Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Oh Sailor Moon, wherever shall I start?

This anime was fantastic for its time period and should be rediscovered by all its fans of yester-year, even if we twenty-somethings admit to watching it with shame. There's just something about this series that makes it amazing. Even with its spliced-in cutscenes and repetitive plot and catchphrases, the characters stick with you and evolve just enough to make them interesting. The Sailor Moon series may not have been a work of artistic genius, but it's incredibly enjoyable, a pioneer of its time, and an anime cultural icon. Some day when you're sitting around the ... house and need some cheering up, check this old favorite out. I doubt you'll be disappointed.
As a side note, if you can stand the subbed japanese version, by all means watch that. The depth of the dialogue is much better and the english version cuts a great deal out. (Also I felt the japanese voice actors are much better on the whole, but I'll leave that up to you.)

It's an anime staple, so clearly it's something to watch if only to get a proper understanding of the current anime climate. However, if you're watching it for that reason...start a season or two ahead.

This perspective is probably tainted by my own biases pertaining to relationships and appropriateness, but there you go.

So...Sailor Moon is centered around romance - specifically romance with large age/maturity differences, vague or outright incest, and the important of True Love (that again is often creepy due to aforementioned features). This is very alienating if these narratives bother you like they do me. This is probably because I come from outside ... 1990s Japan, but seeing a bunch of 14 year olds dedicate their lives to older men, and older men projecting their insecurities onto 14 year olds, is not something I enjoy.

Additionally, the many characters are often put into sexually incriminating poses, even in their deaths. Another thing that bothers me.

That said, if those things don't impact your enjoyment of anime in general, then you'll have a better time.

As mentioned before in other reviews, the pacing is wonky. The characters introduced later in the series don't get enough characterization before the end of the season, and when you have to introduce five sailors in one season, keeping that properly spaced is important. There's a lot of filler in the beginning centering the protagonist (who many consider annoying) and then plot episodes get smushed in near the end. It's....not good.

The character designs are creative but the animation was done on a budget, which makes sense for its time. The transformations are memorable, though. The palette is classic, though - muted pink shades contrasting dark blues are truly the way to go. The music isn't too memorable, though. The opening theme gets beat into you, though.

Overall....okay.

As been mentioned before , Sailor moon was my first anime to watch , i heard about it from a friend of mine many years ago but i could watch it in turkish so i understood about 1% of what been spoken about but i waited every single day just to watch a new episode. ( no youtube back then Q.Q)

Contain spoiler @#@#@

Good :

1.This anime really funny :))) Lots of funny moments , embarrassing moments and just silly pranks and jokes make it easy to watch and something to wait for.
2. Simple and easy to watch - If we remove all the transformation and ... the magic from it , you can see here a normal life of simple girls who deal with simple life problems and it makes it easy to see yourself in their shoes and develop sympathy.
3.Art- Good compare to many other animes even in this days who look way worse and its 1992 - 3 so compare it to the year , the options and other anime - art gets a ten. And improves in future seasons.
4. Anime with lots of seasons , always something to wait for and to be sure that you wont be looking for any other anime soon ^^.
5. Age - goes for any age , people in any age can watch and enjoy it.
6. Multi heroes - Its like maybe one of a few anime with more then 1-2 heroes. Every hero have his story, life, feelings and personality so people can choose the character thats fits them most and enjoy watching her grow up.

Not so good xD!
1.The really long ,annoying & boring transformation parts take like 1/3 of the episode and other 1/3 opening+ ending songs and we got left with 1/3 episode to watch =(.
2. Main based - 90% of the anime are 1 hero based but this anime was special thanks to multiple heroes in same time but as long as i kept on watching, it became 90% the main character and 10% the "other" main characters.
All spin around one girl who gets the power/guy/saves the world and etc = BORING.
3. Missing action - 1/3 of the episode sailormoon transform , then the monster get a few punches , sailor moon does the final hit and thats it O,o.
Action missing.
4. Love story missing - ok so we get it that she is with mamuru....
why no other girl from the whole bunch of them get a boyfriend?
are they having any interesting in guys beside bla bla about it?
Appears not =(
5. Hard to watch the anime because starting to see some missing parts like :
What about the moon kingdom....
Who the evil lords are...
Why the hell they came just at this time and not like 50 years ago....
Why they dont remember the sailor girls from the kingdom times and etc.
oww and why Usagi who been described as 1.50 height and weights like 70
drawn like a long legs model O.o

The conclusion -
light and easy anime , thanks to youtube and other online websites the long transformation parts can be skipped , funny to watch , have more then one season + movies so you have always something to watch and wait for and this anime have few unique things that other anime doesn't even this days.

So let me start off by saying that I am not part of the Sailor Moon fandom that started watching this in 1995. I watched this almost 10 years ago, back when I was in grade school. Here I am, almost graduating high school and I STILL ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SHOW. Every time someone asks me what's my favorite anime, I say "Sailor Moon- I've seen all 200 episodes and all 3 movies, watched the live action, and read both versions of the American release of the manga," with pride.
*I will only be reviewing the first season, not the entire series*

Story 9/10: The first season ... mostly follows the manga, except for the first few episodes until Ami is introduced. But that is to be expected, since the animators were drawing this back to back with every manga release. But you, the viewer, know that manga and anime are completely different platforms, so the changes they made to the story really helped with the flow.

Art 9/10: It's an early 90s anime, what do you expect? But the art is really good for that time period and watching it now makes Sailor Moon seem like a cool and retro anime. I happen to like the solid colors that are used. I definitely like the way they drew the senshi, making them look a little more mature than other magical girl series like Pretty Cure (which is wayyyy to girly for my taste).

Sound 9/10: I give the best opening theme song award to Sailor Moon! There's no other anime with a better opening song (except for maybe Noragami). The transformation music is hard to skip because it's so catchy.

Character 10/10: The first few episodes establish Usagi's background very well, along with Rei and Ami. While Makoto and Minako are introduced quite later, you still get to connect with them and their backstories.

Enjoyment 10/10: I just love all the laughs I get from Sailor Moon, from both characters and situations. Especially because there are no plot holes, you can enjoy this anime to the fullest. It's pretty obvious that there is going to be romance, but it happens in a cute way that the elevator scene will always, always, always be my favorite.

Overall 10/10: Sailor Moon has a great balance of humor, comedy, and some mystery makes it a fun watch for anybody. Not watching the rest of the series after the 1st season is fine, although if you enjoyed it even a bit, I suggest sticking around until at least the end of the Black Moon Arc.

