Sailor Moon Review

Hello to all you lovely anime geeks. I'm Oona Otaku, and I love discussing anime. Since this is my first show, I'd like to start off with a well-known anime; Sailor Moon. Yes, Sailor Moon, better known in Japan as Bishōjo Senshi Sailormoon (For those unfamiliar with Japanese phrases it translates too Beautiful Soldier Girl Sailormoon). Some would consider this their introduction into anime (for us girls anyway). Written by Naoko Takeuchi in 1991 and spanning for six years, this was probably the first anime I've ever seen that has an all female protagonist line-up that used their powers to fight the forces of evil, giving a whole new respect for the Magical Girl genre and might have actually single-handedly caused an uprise in female morale. Why you may ask?

On top of being a sentai (a team of five) (actually it turns out to be 14 or so I think. I'll touch on a few of them here, and again in the bad guy portion of this review in next weeks show), they're all girls except for our male lead, but we'll get to him in a moment. The team consists of eight girls representing a specific planet. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn. I have no idea why earth is never represented and it's recently been discovered that Pluto isn't a planet but in fact is a moon, but I digress. Each of the women has a specific power relating to an element/feeling (This is starting to sound like a Captain Planet review.) We start with Mercury: Sailor Mercury also known as Mizuno Ami serves as the "brains" of the group. She possesses powers associated with water. Next up is Mars: Sailor Mars also known as Hino Rei is the secondary leader of the Guardian Senshi after Sailor Venus. She possesses powers associated with fire, as well as psychic and spiritual ones. Next up is Jupiter: Sailor Jupiter also known as Kino Makoto serves as the "muscles" of the group.She possesses powers associated with electricity and plants, and physical strength. Last but not least is Venus: Sailor Venus also known as Aino Minako possesses powers associated with love and the Moon (even though there's already a Senshi for the moon. Redundancy much?)

Then you have the "Outer" guardian senshi. Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Pluto, and Sailor Saturn. Sailor Uranus fights along her partner and lover Sailor Neptune. She possesses powers associated with the sky, precognitive ones, and sword combat skills. Sailor Neptune fights alongside her partner and lover Sailor Uranus. She possesses powers associated with the sea, precognitive ones, and various others granted by a mirror. Sailor Pluto possesses powers that are associated to time, space, the underworld, and darkness. and lastly Sailor Saturn possesses powers associated with destruction, death, and rebirth; she has the ability to annihilate a planet and even an entire star system. These eight (so far) women are charged with protecting the main heroine of the show, with that said let's get down to our two main characters, Tsukino Usagi, and Chiba Mamoru.

Considered the Romeo and Juliet of the series, we have to stop and look at their origins. Usagi was originally Princess Serenity, Princess of the Moon Kingdom, who had fallen in love with the Crowned Prince of Earth; Endymion (aka Mamoru aka Tuxedo Mask (Kamen in the Japanese version), but alas, their love was forbidden. During an attack on the Moon Kingdom one fateful day, Endymion was mortally wounded, and in her grief, Princess Serenity took her own life (What a waste.. no man is ever worth your life. There's plenty of fish in the sea. By the way, that only happens in the manga. In the anime Queen Metalia kills them both). But behold! Before finally giving over to death Princess Serenity's mother Queen Serenity (Matching names? Seriously? Couldn't think of Princess Harmony or Queen Tranquility? That's about as bad as Mario Mario and Luigi Mario) uses the power of the Silver Crystal to make sure everyone gets incarnated on earth.

That's all for this week! Next week I'll be discussing the bad guys of the show, and how they fit into the storyline. I'm Oona Otaku, and Anime is my thing. Til next week, ja matte ne! Bai bai! <3