Sailor Moon
 

Good point.

So here's the long-overdue Sailor Moon thread. If I had to pick a favorite cartoon other than Foster's, this would be the one. It's well-written, with a good mix of drama, action, and more than a little comedy; the animation isn't half bad; the stories, be they single-episode tales or longer arcs, are engaging and sometimes thought-provoking; but the best part is, of course, the characters, who have real depth and dimension to them. They're a very likable group, very easy to get attached to. I first saw the show back in the 1990's, over ten years ago, but I've never forgotten it. As I've noted repeatedly in another thread, I've been watching it again on DVD. The first time around I only saw the first season and a few episodes from the second part of the second season, so a lot of this is new to me; I still have yet to meet any of the outer senshi and have only bits and pieces of info about the later stories. It's been tempting but I've avoided reading about it on Wikipedia; I assume there's some wonderful things coming up and I want to experience it all without any foreknowledge that might spoil the surprise.

Much has already been written about the Sailor Scouts themselves in the "Cartoon Crushes" thread, particularly about Sailor Jupiter, who is easily my favorite, although there's a special place in my heart for Sailor Mercury, too. As I said, they're a diverse, likable group, although I didn't get to know Sailor Venus very well before the show was yanked. Sailor Moon's constant crying often made me roll my eyes at first but eventually I came to know her as a very caring person who, like the title song says, would never turn her back on a friend. Sailor Mars' attitude perplexed me but it's just a part of her complex personality, as is her kinder, gentler side. Sailor Mercury, the brainy one, I liked her from the start; a little shy but very sweet, and very intelligent. Smart is a very attractive quality in my book. As for Sailor Jupiter, the word "wow" doesn't even begin to cover it. Frankie outshines her, but no one else does. And let's not forget Tuxedo Mask, the male lead, who has of late become something of a role-model for me, if only because I always wanted to be the dashing, romantic hero that makes everyone swoon. Don't we all? Of the villains the one I remember best is Nephrite, largely from his death scene, which I've already talked about elsewhere; it was a riveting moment, something you don't often see in cartoons (at least not American cartoons).

So anyway, yeah, I love this show and I am so enjoying seeing it again, and really looking forward to the episodes that I've never seen before. But I've rambled long enough here. How about the rest of you? What's your opinion of the show and it's characters? Who's your favorite Sailor Scout, and why? What was your favorite or least favorite episode? Tell us! :)

No surprise I'd be posting here 8D I have loved Sailor Moon since the first time I saw it back in the early morning airing of the show they had when I was in high school. I was always pissed because I had to head off to my high school half way into the episode and I'd have to leave tapes running to catch the episodes.

It was a pain but it was worth it because there is a reason Sailor Moon is one of the most famous animes of all time: it's phenomenal. It's a classic, simple, easy to follow story with super powered girls who are attractive, fun, and like Cass said, in depth. They are well crafted, unique individuals with diverse personalities.

This show may have been aimed towards girls more but I never felt bad for watching the show as I grew up. I love it then and I still love it today. My favorite scout (no surprise to Cass) is Jupiter for reasons I already stated in the toon crush thread, but a close second would be Raye/Sailor Mars.

Even though I seriously hate her smart ass attitude and at times bratty behavior, I feel she's got the most unique background of the scouts with her fortune telling and her mystic mumbo jumbo lifestyle. I think she's also drop dead gorgeous (but not even in Jupiter's league) and I think she has the sexiest outfit of the scouts.

The romance element is one thing I always loved about this show. Seeing Raye, Amy, and of course Serena falling in love with their own guys was one of the true perks of the show. And call me a geek at heart, but Serena and Darien are truly the anime version of Romeo and Juliet if you ask me.

They are a perfect couple and their relationship was one of the things that drew me to the show. Now onto the "favs". My favorite villain would be Wise man from the Rini/Neo Tokyo saga. Now I'm going to list my fav/least episode and since you said you didn't want any forewarning Cass, I hope this doesn't upset you.

I don't consider these episodes spoiler material but that's your call Cass. My favorite is one called "Kitty Chaos" and it takes place during Zoicyte's turn in the Queen Beryl saga. It's my favorite episode because it's hilarious to see Luna in trouble for a change and actually getting crushed on by another cat.

