because it IS that horrible) and instead watched the series with Japanese audio and subtitles that were graciously created by fellow purist fans. And I must say: the first season of Sailor Moon is comical, fascinating and creates excellent tension that includes several truly tear-jerking moments. But after the first season follow four more seasons (200 episodes total in the SM series) which, while still good in their own way, just aren’t as good as the first season.

SM not only stands out for being a landmark for the shoujo genre, but also for casting such issues as various sexualities in positive lights. However, DiC and the other American cartoon companies who gained the English rights to the series polished all of these issues straight away and downgraded the young adult anime to a small children’s cartoon. Though there were five seasons in the Japanese anime series, only four were dubbed and aired – likely due to the lack of timeslots for SM. But I’ll make note that the fifth season of SM also became slightly more direct in it’s dealings with the sexualities portrayed, so it’s very plausible to me that the American cartoon companies no longer wanted to edit and polish away as much as they had already done.

SM is at its strongest during its first season (and its three movies!) and soon descends to less plot and more “fight-the-monster-of-the-day” by the third season. It also gets tiresome to see the same stock footage pasted in over and over and over and over again. On the other hand, my inner romance junkie loves the relationship between Usagi/Sailor Moon and Chiba Mamorou/ Tuxedo Mask. Mamorou/Tuxedo Mask is a character that more often than not, helps Sailor Moon in her push to rid the earth of evil.

I will state here that I enjoy the manga infinitely more than even the fan-subbed, Japanese audio anime. The manga is much more focused on plot, character development and actually makes more sense than the anime, IMO.

And of course, there’s no way that I can cover all the points regarding the anime and manga of Sailor Moon, but I end this short discussion by saying that I have yet to meet a fellow otaku who has not read and/or watched Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is practically where the anime/manga medium begins.

EDIT: It occurred to me after Were Geek commented that others might like to know where to find episodes of Sailor Moon and the manga that started it all.

Here is the first subbed episode of Sailor Moon courtesy of himura-KAOROU on veoh.com:

Sailor Moon Episode 1 – Subbed

Here is a link to a website which hosts every manga issue as well as various artboooks for Sailor Moon.

Neo Nobility

If you are curious to know whether or not it is legal to watch the anime episodes and read the manga for free — do not fret, it is. The license for both the anime and the manga lapsed in Japan and the US long ago. However, there are rumors floating about that Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of the series, is looking to reboot Sailor Moon, so get ‘em while you can!