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This page is about the full Sailor Moon media franchise. For more detailed information about the English language release of Sailor Moon see Sailor Moon (English version) and for more information on the title character, see Usagi Tsukino.
Sailor Moon
File:Sailor Senshi.png
The major characters of Sailor Moon (Anime)
Genreshōjo, mahō shōjo
Manga
Written byNaoko Takeuchi
Published byKodansha
Anime
Directed byJun'ichi Satoh, Kunihiko Ikuhara, Takuya Igarashi
StudioToei Animation
Musical Series

•Sailor Moon Musicals (Seramyu): 25 musicals based on the Sailor Moon franchise were released between 1993 and 2005.

Movies

•Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon,
•Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Super
•Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Super S Sailor 9 Senshi Shuuketsu! Black-Dream-Hole no Kiseki
•Ami-chan no Hatsukoi (Theatrical short)

Live Action tokusatsu Series

•Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon - a 49 Episode live action series directed by Ryuta Tazaki ran from October 4, 2003 to September 25, 2004. There were also two direct-to-video releases: a sequel Final Act, and a prequel Act Zero.

Sailor Moon (in full, 美少女戦士セーラームーン, Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn, literally Beautiful young girl soldier Sailor Moon) is the title of the famous series originally authored as a manga by Naoko Takeuchi that resulted in multiple other types of media, including anime, musical theatre, video games and recently tokusatsu (live action with special effects) — which have been based on it. The story of the metaseries revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a destroyed kingdom that spanned the Solar System, and the evil forces they battle.

The most-recently-produced tokusatsu series is known officially as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (usually abbreviated by fans to simply PGSM), and it is the first series in the franchise to have an official English title. Allowing for deviations, it more closely followed the original manga than the animated metaseries in its first few episodes, but proceeded to follow a significantly different storyline than those of the manga and anime later in the show. The first episode of the series aired on October 4, 2003, with its 49th and final episode airing on September 25, 2004. Two movies of the tokusatsu are scheduled; the first, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Special Act, due for Region-2 DVD and VHS release in Japan on November 26, 2004, and Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Act Zero, due for DVD and VHS release in Japan on March 25, 2005.

Sailor Moon is generally credited with popularizing the concept of a sentai (team) of magical girls rather than anime in which one girl works alone. It is also credited with the reemergence of the popularity of mahou shoujo, or Magical Girl anime.

Although many concepts in the manga, anime and tokusatsu show overlap, there are many notable divergences. Fans caution viewers not to always use information from either source to explain the other.

Story

Template:Spoilers

Fourteen-year-old junior high student Usagi Tsukino discovers that she is the reincarnation of Princess Serenity, the princess of an ancient Kingdom. She is granted powers to defend the Solar System against an evil force. This evil force originally destroyed her kingdom, the Moon Kingdom. (Note: In the original Japanese versions the name of the kingdom on the moon is Silver Millennium. In the English dub, Silver Millennium refers to the time period, not the name of the place.) She fights using the identity of Sailormoon ("Sailor Moon" is used in the English dub, while both "Sailormoon" and "Sailor Moon" appear in the Japanese manga and anime-related sources). As the series progresses, Sailormoon is reunited with other reincarnated soldiers—the princess's guardian soldiers. She is also reunited with her lover, Prince Endymion of Earth, who serves equally as romantic interest and primary protector.

Manga

Sailor Moon falls into the shōjo genre of manga. Its main series was serialized in Kodansha's Nakayoshi in Japan. The side-stories were serialized in in Kodansha's Run Run.

The manga's creator, Naoko Takeuchi, devised the idea when she wanted to create a cute series about girls in outer space. Her editor, Fumio Osano (whom Takeuchi calls "Osa-P"), asked her to put them in Sailor Suits. This resulted in Codename wa Sailor V, which is considered (canon-wise) a prequel to Sailor Moon. When that manga was slated to become an anime, Takeuchi decided to merge in plot elements from the popular sentai genre, most notably the concept of a team of five heroes, consequently remaking the manga into Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon, with a new central character. Thus Usagi and her friends were born. After the completion of the first series, she was surprised when she was asked to continue the metaseries; this gave birth to the other four manga arcs.

Naoko Takeuchi amalgamated many seemingly separate themes in the creation of Sailor Moon. Combining her love of space with Greek myth, Roman myth, Japanese elemental themes, and Meiji period sailor fuku school uniforms, she managed to fuse together the popular magical girl and sentai genres, creating a completely new and original idea.