It also has probably the funniest "funny moments" I've ever seen. I won't spoil it for you but it involves 3 of the scouts stuck in a alleyway, that's all I'll say :slybendy:. I have other favs but that's the only one I can recall, I'd like to say a Jupiter episode but sadly she has too few to remember :'(.

My least favorite would be "Serena Times 2", with the introduction of the BRAT RAT Rini, who I possibly loathe and find to be extremely annoying and obnoxious. I don't care for her and it took forever for her to mellow out. Also my favorite Sailor Moon movie would be movie 1 of the 3, "Promise of the Rose".

To me the show is nothing more than nostalgia... nostalgia buckets full! Since I'm no longer a fan of neither anime or the show itself, but, now and then I do watch and I do pick up a manga whenever I see one lying around in my room. I must've been 9 or so when the show came here to Sweden and I'm 21 now (I feel old!)... but the old fan remains somewhere inside, as I still know all the senshis birthdays and favorite food, et.c XD

Rei probably did have the sexiest outfit of the original five Scouts, but I'm still not sure how one manages to fight evil while wearing high heels. Gotta be a little awkward.

I never knew what to make of Rini until recently; at the time, from the few episodes I saw from the second season, she just seemed like an awful little brat and not much more, although it was pretty obvious that she was related to Sailor Moon in some way. Although I didn't see most of her episodes I have read about the season, courtesy of a copy of The Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game that I picked up on eBay awhile back (yeah, I'm a bigger dork than y'all thought 8D), and she struck me as more sympathetic than I'd originally thought. It just takes some time for that sympathy to grow.

The romance element drew me in, too. Sitting there wondering "How long is it going to take these two to find each other?" was part of the fun. It still astonishes me that Lita never found anyone, though. She reminds me a lot of Frankie, sometimes, and, well, I think we all know how I feel about her by now. :-*

Another thing about the show that amused me, in a sad sort of way, was how the censors decided not to show certain episodes due to content concerns. I'm thinking specifically about Episode #2 here. Granted, the scene where Umino flips up Ms. Sakurada's skirt was a tad risque but I really can't see that as being a traumatic event for the target audience; at the most, there would have been some giggling on the playground the next day, nothing more. Pathetic that the censors seem to have less maturity than a bunch of 13-year olds. ::)

A quick note about spoilers; don't worry about them. The show is complex enough that anything I read here isn't too likely to spoil the later seasons for me, or for anybody else who hasn't seen them. Don't go overboard, mind you, but don't spend any energy worrying about it, either. After all, there's no point in talking about the show if we can't talk about it. ;)

Awww, no one knows anything beyond the initial 65-episode DiC run, which cut out 6 episodes? You're missing the ending of Season 2 (aka R), the 3 subsequent seasons, and the Outer Senshi/Scouts!

I'll find out over time; I have the complete series on DVD, and I mean complete; all 200 episodes, the movies, the specials, even the soundtracks. The set cost a small fortune but it was worth it. :)

Actually not true, I have seen many seasons of Sailor Moon long past the DIC era. I have seen seasons 4 and 5 which would be Sailor Neptune/Uranus arrival with Dr. Tomo, and the Pegasus saga along with those circus girls that appeared with Zerkonia. It was during those later sagas that I started to get bored.

Sailor Moon's villains had gotten ridiculously stupid and they really lacked the originality and unique designs of the original villains such as Queen Beryl, Alan and Anne, and the Dark Moon family. But the Neptune/Uranus saga was one of the best seasons I think the show ever had and I am SO glad they released it.

Funny thing you mention censors Cass because there's a LOT of "censor worthy" material during the Neptune/Uranus saga and luckily it was aired on CN and put on DVD. Truth be told, I barely noticed the censoring in the DIC episodes and even after i read up on it more, what they cut out really didn't bug me that much.

The ones I recall in particular involved cutting out the fact Luna said the first 3 scouts would "die" if they blew up some airplanes controlled by Jedite. And there were a few extended "death" scenes when the Scouts face the Doom and Gloom girls at the very, very end of the Queen Beryl saga.

