2026 REREAD:
WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER MOON!
This month I'll be rereading a 'Sailor Moon' manga volume - including the 'Eternal' edition, the classic Chix Comix Pocket Edition translation, and the two 'Codename Sailor V' volumes - every day, in chronological order. I hope I can keep up, and stay as excited as I am now.
I can't wait to relive my childhood! To experience this classic, nostalgic, original magical girl manga once again, that started in Japan in 1991, the year I was born. I shall read these with refreshed eyes, as a magical girl myself in my mid-thirties!
I'll start with the first volume, 'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 1 (Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Renewal Edition, #1)'. Here are my new thoughts:
Wow, it is a lot of girly, sparkly, romantic, monster-of-the-week fun. The series loves crystals, minerals and geology, as well as astronomy and astrology. Naoko Takeuchi has a gift of making her art look gorgeous and ethereal (the way she draws eyes is stunning), yet cute as heck, hilarious and expressive, at the exact right moments.
It's great that Sailor Moon/Usagi is allowed to be a very flawed, emotional, sensitive, confused and overwhelmed young teenage girl, who shows her bravery whenever her loved ones are in danger. Sailor Moon's powers, accessories and weapons that get forgotten about later - such as her "mask" which is just glasses that're introduced as giving off a vision, her high-frequency cries, her hearing people in peril with her hair bun jewels, and apparently her white wing hair clips are darts (!?) - do last a bit longer here.
Do the Sailor Guardians' communicator bracelets factor in later on in the series? I can't remember.
Usagi cross-dresses as a groom for two pages in chapter/act 5, where she tells a monster bride, "Shall we begin our wedding ceremony in hell?" - darn, Usagi, you have an edge I didn't know about! - and it is so understated, it's awesome. Many modern readers won't be able to argue well that maybe she isn't queer, either, even with her romance with Tuxedo Mask.
As amazing as the art is, Luna the cat is constantly drawn inconsistently. And has she always been the one behind the machinations of the Sailor V arcade game? Did she create it and put it in the arcade somehow? Has it always been her way of training the Sailor Guardians without them knowing? I don't think that point has ever been made clear. Luna is adorable whenever she has her headset on and is all serious business (how is she able to do so much with her paws? Is it moon magic?).
Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru may be handsome and kind of charming, but he can still be a creep towards Sailor Moon/Usagi, and an idiot, especially in the last chapter/act.
I love that each of the Sailor Guardian girls has such a distinct personality, and background and class; the manga subtly shows how the latter two points effect their characters in different ways. The mature yet moody and sullen Sailor Mars/Rei is more overtly a '90s feminist icon, though Sailor Mercury/Ami is a super genius who is super sweet and aspires to be a doctor like her mother, and Sailor Jupiter/Makoto is a strong, tough, tall girl with a deeply feminine heart ("domestic tomboy" does oddly describe her well, at least from a '90s standpoint), and of course Sailor Moon/Usagi has her vulnerabilities, insecurities, strengths and complexities, too. All the girls are strong, complex and determined heroines in their own unique, sparkling light. Sailor Mars fights evil in high heels! I love her!
Is each chapter called an "Act" in order to emulate a play? A dramatic stage theatre production? I can see it in 'Sailor Moon'.
'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 1' is pretty and cheesy.
Gah, I love everything about it!
Next up is volume 2.
Happy September Moon!
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
I'm just going to come right out and say it: 'Sailor Moon' is my one childhood obsession I've never outgrown. It was my first real introduction to the idea of girl power, and the anime that first got me into anime.
'Sailor Moon' is like 'Power Rangers'. One similarity is its nostalgic charm far exceeds its cheesiness. Anyone who grew up in the 90's like I did will understand the power those kinds of kid's shows had in starting many roads to geekdom. Its place in pop culture history among anime fans is unmistakable.
I don't regard 'Sailor Moon' as a guilty pleasure, and neither should anyone who grew up watching the anime. While I now know that the English dub was rather rubbish - with so many edits, painfully bad dialogue and voice acting, and characters being Americanized - the original Japanese episodes I saw on the internet are heartily pleasurable for 90's anime. Not to mention dark and dramatic. I only wanted to know more about it as I got older.
Now, as a trainee writer, 'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon' by Naoko Takeuchi is one of the things which influences me both consciously and unconsciously. As an adult, I hold it in great appreciation, and it earns a permanent place in my girl power-loving heart.
So what to say about the newly translated and uncut manga Vol 1 edition? Is it any good, even for non-'Sailor Moon' fans? Well, yeah. I think it's very good.
The artwork is beautiful and compliments the story with grace. Usagi Tsukino, our heroine of justice, really does develop throughout the first manga volume. She grows to think like a soldier, and not so much like a clumsy and love-struck teenager. Unlike the anime where she has to be saved and lectured all the damn time over a hundred episodes in. Since she does start out as a normal fourteen-year-old, it's realistic that at first she would be scared and crying over such a hard responsibility of saving the universe from frightening otherworldly monsters. Then she reluctantly but surely acts like a guardian should, and even her cat mentor Luna is impressed with her.
I never really liked Tuxedo Mask in the anime - yeah, not a fangirl, I'm afraid - and my opinion of him has not changed much in this manga volume. But he has a personality and goes through an arc like Usagi. Near the end though he does act recklessly and stupidly...
And because this is a shoujo manga, romance is one of its key aspects. The relationship between Usagi/Sailor Moon and Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask is predestined, however at least they start out not liking each other much in their civilian forms. It leaves time for their love to properly develop, just like a normal couple.
The rest of the Sailor Soldiers - Mercury, Mars and Jupiter - are also great in their own unique way.
Yes, the manga is cheesy, and there are plot holes. The villains of the Dark Kingdom are not so interesting yet, but there is time for their threat and menace to grow stronger throughout the series.
The nostalgic charm is there. And considering that 'Sailor Moon' was originally published in Japan in 1991, I'd say it still holds up. It influenced the Magical Girl genre greatly, and anime in general. Naoko Takeuchi created something special in 'Sailor Moon', right after creating 'Codename Sailor V', its predecessor.
Heartfelt, enjoyable and so much fun, with more to it than appearances suggest, I recommend 'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol 1' to any fan of the anime - hardcore, old school or casual. Or to anyone who grew up watching it on TV on Saturday mornings.
In the name of the Moon, I love 'Sailor Moon'!
Anyway, Final Score: 4/5
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