Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was quiet, as per usual these days. This is what happens when you're waiting for your second vaccination dose, not much of anything. I finished reading Volume 12 of Sailor Moon this morning. I started it this morning too. I had originally planned on finishing it tomorrow so I could review it on Wednesday, but the final volume is just one massive battle, and while there's alot of dialogue as well, it's a quick read. So that's what I'm going to be doing here today, reviewing the entirety of the original Sailor Moon manga from 1992. There will be spoilers so if you haven't read the manga yet, go do so before reading my review. Let's get into it.
Like many of you, my history with Sailor Moon began in 1995 when the original DIC dub of the anime came to Canada on YTV and Global. My siblings and I watched it every day, but it was on Global where we first saw it as we didn't have cable yet at the time. I don't remember what the first episode I ever saw was, but it was probably somewhere in the Rainbow Crystal/Zoycite arc as Terri Hawkes had already replaced Tracey Moore as the voice of Serena/Sailor Moon and then I saw the earlier episodes in reruns once the episodes of the first two seasons had gotten up to the point where the show was cancelled for a couple of years. I'll get into that when I review the anime. It wasn't until I was in high school in the early 2000s that I learned that Sailor Moon was a localized version of a series from Japan, much like how Power Rangers is an adaptation/localization of the Super Sentai series. It was also around that time that I found out that the show was based on a comic book series in Japan, adapted much like how we adapt characters like Batman, Superman and Spider-Man into live action movies, live action TV shows and animated series.
I never got the original english translated volumes of the manga when they came out here in the late 90s and early 2000s. Of course, back then I wasn't going into the manga section of Chapters (if there even was one) so I never saw it there, and the place where I got my comic books from at the time, also didn't have a manga section. So by the time I was an adult, the original volumes of the manga were out of print. Luckily from 2011 to 2013 Kodansha Comics USA re-released them and so I was able to get those editions. Between myself, my sister, and Brad, I managed to get all twelve volumes, plus both volumes of Codename: Sailor V. However, there's also a few volumes of short stories, that took place adjacent to the main story in the manga, though I haven't gotten those at all and have never read them.
I've heard some Sailor Moon fans complain that there isn't much character development for the other Sailor Scouts (yes, I used the original English dub name for the group get over it), beyond Usagi and Mamoru. Honestly, that's a fair assessment. I think that's because the story progresses pretty rapidly and so there isn't as much time or room for tons of character development outside of Usagi, our protagonist, and Mamoru, our secondary protagonist. While I prefer the way the anime does it, I also appreciate what Naoko Takeuchi was doing with the manga. Especially since Mamoru actually had something to do as Tuxedo Mask instead of being the villains's punching bag like he is in the anime and the Outer Scouts, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Saturn all have things to do that they end up not having in the anime. Especially in the original English dub which only went up to Sailor Moon Super S (season 4) and never did Sailor Moon Stars (season 5).
I think my favourite arc in this entire series is the Stars arc (Sailor Moon Stars in the anime). Mainly because it's the arc that I'm not familiar with from the anime. So I didn't have the baggage of the anime in the back of my mind while I was reading it. Whereas with the other four arcs I remember so much from the anime, mostly the original DIC/Cloverway English dub as that's what I grew up with, that I had to constantly remind myself that this isn't the original anime and that events happen in a more compressed fashion than they do in the anime.
The story gets a bit convoluted as there's suddenly a bunch of Sailor Guardians from outside the solar system, with all of them connected to a planet. Naoko Takeuchi probably came up with this idea as she was going along, but didn't plan it out beforehand. Manga are exactly like Western comic books, in that they're ongoing and so the artist, who ends up being the creator and writer as well, has to constantly come up with ideas as he or she goes along. This was the final arc of the series and it works pretty well from that standpoint.
In fact, I like how the ending comes full circle. At the end of the manga, Usagi and Mamoru get married, and Usagi is pregnant with Chibiusa, a.k.a. Small Lady, a.k.a. Sailor Chibi Moon. Which is pretty cool, as it also begins the Second Silver Millennium, which will eventually lead to the start of Crystal Tokyo, and the events which lead Chibiusa and the Black Moon Clan to go back to the 20th Century as it shows in the Black Moon arc (Sailor Moon R in the anime).
I also like how Chibiusa became Sailor Chibi Moon in the manga versus how it happened in the anime. So in the manga, Chibiusa turned back from the Dark Side because of Sailor Pluto's self-sacrifice at the end of the Black Moon arc. At the same time her future version of the Silver Crystal appeared, transforming her into Sailor Chibi Moon. This is better in my opinion because it connects her to the events going on, whereas in the anime, she doesn't become Sailor Chibi Moon until halfway through Sailor Moon S (season 3) and there's no actual connection to what's going on in the season as a whole. She just shows up as Sailor Chibi Moon during a battle that Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars were involved in. I'll talk about that more when I get to the anime.
That's all I really have to say about Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. It was an interesting read, especially the later Infinity, Dream, and Stars (Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon Super S, and Sailor Moon Stars in the anime) arcs, as I don't hear about them as much as I do the Dark Kingdom and Black Moon (Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R in the anime) arcs. If you're a Sailor Moon fan and you haven't read the manga I highly recommend it. It's a good story, even though it sacrifices character development, aside for Usagi/Sailor Moon and Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask. Chibiusa also has an interesting story arc in the later three arcs.
That's going to be it for me for today, I'll be back tomorrow for this week's Disney VHS review, where I'll be taking a look at Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Sport Goofy. And then we'll see how things go on for Wednesday, but I probably won't post anything that day. Pixar's latest movie, Luca drops on Disney+ on Friday, so I'm going to watch it on Saturday night and have a review out for you on Sunday. Otherwise, I'll have another movie review out for you on Friday. I haven't quite decided what that movie is going to be yet though. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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