First of all let me say this i am so glad i found this on Myanmelist and Youtube 4 i can watch this. I saw this when i was a little girl now im am 14 yrs old this is the first anime i sin on toonami jetstream besides Naruto and prince of tennis not counting bleach because it is on adult swim but back to the main reason i wrote the review. 2 me this is the greatest anime i saw this brang back so many memories when me and my friends in cousin used to pretend to be sailor scouts i used ... to be sailor moon because it reminded me of my own self. I HAD DREAMS BOUT LOOKING AT THIS ANIME AGAIN I JUST DIDNT KNOW IT WAS ON THE INTERNET AND DID NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUTUBE YET. BUT I DID ALMOST HAVE THE COMPLETE SERIES. LOL

IF u are looking for a good anime/manga inn also like Greek mythology please look at this. sorry if this review isnt good enough but this is my first review i know i know not that again the fist review thing but i promise i will do better.

NIKKI OUT

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is a staple in the history of anime. It’s a classic that even non-anime fans will recognize and has gone on to become an immensely successful franchise even outside of Japan. But the question is: how does it hold up today?

Even today Sailor Moon is still a very enjoyable anime. Though not without flaws, it’s a classic still worth viewing. Sailor moon is the story of Usagi Tsukino, a normal, clutzy, fourteen year old middle schooler with awful grades. One day she saves a cat from being harassed by some kids. The cat, named Luna, later gives her a magical artifact ... which gives her the power to turn into the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. She is later joined by other girls, Makoto, Rei, Ami, and Minako, who all band together to fight the Dark Kingdom, evil supernatural entities who seek to suck the energy from humans. At first, the premise sounds a little typical, maybe even a little silly.

The “teenagers saving the world with superpowers” premise should be a very familiar concept to any anime fan, new or old. The story itself isn’t really much to write home about, though it’s not terrible either. It walks a funny line between shounen and shojo, showcasing intense fight scenes and drama while also having light hearted moments and romance. A lot of the episodes also contain little messages and lessons in them, akin to something we’d see in your typical Saturday morning cartoons for kids.

Each episode focuses on the girls fighting a different Youma, so the anime is mostly episodic. Each episode pits the girls against a new Youma, requiring them to transform and defeat the enemy. The battle scenes follow a specific pattern: Youma appears, girls transform, dodge Youma’s attack a little, and then defeats Youma with their powers. Sometimes Tuxedo Mask will appear to give the girls a hand. Only in the last few episodes is the pattern broken, showcasing the best fight scene in the entire show. It’s understandable that they would save the best for last but one has to wonder why they couldn’t give the earlier fights even a fraction of the last fight’s pizazz. The individual episode’s villains aren’t very memorable and they usually go down pretty quickly. The recurring villains aren’t much better, being cartoonishly evil and hardly memorable as well.

However, the main characters are where this anime really shines. The main girls are all unique individuals with distinct personalities. There’s the clumsy and silly Usagi, the shy but intelligent Rei, the brawny tomboy Makoto, the bold and beautiful Rei, and the responsible and cool Minako. You’re going to end up loving at least one of the girls. Although they fight evil in tiny miniskirts at night, the anime also puts a spot light on their personal lives, including their love lives, crushes, pasts, personal struggles, and relationships. They’re all feminine and girly in their own little way, but they’re also strong, cooperative, and compassionate. These characters exemplify girl power.

There are also some fun side characters that include Usagi’s classmates, an arcade employee named Motoki, and Mamoru who is forever teasing Usagi. Seeing the character’s interact is always fun too, especially the hilarious bickering between Usagi and Rei. Other characters like Makoto do silly things as well, like falling for any guy who even remotely resembles the upperclassmen that rejected her. Or Mamoru’s constant teasing of Usagi by calling her “dumpling head.” They are all fun and likeable characters.

The character designs are excellent, with each of the sailor soldiers having a distinct look that suits their personalities. Even the lesser characters have some pretty unique designs. While the animation is great, it uses a ridiculous amount of repeating footage. The footage used for their transformations, attacks, and Sailor Moon’s catchphrase are used again and again in all 46 episodes. The transformations are very cool, with Sailor Moon’s being the longest and flashiest. But it’s the same exact thing every time. It would have been nice to have some variety, maybe changing up the look of the girl’s transformations. It also would have been nice to give the girls more attacks. The best we get is a mix and match when the girls all transform or attack together. As stated before, the setup of each fight is basically the same as well. The anime uses a little too much repetition, and would have benefited from some more variety in its action and story.

The soundtrack has a number of catchy tunes, but once again, a few tracks are used over and over again. The same song is used when the girls transform and attack. On the bright side, there are some good insert songs that don’t get overused.

Overall, Sailor Moon is a very enjoyable anime. It’s a fun, cute, and generally lighthearted watch. Not everyone is going to enjoy it; some will find it repetitive and others may be turned off by the shojo aspects of the show. But Sailor Moon is still a great show and a classic. The first season ends on a pretty high note, setting the stage for a wonderful second season with room for improvements.

Okay, so I have of course seen all of Sailor Moon, but I am really just going to be sharing the first season in this review.

Summary Plot: Sometime in the endless past, well... 1000 years according to the Canadian dub, there was this Kingdom on the Moon called Silver Millennium. It was ruled by Neo Queen Serenity, she ruled this Moon Kingdom by the power given to her by the Goddess, Selene. Her daughter shared the same name as her, and was the Princess of Silver Millennium, Serenity, who, in the present time reincarnated as the crybaby, Usagi Tsukino.

Usagi is a 14 year ... old girl who goes to Juban Middle school, which I believe is a Tokyo district of Japan or something along those lines! Usagi, as mentioned above, is a bit of a crybaby. Undisciplined AF! Hardly ever pays attention in class or does well on her tests, because she likes to daydream about romance, anime, and Arcade games.

One night, while she was taking a nap on her bed, a mysterious black cat appears, by sneaking in through her bedroom window. This would have been a startle in itself, but this cat starts speaking to Usagi! Which makes Usagi think that she's still asleep, and that this encounter is just a dream she's still in.

The cat, who reveals herself by the name Luna, tells Usagi that she is the chosen heroine who is to become a Champion of love and justice, called Sailor Moon, to: 1.) Locate the 'Princess', and to: 2.) Locate the other Sailor Guardians that will work with her as a team in this mission, all the while protecting the planet and Japan from the dark forces of evil, from an alien race of villainous entities, that operate from the shadowy labyrinths, called the Dark Kingdom.

Art: Sailor Moon has a personal art style that I am attracted to with those 90's anime, but it is still a bit outdated, so it did not get as high of a rate because of that, but it is still really good for its time! :3 And even though Sailor Moon was remade, I still actually prefer this art style over a lot of the new stuff.

Sound: Same as Art in that it got the same rate. I actually enjoy some of the music for the Canadian Dub version of Sailor Moon over some of the original Japanese music that's in it. This would include the original theme that plays whenever Usagi throws her Moon Tiara.

Characters: I personally love the character cast in Sailor Moon. They all add a unique quality in their personalities to the series. Usagi with her clumsiness, high spirited, and positive nature. Ami with her reasoning skills, sensibility, logical and organized way of thinking, while having shyness in her personality. Rei for her psychic senses and intuition, and her fiery forwardness. Makoto for her strong, not easy to push over, dominance. Minako for her ... well, she's actually just a lot like Usagi in a sense! XD ... and so on and so forth!