Back to Rini. While I can sympathize with her status, I still personally dislike the little brat because she was so incredibly rude and careless towards Serena, ESPECIALLY the crap she pulled with Darien and Serena which was at a very critical point in the show for Serena.

Furthermore, the problem I have with Rini is like with most rude child characters: they make it difficult to "attack" them. Child characters get the freedom to act like assholes and don't get punished or treated poorly because they are unattackable targets, anything you to do them someone will see as you beating up a child.

Rini does this quite a lot and thankfully she mellowed out this rotten behavior. I swear if she hadn't then it would have made watching seasons 4-5 all the more difficult to endure. The other big thing censors changed was the gender of Zoicyte. She is actually a HE in Japan and is the gay lover of Malachite.

However here he becomes a SHE and is now a female lover to Malachite. I actually like Zoicyte better as a female, I think that aspect is good because it brings diversity to a team of a bunch of guys working for Beryl. Furthermore I have seen plenty feminine anime males before but you could always still tell they were guys.

Zoicyte to me looks NOTHING like a guy in anyway which is why the whole gay lover thing visually doesn't work for me because she looks like a woman in every sense of the word. DIC however did an excellent job with the voices and music on the series I think and even the original Japanese music (in my opinion) sounds silly compared to the score DIC put out.

EDIT

Btw Cass, in regards to the movies I HIGHLY recommend the second one out of all 3 movies because the "main focus" of that movie is so wonderfully exciting to watch, you won't believe how well it works. I also recommend you take the 3rd movie with a grain of salt, because it sucks something fierce.

I actually own the three movies... the first one is original Japanese, the second two are dubbed in english though XD urk... but the second one is beautiful and it's nice to know more about who Luna really is and seeing a different side of her

Much to think about, there. I can't say much about Rini because I barely know her but you're quite right about bratty kids being able to get away with anything. It's true on Foster's, too; I think most of the residents would love to smack Bloo but good, but no one ever does, and no one ever will. At least he's endearing (usually) when he's behaving badly. 8-)

I was very surprised when I first learned that Zoicyte was originally a male character, and in watching the original Japanese episodes, well, it's taken some getting used to; he neither looks nor acts like a male, at least none that I know. I have no doubt that when the show arrived on the cutting room floor in America he made the censors throw a fit, as did the relationship between Uranus and Neptune. It's pathetic, but that's America for you. Let's just be thankful that 4Kids never got a chance to do their usual hatchet job on the show.

I definitely like the music that DiC used better than the original; it's more action-oriented, I think, and a better fit with scenes like Sailor Moon's "Moon Tiara Magic!" attack, for example.

It will be awhile before I see any of the movies, as I am determined to watch everything in chronological order (as defined by the game book) but I'm certainly looking forward to them all. :)

I've been making it my business to watch all 200 episodes of Sailor Moon (the original version in Japanese), I think I'm in around the 140's. :D

And I happen to enjoy Chibi-Usa (Rini), she's just a little girl, y'know, an average little girl is a little mean and bossy. (I was like that too when I was her age lol)

But my favrite sailor scout of all time was Sailor Venus/Minako, she's more of a klutz than Usagi/Sailor Moon! Well, maybe not, but they're practially the same in denseness. XDD

The movies don't really connect to the progress of the main series other then introducing characters. The first movie has Rini in it, that's the extent of the connection it has far as chronology goes.

The second and 3rd movies however involve more but the first movie doesn't have anything other then Rini far as story elements used from the show. It also features (in my opinion) the coolest and most developed movie villain, Fiore.

Speaking of the movies, I was really upset to hear the ending finale music in the original Japanese version of "Promise of the Rose" after having hearing the English track "power of love" from the dubbed VHS tape I used to have. It sounds TERRIBLE!