The manga initially spanned 18 volumes and can be divided into 5 arcs. These arcs are the following:

  • Sailormoon

Introduces Sailor Moon, and the Senshi from the Inner Solar System, as well as the major plot arc for the series. Corresponds to the first anime series as well as the live-action television series.

  • Black Moon

Introduces Chibiusa, Crystal Tokyo and the future of the characters (possible). The original ending point of the series before Kodansha requested that Takeuchi add another arc to the story line. Corresponds to the second arc of the second anime series.

  • Infinity

Introduces Senshi from the Outer Solar System. Corresponds to the third anime series.

  • Dream

Introduces the concept of Sailor Crystals. Corresponds to the fourth anime series.

  • Stars

Explores the origins of the Sailor Soldiers and introduces a great many new senshi from distant parts of the galaxy. Corresponds to the fifth and final anime series.

People who have worked on the Sailormoon series as staff members include Fumio Osano, or "Osa-P", Takeuchi's main editor. Other names that did cameos were Kosuke Fujishima (Oh My Goddess!). Other lesser known names include: Miwa Ueda, Kumiko Kinjo, Oboro Minase, Midori Honma, and Sho Izumi--assistant artists of Takeuchi.

Anime adaptations

See also: Sailor Moon media and release information

With 200 episodes originally airing in Japan from March 1992 to February 1997, Sailor Moon was the longest magical girl anime series to date. Currently it has been surpassed only by the "Ojamajo Doremi" metaseries with 214 episodes. Although many other shows have followed the same formula as Sailor Moon, most are generally considered to be relatively uninspiring and none have ever been the marketing giant that this anime has become. As it has been adapted into versions for many countries, Sailor Moon is arguably one of the most famous anime properties in the world.

The anime's first two series contain stories that vaguely revolve around the backdrop of Silver Millennium (the ancient kingdom on the moon) and the superficially-related kingdom in the future, Crystal Tokyo. The third series is quite dark in comparison, while the fourth is sometimes considered overly light and silly. The metaseries enjoyed renewed interest in its final fifth series, although its reuse of many plot devices (Not to mention a refusal to adapt some of the darker points of the corresponding manga arc's story) bothered some fans.

The Japanese Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon) anime metaseries is composed of five separate series. A complete episode listing, translation, and edited English language name is given as an external link at the bottom of this article. The five Sailor Moon anime series are listed below with their English language names first:

  1. Sailor Moon
    • Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon)
    • Japanese version: 46 episodes, from #1-ja through #46-ja.
    • English version: 40 episodes, from #1-en through #40-en.
    • Usually referred to by fans as the "Classic" series, to avoid confusion with the entire metaseries.
  2. Sailor Moon R
    • Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn R (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R)
    • Japanese version: 43 episodes, from #47-ja through #89-ja.
    • English version: 42 episodes, from #41-en through #82-en.
    • Sailor Moon R is actually two story arcs. According to the Memorial Song Box booklet, "R" can stand for "Romance," "Rondo," "Return," etc.
      • The first arc of R was developed by the shows animators as filler and was not part of the manga. This comprised episodes 47-59.
      • The second arc of R constains episodes 60-89. It corresponds to the Black Moon arc of the manga.
    • To avoid confusion, it should be reminded that the 1995 English-language adaptation only used the first 72 episodes (i.e. not all of SM: R) and shrunk them down into 65, while the remaining 17 episodes of SMR were only adapted into English in 1997. This 24-episode condensation/omission from the Japanese to English versions, as well as the editing, have created a strong fanbase among Americans that have little respect for the dub.
  3. Sailor Moon Super
    • Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn S (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S)
    • Japanese version: 38 episodes, from #90-ja through #127-ja.
    • English version: 38 episodes, from #90-en through #127-en.
      • Episodes #83-en through #89-en do not exist. At the start of S, the English version's episode numbers were adjusted to match those of the original Japanese version.
    • The "S" stands for "Super".
  4. Sailor Moon SuperS
    • Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn SuperS (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS)
    • Japanese version: 39 episodes, from #128-ja through #166-ja.
    • English version: 39 episodes, from #128-en through #166-en.
    • The second "S" after the "Super", contrary to popular belief, does make it plural as you can tell in the way that it is pronounced ([súːpāzŭ], "Supah-sue").
  5. Sailor Moon Stars (speculative title)
    • Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn Sailor Stars (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars)
    • Japanese version: 34 episodes, from #167-ja through #200-ja.
    • This series was never shown in English, however the common translation for the series name is Sailor Moon Stars. An English version of Sailor Moon Stars is not going to be produced, so Anglophones who wish to view it must find it through other overseas sources.