Enjoyment: This series got the highest rate for Enjoyment for me personally because of the extent of creativity this anime has in its story and characters. And because there really isn't too many series out there that I have put this much time into as I did with Sailor Moon!

Overall: I gave Sailor Moon an overall rate of 10 because of everything I said in the Enjoyment section, but also because this anime goes back with me, just like it does with so many others!~

Before the nineties, the term "magical girl" anime mostly consisted of plots involving young girls who are given a magical item by some cute fairies that allows them to grow up and become whatever they wish to be and have fun with their new powers. This was pretty much the standard for typical magical girl anime, as girls didn't use their powers to fight evil or save the world until a woman named Naoko Takeuchi gave this a go one day, and wound up sparking the biggest anime revolution that ever exploded in the anime world. Usually in anime, boys would be the ones fighting ... monsters or saving the world, and girls were still just supporting characters considering the attitudes toward women didn't change much back then, even after World War II. But Sailor Moon rocked the anime world for many fans, and even wound up being a gateway anime for many incoming otaku who watched the show on Toonami or other channels that aired it. Lots of people I know watched Sailor Moon and love it to this day, as it became the anime that revitalized the magical girl genre in its day. Sad to say, I was not one of those people. I was waaaay too young when this came out (Born in 1993). However, I do remember watching a bit of Venus's debut episode and most of the SuperS movie on Toonami once, but that's about it. This year, I decided to watch the entire series and see if it's really as good as everyone believes it to be. Now that I finished it, it's time that I put down my honest review of it.

Our main character, Usagi (known as Serena in the English dub, which I only saw one episode of and don't plan on seeing any more), is...not the best person in the world. She's ditzy, woefully clumsy, dumb as a brick, a glutton, greedy, and a hopeless crybaby who freaks out over little things. She is regularly late for school every single day (seriously, doesn't she ever have an alarm clock? Being late every single day? That's just not healthy!), she's always being scolded by the teacher for said tardiness, she always fails her tests, never studies, is always under her family's fire, and wants nothing more to do than eat junk food, go to the arcade, gossip with her friends, and talk about cute guys. Basically, she's the girl nobody really wants to be but is anyway. But one day, on her way to school, she saves a cat from being abused by some rowdy kids. When she gets back, the cat, Luna, turns out to be anything but normal. Luna is a familiar from the moon, and an organization called the Dark Kingdom, currently run by an old hag named Queen Beryl, wants to revive their ruler, Metalia, and take over the world, and Luna thinks Usagi might be one of the sailor soldiers, a group of people who defend the peace of the Earth. Usagi then becomes Sailor Moon, and she's not too keen on the idea of fighting monsters and saving the world when she can't even get up in the morning. But she's not the only sailor soldier. She is soon joined by sweet and smart Ami (Sailor Mercury), beautiful and brave Minako (Sailor Venus), fiery and easily irritated Rei (Sailor Mars), and strong and supportive Makoto (Sailor Jupiter). Together, they must defeat the Dark Kingdom and thwart their evil schemes.

For a magical girl anime that supposedly caused an epic Blitzkrieg in it's homeland and overseas, it's animation is really nothing to write home about. It hasn't really aged well. It's colors are a bit messy at times, the eyes get out of place at times, there's so many still frames it's not even funny, and at times things just look a bit too sketchy and kooky. Even when the characters move, they seem to be a little stiff at times (except for the opening, but all openings are like that so who am I to judge?). Plus, I have to admit, I don't like how the characters' legs look. They're a bit too long for my tastes. No person I know has legs that long, even for super model standards. Seriously, what is it with anime and designing all characters with ridiculously long legs? But then again, considering how short their skirts are when they battle, the anatomy here is a bit more considerate than other anime. The music isn't really much to talk about either. It's generic, pretty much no different from other anime music you'd hear in any 90s anime, and I've heard my fair share of soundtracks from anime in the 90s. Sorry, but Homeless Girl Remy has a much better soundtrack than this. But the music in their assigned scenes DO fit their assigned scenes (happy music in happy moments, scary music in scary moments, sad music in sad moments, etc.) and not once do they feel out of place, unlike some shows that play the wrong music in the wrong places (Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, anyone?). It also does a decent job of forming the correct atmosphere for their assigned scenes so I won't fault it for doing that. The opening is nice and serene (and yes the English version is pretty catchy too). However! If you ask me, I prefer the Spanish version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30vuUMTJLiE It totally trumps both the Japanese AND English versions, even if it's just the Japanese version with Spanish lyrics and a different singer who, in my honest opinion, sings the song MUCH better than the original singers. Don't kill me!!!

The characters...well, I can see how they'd be revolutionary for their time, but nowadays, they're still a bunch of character archetypes that have been used over and over again. We have the ditzy and dumb idiot who doesn't grow into her role as the leader, the brainiac, the person who always berates the leader for everything they do well-intentioned or not, the brawny strong one, and the beautiful one who's just kind of there. Ugh, I seriously couldn't stand Usagi. I know she has her moments, and she can be awesome when she has her shining moments, but her shining moments are very few and far in between. The rest of the time all she does is whine with that screechy voice of hers and act like a brat and have everyone do everything for her. She's definitely NOT leader material and doesn't improve when the situation calls for it, nor does she display any awareness or responsibility for any of the roles she's placed in. Seriously, I wanted to bash her head in whenever she opened her mouth and said or did something stupid! Her first English dub voice and her Spanish dub voice sound more convincing than her Japanese voice! Heck, if you ask me, I think Rei or Makoto should have been given the leader role and not Usagi, and they're the ones who do most of the attacking while Usagi just runs away whining and crying 90% of the times she's in a battle! However, my complaints aside, Usagi IS a realistic character, and definitely has more than enough flaws to justify what she does, and while she may have a bunch of flaws, she definitely has a good heart and will do anything for her friends and family, even if she approaches situations in a stupid and impulsive manner a lot of the time. You have to admit she's a HECK of a lot better than certain other characters from other shows (Tagiru from Digimon Xros Wars: Hunters, anyone?) Plus, I wish Tuxedo Mask did more than just throw roses, say inspirational (mostly expository) speeches, fling his cape, save Usagi, and run away a lot of the time. He's just a silly exposition fairy who doesn't really do much other than what I just listed, and even in the end, his role is rather silly and cliche. He doesn't grow as a character nor does he gain any new powers. The other characters don't get much development either, but that'll get rectified in later seasons. Out of all the characters, my favorites are Ami, Rei, and Makoto. They actually do way more in the show than Usagi did, and are much more interesting and likable in my honest opinion. Yeah Rei gets mad at Usagi a lot of the time, but wouldn't you do the same if you were paired up with a dim bulb idiot who constantly does stupid things, even in the face of grave danger? I know I would! Finally, the villains are cliche and uninteresting, with not much personality traits other than "I wantz too take over da world for the evulz!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!" save for anyone after Jadeite, and of course the Monsters of the Week aren't very interesting either.

