Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon
Image:Sailor Senshi2.png
美少女戦士セーラームーン ('Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn')
Genre	Magical girl, Romance, Shōjo
Manga: Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon
Authored by	Naoko Takeuchi
Publisher	Kodansha Tokyopop
Other publishers: Editions Montjoie and Glenat Image:Flag of Hungary.svg Semic Interprint Egmont Manga & Anime Japonica Polonica Fantastica (JPF)
Serialized in	Nakayoshi and Run Run Mixxzine and Smile Magazine
Original run	February 1992 – March 1997
No. of volumes	original: 18; renewed: 12
TV anime : Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (SM, SM:R, SM:S, SM:SuperS, SM:Sailor Stars)
Directed by	Jun'ichi Satoh, Kunihiko Ikuhara, Takuya Igarashi
Studio	Toei Animation
Network	TV Asahi Cartoon Network, Syndication
Other networks: Image:Flag of Hong Kong.svg TVB ABC 5 YTV, Global, TVA Image:Flag of Sweden.svg TV4, Kanal 5 Image:Flag of Finland (bordered).svg SubTV TF1 ABC, 7, Ten Rede Manchete, Cartoon Network, Rede Record Image:Flag of Turkey.svg ATV, TRT ZDF, RTL II Fox Kids, ITV Polsat Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4 Antena 3, K3 Catalonia SIC, TVI TV Azteca Image:Flag of South Korea (bordered).svg KBS 2 TNT TV2 Chilevisión, Etc...TV VT4 Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Yorin Image:Flag of Malaysia.svg TV2 Image:Flag of Estonia (bordered).svg Kanal 2 Image:Flag of Croatia.svg Nova TV Image:Flag of Lithuania.svg LNK
Original run	March 07, 1992 – February 08, 1997
No. of episodes	200 (SM:46, R:43, S:38, SuperS:39, SailorStars:34), various Specials
Films
Pretty Soldier R: The Movie Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon S: The Movie Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie ~ The 9 Sailor Soldiers Get Together! Miracle in the Black Dream Hole id:Templat:Kotakinfo_animanga/Lainnya
Musical series
Sailor Moon musicals (Seramyu): 25 stage shows based on the Sailor Moon franchise were released between 1993 and 2005. id:Templat:Kotakinfo_animanga/Lainnya
Live-action 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 (Special Act), and a prequel (Act Zero). id:Templat:Kotakinfo_animanga/Lainnya
Video games
Quite a few Sailor Moon video games have been released, mainly in Japan, with very few ever being translated into other languages. id:Templat:Kotakinfo_animanga/Lainnya
Related series
Codename: Sailor V id:Templat:Kotakinfo_animanga/Lainnya

Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン, Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn^?, officially translated as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) is the title of a famous media franchise created by Japanese manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. It is generally credited with popularizing the concept of a sentai (team) of magical girls, as well as the general (re-)emergence of the magical girl genre itself.

The story of the various metaseries revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a kingdom that once spanned the solar system, and the evil forces that they battle. The major characters—called Sailor Senshi (literally "Sailor Soldiers"; frequently called "Sailor Scouts" in the North American version)—are teenage girls who can transform into heroines named for the moon and planets (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, etc). The use of "Sailor" comes from a style of girls' school uniform popular in Japan, the sērā fuku ("sailor outfit"), after which the Senshi's uniforms are modeled. Recurring themes include astronomy, astrology, Greek myth, Roman myth, geology, Japanese elemental themes, and schoolgirl antics.

Creation of the original Sailor Moon manga was preceded by another, Codename: Sailor V, which centered around just one Sailor Senshi. Takeuchi devised the idea when she wanted to create a cute series about girls in outer space, and her editor asked her to put them in sailor fuku.^[1] When Sailor V was proposed for adaptation into an anime series, the concept was modified so that Sailor V herself became only one member of a team. The resulting manga series was a fusion of the popular magical girl and sentai genres of which Takeuchi was a fan,^[2] making Sailor Moon one of the first series ever to combine the two.

The manga resulted in spinoffs into other types of media, including a highly popular anime, musical theatre productions, video games and a live-action (tokusatsu) series. Although most concepts in the many versions overlap, there are often notable differences, and thus continuity between the different formats is limited.

Story

The protagonist of Sailor Moon is Usagi Tsukino, who lives as an ordinary schoolgirl until she is found by a talking cat named Luna. Through Luna, Usagi learns that the world is about to be attacked by a Dark Kingdom that had appeared once before, long ago, and destroyed the kingdom of the moon. Her dormant powers are then awakened to defend the Earth against the coming onslaught, and she is led to a number of friends who join her in the battle.

Usagi fights using the identity of Sailor Moon, and as the story progresses she learns more and more about the enemies which face her and the evil force that is sending them. Gradually she discovers the truth about her own past life, her destined true love, and the possibilities for the future of the Solar System.

