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.