There are three Sailor Moon movies, and these have independent stories that are separate from the series. The movies fall in the general timeline of each of the three middle series (R, S, and SuperS).

There are a few specials as well: Sailor Moon SuperS Special, and Sailor Moon SuperS Plus: Ami-chan no Hatsukoi (Ami's First Love), both of which take place around the SuperS series. Additionally, there are several Sailor Moon soundtracks available.

It has also been argued that Takeuchi was offended by some of the changes made to the final series. The most infamous of these is the identity of the three supporting characters, the "Starlights", from women disguised as men in the manga to men who change into women in the anime.

This change is also largely cited as the cause for the last series being withheld from the English-speaking Western market (Although, ironically, it has aired in Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, and Latin America (with the Starlights being made out to be Girls or having female companions in some markets), and the series is still to this day a mainstay in RTL 2's anime lineup, sharing the block with shows like One Piece, Inuyasha and Beyblade).

Musical stage show adaptations

Main article: Seramyu

The musicals, usually referred to collectively as Seramyu, are a series of live theatre productions that have played over 800 performances in some 26 musicals since 1993. The producers generally follow and expand upon plot concepts presented in the anime and manga, however there are several original plot lines.

The series generally runs twice a year, in the winter and in the summer. In the summer the only venue for the musicals is the Sunshine Theatre in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo; however in the winter it does also tour to the larger cities in Japan.

The latest incarnation of the series, "The New Legend of Kaguya Island" [Revised Edition] (新・かぐや島伝説 <改訂版>, Shin Kaguyashima Densetsu (kaiteban)),was staged in January 2005. After the January 2005 show, the series will then go on a "short hiatus," according to the current producer, BMO, however there have been no signs that the show will continue.

Televised "live action" drama adaptation

Main Article: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

Ratings Snapshot from the Newtype USA magazine
Act 14 January 10, 2004 - 4.0%*
(*Near death of a main character)
Act 15 January 17, 2004 - 3.2%
Act 16 January 24, 2004 - 3.2%
Act 17 January 31, 2004 - 4.7%*
(*Introduction of a new character)
Act 18 February 07, 2004 - 3.8%

A live action version of Sailor Moon was broadcast from October 4, 2003 through to September 25, 2004. The series lasted a total of 49 episodes, and the broadcast originated from of the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Another 28 television stations in Japan retransmitted the series, though some of them were weeks behind the TBS schedule because they started airing the series late.

There were also several radio programs called "DJ Moon" based on the show that originated from Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting radio and were broadcast on other radio networks in Japan. The shows were a combination of a radio drama and promotional tool for the TV series, often foreshadowing upcoming events. These shows were later sold on CD.

The live action broadcast's ratings were not as high as those of the original show. The show had a high start, but then the ratings slid. They picked up in January of 2004 and then again at the end of the series. There were peaks and valleys in the ratings depending on the plot elements.

In addition to the broadcast television show, there was also a stage musical performance by characters on the show. Some footage from the filming of the stage show was used in the television broadcast. There was also an instructional video released.

Additionally, there were two direct-to-video releases after the show ended its television broadcast: The "Special Act", set several years after the series ended, and "Act Zero", which showed the origins of Sailor V and Tuxedo Kamen.

Video Games

The Sailor Moon video games were originally released only in Japan. They have been unreleased in North America and other Non-Japanese countries, and have not been translated into English, with the exception of Sailor Moon: Another Story, which has been translated via emulation by a fan group. The games are hard to find outside of Japan, although the ROMs can be downloaded from various websites.

Ban Dai produced a small handful of the games, while most were handled by a Japanese game company called Angel. Early games were that of a Final Fight-style side-scrolling fighter, whereas later games were typically unique puzzle games, and even later titles chose to go a standard fighting game style a la Street Fighter. Another Story was the only game to stand out, being a role-playing game in the vein of Final Fantasy. Panic in Nakayoshi World was also released, an overhead Adventures of Lolo-style game featuring characters from various Nakayoshi-printed manga. Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon are playable characters.

The games mainly saw release on the Super Famicom, with the first side-scroller being ported to the Sega Mega Drive. A separate arcade side-scroller was also released. While the games never saw a US release, the first game did see a release in the French market, complete with French translation.

In addition, two side-scrolling adventure games were produced for the Game Boy in Japan(Sailormoon and Sailormoon R), and a side-scrolling game was also produced for the Game Gear(Sailormoon S).

A final 3D graphic fighting game saw release for the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation.