Sometimes Japanese music isn't all its cracked up to be, Sailor Moon is definitely one of them, her English theme song is a classic TV intro song and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I don't remember a lot about Sailor Moon. It was the show that my sister watched so I did see a lot of it. I never really saw it as more than a "girls Power Ranger" at the time. Now I know that it's a lot deeper and a fine peace of story telling.
About the only other thing I can think of saying is that former YTV host "Sugar" did the voice of Mini Moon in the dub. She's left to the States to further her carer, though. It's shame too since she was probably the best host YTV had since the original "PG's".

DiC did censor out the scene from episode 66/73 where Serena/Usagi almost slaps Rini/Chibi-usa when her fellow comrades are kidnapped by Rubeus on account of Rini sneaking off with Serena's silver crystal.

I used to watch this show all of the time! :] It was my favorite, but I grew out of that and anime. I really can't stand anime anymore.

Now THAT I would have liked to see, pardon my Rini bashing if you please. Thank god that they kept Sailor Uranus and Neptune as lesbian lovers (since that's what they are) when they dubbed the rest of the series.

I was so surprised to see them have an episode where Mina and Serena actually thought Uranus was a guy and spent all of it trying to nab her attention. Call me crazy, but there's nothing more disturbing then not being able to automatically identify someone's gender by immediately looking at them.

Granted Uranus does dress in man like clothes, I would think the skin, feminine eyes and the voice would be a dead give away. I personally liked Neptune over Uranus though. Uranus was way too rude and really didn't seem to be socially house broken. I was upset she stomped on Lita/Jupiter so harshly.

Speaking of which, I'm mad period that people started spreading rumors saying Jupiter was gay because she looked up to Uranus as an idol of sorts. Lita is guy crazy 100% and that kinda bugs me people would assume that. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just I think people take any kind of "draw" towards another automatically as sexual attraction to them.

Really? Why not?


Anyways, I've seen a bit of this show, it looks very good. IT used to air when I was younger, and I thought it was a "Girls Only" show. :P 8D

It is but that doesn't mean guys can't enjoy it either. When "Card Captors" was dubbed and brought to America, it was put on public TV and it was actually modeled to look like a boys show even though its a VERY girl orientated show.

Animes with target audiences can attract all kinds of different age ranges, look at Fosters and us. Its a kids show yet us older viewers are watching and loving it.

LOL! That must've been why I liked it the first time around! 8D

Either way, I always used to think Sailor Moon was a girls show when it first aired in Australia. Now look at me. I'm grabbing images left and right of the Scouts (my favourite being Venus).

I watched Sailor Moon nearly through all of high school. I knew it was a girls show kind of from the start, from the music to the characters to even the whole romance thing through Darien and Serena. But it never really bothered me and oddly enough, my brother got into it too and watched it as well.

Now he doesn't care for it of course but I still do and still love and enjoy it. I really felt the show got out of whack and unoriginal after the Pegasus saga. The villains all seemed the same and there wasn't much of a unique plot going. Most of the prior sagas had unique ideas of why the villains were here.

From snatching hearts, draining energy, to stealing dreams, eventually they reached the point where I felt it was done. As I have promptly announced several times (and quite proudly I might add), Jupiter is my all time Sailor sweetheart. But my second would oddly enough be Sailor Mercury.

For a brainiac she was awfully cute and the most honest person I saw on the show. I loved her relationship with Greg (a rainbow crystal monster, Bumboo) and even though she is essentially the weakest scout, I still liked her as a character. My 2nd fav was originally Sailor Mars but she kind of bugs me.

I feel she's way too snotty and crass to Sailor Moon, I know Moon can be a real blond sometimes but I think Mars rips on her way too much and doesn't give her any credit for all the stuff Moon has done and the emotional roller coasters she's ridden on with Darien. Thankfully she mellows out as the show progresses.

Sounds kind of like Inuyasha. The show was refreshing and fun for the first couple seasons but just got really repetitive. It seemed like every time they finally caught up to Naraku and fought him he would just make a new body and run off again.
It didn't take long for the show to feel like it was stretching itself as much as it could. Sometimes I really felt that it was going nowhere fast.

I remember this show. Season 1 was the best IMO. I guess it appealed to girls more then boys, but I liked it

I was sort of a fanatic in the 90's. Bought the VHS's alot. I think I got all the movies... Though I was suprised of the shows fall, seeing it was catching on so well. Short lived much?


