About

Sailor Moon (also known as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) is a Japanese manga series created by Naoko Takeuchi and published by Kodansha. Since its original creation, the series has garnered a notable fan-following online, especially for its anime adaptation, spawning many fan works.

Premise

The story centers around Usagi Tsukino, a klutzy school girl revealed to be the titular character Sailor Moon whose mission is to combat the Dark Kingdom while at the same time search for the lost Moon Princess. During her adventures, she is joined by other Sailor Soldiers: Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury, an isolated intellect; Rei Hino/Sailor Mars, a miko with psychic powers; Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter, who is kind hearted and strong; and Minako Aino/Sailor Venus, an aspiring idol and singer. Usagi is also protected by Tuxedo Kamen, who is really Mamoru Chiba, and is also looking for the Moon Princess.

History

The original Sailor Moon manga, written by Naoko Takeuchi, was started as a redevelopment of her other manga series Codename: Sailor V. The manga was first published by Kodansha Comics on December 28th, 1991 and lasted until February 3rd, 1997, spanning a total of 18 volumes and 2 short story compilations. The manga first appeared in the magazine Nakayoshi, with the series' side-stories appearing in sister magazine RunRun.

The series has also received a five-season anime adaptation with 200 episodes, and three theatrical movies, all produced by Toei Animation. The anime consists of:

• Sailor Moon which aired 46 episodes between March 7th, 1992 and February 27th, 1993,
• Sailor Moon R which aired 43 episodes between March 6th, 1993 and March 12th, 1994,
• Sailor Moon S which aired 38 episodes between March 19th, 1994 and February 25th, 1995,
• Sailor Moon Super S which aired 39 episodes between March 4th, 1995 and March 2nd, 1996, and
• Sailor Moon Sailor Stars which aired 34 episodes between March 9th, 1996 and February 8th, 1997.

All of the seasons, with the exception of the final season, were broadcast in the US on Cartoon Network and dubbed by DIC Entertainment.

The theatrical movies were:

• Sailor Moon R: The Movie which premiered on December 5, 1993,
• Sailor Moon S: The Movie which premiered on December 4, 1994, and
• Sailor Moon Super S: The Movie which premiered on December 23, 1995.

Other media was also released, including the Sera Myu stage musicals, the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, and a multitude of video games.

On May 14th, 2014, entertainment company VIZ Media announced that they received the license to Sailor Moon in North America^[19], rereleasing and faithfully redubbing all 200 episodes of the anime uncut along with the three theatrical movies^[20] with a new cast personally approved by Naoko Takeuchi herself^[21]. The new dub would also include an official release of the final season, Sailor Stars, for the first time^[22] in North America alongside the official second episode which never aired on television.^[23]

Sailor Moon Crystal, a remake series, premiered on July 5th, 2014, not just as a reboot to the franchise, but also as a more faithful adaptation of the manga according to Toei.^[24] The first two seasons, Dark Kingdom and Black Moon aired for 26 episodes total, with each episode released every two weeks for the course of a year on Crunchyroll and NicoNico. On May 16, prior to the release of Crystal, VIZ also revealed that the license for Crystal was also obtained alongside the license for Sailor Moon.^[26]

The third season, Death Busters, aired between April 4th, 2016 and June 27th, 2016. The next season would be revealed as a two-part movie called Sailor Moon Crystal: Dream, adapting the Dead Moon arc of the manga.^[25]

Reception

Both the manga and anime are ranked very highly among fans, with the anime one of the most requested to be relicensed back in the West. The first dub has gained criticism over the years for its voice acting in and the changes it made to some of the original story lines. The largest criticism for the dub was its removal of homosexual content, notably making Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune cousins instead of love interests. Fans have praised the dub's music, however, with some believing the soundtrack is better than the music featured in the original Japanese release.

Online Presence

As of June 2014, Sailor Moon's Facebook page^[1] has gained over 660,000 likes. The first eight episodes of the show are available to stream through Hulu.^[3] Fans can also access episode guides and character sketches on the Wikia^[2] page for the show.

Fandom

Fan sites dedicated to Sailor Moon include Club Sailor Moon,^[7] Sailor System^[8] and Moon Sisters.^[9] There are also numerous fan-run Sailor Moon Tumblr blogs including oshiokiyo^[11], eternal-sailormoon^[12] and foreversailormoon.^[13] Fans on Tumblr tag their content Sailor Moon^[18] and Usagi Tsukino^[17] (Sailor Moon's real name). As of June 2014, there are over 31,000 Sailor Moon fan fictions on Fanfiction.net^[5] and 350,000 pieces of FanArt on DeviantArt^[4] tagged Sailor Moon. Fans also gather to discuss the show on the Reddit^[10] thread, which has over 5,000 subscribers as of June 2014.

Related Memes

Moon Scouts Reimagined

Much like the Disney princesses, Sailor Moon's Sailor Scouts are often reimagined by fan artists as different genders, races, or styles, and these alternate versions are often covered by major websites. On April 14th, 2014, Kotaku^[15] published a round-up titled "Somehow, Sailor Moon Characters As The Avengers Works," (below, left) and on May 23rd, 2014, Buzzfeed posted a round-up titled "Here’s What The Cast Of "Sailor Moon" Would Look Like As Carefree Black Girls" (below, center) On May 29th, 2014, HitFix^[16] published a round-up titled "21 Iconic Disney Heroines As Flawless Sailor Moon Characters" (below, right).

Talent

Talent refers to a scene in the dub in which the girls fight over who should play Snow White in an upcoming play, with Lita (Makoto's dub name) saying she should play her because she has the most talent among the girls. In the original Japanese version Makoto says she should play Snow White because she has the biggest breasts, with a visual emphasis on her chest. Because there was little editing in the dub, fans started to use "Talent" to describe Makoto's chest or any character's large breasts.

Search Interest

External References