The plot spans five major story arcs, each of which is represented in both the manga and the anime, usually under different names. These are the unnamed original arc, the Black Moon arc (Sailor Moon R), the Infinity arc (Sailor Moon S), the Dream arc (Sailor Moon SuperS), and the Stars arc (Sailor Stars). The anime added an additional minor arc at the start of the second series, and spent the first few episodes of Sailor Stars wrapping up the plot from the series previous.

Characters

Usagi Tsukino

The main character of the series, called Serena in the English anime (nicknamed Bunny in the manga). Usagi is a carefree schoolgirl with an enormous capacity for love, and transforms into the heroine called Sailor Moon. At the beginning of the series she is portrayed as an immature crybaby who hates having to fight evil and wants nothing more than to be a normal girl. As she progresses, however, she embraces the chance to use her power to protect those she cares about.

Mamoru Chiba

A student somewhat older than Usagi, called Darien in the English adaptations of the series. As a young child he was in a terrible car accident that robbed him of his parents and his knowledge of who he is. During the series he has some precognitive ability, including dreams that inspire him to take on the guise of Tuxedo Mask and fight alongside the Sailor Senshi. After an initially confrontational relationship, he and Usagi remember their past lives together and fall in love.

Ami Mizuno

A quiet bookworm in Usagi's class, called Amy in the English adaptations of the series. She is hugely intelligent, with an IQ of 300, and can transform into Sailor Mercury, acquiring power over water. Ami's shy exterior masks a passion for knowledge and for taking care of the people around her. She hopes to be a doctor one day, like her mother, and tends to be the practical one in the group. Secretly, she is also a fan of pop culture and romance novels, and becomes embarrassed whenever this is pointed out.

Rei Hino

An elegant miko (shrine maiden), called Raye in the English versions. Because of her work as a Shintō priestess, Rei can sense and dispel evil even in civilian form. When she transforms into Sailor Mars, she can also manipulate fire. She is very serious and focused, but although easily annoyed by Usagi's flightiness, cares about her very much. Rei is portrayed as boy-crazy in the early anime, but is uninterested in romance in both the manga and live-action series. She attends a private Catholic school, separate from the other girls.

Makoto Kino

A tomboy who transfers into Usagi's school, called Lita in the English versions. Very tall and strong for a Japanese schoolgirl, she can transform into Sailor Jupiter, attacking with lightning and some control over plants. Both Makoto's parents died in a plane crash years ago, so she lives alone and takes care of herself. She cultivates her physical strength as well as more domestic interests, including housekeeping, cooking, and gardening. She wants to marry young and to own a flower and cake shop.

Minako Aino

A perky dreamer who acted on her own as Sailor V for some time. Called Mina in the English versions, she has a companion cat called Artemis who works alongside Luna in guiding the Senshi. Minako transforms into Sailor Venus, Soldier of Love, and is the leader of Sailor Moon's four inner guardians. She also dreams of becoming a famous singer and idol and attends auditions whenever she can. At the start of the live-action series, she is already these things, but has poor health and separates herself from the other Senshi.

Chibiusa

A little girl from 1,000 years in the future, called Rini in the English versions of the series. She comes to the 20th century on several occasions, whether to seek help or to be trained as a soldier, and learns to transform into Sailor Chibi Moon (or, in the English anime, Sailor Mini Moon). Chibiusa co-stars with Usagi in certain story arcs, though they sometimes have an adversarial relationship. She considers herself much more mature than Usagi, and wants to grow up and become a lady in her own right.

Setsuna Meioh

A mysterious woman called Trista in the English anime. She is first revealed as Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Time, whose duty is to protect the Space-Time Door from unauthorized travelers. It is only later that she appears on Earth, living as a college student. She has a distant personality and can be very stern, but can also be quite friendly and helps the younger Senshi when she can. After so long at the gate of time she carries a deep sense of loneliness, although she is close friends with Chibiusa.

Michiru Kaioh

A talented violinist with some precognition, called Michelle in the English anime. She is a year older than most of the other Senshi and can transform into Sailor Neptune, channeling the power of the ocean. She worked alone for some time before finding her partner, Sailor Uranus, with whom she fell in love. Micihiru is elegant and personable, already well-known for her music as well as her painting, but has given up her own dreams for the life of a Senshi. She is fully devoted to this duty and willing to make any sacrifice for it.

Haruka Tenoh

A good-natured, masculine girl, called Amara in the English anime. Haruka is the same age as her partner, Michiru, and transforms into Sailor Uranus, Soldier of the Sky. Before becoming a Senshi she dreamed of being a racer, and is extremely good at it. She tends to dress and speak like a man, especially in the anime, and is so friendly and genial that nearly everyone she meets is attracted to her. When it comes to fighting the enemy, she distrusts outside help and prefers to work alone with Sailor Neptune and later Pluto and Saturn.

