The first time I ever even really heard about Sailor Moon was through an Achievement Hunter video back in the day. Ray – who is now a Twitch streamer that I still watch after more than a decade – had a Tuxedo Mask skin in Minecraft and that was the first time I heard of the character and that it was from Sailor Moon. I sound so cool right now, don’t I?
Years later, when I was well into my anime watching phase, about to recognize that it might not even be a phase at all, but more of a permanent illness, I knew very well what Sailor Moon was. A Shojo manga about magical girls and cats, and one of the most well known manga and anime out there, an inspiration for the modern generation. But I’d never actually watched an episode or read a chapter. For one, it was very old by the time I got into anime and although there are definitely older anime that I really love – Rose of Versailles comes to mind – I’m not quick to pick one up unless it really piques my interest. And second, I’m not a teenage girl, so I figured I wasn’t the target demographic.
Having said all that, I am a pretty big fan of a lot of shojo romance manga. There’s something about how drama and character flaws are written in shojo manga that just feels much more real and tangible to me than a lot of shonen alternatives. Exceptions on both ends of course. So when I saw the announcement of the Naoko Takeuchi collection – a deluxe version of the entire manga at a lower price than the fancier box sets – I figured it was a good moment to jump in and give the story a shot. At the very least the box would look good on a shelf and the art prints would be a nice little thing to have. So I ordered both boxes, and then read through the entire story, extra volumes about Sailor V included. Let me give you my thoughts on the whole thing.
Let’s start with one of the biggest selling points for me, the art style. Obviously it’s a very recognizable art style, the classic old shojo drawings with the big eyes is one that will always be pleasant. There are some incredible artists out there who create panels that far outshine anything you’ll find in most weekly series. I for one really like Ishida Sui’s art in Tokyo Ghoul and Choujin X (although I couldn’t really get into the story of the latter) as well as SIU’s art in Tower of God. Another great one – and I will admit I had to look up the author for this one – Park Jin-Hwan from The Breaker. But there’s something just really nice about the classics too.
There’s also some fun attention to detail in this manga that really gives it a lot of personality. One thing that comes to mind is that when the main character – Usagi – is speaking off screen, her text bubbles contain a little image of a bunny, since that’s what her name means in Japanese. Usagi translates to bunny. There are also a couple of really funny moments in this manga that catch you off guard. A big one is that at the end of the first big arc, we start off the second arc with a toddler pulling a gun on the main character. If that’s not funny to you, I don’t think we can be friends. Of course that gets resolved pretty quickly, but it’s still a great moment.
Let’s talk about the characters next. The main sailors are great. Sailor Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury all have their distinct personalities. You have the classic bubbly popular girl in Mina (Venus), the smart girl in Ami (Mercury), the stoic temple maiden Rei (Mars) and the transfer student Makoto (Jupiter). Of course Usagi herself is the titular Sailor Moon and she is your classic clumsy middle school girl who wants to marry her knight in shining armor – not an uncommon dream among the sailors – who ends up being the mysterious Tuxedo Mask (Mamoru Chiba/Mamo-chan/Prince Endymion). There are a lot of different names and titles for some of the characters. They each have their own history and future, and we later meet many more sailors in Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t as invested in some of the later sailors. Pluto still seemed fun enough, but some of the subplot of these sailors having their own separate missions and being borderline hostile to the main group was grating at times. And of course in the final act we get a ton of different sailors from all around the universe which was fine for the story, but not particularly memorable.
The plot itself is a rather simple one. Some dark force is trying to kill all humans, drain their energy, take over the earth, the moon or both, destroy the future, whatever evil things you can think of. They start by sending some minions to deal with the sailors until they all get defeated and then the big bad is taken out. This repeats a couple of times until we’re at the center of the universe fighting the biggest bad out there. It’s not a particularly memorable plot, but it’s there mainly as a way to convey the moral of the story. And that is – of course – a coming of age story about young girls trying to find their way through puberty, boys and their dreams for the future. It’s a well executed story but the issue that plagues it in my opinion is a similar issue that plagues Bleach. I know, very different manga with a different demographic, but bear with me.
The first arc in Bleach is a group of teenagers dealing with an oppressive force of adults that is forcing their will upon them. The second arc in Bleach is a group of teenagers dealing with an oppressive force of adults that is forcing their will upon them. The first arc of Sailor moon is about a group of teenage girls who are trying to find themselves while dealing with boys, puberty and still trying to follow their dreams. The second arc of Sailor Moon is about a group of… you get the point I’m trying to make. Although the paint job is new each arc, it’s the same story just repeated a couple of times. By the time we get to the final arc, I was pretty bored of it. If this manga was half the size it was, I think I would be remembering it far more fondly.
Lastly, let’s have a quick look at Sailor V as well. The prequel manga that follows Minako Aino before we ever find Sailor Moon. She is the titular Sailor V, the first of the sailor scouts to awake and a crimefighting teenage girl who wants to be an idol. With her cat Artemis – husband of Usagi’s cat Luna but we only learn about that later – she deals with all sorts of problems. We are introduced to Sailor V in the original story as well and she goes through the same trajectory there, but here we get a bit of a peek into Mina’s own life as a sailor scout before the group gets bigger. I didn’t enjoy the first of these two volumes. The second one was much better. There was more of an overarching story, the stakes were higher, and Mina was starting to come into her own as a character.
All in all, I’m glad I took the time to read this classic. It’s not going to ever be one of my favorites, as I’m clearly not the target audience, but I can see that a lot of love and talent went into creating this series, and at the very least the art is still really nice. I love the incredible animation in some of the more modern shows (and the latest arc of One Piece) but there is also something special about the charm that 80s/90s manga have. (and even older if we look at Rose of Versailles). If any of this piqued your interest, I recommend looking at the Naoko Takeuchi collection. It wasn’t too expensive (comparatively) and looks great on a shelf. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 