Sailor Moon Series Review

The (re)birth of a legend...

Exactly 4 weeks ago (exact in Tenchi time anyway) I posted about my love for Sailor Moon and how I had plans to watch the entire series subbed.

When I made that post I had no idea that it would only take 30 something days to complete my goal. Yes I have watched all 200 episodes of Sailor Moon! Rejoice the masses and celebrate my ability to not have a life!!! YAY SAILOR MOON!

Now…to be fair to myself (because you have to defend yourself!) getting sick helped my little goal. Yeah that sounds weird but it’s true. One has a lot of time on their hands when they can’t go to work and anything besides sitting makes you weak. So while I did watch a lot of the Olympics in-between events I would watch Sailor Moon. And I didn’t miss the insane amount of TV I usually watch. Tis very strange!!!

When I started off with my little goal I really was hoping to finish all 200 episodes by summer. And I thought that was an insane goal. Really I thought if I could devote one hour a day to the series I thought I was doing good. But it turns out once you start a series you can’t simply stop after a few episodes! Even though I had seen most of the episodes (up until midway season Super S) I still felt the need to keep on hitting the next button.

So even though this series is 18 years old at its oldest and 13 at its newest I still feel the need to write my own personal overview. A bit late but ya know. XD So click to read my opinions on all 5 seasons, spoilers, and a walk down memory lane!

One must stop and deliver a speech before attacking!

I think I shall start off by doing a mini overview of each season and then discussing any other points I feel need to be discussed. Or at least that is my plan. I am not really great with plans though….

Also a VERY important note! My special self forgot to take screenies throughout the viewing process. That might have been a good idea as I didn't know what I was going to talk about in advance. Of course I wish I could write more but that is besides the point.

The point is since I failed to take screenies and it would take FOREVER to find each episode I wanted to take one screenie from, let the video load, and take it I decided to look for a website that had screenies already. Enter The Oracle. She spent so much time and energy making tons of screenies it boggles my mind how hard she worked! So all the images on this post come from this site. Credit goes to her, not my lazy self. But she truly saved my sanity and post. Thank you for putting all those screenies up in such a convenient way.

Sailor Moon Season 1:

Ah memories. Memories of junior high/high school. Memories of my very first manga/comic book. And my very first experience with dubbing and all its evils. I had never seen this season in Japanese before and wow. X_X Some of the changes that the American version had were drastic (it took me about 15 attempts to spell this word close enough for spell check to kick in, I think I need to go back to junior high!) and some were random and unnecessary. Like cutting out the entire episode because Usagi had green hair and a leather jacket. And just about everyone’s voice actor. I thought some of them were okay back in my younger days (except for Naru MOG MY SOUL!!!!!) but after listening to their real voices the only one that was hard my soul at times was Usagi. And maybe Luna as I liked her better as the Mary Poppins nanny I saw someone else refer her to rather than the clueless kitten.

Some changes were actually okay in the book of Tenchi. Namely the songs used in episodes 34 and 46. Really with episode 46. I am going to say something that is completely unSailor Moon fan like but I am not really a fan of the opening theme song (that was used for 4 seasons WTF!!!). It was annoying and really didn’t set the mood for me. But I am probably not their target audience anyway so…yeah. But putting that aside that theme song really didn’t scream OH HAI fighting the big bad guy moment now. Your friends are dead, your almost but not quite boyfriend is dead, and your entire planet is about to be destroyed unless you die. It is not the time for skipping down the road with clumsy girls and what your hearts looks like. So even though the American version totally screwed up Sailor Moon so many times over I really liked the song changes.

TIME TO BE SERIOUS PLEASE!

Usagi’s personality was really hard to handle at times. But since this series was about her growing as a person she has to start off the first season as a lazy crybaby. At times though I wanted to throw her out a window. Then I realized that I might not be keen on the idea of being a super hero who might get squished by ugly creatures. I wouldn’t be getting 30’s on test but I might be WAI when battle time comes.

No chocolate parfait? :(

My favorite subplot was Nephrite. Wished that loser lived. Because he seemed semi decent and because Naru loved him. But if you are a man in Sailor Moon and the enemy chances are you are going to die and stay dead. Sad face is sad. :( Okay maybe Naru fell in love way too quickly but I will blame that on the fact her energy was stolen a million times and she wasn’t thinking clearly.

Oh Ami....

Ami used to be my favorite soldier. But after a while she got a bit annoying with the studying jokes (throughout the series). Each season Ami would have a MOG am I only useful for my brains moment. Boring. I wish she has more substance. :(

Ghosts are super powerful!

