Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

If you're like me and absolutely loved 90's Sailor Moon anime, please, stay away from this manga. Everything interesting in the anime simply doesn't exist here.
Sailor Moon is the typical magical girl story you've seen before: a girl gets power and fights evil to save the world, but that's basically it. Every arc plot is almost the same, repeating the same formula for 61 chapters, making you sick and tired of the story very quickly. Also, the character development is non-existent. Appart from the annoying cry-baby Usagi Tsukino, we don't get to known the others characters personalities at all.
And last but not last, the art while cute, is very generic and surely does not stand out among other works of the same era.
Overall, Sailor Moon manga is uniteresting and lacks charisma and personality and is the exact opposite of the anime, being much inferior to its animated counterpart. No wonder this is Takeuchi's only work.

Abajo está la review en inglés/below is the review in English

[Español]
el manga de sailor moon soluciona los dos principales problemas del anime (el 69.9% de la serie que correspondería al relleno, y algunas incoherencias provocadas por los mismos episodios). El manga de sailor moon me encanta, el dibujo de naoko takeuchi es muy llevadero, la historia (aunque simple) es atrapante, los personajes son carismáticos y los antagonistas están bien planteados.
Un plus extra: tiene a Tuxedo Mask, y con eso, ya es el mejor maho shoujo (Ok no)
[English]
The sailor moon manga solves the two main problems of the anime (69.9% of the series that would correspond to the filler, and some inconsistencies caused by the same episodes). I love the sailor moon manga, the drawing of naoko takeuchi is very bearable, the story (although simple) is compelling, the characters are charismatic and the antagonists are well posed.
An extra plus: he has Tuxedo Mask, and with that, he is already the best maho shoujo (Ok no)

I first watched the dubbed anime when I was little, and it along with Speed Racer is what got me into anime in the first place. Sailor Moon holds a special little spot in my heart because of that, it was the first anime show I couldn't get enough of.

Starting a few days ago I decided that I would read the manga, and I just recently finished all of it, and it was wonderful, but it seemed rather rushed. Each villian went down so quickly, and each story arc ended rather fast. I prefer the anime to the manga because of this. When I watched the anime, I got to know each character better, including the villians, and story arcs didn't have to move so quickly.

In the end for me: the manga was a great way to pull me back into the Sailor Moon fandom, and would be a nice introduction to it for someone new, it was a lot of fun to read, and I would recommend it. But after, I would recommend watching the anime; which I plan to go do again myself.

I have to say, when I first think of Sailor Moon, I flashback to the anime episode where Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars are fighting Jedite at the airport. That was when I was 5 and saying "Moon Prism Power" like it was a mantra. Now, as a college graduate, I have the honor of re-reading the manga that inspired me to have a manga collection (300+ and counting!). So yes, I love this manga.

I think it's hard to describe Sailor Moon as the typical shojo manga because it is THE shojo manga. It's hard to find one nowadays that isn't inspired by and/or flashes back to Sailor Moon. Girl Power, Romance, Time Travel, Magic Unicorns, and Intergalactic space fights--these are all in Sailor Moon.

If at anytime you wanted to go fight evil with a group of friends, Sailor Moon will reach out to you. It's funny, it's emotional, it's sometimes confusing, but most of all it is inspiring and courageous. It taught me about love and acceptance before I even knew hate and intolerance. It shows that everyone can transform into a better version of themselves countless of times, and can gain friends that will always believe in who they are.

If I had to give ONE thing I dislike (and I am scratching deep down past the nostalgia filter) it would be that while the anime was marketed to children in America (seriously, iffy call), the manga was thought to be so too. However, I would not consider the manga as censored nor necessarily appropriate for what is considered to be the typical American child. Cue a lot of awkward, mature conversations.

In summary, Great read and any manga fan should read at least the first 2 (in the original format, 4) books, whether they end up loving it or not loving it as much.

Right so I decided to try out reading Sailor Moon after being dissatisfied with “Sailor V” in my mid 20s because basically, i didn’t grow up with it much from childhood nor have I ever attempted to watch the tv series (nor watch the new version) .I only read it in a GirlTalk magazine once and that was it.