As to why these games were never ported to the US, by the time the anime had made it to US shores, the systems the games were on were already dead in the US market, and it may not have been considered viable to translate and port them to other systems. Angel's lack of a US presence may have also been a factor.

A US game was released, a PC minigame compilation titled The 3D Adventures of Sailor Moon. Aside from the theme, the games did little to tie in to the series.

English adaptations

English-dubbed anime

Main Article: Sailor Moon (English version)

After a bidding war between Saban and DiC Entertainment, DiC acquired the rights to the first 72 episodes of Sailor Moon, which consisted of the entire first season and two-thirds of Sailor Moon R. These 72 episodes were cut down to 65 episodes, through omission of 6 episodes and the merge of the final two episodes of the first season of Sailor Moon into a single episode. All episodes got shortened to make room for commercials and most episodes were heavily censored or completelly rewritten to fit like an average American cartoon for kids, seriously dulling down the plotline. With S and SuperS (series 3 and 4), the story was less rewritten/edited, and thus no episodes were skipped or merged.

North America

The English-dubbed version of Sailor Moon hit the airwaves on August 28, 1995, with the show airing on YTV in Canada, and entered syndication in the United States two weeks later. While the show had moderate success on YTV, in the US the show struggled in early morning timeslots despite picking up a loyal following of fans. The show left syndication in 1996 after 65 episodes had been broadcast, leaving fans with no real conclusion or resolutions to the major Sailor Moon R storyline. A year later, in 1997, the show resurfaced on USA Network where it aired for several months before leaving the airwaves again. Meanwhile, in Canada, funding was acquired to dub the remaining seventeen Sailor Moon R episodes into English and the episodes aired in Canada to wrap up lingering plotlines. Ironically, the last episode of Sailor Moon R was a clip show episode, which featured previews for Sailor Moon Super, the show's third season.

Cartoon Network

On June 1, 1998, Cartoon Network acquired the rights to the original 65 English-dubbed Sailor Moon episodes and began airing them as part of its anime-themed Toonami block. The decision proved extremely profitable for Cartoon Network, as ratings for the show helped boost viewership for the Toonami programming block and generated revenue for them to acquire more shows such as Dragon Ball Z to add to the block. Cartoon Network later acquired the rights to the remaining Sailor Moon R episodes, and subsequently aired English-dubbed versions of Sailor Moon Super and Sailor Moon SuperS. The Super and SuperS episodes also aired in Canada on YTV, in 2000.

Australia

In Australia, the first 65 syndicated episodes of Sailor Moon were first seen afternoons on the ABC's childrens block in late 1995. The following year, they were transfered to the Seven Network's Agro's Cartoon Connection. They were replayed there several times, until early 2000, when Seven would finally air the newer 17 episodes. All 82 English episodes would be played on Seven once more; late 2000 - early 2001. In late 2002, the series was again transferred, this time to Network Ten's Cheez TV. Cheez TV only played the first 65 episodes (twice), and due to classification restrictions, were forced to skip two episodes.

Sailor Moon also played on Australian cable network Fox Kids from September 2001; Fox Kids were the first Australian outlet to play the entirety of the English-dubbed series, with Sailor Moon Super starting in April 2002 and Sailor Moon SuperS starting in August 2002. In December 2002, Fox Kids aired a marathon of all 159 episodes over two weeks.

Changes made

Many changes were made to the basic storyline; it was rewritten to conform to the much tighter regulations of American television to young children.Sailor Moon and many anime fans familiar with the Japanese original strongly disliked it, though given the alternative had production company Saban acquired the series (as Saban wanted to just acquire the rights to the name of the show and transform it into a live action series that would have no resemblance to the anime, as evident through an infamous video file that was distributed on the Internet (See External links) willfully accept the dubbing as the lesser of the two evils that could have befallen the show. Other fans, however, while acknowledging the dubbed version's flaws, willfully accept it warts and all due to the fact that the show was their first exposure to anime.

English-language manga

The manga was translated into English in 1997 by manga publisher Mixx (now renamed TOKYOPOP). The manga was initially syndicated in MixxZine but was later pulled out of that magazine and moved into a secondary magazine called "SMILE." The decision was controversial for numerous reasons: first due to the fact that Mixx waited until after MixxZine's first year of publication had ended (around mid-1998) and its readers had renewed their subscriptions, to announce that it was pulling Sailor Moon from the magazine and moving it to a new magazine. Second was Mixx's controversial decision to leap forward from the midway point of the original "Dark Kingdom" storyline to the start of the Sailor Moon SuperS story when Sailor Moon began publication in the pages of "SMILE."