Hotaru Tomoe

A sweet, lonely young girl whose name is unchanged in English (though pronounced slightly differently). Daughter of a possessed mad scientist, she is sickly and weak as the result of a terrible lab accident in her youth. After overcoming the darkness that has surrounded her family, she is able to become the Soldier of Silence, Sailor Saturn. She wields forces of destruction so powerful that she is rarely called upon to use them, and unlike the others, her Senshi and civilian personas seem somewhat disconnected. She is often pensive, and as a human has the inexplicable power to heal others.

See also: List of minor Sailor Moon characters

Adaptations

Manga

Main article: Sailor Moon (manga)

The Sailor Moon series began as a manga written and drawn by Naoko Takeuchi. It was an evolution from her earlier Codename wa Sailor V idea, expanding the concept into a team of five girls rather than just one.^[1] The complete original manga spans 52 issues, known as Acts, as well as ten separate side-stories. Its main series was serialized in Nakayoshi, Kodansha's shōjo magazine, from 1991 to 1995; the side-stories were serialized in Kodansha's Run Run.

Only one story arc was originally planned for the series, but after it was completed Takeuchi was asked to continue. Four more story arcs were produced,^[3] often being published simultaneously with the five corresponding anime series.

The entire series has been published in book form by Kodansha. The first edition came out as the series was being produced, from 1992 until 1997, and consisted of 18 Volumes with all the Acts and side stories in the order in which they had been released. The second edition, called the shinzōbun or "renewal" edition, began in 2003 when the live-action series was running. The individual Acts were redistributed so that there are more per book, and some corrections and updates were been made to the dialogue and drawings. New art was featured as well, including completely new cover art and character sketches (including characters unique to the live-action series). In all, the new edition consists of 12 story volumes and two separate "short story" volumes.^[4][5]

Anime

Main article: Sailor Moon (anime)

See also: List of Sailor Moon episodes

The Sailor Moon anime was produced by Toei Animation, and started airing only a month after the first issue of the manga was published. With 200 episodes airing between March 1992 and February 1997, Sailor Moon is one of the longest magical girl anime series.^[6] The anime sparked a highly successful merchandising campaign, which contributed to demand all over the world and translation into numerous languages. Sailor Moon has since become one of the most famous anime properties in the world.^[7][8]

Strictly speaking, Sailor Moon is an anime metaseries. It consists of five separate television series, which are often incorrectly referred to as seasons by English-speaking fans.^[clarify] Each series roughly corresponds to one of the five major story arcs of the manga. There were also three theatrically-released movies, as well as four special animated shorts.

Music for the series was written and composed by numerous people, including Naoko Takeuchi. Most of the background music was arranged by Takanori Arisawa, who won several awards due to the popularity of the various soundtracks in Japan and other countries. Over 40 Japanese music albums based on the series were released, as well as some 33 CD singles. In North America, only three CDs albums were released.^[9]

All of the Sailor Moon anime was animated traditionally, and was directed at different times by Junichi Satō and Kunihiko Ikuhara. Character design was headed by Kazuko Tadano and Ikuko Itoh, both of whom were also animation directors.

Musicals

Main article: Sailor Moon musicals

The musical stage shows, usually referred to collectively as SeraMyu, were a series of live theatre productions that played over 800 performances in some 29 musicals between 1993 and 2005. The stories of the shows include anime-inspired plotlines as well as a large amount of original material. Music from the series has been released on about 20 "memorial" albums.^[9]

Musicals ran twice a year, in the winter and in the summer. In the summer, the only venue for the musicals was the Sunshine Theatre in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo; however, in the winter it went on tour to the other large cities in Japan.

The final 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 that show, the series went on a "hiatus". There have been no signs that the show will continue.^[10]

Live-action series

Main article: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

A live-action version of Sailor Moon was broadcast from October 4, 2003 through September 25, 2004. The series is known officially as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (usually abbreviated to PGSM by fans), and it is the first series in the franchise to have a fully English title. It lasted a total of 49 episodes, and the broadcast originated from the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Numerous other television stations in Japan retransmitted the series.^[11]

The series' storyline more closely follows the original manga than the anime at first, but in later episodes it proceeds into a significantly different storyline from either, with original characters and new plot developments.

In addition to the main episodes, there were two direct-to-video releases after the show ended its television broadcast. These were the "Special Act", which is set four years after the main storyline ends and which shows the wedding of the two main characters, and "Act Zero", a prequel which shows the origins of Sailor V and Tuxedo Mask.