This review is entirely based on the Japanese version, NOT the English dub. From what I've heard, the English dub sucked really hard and cut out a lot of important things, so I decided to spare myself the agony and not go anywhere near it other than the 1st episode (Seriously, people hate the dub and NOBODY talked about the shameless Star Wars parody at the beginning of the first episode?! For shame!!). Now, personally, I think Sailor Moon is rather generic, cliche, and silly. It has stereotypical characters, stereotypical villains (albeit with SOME personality), the monster of the week format, and vice versa. Normally, this would be a recipe for disaster, right? With my honest review, you'd think that I'd give this anime an F for being an epic cliche storm. But...I won't? Why? Because I like Sailor Moon. I like Sailor Moon. Yes it's silly, yes it's cliche, yes the characters aren't entirely three dimensional, yes the villains aren't that interesting, yes the monster of the week storytelling is repetitive and silly, yada yada yada. But despite all of this, I found it to be sweetly charming and endearing, and it really made me remember what it was like to wake up on a Saturday morning and watch exciting cartoons that branded themselves into our memories. Yes, Sailor Moon has made me embrace my inner 10-year-old girl, and I'm proud of it. It's not the best anime in the world, but it definitely has a lot to like about it if you aren't too cynical. It's definitely the kind of anime you'd want to watch after a hard day of school or work and when you just want to sit back, relax, grab a bag of cheese curls and a bottle of water, and watch a bunch of pretty girls kick monster butt. Yeah, I can see why this was the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic of the nineties.

While it did cause a revolution, it's not as good now as it was back then, but it's still a nice little anime to watch when you want to. Also, would anyone like to join me in giving Usagi the job of taking care of twin baby ponies like Pinkie Pie had to go through? Maybe that'll teach her some responsibility and awareness of her situation!

I remember watching sailor moon when I was little and it was the one thing that nearly all girls wanted to be, a girl super hero!!
The story is very good as the main character (Usagi/Serena) is a very, very clumsy girl who you'lll probably think will never achieve high espectations. However she ends up chosen to be Sailor moon, a sailor soldier of love and justice!!
She is joined by other sailor soilders who she meets during the anime.
There is also some romance but you can find that out for yourself!
This is definately for people who like the magic girl/ super hero type animes.
Also there are ... lots of suprises in store so watch carefully :)
Overall good anime and its worth watching ;)

Toei Animation and what could be their second best franchise ever behind Dragon Ball is Sailor Moon. This anime went on to define the genre of shoujo and magical girl. What once was only about young girls pandering after men became about girls fighting evil with their various powers, something never really been seen before. Sailor Moon was original set for six months (2 seasons/cores by today’s standards), but due to the overwhelming popularity became an international success.

Our story starts off focusing around young 14 year old Usagi Tsukino. She is clumsy, cries a lot, and is not very smart. Well, despite her many flaws ... meets a talking cat called Luna in which gives Usagi the power to transform into the sailor scout, Sailor Moon. As a sailor scout, she is tasked with fighting evil brought on by the Dark Kingdom and Queen Beryl. Over the course of the series, Usagi continues to battle, meets other sailor scouts, falls in love with a college student, and discovers the hidden past of the Moon kingdom and Earth.

Art and animation is fairly poor for the time, almost looking like something that came out of 1984 at best. Most of the characters are fairly one dimensional without any development other than becoming sailor scouts. Even the design is pretty bland emanating greatly for the shoujo genre. For example, costume design and background is very similar to Aim for the Ace (1973). Also, the problem the anime suffers from the most is the repetition, predictability, and fillers. Due to the popularity and the show’s extension, out of the 46 episodes, 25 are filler!

It is really unfortunate that for an anime to have such a legacy, in this day in age Sailor Moon falls terribly low to it being dated and panders to the decade it was in. If the fillers are taken out, then Sailor Moon is a pretty decent show. Otherwise, it is a slightly above average magical girl anime with some shounen elements.

Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon is one of those anime series that doesn't steers away from the plot, it may have some of the "classical episodes" like the hot spring episode, the beach episode, but while in any random anime it may be a filler, in Sailor Moon they are made in such a way that have something to do with it. Everything that happens is about the Sailor Soldiers Vs The Dark Kingdom.

The art is pretty classical. For an anime released in 1992 it's actually very well made. The drawings look pretty colorful and the transformations and powers are neatly animated.

It has a very good ... soundtrack that fits every moment. The soundtrack makes you catch the feelings that are actually going on in the scene. And the sound effects fit very well the "mahou shojo" feeling.

Every character is unique. They all have their personality, very different from each other. However compared to Usagi, the rest of the Sailor Soldiers adapted incredibly fast to the life as one.

You can get hooked easily if a major event is going on. Every end of episode makes you want to keep going.

Overall, Sailor Moon is an anime series worth watching. It's one of those anime series that will either give you goosebumps or make your tears flow.

This review will talk about the first season of Sailor Moon.

I have to thank Sailor Moon for one thing and that was getting me to watch anime. I was about nine years old when I first watched it on "NBC" and despite the face that the show's heroes were teenage girls, I got hooked.

Fast forward nearly eleven years later and I decided to re-watch it in its native (Japanese) language and format. It was far better than the one that I watched on NBC.

Simply put, if you can get over the weird transformations, this season is alot of fun to watch. All the main ... characters give you reason to care about what they are doing. Usagi, Rei, Minako, Ami and Makoto (or Serena, Raye, Mina, Amy and Lita if you watch the English version) all have vibrant personalities that often are odds with one another, often making for some very funny episodes and good laughs.

Even the bad guys are interesting in their own right. The relationship of one of the main antagonists, Nephrite, and Naru (known as Molly, being heroine's best friend) is very touching yet solemn as it is a doomed love. This probably had to be the best part of this season, the relationship between these two characters. As a guy, I have to say, the end of their tragic relationship nearly moved me to tears.

I cannot tell you the story outright otherwise I will spoil it but it is good though it starts off really slow in the beginning. Basically, it is about an evil witch named "Queen Beryl" who is attempting to revive her former master, "Metallia", an ultra uber creature I suppose, by using the life force of humans by taking their energy. It is up to the Sailor Scouts to prevent this from happening. This is the main gist of the story though there are several twists and turns.

The art not great. Perhaps the greatest weakness of the show, some of the fights look real choppy. There are times where it seems as if the animators just skipped an entire fight scene by having Sailor Moon throw her tiara at the enemy and obliterate them. In that case, why have other Sailor Senshi then?

The music and voice acting in the original is great. "Moonlight Denetsu" is a very catchy opening and most of the in show music uses baroque and classical elements.

In all, the first season of Sailor Moon blasted off on the right foot and set the standard of other magical girl animes that came after it. Definitely one of the strongest seasons in the entire Sailor Moon series.

