Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon (Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn, officially translated as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) is the title of a Japanese media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. It is generally credited with popularizing the concept of a sentai (team) of magical girls, as well as "revitalizing" the magical girl genre itself.

The story of the various metaseries revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a kingdom that once spanned the solar system, and the evil forces that they battle. The major characters—called Sailor Senshi (literally "Sailor Soldiers"; frequently called "Sailor Scouts" in the North American version)—are teenage girls who can transform into heroines named for the moon and planets (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, etc). The use of "Sailor" comes from a style of girls' school uniform popular in Japan, the sērā fuku (sailor outfit), after which the Senshi's uniforms are modeled. The elements of fantasy in the series are heavily symbolic and often based on mythology.

Sailor Moon

Creation of the Sailor Moon manga was preceded by another, Codename: Sailor V, which centered around just one Sailor Senshi. Takeuchi devised the idea when she wanted to create a cute series about girls in outer space, and her editor asked her to put them in sailor fuku. When Sailor V was proposed for adaptation into an anime, the concept was modified so that Sailor V herself became only one member of a team. The resulting manga series was a fusion of the popular magical girl and sentai genres of which Takeuchi was a fan, making Sailor Moon one of the first series ever to combine the two.

Sailor Moon

The manga resulted in spinoffs into other types of media, including a highly popular anime, as well as musical theatre productions, video games, and a live-action (tokusatsu) series. Although most concepts in the many versions overlap, there are often notable differences, and thus continuity between the different formats is limited.

Sailor Moon

The protagonist of Sailor Moon is Usagi Tsukino, who lives as an ordinary middle school girl until she is found by a talking cat named Luna. Through Luna, Usagi learns that the world is about to be attacked by a Dark Kingdom that had appeared once before, long ago, and destroyed the kingdom of the moon. Her dormant powers are then awakened to defend the Earth against the coming onslaught, and she is led to a number of friends who join her in the battle.

Sailor Moon

Usagi fights using the identity of Sailor Moon, and as the story progresses she learns more and more about the enemies which face her and the evil force that is sending them. Gradually she discovers the truth about her own past life, her destined true love, and the possibilities for the future of the Solar System.

Sailor Moon

The plot spans five major story arcs, each of which is represented in both the manga and anime, usually under different names. These are the Dark Kingdom arc, the Black Moon arc (Sailor Moon R), the Infinity arc (Sailor Moon S), the Dream arc (Sailor Moon Supers), and the Stars arc (Sailor Stars). The anime added an additional minor arc at the start of the second series, and spent the first few episodes of Sailor Stars wrapping up the plot from the previous series.

Sailor Moon

Sailor Jupiter

Sailor Jupiter (セーラージュピター, Sērā Jupitā?) is one of the central characters in the Sailor Moon metaseries. Her real name is Makoto Kino (木野 まこと, Kino Makoto?, or Lita Kino in the English versions), a strong schoolgirl who can transform into one of the series' specialized heroines, the Sailor Senshi.

Sailor Jupiter

Sailor Jupiter is the third member of the Sailor Team to be discovered by Sailor Moon, and serves as the "muscles" of the group. In addition to being physically tough, she is able to manipulate electricity and uses some plant-based powers. Her friends rarely use her full given name, normally shortening it to Mako-chan.

Aside from the main body of the Sailor Moon series, Makoto features in her own manga short story, Mako's Depression. A number of image songs featuring her character have been released as well, including the contents of three different CD singles.

One of the most consistent characters across the many versions of the series, Makoto is always depicted as simultaneously the most masculine and most feminine of the younger Senshi. She is tall, strong, physical, and practices martial arts and other sports, but at the same time is rather busty and an excellent cook and house-cleaner. Her most closely-held dream is to marry young and own a cake and flower shop, and she loves romance novels. Her favorite class is home economics and her least favorite is physics. After entering high school, she also joins the cooking and gardening clubs. She likes all foods, but especially cherry pie, and meatloaf, and her favorite colors are green and pink. She loves horses and hates cheaters.

Sailor Jupiter

Sailor Jupiter

Sailor Chibi Moon

Sailor Chibi Moon was the ninth Senshi introduced in the series. Her civilian identity was Usagi "Chibiusa" Tsukino. She was the daughter of Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion, Usagi and Mamoru's future selves. She came from 30th Century Crystal Tokyo, where she was a princess, and returned to 20th Century Tokyo for training.

Sailor Chibi Moon

She and her mother Sailor Moon were referred to as the Double Moon, and sometimes referred to by fans as the Princess Senshi.

In the manga, Sailor Chibi Moon became at least two heads taller than her civilian form after the transformation. This also occurred in the anime, but less dramatically.

Sailor Chibi Moon

Sailormoon Episode

The 200 episodes of the Japanese anime series Sailor Moon were adapted from the eighteen volume manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. The episodes were directed by Junichi Sato, Kunihiko Ikuhara, Takuya Igarashi, Takao Yoshizawa and Hiromichi Matano, and produced by TV Asahi and Toei Animation. The first four seasons were dubbed and released in North America by DiC Entertainment and Cloverway. The series concentrates on the adventures of Usagi Tsukino, a schoolgirl who learns that she and several other girls can transform into superheroines, Sailor Senshi, and fight against evil forces that threaten the world.

Sailormoon Episode

The series aired from March 7, 1992, to February 8, 1997, on TV Asahi in Japan. In North America, the episodes aired from September 11, 1995, to December 21, 2001, on YTV in Canada, and in first-run syndication (and later on Cartoon Network) in the United States. In addition to the two hundred episodes, three feature-length films were produced, as well as five shorts. The fifth season, Sailor Stars, has not been licensed for release in English. As of May 2004, the series has officially gone off the air in all English-speaking countries due to lapsed licenses which have not been renewed.

Sailormoon Episode

The first two seasons of the series, Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R, were sold across 20 VHS volumes in Japan in 1995, and by the end of that year, each volume had sold more than 300 000 copies. In 2001, ADV Films released the English dubs of the first two seasons to 20 VHS volumes. The two first seasons were released on 14 Region 1 DVDs in 2002 by ADV. ADV also released subtitled and uncut versions of the first two seasons in two separate DVD box sets in 2003. Pioneer Entertainment released the English dubbed and uncut subtitled versions of the third and fourth seasons, Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon Supers respectively, on DVD and VHS in 2001 and 2002.

Sailormoon Episode