The original ending is like 5876 times better than the American version (except the fighting song of course). The soldiers DIE. They aren’t captured. They are sticking up from giant blocks of ice, they being their dead bodies. Mamoru beating on Usagi was a bit hard to watch but it wasn’t him and made the scene more believable. I am not sure why they were reborn and her mother wasn’t but yay for the series continuing. I think the ending would have been better had they redo the opening scenes to make it seem like SOMETHING had happened in those past few months.

What happens to the wand?! X_X

Sailor Moon R

The first part of R was fillery which is fine. Most episodes were bearable. Silly aliens fighting over Mamoru and Usagi when they are in love with each other.

One of two episodes where Mamoru isn't a jerk. Enjoy.

Um is there really much to say about Eiru and An actually. They were kinda one note characters. We probably could have done with more Eiru but since these 13 episodes focused on Usagi trying to get Mamoru back they had to show An more. True love…right.

Usagi trying to win back the heart of a guy that was never hers is a bit X_X. True they were together in a past life but that doesn’t automatically mean they are meant to be together now. Especially by force. If they are meant to be together it would happen naturally. Not with Usagi going BE WITH ME NOW! I really can’t blame Mamoru for that (even though I can blame him for a lot of other things).

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Chibi-Usa is the most annoying character in the series. A child should bring parents together not tear them apart. Or flirt with her future father. Gross. Also kid fail for not being able to recognize what her own parents look like. Bigger fail for trying to save the Silver Crystal in the past. Yeah that will help the situation.

Time for stabbings!!!

Mamoru was such a jerk in the second half of this season. Both of him. The best way to save your future wife and daughter is to make sure your daughter is never born at all? OH you meant to test them? Lies. You were testing Usagi you asshole and I hate you. She needed love and support to get through these tough times, not some jerk boyfriend who dumps her for no reason. And look Mamoru isn’t any help after he stops being a jerk and does nothing at the big battle. Yay for losers. I hate Mamoru.

So pretty....

I enjoyed most of the enemies in this season. Esmeraude was annoying but I could get by everyone else being saved. Actually I am pretty bummed Saphir died. :( The sisters living as humans is cool but I wish they would get cameos in later series. To see how they are doing and all. Berthier was my favorite.

The battle songs this season were much better than the first one. I do prefer the American ones again but this time they were tolerable.

I approve of this crown!

Going to the future and meeting Sailor Pluto was the climax of the season for me.
The battle with Wiseman was a bit MEH. Usagi finding out that someone also named Usagi was her daughter. I AM SHOCKED! But I did enjoy that part of the season. The battle was nice and lovely with the sparkly dresses and the not dying part. GO WINNERS!

Sailor Moon S

Best season out of series hands down! And I am not being biased with my undying love for Michuri. Overall the art was more on point, the battles seem more real, and the friends of the week were slightly more tolerable. Also because of Michuri.

At times I felt the season could have been a bit more opened minded on how to handle a lesbian couple. The girls were not very mature/kind with their words at times. Yes two women love each other! Get over it. Stop with the juvenile behavior. Then I remembered they were juveniles.

The reason behind attacking humans and creating friends of the week were the strongest in the season. Finding the talisman in pure hearts made sense. A bit ironic on who HAD the actual talismans but that is how this series goes.

Did I say coldness? I meant hotness!

I also enjoyed the coldness of Neptune and Uranus. Sailor Moon does have a “let’s save people no matter what” kinda attitude. And while it always manages to work out in the end that kind of thinking can be dangerous. Neptune and Uranus didn’t know that Sailor Moon farts out miracles. So I understand why they were all “rude” and dismissive of the other soldiers. But I also understand where the other soldiers were upset that they couldn’t come together as a group.

Hotaru, the girl of many faces...

I think Hotaru and her past/Sailor Saturn could have been developed more. Too much was focused on Hotaru being Chibi-Usa’s friend and not Hotaru as a person. I think her back story would have been interesting but no. Just a lone soldier and a girl who got blown up once.

Why does everything have to be about Chibi-Usa! She makes me want to pull my hair out. But now instead of trying to drive a wedge between the broken up Usagi and Mamoru she merely just provides some general annoyance. I guess it is weird that no one really takes the fact that Usagi is her mother but meh. MEH TO ALL OF CHIBI-USA!

Loving it!!!!

The ending was excellent. I loved the way Usagi kept hitting the ground demanding Moon Crisis Make-Up work. Even the parts where Uranus and Neptune were pissed off at Usagi for screwing the world I enjoyed. It matched the mood perfectly and set up the scene for a miracle. We didn’t get a battle song though. :(

Sailor Moon Super S

Worst season out of the series hands up. And I am being biased because of my undying hatred for Chibi-Usa. Seriously three seasons out of five have to have her as some sort of main character? WHY?! X_X

The mirrors/people’s dreams were kinda of annoying as friends of the week plot points. I don’t think that sentence made sense. But neither did the whole season so I match weeee. A human boy (well humanoid anyway) is about to die but before he does he sends his spirit in the form of a unicorn to a beautiful dream to find the golden crystal that is actually the horn on his head. Oh and that beautiful dream is that of a girl who wants to be an adult. Such a beautiful and unique dream…..

