Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン, Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn), changed later in English as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, is a media franchise created by the Japanese manga artist Naoko Takeuchi, and published between 1992 and 1997. The manga eventually adapted into an anime, which was quickly found favor internationally, and was bought by various TV companies across the world and dubbed into numerous different languages.

The main story revolves around the reborn defenders, who are teenage girls that can transform into magical girls, known as the Sailor Guardians and fight the evil forces as heroines. They are all renamed after the moons and the planets. The use of "Sailor" comes from a style of girls' school uniform popular in Japan, the seifuku (sailor outfit), on which Takeuchi modeled the Sailor Guardian's uniforms from. The elements of fantasy in the series are heavily symbolic and often based on mythology. Their outfits slightly change once they transform into magical girls.

Sailor Moon redefined the magical-girl genre, as previous magical girls did not use their powers to fight evil.

Characters

Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon is the main heroine in Sailor Moon series and the main protagonist of the franchise, as well as its title character. Her civilian name is Usagi Tsukino, A carefree but whiny schoolgirl who is known as the leader of the Sailor Guardians. She is the love interest of Mamoru Chiba. Sailor Moon's attack names center around the moon, love, mystery and light. She starts out as a frightened, reluctant girl, and others often have to bail her out, but she gradually comes to accept her full identity. She eventually becomes the strongest and most powerful Sailor Guardians in the galaxy, but her capacity for caring about other people is frequently shown to be much stronger and more powerful still.

Sailor Mercury

Sailor Mercury is one of the central characters in the Sailor Moon series. Her real name is Ami Mizuno, a genius schoolgirl who can transform into one of the series' specialized heroines, the Sailor Guardians. Sailor Mercury is the first member of the Sailor Team to be discovered by Sailor Moon, and serves as the "brains" of the group. Her powers are associated with phases of water, and she can use her supercomputer to quickly analyze a foe in battle.

Sailor Mars

Sailor Mars, real name Rei Hino, is one of the original five Sailor Guardians and, in the anime, the 2nd in command of the Princess' four guardians. She has two pet crows named Phobos and Deimos who, in the manga, are her guardians. Despite being Shinto, she attends a Catholic high school. She is portrayed as being very popular and well liked in school, despite her temper. Her name means "Spirit of Fire", and her attacks are mostly based on fire.

Sailor Jupiter

Sailor Jupiter, real name Kino Makoto is one of the members. Her name means "Faithfulness of Wood", and her attacks are based around lightning and wood. Wood, Japanese astrology, represents strength and flexibility. She sees herself as a protector, even before she became a Sailor Guardian.

Sailor Venus

Sailor Venus, real name Aino Minako is one of the members. Her name means "Beautiful Little Child of Love", and her attacks are based around love, with the exception of Crescent Beam and Crescent Beam Shower. Minako starred in her own series before Sailor Moon. This manga series was called Codename: Sailor V and detailed her adventures as Sailor V. When Sailor Venus appeared to the Guardians, she announced herself as their Princess. It is revealed later that she is not the moon princess, but disguised herself as so to protect the Inner Guardian. As Sailor Venus, she is the leader of the Inner Guardian.

Sailor Chibi Moon

Sailor Chibi Moon, real name Chibiusa Tsukino, is one of the central fictional characters in the Sailor Moon series. When she first appears, she is a small child from the 30th century who visits the past to seek help from the series' primary heroines. Chibiusa's dream is to one day become a real lady, to have her own prince, and to be friends with everyone she knows. Meanwhile, she is a fairly ordinary little girl; she likes pink and red, pudding, pancakes, and rabbits. Her favorite school subject is drawing, while her least favorites are language classes.

Tuxedo Mask

Mamoru Chiba is the only major (human) male character in the Sailor Moon eries. He can transform into the rose throwing hero Tuxedo Mask in order to protect Sailor Moon; he is the reincarnation of Prince Endymion of Earth and in the 30th century he will be known as King Endymion. He is the future father of Chibiusa/Rini. The series often portrays him as stoic, steady and introverted. Unaware of his dual-identity as Tuxedo Mask, he suffers painful headaches and visions whenever Usagi gets into trouble, and he transforms unknowingly into Tuxedo Mask. As Mamoru, he tries to piece together his strange dreams, and as Tuxedo Mask, he tries to remember his past and identity, while searching for Princess Serenity.

Sailor Pluto

Sailor Pluto, real name Setsuna Meiou guards the gates of time. Sailor Pluto's first appearance is during Sailor Moon R, where she watches over Chibiusa in the past. She has a very special relationship with Chibiusa and she's the oldest if the nine Sailor Guardians. She is the keeper of the Garnet Orb.

