One day, 13-year-old middle schooler Minako Aino is approached by a talking cat, who introduces himself as Artemis and claims that she has magical powers and has been chosen to fight against mysterious creatures that want to drain the population's energy, which she does by transforming into Sailor V. The basic premise of most mahou shoujo works.
'Codename: Sailor V' (CSV) is, for better or worse, a product of its time. It's not a complex story, the characters aren't deep, the plot progression is clunky, and the jokes aren't that funny. At this point I haven't read BSSM, so these missteps might've been smoothed out later due to Takeuchi gaining more writing experience. But in CSV, most chapters follow a formula: Minako is called out for being lazy, gets interested in something pop-culture related (idol, video game) that turns out to be a monster-of-the-week, deals with it, and all is well until the next chapter. There is almost no suspense because you know what's going to happen, and you could safely skip chapters 4-8 and 11-13 without missing anything of importance to plot or character development; that's roughly half the manga, to give you an idea. The ending itself is also very rushed and poorly done, with the antagonist serving only as a means to unlock Minako's memories as Sailor Venus, instead of being a proper character in his own right.
Some background details are sprinkled in, like a hidden base of operations under the arcade Minako goes to, a "boss" Minako only interacts with through her transformation pen, and Minako's power upgrades and attacks popping up out of nowhere, but they aren't elaborated on and we're left to just...take them in stride and never question why they're there.
There are some moments that legitimately had me questioning what the hell Takeuchi was thinking — not because of some "politically correct" outrage, but because...they just aren't funny. One such moment has Minako calling Artemis a "trans-sexual cat" or a "fag cat" (depending on the translation — probably a translation of "okama neko"?) because he's a male bearing the name of a female goddess. Another is an instance of Boomer Humor: Wife Edition, with Minako's mom calling her husband a "failure" because he's having trouble setting up a TV. Later on, there is a joke about Chinese people eating cats...which is repeated twice because it was so funny the first time.
Minako is a decent lead, in that she's believable as a young teen who just wants to spend her free time gaming and talking about boys; her appearance would have you think she's much older, as the outfits she wears when she transforms show a questionable amount of leg and cleavage for a 13-year-old. Artemis, on the other hand, was relegated to the role of Mom 2.0, more of a nagging nuisance than a mentor and companion; in several eyebrow-raising moments, he's astounded that a 13-year-old girl isn't eager to risk her life for...what exactly? Minako only gets an explanation about the end goal and the bigger picture in the last 5-6 pages of the entire story, yet Artemis expects her to dedicate her life to fighting and have zero other interests. The other characters and the villains don't really distinguish themselves from background decor.
As for the art, well, re-reading this only reminded me why I dislike Naoko Takeuchi's drawings. You can have noses or mouths, but apparently not both at the same time. The feet and ankles are horror material. Artemis's character design flip-flops from manga-ish to cubist. And, sadly, the screentones often get in the way of actually seeing what's happening. That being said, I wouldn't call the character designs bad; they're cute but unfortunately plagued by anatomy issues.
All in all, would I recommend this? Honestly no, unless you're a Takeuchi fan and/or curious about where BSSM got its roots. I found myself struggling through most chapters because anytime something interesting is introduced, it's glossed over in favor of monster-of-the-week plots, rendering the entire story superficial. At the same time, it's meant to be a Girl Power story and succeeds at that, so if that's what you're looking for, it might be an enjoyable read for you.