Literally my first anime in mahou shoujo category and made me fall in love with the genre. A series with female protagonists which serves a side-story about love couple relationships. Every girl and even the boys in the name of the moon will all shall punish the evil beings and monsters who try to steal the crystals of all people which means the essence of life for them. Collecting a specific loot like the silver crystal to save the Earth and all who's living there. Black magic and dark disturbing elements in the series are present, but even the most impossible love can come true ... if fought well for it. The artstyle performs the 90's graphics effortlessly and from pure Nostalgia, it's rewatching factor gets stronger by the time being. Arguably one of the most popular masterpieces in the history of anime. The music itself wakes different feelings inside us and the transformation musics are all intense. Worth to look up a specific OST about them on Google. The main protagonist, Sailor Moon or in real name Usagi Tsukino is the most sensitive of all the girls despite being the leader of the Inner-Senshi Sailor Scouts. I recommend it to anyone who loves the 90's artstyle and really into mahou-shoujo....khm....bishoujo genre.

How can I review a series with so much current influence and nostalgic feelings tied to it as Sailor Moon? Currently, I would like to look at this series on its own merits, without bringing those traits into question.

I was recommended Sailor Moon by my girlfriend, who watched it as a kid. My main motivation to watch was to learn more about her through the shows she loves, and I definitely had to cling to that throughout approximately the first 20 episodes, as it was quite a dull time watching. After that, though, around the introduction of Sailor Jupiter, I found myself compulsively watching, which ... doesn't often happen. Perhaps Jupiter has a certain pull, or perhaps that's also when the plot picks up. In any case, I don't regret watching as far as I have, because I found myself fascinated by the lore within. Reincarnation, lost kingdoms; it feels like a modern-day fairy tale. If that's your kind of thing, then absolutely give Sailor Moon a try. It's my go-to series for that fairy tale aspect.

One big turnoff: In the Japanese dub, at least, Usagi (Sailor Moon)'s voice is /annoying/. I'm still not entirely used to it after almost 40 episodes. Other characters are better than her, but not all that great either. If voice acting matters a lot to you in your enjoyment, this most likely is not your show.

I gave the art a score of 7; while the animation is occasionally distractingly shaky while being filmed, I will chalk that up to the era and focus on the beautiful watercolor effects. Typically, characters are cel colored, but when Sailor Moon wants visual appeal in a particular scene, by God it will give you visual appeal. The aforementioned watercolor adds to the overall fairytale feeling, and if I'm correct, sometimes actual glitter is used in the animation of transformation sequences. It looks pretty dang cool.

In conclusion, if you're looking for originality or raw quality, Sailor Moon isn't what you want to watch. But the execution of the fairy-tale tone has a draw that I haven't seen matched in another series that I can think of.

Sailor moon is the original magical girl anime. It has something for everyone. It has characters that everyone can relate to in terms of personality. For example, if your studious and smart then your Ami and if your lazy and a crybaby your Usagi. Even fans who prefer shounen would like this series because it is full of action scenes. Fans of romance will like it because of Mamoru and Usagi's relationship. For very little kids the dub is better as it contains less complex plots and the romance between Haruka and Micchiru is censored. The opening and ending songs are very memorable. I find ... myself singing them every second of every day! I really enjoyed the series.

This review is biased and is more for personal use.

Although the first half of the season seems to drag on, the story begins to develop in the second half and barrels into an incredible season finale.

The first half is goofier, leaning more into the Monster-of-the-Week side. One by one, the characters are introduced as silly but good-hearted middle schoolers who begin to develop and close friendship with one another.

In the second half we see more depth, more sadness, and the Senshi team's devotion to each other. We also begin to see deeper character development and the great sound design comes into play. The season finale ... is stunning and moving.

My favorite episodes: Ep 6, 11, 13, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46

I could go on and on here, but i will straight to the point, this is one of the BEST anime i've watched, not because it is super complex like Ergo Proxy, no because it is deep like Berserk and neither because of how revolutionary it was, but because this anime captivates you, this anime makes you feel like you are hanging out with a couple of friends, you feel connected to the story and it is so much FUN, this anime is light on you, easy going, if you want to watch something that is enjoyable and beautiful, WATCH THIS !

Review of Sailor Moon Season 1

In this review I will look into this qualities and flaws of the fist season of Sailor Moon. This review is not only highly subjective, but also my first review on this site so feel free to disagree. I also tried to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but if you want to go into the series completely blind (lol going blind on a nearly thirty years old series) and only care about my opinion feel free to jump right to my conclusion.


I will look into the structure, story, aesthetics and characters of Sailor Moon.



Structure: Sailor Moons ... is based around a clearly episodic or monster of the week structure with a loosely arc-based narrative underlying it. The episodes usually start with the daily life of the Scouts. These slice-of-life like parts of the Episodes are where most of the interactions between the girls happens and is full of comedic situations and some character moments. They also lay the thematic ground work for the episode and introduce the general problem and setting of the episode.
The second part of the episodes focuses on action scenes of the scouts fighting against the demon of the month. After the scouts come out victoriously the and basic problems shown in the episodes are resolved.

The underlying Arc-based narrative can be grouped into the few Episodes each minor villain is in charge of dealing with the main characters and of course the final Episodes which diverge quite heavily from the basic episodic structure. The different arc or minor villains have all slightly different ways in how they steal energy from people. Some focus on stealing energy from a group of people, other try to steal the energy of individuals and so on.

The Episodic structure of Sailor Moon and the progression through an arc based narrative lead to an very slow story progression. This is very clear if considered that Sailor Moon also tries to balance out lighthearted slice of life, the dark tone of the villains as well as action sequences. This means a lot of episodes don’t really add anything to the story and focus more on the general themes of friendship, teenage love, school, hobbies and more.

Aesthetics: First things first. Sailor Moon is an early 90´s anime. And an iconic one as well. So the beautifully hand drawn but a bit undetailed and clouded Backgrounds are to be expected. Just as the expressive and sometimes over the top character designs (especially if one considers the designs of the demons) The animation quality can be pretty lackluster and you will see a lot of reused sequences. The musical score does a good job on conveying the mood of the scene and is used to highlight important and reoccurring moments.

Characters: The Characters of of Sailor Moon are while being quite stereotypical on the surface surprisingly complex (for an anime focusing on mainly young teens as its audience that is). While the main cast and most of the side characters of Sailor Moon is very easily sorted to an common stereotype in anime with a bit more development than usual (even though there are a lot of interesting and well written character interactions and some good and even one excellent character moments), the minor villains are (after bearing through the first ten episodes or so) actually well written characters with a good enough focus to be more than just obstacles to be overcome.
But thanks to the episodic structure there will be a lot of characters who only appear for an episode and are are sometimes more and sometimes less memorable. These characters are (with maybe an exception here and there) pretty underdeveloped.



Conclusion:

Here Ill rate like everybody does with the exception of enjoyment. Because duh, my enjoyment score is the combination of the others as my enjoyment greatly influences how I rate each category. I rounded the score up in the selcting thing whatever.