Sailor Neptune

Sailor Neptune, real name Michiru Kaioh is one of the Outer Guardians. Elegant, sophisticated, though sometimes cold and capable of sharp anger, she has been described by Usagi as "the ideal princess". She is the Keeper of the Deep Aqua Mirror.

Sailor Uranus

Sailor Uranus, real name Haruka Tenoh is one of the Outer Sailor Guardians. She is the Keeper of the Space Sword. Haruka is very tomboyish, strong, and she hates anything feminine. As a Sailor Guardian, Uranus' tactics (along with Neptune's) can be controversial and morally ambiguous, which puts her at odds with Sailor Moon and the other inner Guardian - particularly since they can frequently involve sacrificing lives. Haruka's name means "Far Sky King", although her attacks do not exactly reflect this.

Sailor Saturn

Sailor Saturn, real name Hotaru Tomoe is a young girl who becomes the powerful Sailor Saturn, the Guardian of Ruin and Rebirth. In Japanese mythology, the firefly are thought to be the souls of Guardians, who have died in war. When she was first introduced, she was possessed by Mistress 9. She is later adopted by Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, and Sailor Pluto. Her best friend is Chibiusa. Hotaru is the only Sailor Guardian to not receive a name change in the English anime. Sailor Saturn wields the Silence Glaive, just like the other Outer Guardians, who each carry a weapon.

Adaptions

Anime

The 1992 Sailor Moon anime, co-produced by TV Asahi, and animated by Toei Animation, started airing only a month after the first issue of the manga was published. With 200 episodes airing from March 1992 to February 1997 on TV Asahi, Sailor Moon is one of the longest magical girl anime series. The anime sparked a highly successful merchandising campaign of over 5,000 items, 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. Due to its resurgence of popularity in Japan, the series returned to the airwaves on September 1, 2009. Also, Italy is getting it rebroadcast in northern-hemisphere autumn 2010, also getting permission from Takeuchi who will be releasing new artwork to promote.

Sailor Moon consists of five separate arcs. The titles of the series are Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon SuperS and Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. Each series roughly corresponds to one of the five major story arcs of the manga, following the same general story line and including most of the same characters. There were also five special animated shorts, as well as three theatrically-released movies: Sailor Moon R: The Movie, Sailor Moon S: The Movie, and Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie.

Manga

The complete original manga spans 52 chapters, known as Acts, as well as ten separate side-stories. Its main series appeared in serial form in Nakayoshi, Kodansha's shōjo manga.

Before the Sailor Moon manga, Takeuchi published Codename: Sailor V, which centered around just Sailor Venus. The side-stories of the Sailor Moon manga were serialized in Kodansha's Run Run.

Kodansha has published all the chapters and side-stories in book form. The first edition came out as the series was being produced, from 1992 through 1997, and consisted of 18 volumes with all the chapters and side stories in the order in which they had been released. The second edition, called the shinsōban or "renewal" edition, began in 2003 during the run of the live-action series. Another picture collection, Volume Infinity, appeared in a strictly limited edition after the end of the series in 1997.

Video Games

More than twenty Sailor Moon console and arcade games have appeared in Japan, all based on the anime series. The early games were side-scrolling fighters, whereas the later ones were unique puzzle games, or versus fighting games. The only Sailor Moon game produced outside of Japan, 3VR New Media's The 3D Adventures of Sailor Moon, went on sale in North America in 1997.

Live-action Series

The Tokyo Broadcasting System and Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting screened a tokusatsu (live-action) version of Sailor Moon from October 4, 2003 through September 25, 2004. The series, titled Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (often shortened to "PGSM"), used an entirely English-language title for the first time in the Sailor Moon franchise. It lasted a total of 49 episodes. Almost one thousand people applied for the parts of the five main characters. The series' story line more closely follows the original manga than the anime at first, but in later episodes it proceeds into a significantly different story line from either, with original characters and new plot developments.

In addition to the main episodes, two direct-to-video releases appeared after the show ended its television broadcast.

Stage Musicals

The musical stage shows, usually referred to collectively as SeraMyu, were a series of live theater productions that played over 800 performances in some 29 musicals between 1993 and 2005. The stories of the shows include anime-inspired plot lines as well as a large amount of original material. Music from the series has been released on about 20 "memorial" albums. The popularity of the musicals has been cited as a reason behind the production of the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon TV series.