Anyways as much as I hate to admit it but the story was rather off and cheesy. It’s pretty much exactly like Sailor V but it’s more detailed. I did like the scenes with Usagi and Tuexdo man, although it was rather odd that they straight away embraced each other without getting to know each other properly. I just felt the storyline didn’t give them enough time to fully evolve actually and it looked to be rather forced. Don’t get me wrong, I fully respect Sailor Moon stans who love this series like it is a fun cutesy old skool gem to go “aww” to but whether I’m not a kid anymore or just prefer deep dive stories, it’s just not for me chaps! It’s disappointing cause I really tried to connect with it and join the “Sailor Moon club” but fraid not!

I will still enjoy rocking out to “Moonlight Densetsu”, such a tune man! 👌🏻🤟

I LOVE sailor moon. I got interested in manga through tamadashi horoka (sorry can’t spell) there is amazing character development and no point in the series where you want to stop reading. Sailor moon has a full story from start to finish, and leaves you with the sense that there is much more to this universe. Sailor moon is heartfelt and wrenching with every second being an amazing experience. Sailor moon is an inspiration for everyone. Sailor moon is an ever expanding universe and will never age that is why I love it. Sailor Moon is my favorite manga for the reasons above. In conclusion the sailor moon is amazing I would reread it a million times for it’s infinite universe, wonderful storyline, and character development.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8/10
Ah, good ol’ pretty sailor warriors! Despite being the series most other mahou shoujo copied thereafter, it remains in the tops because very few managed to have its variety and vividness. Plus, I like it too.

ART SECTION: 7/10 [Bishoujos in Sailor Suits.]

Following the trend, the artwork is extremely shoujo, that means very breezy sketches and loose borders between frames. It looks very amateurish in the first part but along the way it improves considerably and towards the end it now looks splendid. You just have to get used to the idea that the plot is driven by dialogue and mostly cinematics, rather motion or action. The battles are to the most part very short and unimpressive but what happens in between is plain wonderful.

Despite its girly looks there are parts with quite the disturbing graphical violence. The way most people die in it is bordering occult horror, as they are either turned to mummies or dust (and this applies to many innocents as well). There are also lots of illusions and psychedelic sceneries that make this rather inappropriate for too young readers. For the same reason I liked it even more, heh.

STORY SECTION: 8/10 [Once upon a time, there was a princess on the moon...]

The story is basically separated into five arcs and in each we have the stereotypical tale of superpowered girls fighting demons who want to take over the world. The plot is extremely fast for manga standards and in each chapter there will always be something new to further the plot. Although it gets repetitive and predictable after awhile, the events that happen in-between the battles are quite captivating so it is not that annoying.

Despite the cheesy premise, there are several overtones in each arc which don’t allow things to be too black or white, or even good or evil. To some extent each character has its dark side, some villains have more reasons than just being born evil, and every challenge is attacking the mind as well as body. Thus the story is more psychological and even philosophical that your typical superpower fighting formula. Although it always amounts down to using the power of love or friendship, it is still quite creepy and exciting most of the times.

There are also several themes that go far beyond the notions of good and evil. What is happiness, how it feels to be immortal, how can you live as nothing but a vessel for everyone’s grief. Also the scale of the battles escalates to encompass entire worlds and eventually the whole galaxy, making you feel like you are watching a story that is bigger than life itself. So although the basic idea is that of a fairy tale, it constantly expands to various serious matters that make it appear to be far more than just that.

CHARACTER SECTION: 8/10 [Although there are no original characters, their quirks and decent coloring makes up for it.]

The characters are the rather standard bunch of people you expect to see in such a tale. The teenage girls who do girly stuff by day (school, romance, hobbies) and battle demons by night. The thing is that they are colorized a lot along the way and each one becomes a distinctive personality, despite usually being grouped together in battles as a unit. So you are not supposed to criticize them in battles, which as I said they are very fast and unexciting, but rather of what they are doing, saying or feeling between battles. They are still 2 dimensional to the most part but they are very distinctive for their stereotype and easily become likable and memorable.

A thing which I didn’t like that much is how most of the villains weren’t given much attention. Most were nothing but generic one-chapter enemies and were killed right away before we get the time to even understand why or who or when. The anime version deliberately prolonged the plot with lots of stand-alone episodes where you could get to know them but here they come and go in a few pages. The big bads are otherwise nicely colorful and make delightfully evil adversaries.

VALUE SECTION: 10/10 [I find no reason for not considering it amongst the best of what this genre has to offer.]