Story: Fair to good 6,5/10

Sailor Moons strong themes and good character moments and interactions make up for a slow and sometimes repetitive structure. But the sometimes predictable episodes let to an lower rating. There also is a certain development in the story I thought was stupid, which dragged the rating down even more.

Art: Mediocre to fair 5,5/10

While some background designs and most character designs are great, the animation is sometimes pretty hard to bear and some scenes are just to stale and empty for an decent rating. Reused scenes exist but I don´t think they are really problematic as I see them more as some kind of catchphrase and iconic part of the show.

Music: Great 9/10

The soundtrack is not only memorable, it is straight out iconic. The soundtracks are used on fitting scenes. The original opening is also great. So yeah, the music is great. The only nit-picky thing I have to say is that a bit more variety would have been even better. But no complaining here.

Characters: Good to very good 7,5/10

The characters while influenced by (and influencing) stereotypical characters, do have a good amount of complexity to them. The character interactions are well written and add on a good bunch of comedic moments. The minor villains are fantastic. As well as some side characters. But a good load of characters used for one or two episodes only are stale, boring and underdeveloped. So I can´t give Sailor Moon a very good here.

28,5/40-->

7/10

So I would say Sailor Moon is a good anime and I have enjoyed most of it.
Thanks for reading, feedback is appreciated. Grammatical errors or weird sentences or wordings may come from me not being a native speaker.
Soooo
Yeah! Live with it. Greetings,
Ilieas

Sailor Moon will always be an all-time favourite of mine. It holds a special place in my heart also because I remember watching it as a kid, too. When I re-watched it though, I enjoyed it a lot more. I think the thing that really kept me hooked were the characters. They were all so diverse, and I just became really attached to Usagi in particular (because she is literally me). Honestly, there wasn't really much to the storyline as it continuously repeated the same thing over and over again, but it still manages to be intriguing because of the characters and the comedy aspect ... of it that keeps you wanting more. There are a lot of episodes, and after the first few seasons the story does actually develop into a more interesting one. As for the art, I personally really like the old style that is used.

For as long as mankind has enjoyed the tradition of telling stories, one of the most popular and long-lasting subjects has been the story of the hero... Average, ordinary people gifted with powers and trusted with the responsibility of fighting for justice, defending those around them, and proving what the average person... AKA the reader... Can accomplish if given the chance. Usagi Tsukino, however, is not what you’d call an average or ordinary teenage girl. No, even if we don’t consider the crushing expectations of Japanese society, she’s the pinnacle of below-average. Unlike most 14 year old middle school ... students, Usagi doesn’t have very many hobbies or interests, and even the things she enjoys, like video games, she’s below average at. She has no ambitions, she has no real talents, she can’t cook, she’s not athletic, she hates to study, she avoids responsibility at every turn, and no matter how low you set your bar, she’s not the first person you’d expect to be granted the powers of a hero. She’s probably not even your last pick.

However, as is often the case, along came a talking cat. Baring a strange crescent moon-shaped bald spot on her forehead, this matronly feline revealed Usagi’s true calling to her... With destiny at her side, and the mysterious Queen Beryl bringing chaos to her small Japanese town, Usagi was tasked with becoming Sailor Moon, the pretty guardian of love and justice! With only her wits and a few pieces of cosmic weaponry standing between her and defeat, four other Sailor Guardians would soon join her cause. The brilliant Sailor Mercury wields the power of water. The furious Sailor Mars wields the power of fire. The strong Sailor Jupiter wields the power of lightning, and the experienced Sailor Venus, who had been acting on her own as Sailor V long before Usagi obtained her power, wields the power of... Something. Combined, they form the Sailor Guardians, and it’s up to them to battle and defeat every single threat that Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom throw at them in their vague quest to turn the world dark, or something, and they can only do that by finding the missing Moon Princess and returning her to the throne!

All right, folks, it’s time once again to visit the nineties, a time when animation standards had to be low enough to accommodate the technology of the time, with very few exceptions managing to break through, but trust me, Sailor Moon wasn’t one of them. This series, and every single Sailor Moon title that would follow it(as far as I know, at least) was animated by Toei, one of the most long-running and prolific companies in anime history. Their legacy stretches back to the sixties, and they’ve had some noteworthy hits such as the One Piece, Captain Harlock and Dragonball franchises, and I’ve actually discussed them before in my review of the 1975 Little Mermaid movie, but one of their biggest names is arguably Sailor Moon, a franchise that began in 1991 and continues to this day in countless continuations. I’ll be perfectly honest, here... I never saw this show during it’s allegedly embarrassing run on American TV. I only saw SuperS growing up, and looking back at the OG, yeah, it really doesn’t hold up too well.

That’s not to say Sailor Moon is one of the worst looking anime I’ve ever watched, but considering the amount I have seen, that’s not saying much. People coming into the show blind without a lot of experience with the medium would probably call the animation awful right at first glance, and while that’s an understandable reaction, people who are used to watching older anime would more likely be able to tell that for it’s time, Sailor moon isn’t that far below average. The budget was obviously low, even by early nineties standards, but everyone stayed on model, with very rare exceptions. At it’s worst, movement can be stilted and static scenes can go on way too long, but honestly, for a magical girl show from 1991, it’s competent enough. Freezing characters who aren’t talking and reusing animation for the show’s infamous transformation sequences can also go a long way in conserving animation costs, and this is going to sound really weird... Even I don’t fully understand it... But as far as bad animation goes, this one is on the higher end of the scale.

There are two elements of the artwork that stand out to me the most. The first is the watercolor aesthetic, which... for the most part... gives the series a very soft and lighthearted feel, and the reason I say ‘for the most part’ is because that same watercolor art style is surprisingly versatile. This goes for more toned down backgrounds like the interiors of bedrooms and classrooms, where there’s enough detail to give the environment life without distracting from the character inhabiting them, but what’s even more impressive is just how dark and ominous it can get whenever we enter the realm of the Dark Kingdom, where they use just the right blend of colors to give off a sinister feeling without overdoing it. The other element that stands out is the character designs. Outside of the main cast and a handful of featured extras, the majority of the people on screen look normal enough for the Japanese setting, giving Usagi and the other Sailor Scouts the perfect backdrop to look unique against, with their assorted hair colors and alternate uniforms.

I do have a few gripes with the design conventions, of course... Since this is an old show, I can’t really get too mad at it for following old cliche trends, but I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me why old people in anime are always portrayed as little people. Do Asian people shrink with age, or something? And of course, if you’ve read my post about Astrid and Other Love Interests, you’ll be able to tell just by design which of Usagi’s two crushes she’ll actually wind up with by the end of the first episode. Not that it would have been hard to figure out otherwise. And finally you have the villains, which are every bit as crazy as the Power Rangers episodic baddies, but with the benefit of animation to explore just about every imaginable possibility. Some of them look more ridiculous than others, and I still haven’t managed to remove my palm from my face over seeing a priest turn into a boxing monster named Boxxy, but there are more than enough cool and memorable monsters to make up for it, disposable or not.

