Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, or Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (officially known as 美少女戦士セーラームーン Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn) 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 Sailor Senshi ("Sailor Soldiers/Sailor Scouts") 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 sērā fuku ("sailor outfit"), on which Takeuchi modeled the Sailor Senshi's uniforms. 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 (セーラームーン, Sērā Mūn) is the main heroine in Sailor Moon metaseries and the main protagonist of the franchise, as well as its title character. Her civilian name is Usagi Tsukino (月野 うさぎ) A carefree but whiny schoolgirl who is known as the leader of the Sailor Senshi. 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 Senshi 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 (セーラーマーキュリー Sērā Mākyurī) is one of the central characters in the Sailor Moon metaseries. Her real name is Ami Mizuno (水野 亜美 Mizuno Ami, or Amy Anderson in the English versions), a genius schoolgirl who can transform into one of the series' specialized heroines, the Sailor Senshi. 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
Rei Hino (火野 レイ), is one of the original five sailor senshi 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
Kino Makoto (木野 まこと, Kino Makoto, known as Lita Kino in the English adaptations) is the Sailor Senshi known as Sailor Jupiter. 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 Senshi.
Sailor Venus
Aino Minako (愛野 美奈子, Aino Minako; Mina Aino in the english adaptations) better known as Sailor Venus. 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 soldiers, 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 Senshi. As Sailor Venus, she is the leader of the Inner Senshi.
Sailor Chibi Moon
Chibiusa (ちびうさ or Rini in the English versions), is one of the central fictional characters in the Sailor Moon metaseries. When she firts 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 (地場 衛 Chiba Mamoru, Darien in the English dub) is Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon's husband and the only major (human) male character in the Sailor Moon metaseries. 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
Setsuna Meiō (冥王 せつな(Trista Meioh in the english dub) is Sailor Pluto, and she guards the gates of time. Sailor Pluto's first appearance is during Sailor Moon R, where she watches over Chibi-Usa in the past. She has a very special relationship with Chibi-Usa and she's the oldest if the nine Sailor Senshi. She is the keeper of the Garnet Orb.
Sailor Neptune
Kaioh Michiru/Kaiou Michiru (海王 みちる)(or Michelle Kaiou in the English anime) better known as Sailor Neptune, is one of the Outer Soldiers. 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
'Ten'ou/Tenoh Haruka' (天王 はるか(Amara Tenoh in the English dub)) better known as Sailor Uranus is one of the Outer Soldiers. She is the Keeper of the Space Sword. Haruka is very tomboyish, strong, and she hates anything feminine. As a Sailor Soldier, Uranus' tactics (along with Neptune's) can be controversial and morally ambiguous, which puts her at odds with Sailor Moon and the other inner Senshi - 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
Hotaru Tomoe (土萠 ほたる) is a young girl who becomes the powerful Sailor Saturn, the Senshi of Ruin and Rebirth. In Japanese mythology, the firefly are thought to be the souls of soldiers 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 Chibi-Usa. Hotaru is the only Sailor Soldier to not receive a name change in the English anime. Sailor Saturn wields the Silence Glaive (called the Silent Scythe in the english dub), just like the other Outer Senshi, who each carry a weapon.
Adaptions
Anime
The Sailor Moon anime, co-produced by TV Asahi, Toei Agency and 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 storyline 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 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 magazine, from 1991 to 1995; the side-stories 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,[33][34] 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' storyline more closely follows the original manga than the anime at first, but in later episodes it proceeds into a significantly different storyline 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 theatre productions that played over 800 performances in some 29 musicals between 1993 and 2005. The stories of the shows include anime-inspired plotlines as well as a large amount of original material. Music from the series has been released on about 20 "memorial" albums.[50] The popularity of the musicals has been cited as a reason behind the production of the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon TV series.