Video games

Main article: Sailor Moon video games

Numerous Sailor Moon console and arcade games were released in Japan, all based on the anime series. They were primarily made by Bandai and a Japanese game company called Angel, with some being produced by Banpresto.^[12] The early games were side-scrolling fighters, whereas the later ones were unique puzzle games, or versus fighting games. Another Story was a turn-based role-playing game.

The games mainly saw release on the Super Famicom, with the first side-scroller being ported to the Sega Mega Drive. Two side-scrolling adventure games were produced for the Game Boy (Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R), and a side-scrolling game was also produced for the Game Gear (Sailor Moon S), as well as a game for the PC Engine. A final versus fighting game was released for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation. The last Sailor Moon-related game to date was released in November 2001 - Happy Chibiusa World. There is a game for the Wii console in development by NAMCO with the working title of "Sailor Moon". Its expected release date is 31 December 2007.^[13]

The only original Sailor Moon game to be released outside of Japan was the Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon game developed by Angel, released in France as "Sailormoon" in 1994.^[12] The other games are hard to find in any other country, unless downloaded from the internet as ROMs, some of which have been translated into languages other than Japanese.

A handful of games were produced in North America, including "The 3D Adventures of Sailor Moon".

English adaptations

Main article: Sailor Moon (English adaptations)

English-dubbed anime

After a bidding war between Toon Makers and DiC Entertainment,^[14] DiC (which at the time was owned by The Walt Disney Company) acquired the rights to the first 72 episodes of Sailor Moon, consisting of the entire first series and two-thirds of Sailor Moon R. Through the omission of 6 episodes and the merging of two, the total episode count was reduced to 65, the minimum number of episodes required for strip syndication on US television. The remaining episodes were each cut by several minutes to make room for more commercials, to censor plot points or visuals deemed inappropriate for children, and to allow the insertion of "educational" segments called "Sailor Says" at the end of each episode. The remaining 17 episodes of Sailor Moon R were adapted later, and were treated in much the same way.

The English adaptations by Optimum Productions for Cloverway of Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS (the third and fourth series) stayed relatively close to the original Japanese versions, and no episodes were skipped or merged.

The fifth and final series, Sailor Stars, has never been licensed for adaptation into English. As of May 2004, the rest of the metaseries has officially gone off the air in all English-speaking countries due to lapsed licenses which have not been renewed.^[15]

English-language manga

The manga was translated into English in 1997 by manga publisher Mixx (now renamed Tokyopop). The US comic was released as three series: Sailor Moon, which collects the first three arcs (the Dark Kingdom, Black Moon, and Infinity arcs), Sailor Moon Super S, which collects the SuperS arc, and Sailor Moon Stars, which collects the Sailor Stars arc. They feature all of the content from the original manga collections (though the names of the "Inner" Senshi and Sailor Moon were changed to those used in the English anime), as well as the occasional new sketch and "thank you" commentary from series creator Naoko Takeuchi.

As of May 2005, Tokyopop's license to the Sailor Moon manga has lapsed, and the English-language manga is out of print.^[16][17]

Reception

The Sailor Moon anime was originally planned to run for only six months, but was extended repeatedly due to its popularity, concluding only after a five-year run.^[18] In Japan, it aired every Saturday night in prime time,^[19][20] getting TV viewership ratings around 11-12% for most of the series run.^[19][21] The media franchise is one of the most successful Japan has ever had, reaching 1.5 billion dollars in merchandise sales during the first three years.^[22] Ten years after the series completion, the series has featured among the top 30 of TV Asahi's Top 100 Anime polls in 2005 and 2006.^[7][8]

Sailor Moon has also been popular internationally. The first dubbed version was made in France, premiering on Club Dorothée in December 1993.^[23] Other countries followed suit, including Italy, Spain, and Hong Kong, before it was picked up for a North American adaptation.^[22] It is credited as being the beginning of a wider movement of girls taking up shōjo manga.^[24]

The anime series has been commended for its "memorable characters", "charm" and its ability to appeal on a wide level.^[25] It is credited with changing the genre of magical girls—its heroine must use her powers to fight evil, not simply to have fun as previous magical girls had done.^[26] In contrast, Sailor Moon is also sometimes considered campy and melodramatic,^[25] and has been criticised for its use of formulaic plots, monsters of the day,^[27] and stock footage.^[28]

In the West, Sailor Moon was sometimes associated with the Girl Power movement and with empowering its viewers,^[24] compared both favorably and unfavorably with Barbie and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.^[19][29] Despite the series' apparent popularity among Western anime fandom, the dubbed version of the series received poor ratings in the United States and did not do well in DVD sales in the United Kingdom. The British distributor, MVM Films, has attributed the poor sales to the United Kingdom release being of the dub only, and that major retailers refused to support the show leading to the DVD release appealing to neither children nor older anime fans.^[30]

References

Wikipedia information about Sailor Moon This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sailor Moon". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.