So super cute!

But I liked Helios. I wish he had been more Heliosish during the season and not that ugly unicorn. He was a super cute kid who needs hugs. A bit sad that he has to live alone from the rest of the world but Sailor Moon farts out miracles okay. If her princess daughter wants to marry this unicorn so be it!

Even though this season is the season of fail all the bad guys get to live! In the guys! Say it ain’t so!!!!! It’s a bit weird that Fish Eye, Tigers Eye, and Hawks Eye weren’t even healed humans but animals that got to be human permanently but whatever. They grew on me pretty fast (except Fish Eye’s ugly outfit of grossness) so I am glad they got to live. I think their change of heart came about pretty fast but meh. MEH I SAY! I do wish that we got to see them after they were reborn. I feel slightly screwed on that part.

Hottest and cutest!

Nehelenia is the hottest bad guy ever. Galaxia is super hot in her true form but that is not how she appears most of the time so I have decided that doesn’t count. Nehelenia might have had stupid reasons for being a bad guy (really, no one loved you beautiful princess so you ate everyone who cared for you? Sure that makes sense) but she was hot being stupid.

So….Zirconia was Nehelenia all old right? I totally believe that hot woman would turn into an ugly turtle like toad. I so believe it. And I so believe that Nehelenia was able to barf out the older version of herself on command and made this all happen. True facts.

Yes just vanish! We need not explanation!

I love that PallaPalla, VesVes, CereCere, and JunJun were treated awesomely in the anime. And by love I mean hate and by awesome I mean the manga went whoosh to the side line. Future Sailor Soldiers? Let’s never mention that. Annoying girls who did nothing all day? Yeah that sounds like fun! There was almost nothing redeeming about these girls so their change of hearts were pretty meaningless. I think more could have been done with them. And by more I mean something.

Yay for not going splat!

The final showdown part one was well done. Not really a battle per say but more of oh everyone is beaten and the bad guy is about to die but let’s watch Sailor Moon fling herself off a building to save her future kid. Okay maybe there was a battle with Usagi and Chibi-Usa using the golden crystal (oh hi Mamoru not doing anything AGAIN!) but the real ending was the falling to the sky scene.

The final showdown part two was more of let’s bring back all the other soldiers so we can start wrapping up the series. Of course Sailor Moon heals the main baddie like she usually does but that is to be expected. Sad sob story isn’t very sad or sob worthy but the art was pretty and so was Sailor Moon’s new attack. Baby Nehelenia was SUPER CUTE! I mean….SUPER CUTE!!!!! But yay battle? And good job Mamoru with you dying with some eyeball pain. I think we got some real Soldier bonding in this battle and Sailor Moon really worked instead of lying down and dying.

Sailor Moon Stars

This series could have been so much more. Or really I thought it was so much more all these years because I imagined the best. I mean it has girls pretending to boys and singing and an epic ending right?!

Only not. This season suffered from not enough time. Now with most series by the final season everyone is like MOG are we doing this again and are happy that there aren’t that many fillers. But when you break it down there wasn’t much meat to this season. The first 6 episodes were dedicated to finishing up the Super S arc. Now granted Galaxia was the one who woke up Nehelenia who would wake up Sailor Saturn so Galaxia could take her star seed (X_X sentence) but besides that tiny point this was really a continuation of Super S. Then the last 6 episodes of this season are dedicated to the final battle with Galaxia. Granted it is the final bad guy and the battle is broken up into chunks (someone dies, they leave, more people die, they leave) 6 episodes is a lot. X_X This leaves 22 episodes to introduce 3 new scouts, watch Usagi fall apart because Mamoru is gone, and find a Princess. And explain who Chibi Chibi is. And kill everyone off. And wrap things up when they all come back to life. Oh AND HAVE FUN.

So yeah. The season felt kind rushed and didn’t do a good job explaining some things. Like why Princess Kakyuu was hiding in the first place. Well okay she was hiding because Galaxia was after her. Why I don’t know because she isn’t a soldier in the anime (-__-) and she lasts about 5 seconds on screen before she is killed off first. Seriously the Lights spend all this time looking for her and she gets 7 minutes of air time before she kicks the bucket. But it is never explained why Galaxia fears Princess Kakyuu or why Princess Kakyuu knows where the Hope of Light is or why she was too stupid to realize that Chibi Chibi was that hope.