I actually liked Sailor Mars and her red hot attitude. Sort of reminded me of myself back in the day. As for episodes, Season 1's last episode was very good. Though I liked the movies better

I'm approaching the end of Season One on my DVD collection; I ran a mini-marathon yesterday, Episodes 25-36, while my system was busy moving data from the C drive to the F drive. It's been getting pretty intense, but there've been some funny moments, too, such as the episode where Serena and Lita are competing over Andrew. (Had to smile grimly about that one; on the rare occasions when I've had to deal with rivals, I don't talk to them, I take them down, and by any means necessary.) And you can always count on Sailor Moon to say something stupidly cute. I won't bother citing examples; there're too many to choose from. 8D

I've got to say this, too; watching Lita transform into Sailor Jupiter... wow. In particular, the sequence where the camera starts on her green lace-up boots and works up to her tiara while she spins really takes my breath away.

Yeah her transformation really is something else, I always found hers and Mars to have the most unique and visually exotic transformation sequences. I don't ever get tired of them. Speaking of the Andrew thing, it's sad but cute to see Lita go googly eyes for guys again.

Her "ex-boyfriend" thing turned into a running gag but I always found her approach to meeting new guys to be truly genuine. She's shy and isn't egotistical about anything and she doesn't shower you with attention as aggressively as Raye tried to do with Darien when she "dated him".

I honestly never could see how Raye thought Darien liked her, I mean it just seemed way out there for me. Despite the fact he's displayed as a burnt out bonehead, I really like Chad and his relationship with Raye, the moments when she admits to crushing on him are BEYOND adorable to watch.

Wait till you get to the Doom Tree saga Cass, there's a great Jupiter episode in there that I remember vividly.

It'll be coming up soon, depending on how often I play the disks. Eh, I may do another marathon over the weekend, just to finish out the season.

Another bit last night that was cute and kind of sweet was Melvin trying to be like Tuxedo Mask to impress Molly. Better yet was watching Zoycite moan and complain about chasing after Luna and Hercules down in the sewer system, and his/her reaction to that huge swarm of mice. Not a good day to be a villain. 8D

Yeah, I liked Chad, too. On the intelligence scale I don't think he's too far ahead of Terrence, but his heart is in the right place, which counts for a lot. :)

You know Molly was never a big character and neither was Melvin so the fact they are hooking up actually makes perfect sense. Like you said with Chad not being the brightest, the fact he does such stuff for Raye (aka his heart) certainly matters more. I think that actually matters the absolute most.

There are plenty of people with super model looks and bucket loads of cash in their pockets, but very few of them would be willing to do the stuff Melvin and Chad have done for their girls. Melvin defines nerd but for someone to spend all night at Molly's doorstep in the costume, that's admirable stuff.

Melvin does something similar for Molly in the Doom Tree saga during a Cherry Blossom festival episode. I'm SO glad you enjoyed that cat episode. I thought it was sad but funny to see Luna getting chased by all those cats, especially the little one that bit her tail and tubby old Hercules crushing on her.

:bloosmirk: hot damn that was so cute! I too loved Zoycite's dealing with the rats, its rare to see bad guys as strong as these put in such weird moments. I hope you enjoyed that classic moment with Mercury, Moon, and Jupiter getting stuck in the alley and Jupiter getting a "peek" at Mercury 8D.

I can't believe they got away with airing that on TV.

You've got to give them credit for dedication; it's not all that common a trait anymore. Molly and Melvin do make a cute couple, too, which isn't something I say very often.

Hercules was great. Who couldn't love a tubby tabby? ;D It struck me as interesting that of the seven great Yoma he was not only the only one that wasn't reincarnated as a human but he was also the only one that didn't try to attack anyone. Maybe a subtle commentary by the writers? The whole episode was fun, though, especially Zoycite's exaspiration about the situation. And he can call Herc an ugly cat all he wants, I thought he was adorable.