Rumors for the motives behind these actions ranged from pure greed to that of Mixx dealing with a growing backlash amongst retailers over MixxZine. Many retailers, eager for a monthly Sailor Moon series to sell, reacted negatively to not only to the magazine anthology style format of MixxZine but also towards Mixx decision to include the ultra-violent Parasyte in the magazine style anthology and that Mixx's decision was a way to respond to its critics' complaints. A year later, after toying with the notion of releasing the unpublished Sailor Moon stories in trade paperback format, Mixx opted to publish them instead in the standard US comic book format.

The US Sailor Moon monthly comic ran for 35 issues and besides finishing up the Dark Kingdom storyline, featured the manga versions of Sailor Moon R and Super. Unlike MixxZine, the regular comic series was launched with no hype and promotion and as a result the early issues quickly became collectors items, selling for $20-40 on the online auction site Ebay and the secondary market.

For the most part, the Mixx names match the English names for the main characters while at the same time using the Japanese names for those characters who were from seasons not yet dubbed in English. The only exception was Sailor Moon, who in the Tokyopop version was referred to by the nickname "Bunny." The manga is flipped to read left to right. As Sailor Moon was Mixx's first title, the quality of its translation in the beginning is extremely poor, though it improves somewhat towards the end of its publication run.

The US manga was released as three series: "Sailor Moon", which collects the first three arcs (the Dark Kingdom, Black Moon, and Infinity arcs), Sailor Moon SuperS, which collects the SuperS arc, and Sailor Moon Stars, which collects the Sailor Stars arc. While they feature all of the content from the original manga collections, the volumes also contain the occasional new sketch and "thank you" commentary from series creator Naoko Takeuchi.

As of October 2005, all of the Sailor Moon manga trade paperbacks are out of print as a result of an ongoing licensing dispute between Takeuchi and TOEI Studio. TOKYOPOP has expressed interest in re-releasing the Sailor Moon manga with a more accurate translation and uniform format, but as of this date are unable to do so until current disputes between Takeuchi and TOEI are resolved.

English-language reference

Possibly due to the large number of variances in the localizations, the original Japanese names are more commonly used in the U.S. The poor quality of the early dub and the somewhat bad first impressions of Tokyopop (at the time Mixx) left on fans at first may also have contributed to a general disdain for the American names.

Characters

Major protagonists

The names shown after the Japanese names are those used in the North American translations. See the individual articles and the article on the Sailor Soldiers for more detail. The North American versions rarely, if ever, used last names for the characters.

  • Usagi Tsukino / Serena Tsukino - The main character of the series, Usagi is a carefree schoolgirl with a heart of gold. She transforms into Sailor Moon. Her nickname in the English manga is Bunny, to keep the rabbit puns intact. A later dubbed episode of Sailor Moon has Serena give her last name as "Tsukino."
  • Mamoru Chiba / Darien Shields - Usagi's boyfriend and destined true love reincarnate. He transforms into Tuxedo Mask. His last name, 'Shields', is only referenced in the Tokyopop manga.
  • Ami Mizuno / Amy Mizuno/Anderson - The genius best friend of Usagi. She transforms into Sailor Mercury. The DIC-produced English dub had Amy give her name as "Anderson" (although this is in dispute), while in the later CWI-produced series, "Mizuno" appeared again.
  • Rei Hino / Raye Hino - A miko (a priestess) who attends a Catholic private school, although she is Shinto. She transforms into Sailor Mars. The English dub used the name "Hino" in one episode.
  • Makoto Kino / Lita - The very tall tomboy who lives alone because her parents died in an airplane crash. She transforms into Sailor Jupiter.
  • Minako Aino / Mina - She acted on her own as Sailor V before joining the other Sailor Soldiers. She transforms into Sailor Venus.

Notes on antagonists

In the North American dub, all of the different groups of antagonists are lumped together under the generic term "Negaverse", without really differentiating between them. This changes somewhat by the S and SuperS series, where the antagonists are seen in their proper (if renamed) groups.

Trivia

Much of the action in Sailormoon is set in the real life suburb of Azabu Juuban, where Naoko Takeuchi resides. Many of the buildings exist or have existed in real life, for example Crown Game Center (now a convenience store), the park where the senshi meet, Hikawa Jinja Shrine where Rei is a miko, and Rei, Usagi and ChibiUsa's schools. Mamoru studies at nearby "KO University" which is a pun on the name of the actual Keio University, alumni of which include the current Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

External links and references

Books

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Online

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sailor_Moon&oldid=37325462

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