Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon (known as 美少女戦士セーラームーン or Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon, which literally translates as beautiful young girl warrior Sailormoon) is a shoujo (girls) manga (comic book) and anime (animated) Japanese series created by Naoko Takeuchi. The story revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a destroyed kingdom that spanned the Solar System, and the evil forces they battle.
Naoko Takeuchi amalgamated many seemingly disparate themes in the creation of Sailor moon. Combining her love of space with Greek Myth, Roman Myth, Japanese elemental themes, and Meiji-era sailor-fuku school uniforms, she managed to fuse the popular magical girl and sentai genres and create a completely new and original idea.
The premise is as follows: Immature, underacheiving student Usagi Tsukino discovers that she is the reincarnation of Princess Serenity, the princess of an ancient Moon kingdom. Her role as defender of the Solar System has been reissued to her in light of the reemergence of the evil force that originally destroyed her kingdom, the Silver Millennium. (Note: Silver Millennium is the name of the kingdom; it's not a time.) She fights using the identity of Sailormoon. As the series progresses, Sailormoon is reunited with other reincarnated defenders: the princess's guardian soldiers. She is also reunited with her lover, the prince of Earth, who serves equally as romantic interest and primary protector.
Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon ("Sailormoon" is written as one word or two when addressing the Japanese version because "Sailormoon" and "Sailor Moon" can be found in the original Japanese sources; the English dub shows just "Sailor Moon") is composed of five separate series: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon R, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon S, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon SuperS, and Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Sailor Stars. There are three Sailormoon movies, and these have independent stories that are separate from the series. The movies fall in the general timeline of each of the three middle series (R, S, and SuperS). Additionally, there are several Sailormoon soundtracks available.
A dubbed American version of the anime was created in 1995. Unfortunately, many changes were made to the basic storyline; it was rewritten to be aimed at very young American girls. Plots were vastly changed; others were completely dropped. Some of the changes include: naming the team the Sailor Scouts instead of the much more accurate Sailor Soldiers; making each of the Sailor Senshi princesses; renaming almost all of the original attacks; censorship of much of the adolescent sexuality; and a complete omission of the Japanese version's original music. This American version was many peoples' first experience with Sailormoon, and the differences between the versions led to unnecessary confusion. However, many fans worldwide would never have known about the series had it not reached America. Most fans regard the American version as a mixed blessing.
Overview
Protagonists
Princess Serenity and the Yon Shugo Jin no Senshi
These five senshi are the first to be introduced in the series. They serve as Earth's protectors. ("Yon Shugo Jin no Senshi" in Japanese means "soldiers of the four guardian deities"; that is their official name.)
Gaibu Taiyôkei Yon Senshi
The four soldiers of the outer solar system protect the solar system from external threats. They are introduced in the third series.
Sailor Starlights
The Sailor Starlights were introduced in the final series of Sailormoon. In the manga, the trio adopt human identities as male pop stars, but in truth they are three mysterious new — and naturally female — Sailor Senshi; in the anime, they are men who become women when they transform into their Senshi forms.
Additional protagonists
(*) Name not westernized.
Antagonists
NOTE: In the North American dub, all of the different groups of antagonists are lumped together under the term "Negaverse", without really differentiating between them.Dark Kingdom (Season 1)
"Classic" is a fan-created name
Al and En section (Season 2a "R")
[NOTE: Anime only]
Black Moon (Season 2b "R")
Black Moon Clan
Ayakashi no Yon Shimai — The Four Sisters of the Phantom
R Movie
Death Busters (Season 3 "S")
Death Busters
Witches 5
S Movie
Dead Moon Circus (Season 4 "SuperS" Part of 5)
Amazon Trio
Amazones Quartetto
SuperS Movie
Shadow Galactica (Season 5 "Stars")
External Links
