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Sailor Moon (known as 美少女戦士セーラームーン or
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, which literally translates as
beautiful young girl warrior Sailormoon) is a
shoujo (girls)
manga (comic book),
anime (animated), and tokusatsu (Live
action with
special effects) 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.
Overview
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 (westernized name, family name second) 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 period.) 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 North American version of the anime was created in
1995, initially airing on the
USA Network in the
states, and on
YTV in
Canada. Many changes were made to the basic storyline; it was
rewritten to be aimed at very young American girls. Purist Sailor Moon and
anime fans familiar with the Japanese original found this unfortunate.
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 (although the term "Sailor Soldiers" was
used much more frequently in later episodes); renaming almost all of the
original attacks; censorship of much of the adolescent sexuality;
censorship of even small amounts of violence involving humans (such as
when Sailor Mars slaps Sailor Moon); and a complete omission of the
Japanese version's original music. This North American version was many
people's first experience with Sailormoon, and the differences
between the versions led to confusion. However, many fans worldwide would
never have known about the series had it not reached North America, thus
most fans regard the North American version as a mixed blessing.
The first two series of Sailormoon that came to North America (Sailormoon,
and Sailormoon R) were dubbed by a company called
DiC Entertainment, which has been considered to be a sub-standard
dubbing company. The first two series, in addition to their dedicated
airings on the
USA Network and
YTV, were aired in syndication, usually early in the morning, on
affiliates of the
FOX Network in the states, and on stations of the
Global Television Network in Canada. DiC subsequently fell into breach
of its contract to dub Sailormoon, allowing
Cloverway Inc., the American branch of
Toei Douga, to pick up the dubbing rights to Sailormoon S and SuperS.
The North American versions of S and SuperS were totally different from
Sailormoon and R in that all of the original animation and BGM was kept,
keeping the series close to the Japanese version. One major thing that
Sailormoon fans didn't like about S and SuperS was the fact that Cloverway
"Americanized" the series by adding in slang words (such as
phat) that weren't in the Japanese series, but many fans agreed that S
and SuperS was a major improvement over DiC's dubbing of the first two
series. S and SuperS were aired on the
cable television network
Cartoon Network in their
Toonami programming block, and on
YTV. The movies were also dubbed by Cloverway and aired on
Cartoon Network and
YTV. There is an extremely remote chance, at the current time, of the
recently produced live action Sailormoon series coming to North America.
Pioneer Entertainment (now
Geneon Entertainment) has rights to release Sailor Moon S, SuperS and
the movies on DVD and VHS both in the dubbed and uncut versions.
ADV under their division
ADV Films has rights to release on DVD the dubbed version of
Sailormoon and Sailormoon R. In 2003 ADV released a subtitled version of
the entire series of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R in two separate DVD
boxsets, that is uncut except for the removal of next episode previews and
episode 67, and using different versions of some openings than were in the
original. So far, no American company is known to have the rights to
release the Ami or SuperS specials.
Character listing
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.)
Sometimes they are called "Inner Senshi" by fans.
-
Usagi Tsukino (Sailormoon/Princess Serenity) (Serena
Tsukino in the American dub)
-
Ami Mizuno (Sailormercury) (Amy)
-
Rei Hino (Sailormars) (Raye)
-
Makoto Kino (Sailorjupiter) (Lita)
-
Minako Aino (Sailorvenus) (Mina)
Gaibu Taiyôkei Yon Senshi
"Gaibu Taiyôkei Yon Senshi" means "four soldiers of the outer solar
system." They protect the solar system from external threats. They are
introduced in the third series, with the exception of Sailorpluto, who is
first seen in the second series. Sometimes they are called "Outer Senshi"
by fans.
-
Michiru Kaiô (Sailorneptune) (Michelle)
-
Haruka Ten'ô (Sailoruranus) (Amara)
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Setsuna Meiô (Sailorpluto) (Trista)
-
Hotaru Tomoe (Sailorsaturn) (Hotaru)
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
-
Chiba Mamoru (*) (Darien) -- Tuxedo
Kamen/Tuxedo Mask (Tuxedo Mask), prince of Earth, Princess Serenity's
betrothed ["Tuxedo Mask" also appears in the official Japanese sources]
-
Luna -- Usagi's mentor, a cat from the planet Mau
-
Artemis -- Sailorvenus's partner, a cat from the
planet Mau
-
Chibiusa Tsukino (Rini Tsukino) --
a regular character in the second through the fourth series, a girl from
the future, daughter of Chiba Mamoru and Usagi Tsukino; becomes a senshi
in the third series
-
Diana -- Chibiusa's friend, a cat from the future
-
Perle (a.k.a. "Peruru") -- the good fairy from the SuperS
movie
-
Chibi-Chibi (a.k.a. Sailor Chibi-Chibi) -- the sweet
red-haired girl from the Star Season; not much is known when Usagi meets
this little girl but all becomes clear in the final battle against
Galaxia
(*) 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 (Anime season 1 / Live action series)
"Classic" is a fan-created name
- Jadeite
- Nephrite
- Zoisite
- Kunzite
- Queen Beryl, queen of the Dark Kingdom
- Queen Metaria, master of the Dark Kingdom
Al and En section (Season 2a
"R")
[NOTE: Anime only]
- Al (from the "al" part of "alien")
- En (from the "en" part of "alien")
Black Moon (Season 2b "R")
Black Moon Clan
- Crimson Rubeus (Ruby)
- Green Esmeraude (Emerald)
- Blue Saphir (Sapphire)
- Prince Demand (Diamond) [official Japanese sources say "Demand" in
Roman letters; demand in this case means "diamond"]
- Black Lady
- Wiseman
Ayakashi no Yon Shimai -- Four Weird Sisters
- Kôan (Catsie)
- Berthier (Birdie)
- Calaveras (Avery)
- Petz (Prisma)
R Movie
- Fiore (full name: Fiorial)
- Xenian (a.k.a. "Kisenian")
- Glycina (a.k.a. "Gurishina")
- Campanula (a.k.a. "Kanpanyura")
- Dahlian (a.k.a. "Darian")
Death Busters (Season 3 "S")
Death Busters
- Kaolinite
- Professor Tomoe Sôichi
- Mistress 9
- Master Pharaoh 90
Witches 5
- Eudial
- Mimete
- Tellu
- Viluy
- Cyprine
- Ptilol
S Movie
- Princess Snow Kaguya
- Snow Dancers
Dead Moon
Circus (Season 4 "SuperS" Part of 5)
Amazon Trio
- Tiger's-Eye
- Hawk's-Eye
- Fisheye
Amazones Quartetto
- Cere Cere
- Jun Jun
- Ves Ves
- Palla Palla
SuperS Movie
- Poupelin (a.k.a. "Pupuran")
- Badiane (a.k.a. "Badiyanu")
- Banane (a.k.a. "Bananu," "Pananu")
- Orangeat (a.k.a. "Oranja")
- Papillote (a.k.a. "Papiyotto")
- Bonbon Babies
Shadow Galactica (Season 5
"Stars")
- Sailor Anima-Mates
- Sailor Iron Mouse
- Sailor Aluminum Seiren ("Seiren" means "siren"
in
Greek)
- Sailor Lead Crow
- Sailor Tin Nyanko
- Sailor Galaxia
- Chaos
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