We don't need to see them studying for exams in Super S or actually taking the test. YAY FOR HIGH SCHOOL!

Another thing that was weak in this season was the crazy focus on the Starlights. Whom I love and adore because they (they being Yaten and Seiya) are awesome and because they made friends of the week turn into people who briefly were on screen of the week. But with all the focus on the Starlights I think the focus on true friendship was really lost. I mean I guess the girls started caring about Usagi once they found out Mamoru hadn’t written once…but it was a little too late for that now guys. Maybe if you weren’t joining fan clubs you would notice your friend hurting. And also what was up with them leaving Usagi out on purpose?! X_X

But at least the inner soldiers got some air time. Poor Naru got tossed aside, forgotten in the corner. :( Is her star seed not worthy of stealing?! All the bad guys have found Naru delicious before Stars. But noooooooooo! Usagi goes to high school and forgets all about her friend. I wonder if Naru even goes to the same school. The same story also goes for Umino but I don’t care about him. It is just a shame that Naru and Usagi were such good friends before and that is all but forgotten now. :(

Star Gentle Uterus. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I don’t know what is more insane, the actual attack or some fans defending the name of this attack. Tell me what this has to do with being a MAKER. Oh you can make babies in there? Awesome. Not buying it. Now this attack would have been funny had Taiki’s female voice not sucked ass. Could they have picked a worse voice actor? I seriously doubt it.

This season was GREAT because it didn’t have Mamoru in it HURRAY! Oh wait that made Usagi sad and lonely? Okay that was upsetting but it was for the greater good. Not that Seiya turned out to be a good match either (not being very nice, never played on sticking around anyway, and being friends with apparent moral enemies of the Sailor Soldiers) but I didn’t miss the cheesy outfit and the cheesy lines. So in the end Mamoru never helped out with a big boss. He was that useful.

I think we're alone now...(almost)

The Starlights had really, really horrible outfits. Like super horrible. Like I want to cry kinda bad. And their songs weren't really.....WOW! Just bleh to me. Very bleh. But I still love Seiya much more than Mamoru. Putting aside his princess/I am actually a girl deal he is a much better choice of Usagi. He is the one who sees the light before the other two thus we have to like him more. He is more enlighten for wanting to work together. Yaten is fine and Taiki can fall off a cliff.

Save me Sailor Moon!

The ending was pretty epic. I think that some of the material could have been cut down so we could have had more meat in our episodes leading up to the ending (really how many more times can Sailor Moon cry and someone throw themselves in front of the blast) but I still enjoyed it. Even though I spoiled the series for myself I must have forgotten that Galaxia had Chaos in her. Either way it was very moving her back story on her being the strongest and tried to save everyone else through sacrificing herself. I wish her unChaosed form was shown more as she is gorgeous but it is what it is.

I also don’t know why Usagi had to save Galaxia naked but meh. I did enjoy the wings and the sword. Yes they played an opening theme song instead of a battle song but what can you do at this point. I thought it was melodramatic that Usagi was crying when Galaxia flew away with all the other star seeds. Did she seriously think her friends were not coming back? Oh and hi Mamoru. So glad you came back. Next time punch the guy who hit on your girlfriend while you were dead.

Why weren't we around more?

This season didn’t have enough Michuri and Haruka. But since it had 100 percent more Michuri and Haruka than Super S YAY! At first I wasn’t really on board for Haruka’s over the top hate of the Starlights. I mean kettle meet kettle. Haven’t they learned by now anyone who is trying to help them (Tuxedo Mask, Chibi-Usa, Neptune, Uranus, Pegasus, and the Lights) REALLY is trying to help them? So yeah a lot of uncontrollable rage. But there were also some cute times. XD They really shined in the last battle, with fighting their own way. Typical Michuri and Haruka.

So we are closing in on 4000 words here. X_X I feel as if I have way more to say but I have said so much already. I want to talk about female dynamics, how this series started the magical girl genre (well sorta), and how love always conquers! But then my post would be epically long and it’s best to end things before people get too bored with myself.

Despite any criticism I wrote about this series I love it. For the good and for the bad I love Sailor Moon. It will always be my gateway anime/manga so it is special in that regards. But I truly think this series embodies what a really great anime should be about. Likeable REAL characters. Enemies who aren’t all evil and actually have reasons for their actions. A positive message. And the right about of cuteness without going to the sleazy side.

Sailor Moon isn’t perfect. But that’s why I love it. It makes me feel good and rage and roll my eyes. It is a great escape into a fantasy world yet the real life parts of the show touch at my heart.

As cheesy as this sounds I am glad Sailor Moon came into my life. It’s almost like my life has stood still when rewatching this series. Only now I don’t have to run home to catch the opening theme song.

THE END!