Sailor Moon is a japanese manga and ánime from the author Naoko Takeuchi.
When she started creating the comic, she had never had any training on arts, she had a
degree on Chemistry!
The first publication of the manga was on early December 1991, in the magazine Nakayoshi,
for a series called Codename wa: Sailor V.
In Sailor V the protagonist was only one girl.
This manga called Toei Animation’s attention.
They were looking for an idea for a new anime, but they wanted a group of girls instead of
only one heroine.
It was then that Naoko and her editor Fumio Osano started working on it and adapted Sailor
V mixing ideas from series like the “Power Rangers” with basic elements from magical
girls, these series about female characters with magical powers (from which they selected
objects such as the scepters (sépters) and the wands.
All of this, combined with elements from the most typical animes, such as romeance or the
sailor school uniforms.
They also added some details from the Greeks and Romans, asian legends and even astrology.
And this is how Sailor Moon was born!
A series that tells the story of Usági (uságui) Tsukino, a 14-year-old teenager, carefree,
clumsy and whiny.
Her personality and hairstyle are inspired by the author when she was a teenager herself.
Her family is also based on Naoko’s, they even have the same names!
Usági will get together with 4 more girls to create a team and fight against the evil.
The anime started airing on March 7th 1992, while the manga had its first compilation
volume published on June 6th that same year.
However, some of the episodes had already been published previously in the Nakayoshi
magazine, same as Sailor V.
Sailor Moon’s story starts when Usagi fins a cat called Luna, who tells her that she
is, in reality, a soldier who must fight for love and justice, find her guardians and look
for and protect the Moon Princess.
It is then that her aventure starts, and Usagi becomes Sailor Moon.
Usagi had, in the begining, two girls who would follow her on her adventures: Sailor
Mercury, Amy, a quiet classmate with a really high IQ.
Sailor Mars, Rei, a girl who attends a private school and also helps her grandpa as a priestess
in the temple where they live.
She’s a girl with a sophisticated physical appearance and she has psychic powers.
Later on, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus will join the team.
Sailor Venus is the protagonist of the previous manga, Sailor V. With them 5, the main group
is formed, and they together will fight the enemies from the Dark Kingdom.
From the 3rd season onwards, new girls will join the group: Uranus (iúranus), Neptune,
Pluto, Saturn and Chibi Moon, daughter of Usagi and Darien who came from the future,
making a total of 10 soldiers.
Sailor Moon, sometimes, also has the help of Tuxedo Mask, who is in reality Darien,
a boy who picks on Bunny a lot because of her bad grades… even tho, little by little,
they will end up becoming a couple of love birds.
Sailor Moon was translated into 42 different languages, and aired in more than 80 countries.
With this numbers, it beats other legendary animes such as Dragon Ball, Doraemon (doráiemon)
or Saint Seiya (séia).
Because of this, we can find very different dubbings of the series.
For example, Usagi is also called Bunny in some versions and Serena in Latin America.
The series has 5 seasons and a total of 200 episodes.
Apart from 3 movies and 6 specials, they also performed musicals in Japan.
Sailor Moon’s success in Japan was such that, in 2003, a tv series with real actors
was released, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.
Naoko didnt seem to be very happy with the adaptations of her work to the big screen,
so she decided to protect the anime by copyright law.
She took this back in 2012, coinciding with the SailorMoon’s 20th anniversary.
As a celebration, special editions of the comic and the anime came out, as well as new
merchandising, and the production of a new animated series, more faithful to the manga
than to the anime from the 90s, Sailor Moon Crystal.
The first season was released on July 5th 2014.
This season and the second one, were aired on streaming on the platform Nicó Nicó Dóuga
and could be watched with subtitles in several languages, including Spanish.
The design of the characters changed for the third season, and it was broadcasted on tv
and other internet platforms.
Right now, we are waiting for seasons 4 and 5, which will be adapted into movies, tho
we dont know anything about them yet.
This new adaptation had a warm welcome by some fans, but other still prefer the old
anime.
Sailor Moon was one of the first animated series dealing openly with homosexuality,
through characters like a couple of villains or Fiore, a boy who fell in love with Darien.
In 2017, Sailor Moon’s 25th anniversary was celebrated.
Without a doubt, it has always been one of the most loved by fans manga and anime, and
it meant a turning point in japanese series, especially the magical girls kind of series,
offering a model of strong and independent women.
Sailor Moon marked our childhood and we will always remember this group of soldiers with
all our love.
Who was your favorite character?