The music is a bit generic, but not in a bad way. It’s the kind of music you’d expect from a show about heroes of justice protecting the innocent, and even the tunes you have to listen to ad nauseum are at least catchy and memorable. Sailor moon’s transformation music never wore on my nerves, with it’s heart-pounding beat calling you to action. The whole orchestration is epic, even if it blends into the action way too well to be noticeable in context. Even the background music that plays in school when there’s no real action going on, which would be annoying and repetitive in most anime sounds pretty cool in this show, with a kind of jazz-like swing to it. I actually noticed that there are a lot of tracks in this show were kind of like analogues of the opening theme, either played in different ways or with different instruments, and can you blame them? With an opening theme that good, who wouldn’t want to get more use out of it? The animation for the opening gets a lot better in season two, of course, but they keep the same song.

Fun fact: I actually bought the soundtrack to Sailor Moon classic on Ebay, and not for a cheap price, just so I could have... Well, let’s avoid spoilers and just say “A certain violin track from the later episodes.” If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. It’s to die for.

There have been two English dubs for this series, and I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never seen the old Dic one. I’ve seen some clips of it, and if I’m being honest, none of it really inspired me to check out more. As I’ve said, my initial exposure was SuperS, and I distinctly remember the actor for Sailor Moon in that show being unlistenable, so for me, Stephanie Sheh is nothing short of a step up. I’ve gushed about her talent and range in previous reviews, but her abilities may have been a bit too good for this role, because Usagi is supposed to be an annoying and childish character more often than not, and of course, Stephanie delivers a childish and annoying performance... I’m not saying it’s not accurate, but intentional annoyance is still annoying. She does capture all of the characters positive attributes too, of course, which goes a long way in portraying the character’s growth, so props to Sheh on doing a solid job that does, occasionally, backfire in unavoidable ways.

The rest of the main female cast is rounded out by industry veterans, and while Kate Higgins and Chermi Leigh don’t have that much to do in their roles as Mercury and Venus... I’ll talk more about them later... They still do fine jobs with what they were given. Amanda C Miller hasn’t done as much anime work as her peers, as she’s only really been active since 2011, but she is fantastic as Sailor Jupiter, evoking strength, compassion and vulnerability on par with Christine Auten’s portrayal of Sakaki-san in Azumanga Daioh. She’s also not afraid to get whimsically goofy when her character gets lost in another boy-crazy fantasy. Cristina Vee is a name I always look for in a dub, and she doesn’t disappoint here with the character of Sailor Mars, which easily could have been written off as a stereotypical tsundere. Even with these names in the cast, however, my favorite performance is from Michelle Ruff as the herald of the Moon Kingdom, Luna, a talking black cat whose motherly tone conveys both the endless patience and long-suffering good humor that living with someone like Usagi would inevitably breed in someone.

Of course, Johnny Yong Bosch also plays a cat, the male named Artemis, and he does fine despite not having as much screen time. The rest of the cast is made up of both veterans and newcomers, with the most noticeable extras being Vic Mignogna as a boy with ESP, Wendee Lee as Princess Serenity’s mother, and a handful of appearances from Veronica Taylor in small roles. speaking of newcomers, Robbie Daymond had his official anime debut in this show as Mamoru Chiba, who would eventually be revealed as Tuxedo mask(If that’s a spoiler, then you’re too young to be reading my work), and he’s had a major career boom ever since, which he fully deserves. He plays both a normal sardonic teenager and a heroic boy-scout just fine, but he especially shines as a villain in the latter story arcs. That’s no easy feat, of course, when the villains of this show are being played by experienced VAs like Todd Haberkorn and Liam O’brien. The writing of the dub is also extremely faithful, from what I can gather from the subtitles, so it’s a dub I highly recommend checking out.

So, this is normally the part of the review where I’d start getting into things like the depths and themes of the writing, but Sailor Moon is a little different from the shows I’d normally tackle, as there really isn’t any depth of theme to it. Instead, I’m going to start off by addressing a very recent criticism of the series... That it exploits the sexuality of teenagers. If you haven’t seen the nostalgia Critic’s review of the series, he talks about the ethics of using 14 year old characters for fanservice, and uses that as a platform to discuss the issue of underage sexuality in Japan. don’t get me wrong, that IS a topic worthy of discussion, and he does a really smart job of it, but I can’t help feeling like Sailor Moon didn’t really deserve to be the focus. It’s practically a rule that in order to get deep into anime, you have to come to terms with the sight of underage characters being displayed in revealing outfits, or even less than that, sometimes full-on nude. That doesn’t mean you have to be okay with it, although it’s kind of easy to rationalize them as fictional characters drawn by the hand of an artist, or you can just get used to condemning and criticizing it. Your reaction is your own to discover and own.

Having said that, I’m sorry, I don’t get why Sailor Moon was the anime chosen to lead this discussion. Maybe it’s my asexuality talking, but I really don’t find anything sexual about this series, let alone it’s underage characters. Nothing sexual ever happens or even gets alluded to. I’ve seen a ton of anime that featured underaged nudity, from tasteless examples like Strike Witches to surprisingly tasteful examples like the last episode of B Gata H K. Okay, the transformation sequences kind of count, but they’re just featureless outlines, no more explicit than the Tempur-Pedic logo before it had it’s ass crack removed. Aside from a relatively tame beach episode, the girls never shove cleavage in our faces, and only once or twice shown bathing in G-rated fashion. I get westerners finding the sailor outfit sexy, but they’re just ordinary schoolgirl uniforms in Japan, and their actual hero-versions of those uniforms go one step further by being leotards, so even a skirt-flip like the one that freaked Doug out are no more revealing than watching a ballerina dance.

There’s a LOT worse out there in the anime world, but more to the point, there’s a lot worse in America, too. Let me just try out my cringeworthy Joker impersonation here... “When 14 year old Morty gets buck-naked, nobody panics because it’s all part of the plan. When the Simpsons movie shows us a ten year old’s uncensored penis, nobody panics, because it’s all part of the plan. But put one 14 year old girl in a sailor suit with a short skirt, then everyone starts losing their minds!” I’m really sorry if you actually imagined the voice for that. Anyway, rather than sexuality, it would make a lot more sense to use this show as a jumping-off point for a discussion about sexism, which isn’t a HUGE problem in this show, but it does exist. In a lot of cases, Tuxedo Mask does have to step in when Usagi starts to fuck up, and while I don’t think the writers intended to insult an entire gender here... They were probably just building up to the future reveals about the two, and Usagi does start to become much more confidant and self-sufficient down the line... It can get a little annoying, and understandably offensive to some viewers.