Sailor Moon is neither the first nor the best Mahou Shojo on the block. But it became famous enough, thanks to:
-its likable characters. Since all of them are stereotypes, every viewer can easily find someone he/she likes and thus root for.
-its long duration, easily becoming the longest Mahou Shojo ever made. More than enough time to bind with the characters.
-its evolving story.
-its romance. It is quite stereotypical most of the time but the visual effects and the metaphysical plot make it more interesting than that of a typical slice-of-life romantic scenario.
-its several name allusions. Every Sailor Warrior has the basic element she controls in her surname, villains are always named after a specific category (minerals in the first season, crystals in the second, animals in the fourth, metals in the fifth), and special effects are tied to their user’s personality.

VERDICT: 8/10
Very naïve and repetitive but its heart is pure and intact.

The anime was a part of my childhood and the manga became serialized for a second time when I was in Highschool. This is one of the few manga series that I own in its entirety, though I still can't call it my favorite series, even if we're just taking the graphic novel medium into consideration. That's because there are many flaws with this series that become very relevant the more times you read it, which makes it so that it's not the best series to re-read, at least not for me. But I'm here to write a short review of the series and I did give it an 8 on my overall rating of it, so it still does hold a place in my favorites.

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The Bad:

The biggest thing that's bugged me since I started reading this series in high school was the length of every female character's legs and the fact that every character looks vastly older than they are. In the first volume, Takeuchi introduces Usagi as a 14-year-old girl but I'd have trouble understanding that for a couple of reasons. I know what 14-year-old girls look like and that's not it. These designs make a lot more sense for characters like Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto or any of the other adult characters, but no for the bodies of these still-developing teenage girls.

Another aspect of the designs that I'm not too fond of is that you don't really have any differentiation between the designs of different characters when it comes to their physical builds. Even when we get the "guyish" senshi, they only end up being taller and maybe having larger breasts. We don't have a heavy set senshi, or an overly short senshi, or a really tall and lanky senshi. Some variance other than breast size would be nice.

Now onto my gripes with the story. Well, this is a bit of a comparison to the anime, which I know is wrong to do, but the villains pale in comparison to their anime counterparts. The four generals in the first arc didn't have their own individual personalities, nor did Beryl. The same can be said for pretty much every other villain in the franchise until we get to the fourth arc, which I'll talk about in the good section of this review. The supporting cast also tends to suffer in characterization until the fourth arc (when they're separated from Usagi and have to deal with their own inner demons).

But that's about it for the bad.

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The Good:

The story for Sailor Moon is, for the most part, very good. It's hard to really talk about it without going into a full analysis of the series but you'll just have to take my word for it in this case.

Even though the rest of the series doesn't do characterization very well, I do honestly think that fourth and fifth arcs make up for the lost ground with the amount of character development that we get for each member of the supporting cast right before killing them all off in the final. Even though the series ends with each character dying twice and Usagi (arguably) choosing paradise over starting over with her life again, it's written in such a way that makes sense if you're capable of reading between the lines. A lot of revealed about the lore of the Sailor Moon in these arcs that isn't translated into the anime and Galaxia is a lot more ruthless in this version of the story.

Now onto the designs I actually really liked. Galaxia looks identical to her anime counterpart and the design really suits her. The same can be said for Princess Kakyuu, who, while still having a small role, has a much bigger role in manga as well. I also like how the Starlights masquerade as men during the day but are completely female during the night, they don't just change genders.

And I do actually really enjoy this series, it keeps me entertained from beginning to end, and even though I can see the many flaws in the series, I do still really love it.

Sailor Moon was one of my first animes ever. When I was younger I loved the show so when I saw the manga when I was, I think 13 or so, I knew I had to get them. I love this series and I suggest it to anyone who remotely like the anime. The manga series is more like the original Sailor Moon series, NOT the dubbed version (which imo is pretty awful). Also, if you are like me and get emotional over books then be prepared for a fun emotional ride. The series spans from the beginnings of Sailor Moon to the end of the Stars Series. A must read for sailor moon fans and fans of magic, romance, and girl-power.

This manga is filled with romance and adventure that you will love. I absolutley loved this series, it made me feel happiness, sadness and love. I especially enjoyed this manga because the art was just fantastic. The artist put in alot of detail and you can really tell what's happening. What confused me was the endings, the ending sometimes messed me up because the storyline changed a bit or they appeared somewhere that they weren't before. The love scenes were stunning and heart warming.

The storyline was very intresting and it pulled me in, with the adventure that Sailor Moon and her scouts went on I just didn't want to put the book down!