Honestly, the sexism in the series is at it’s worst when the writers seem conscious of it, and try to subvert it. The first really great episode of the series(And to be fair, there are no shortage of really great episodes) took place on an enchanted love cruise, and not only did it feature some of the best character writing for everybody present, but the girls managed to save the day all by themselves in spectacular fashion. And yet for some reason, one episode later, they aired the worst episode of the series, where they have their final encounter with Jadeite, and they actually TRIED to be non-sexist in the most blatant and on the nose way possible. Not only is the episode brain-breakably stupid(Seeing the sailor guardians running away from planes instead of turning around and taking advantage of their bulky size was pretty hilarious, IMO), but they had Jadeite call out the ineffectiveness of female heroes, despite never showing any signs of sexism, just to set out a very vocal girl power message from the heroes, who wind up rescuing Tuxedo Mask, who didn’t even need to be there in the previous episode.

And yeah, the show is really fucking stupid. It’s usually not too obvious a problem... lapses in logic in a show like this are largely forgivable... But there are exceptions. People not recognizing Usagi as Sailor Moon despite her face and hair always being the same is something you get used to really quickly, but when they do a story arc where the villains are trying overly-complicated methods to find out who she is, you start to wonder why her frisbee throwing skills and clumsy dancing are considered easier targets than literally everything going on above her neck. You do not solve problems by calling attention to them, especially problems we were already ignoring. But the biggest crime that the show’s stupidity causes is with the introduction of Sailor Mercury, who was supposed to be the smart character in the group, but then again, you need to have smart writers to write smart characters. Usagi may have grown as a character throughout the series, but the other characters were still needed to pull the series along.

Sailor Mercury has the same problem that Maka from Soul Eater had... She was brought in to be the smart character, but since the series itself wasn’t up to par on writing intelligence, we pretty much have to take their word for it. She spouts exposition, operates technology to reveal more exposition, gets good grades and studies a lot, but she doesn’t add any intelligence to the show or the dynamic of the group. Honestly, in practice, she’s more brave and self-sacrificing than smart. Rei, on the other hand, instantly makes the show better with her introduction. She’s meant to be the passionate character, and she does add some resolve to the group, and since passion conflicts with Usagi’s easy-going nature, she provides a desperately needed foil for her. She also brings perception to the group, which is MUCH easier to write than intelligence, as her communications with spirits and ability to sense auras help the group to avoid threats and identify traps more often. She doesn’t always save the show, just look at that Jadeite episode, but she does way more good than harm.

Sailor Jupiter doesn’t really add anything specific to the group, at least not that’s obvious. She’s characterized as the Strength girl, and yeah, the group does subtly get stronger with her in it. Even if you don’t notice this, she’s a very well written and fleshed out character, much like Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon. From the research that I’ve done, her and Mars are the most popular characters out of the main five, what with Mars being mature and responsible and Jupiter being the gentle giant with a heart of gold, both having distinctly unique identities outside of the team, and also having unique relationships with Usagi, so it makes sense they’d be at the top of the list. But then you have sailor Venus, who you THINK is going to have a major story surrounding her on account of her posing as sailor V and technically being the first active guardian, but no, she’s just dropped into the cast and immediately absorbed into it, and I cannot for the life of me describe her in any way other than a little bit of plot relevance.

Almost everything I know about her, other than her hair color and length, and the few scant facts mentioned above, I had to get from outside sources. apparently she’s the empathetic character and her element is Metal, none of which was ever made apparent to me in the show. Yeah, she gets developed a lot more in other media, but that’s beside the point. You can’t have that much filler and tell me you didn’t have time to make me care about one of your biggest characters. And of course, speaking of filler, we’re about to dive head first into one of my biggest problems with this series... Not how formulaic the episodes are, oh no, I can deal with that. I’m so far beyond used to that kind of thing. My problem is with the structure of the series. I don’t know this from personal research... I actually learned it from another reviewer... But apparently, the first three volumes of the manga are represented by the first 66 episodes of the anime... Which is all 46 episodes of this series plus 20 from it’s sequel series, Sailor Moon R.

I have no problem believing this, because my God do they take their sweet ass time with the story. Before I even learned this tidbit, I had formed a working hypothesis that they planned out the episode length of the series, picked out where each special event or plot development would happen, and filled the empty spaces with repetitive, formulaic filler, each stretch of episodes having it’s own basic plot idea. This is why unlike most shows, where there’d be a couple of bad episodes... Even Cowboy Bebop had one... Sailor Moon has bad stretches of episodes, about three of them by my count. The first stretch began with the first episode, and ended with the intro of Rei. The second stretch began with the final Jadeite intro and ended when Nephrite finally became interesting, and the final one happened between Venus’s introduction and when they gave up trying to figure out who Sailor Moon was. But honestly, out of 46 episodes, that’s not the majority of the series. Far from it.

If you can get over the repetition and formula, there’s a lot of good material here. While some of the characters fall flat, like Sailor Venus in particular, the rest of them are well written and fully realized. Usagi may not be as likeable as a main character and leader like Luffy, she has just as many personality-based weaknesses that keep her from ever feeling like a Mary Sue or an over-powered badass. I loved the villains in particular... Well, at least the ones serving as Queen Beryl’s henchman. Yeah, they were definitely evil, but they were also three dimensional, with personalities and motivations of their own, as well as their own connections and relationships beyond their job. Nephrite’s story arc in particular was one of the main reasons that I was able to have such a major soft spot for this series, allowing me to forgive all of it’s obvious problems. It’s also perfectly safe for younger viewers, although the younger male demographic might not get as much out of it. I’d say at the very least it’s worth checking out.

Sailor moon is available from Viz Media. There have been various home video releases in the past, but to my knowledge, this is the first one to present the series the way it was intended, so I don’t think those ones count. There have been countless sequel series and OVA and movie spin-offs and I dare not name them all here, but they’re easy to look up. A side manga called Codename Sailor V, which carries the bulk of Sailor Venus’s character development and identity, is available stateside from Kodansha Comics. A recent remake of the original series called Sailor Moon Crystal is also available from Viz, and features the same cast, but I’ve heard it’s not as good. What a surprise, a more manga-accurate retelling of a previously successful anime isn’t as good. The live action series is NOT available stateside, but the original manga is.

Getting into this anime 25 years after it’s release, and watching with the eyes of a 31 year old man, I was expecting it to be the cringiest thing ever. I was expecting something along the lines of a ghetto super hero version of Super Gals! Which was the last anime I can remember dropping. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Even the bad stuff, of which there was a considerable amount, was campy and awkward enough that I could get a good laugh out of it. I’ll admit that I went easy on it, compared to other titles that have crossed my path, but that’s because I was having too much fun to focus on nitpicking. It could get dark and serious when it wanted, and thankfully it did so at all the right times, taking a shockingly Wolf’s-Rain-esque turn towards the end. I don’t know if I’d be willing to watch it a second time, but I’m glad I watched it once, and I’d be happy to watch the sequel series, in order to see what happens next. I am Naru the Narcissist, lazy guardian of sloth and pretension, and in the name of the moon, I give Sailor Moon a 6/10.