Yep, definitely enjoyed the "peek" shot, more than Lita did I suspect. 8D. In truth there are a number of shots like that, visible from the viewer's side of the screen, although most of them go by pretty quickly. The live-action version was much worse in that regard; you were just about guaranteed to get flashed once or twice per episode. I suppose it's the nature of the outfit; it happens during the winter Olympics quite a bit, too.

I don't want to turn this into a Sailor Jupiter appreciation thread, but, well, I had to make this:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...ectrifying.gif

Don't think for a moment that Frankie isn't still my first, best choice; she is, and by a very wide margin. But I do think that Lita's earned a tribute or two. :)

If you don't use that, can I? :slybendy:

Help yourself. I look forward to reading the personal text, too. :)

Anime girls make great avatars. ;D

Indeed they do. :smed:

I'm curious as to why she's your favorite. She struck me as possibly being the most friendly of the five but she's also the one that I know the least. I know her more from what I've read about her than what I've seen on TV.

I read on some sites a long time ago there was either an animated special or some kind of book or something explaining where Venus was prior to the show. According to it, Venus was Sailor V elsewhere (London I think) and was living her super hero life there and was crushing a boy who she wanted to share her secret with but couldn't.

She battled Negamonsters like Moon did and one night, one monster was tracked to a warehouse. The boy followed Sailor V in and so did one of V's female friends. There was an explosion and the monster was killed and the guy and the girl believed V to be dead. Sailor V managed to escape and hide and just when she was about to reveal she survived, the boy and girl kissed.

Turned out they were in love with each other. Feeling hurt and that they'd be better with each other, Sailor V left and let them continue to think she was dead. That's where she comes into the main show with Sailor Moon as Sailor Venus instead of Sailor V. Supposedly her adventures in London where what spawned the rumors and popular games, movies, etc about her.

There's an interesting article about Sailor V on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codename_wa_Sailor_V

Given that it's a Wikipedia article it may not be entirely accurate but it does seem to jibe with what I've read elsewhere.

Just out of interest, and while this is about Sailor Moon, did anyone see the Sailor Moon parody on Robot Chicken? I'd put up a YouTube link, but it's not available. It's on episode 14 of Season 1 entitled Joint Point.

Actually yes I did and I thought it was a genius idea for a Sailor Moon parody. It may have been a bit on the gross side, specially with the last scene with Queen Beryl going "Anime is weird" but it was a great parody of how some people see Sailor Moon.

I've found that the show doesn't get a lot of respect. People I've talked with tend to dismiss it as animated fluff or eye-candy, and often think that people who watch it, guys in particular, have an unhealthy interest in girls wearing colorful sailor uniforms. There's probably a little truth to the stereotype but really, the show has a hell of a lot more to offer than that. You just need to watch a few episodes to see that.

i think sailor moon was the first show i really got into.

Having picked up more than a few Sailor Moon items on eBay recently, I got curious as to what was the most expensive item available. It turned out to be a complete set of trading cards. Wait until you see the price on these!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sailor-Moon-PP-1...QQcmdZViewItem

:o :wiltshock: :eek:

What I wanna know is what someone would do with all those cards. Would they be sealed away for protection? Would they be re-sold in the hope of making a profit? Or would they be used to cover the walls to make one heck of a shiny room?8D

If it were me, it'd be as wallpaper. 8D

I've gotten ahold of a few cards now and then, mostly as freebies with other stuff I've ordered. Some of them are pretty nice looking, and make great avatars after a trip through my scanner, but in truth I can't really see myself getting into that aspect of collecting, mostly because of the price, plus I don't care for the idea of trying to hunt down every last card. Same with the comic books/manga. No, for my part I think I'll stick mostly with statues and figures. They're not cheap, but at least there aren't thirty billion of them to track down.

It's remarkable how much Sailor Moon stuff is available on eBay. A lot of it is duplicates, sure, but there's quite a variety, mostly targeted towards 13-year-old girls; make-up sets, stationary, plushies, dolls, etc. My Sailor Jupiter dog tag is available there again for about $13.00, including shipping; that was a very nice item, solid metal with a beautiful picture. Stars, I'd kill for something like that with Frankie's picture on it. :frankiesmile:

I'm sure if you asked around you would probably find someone who does that sort of thing as a hobby. You may even be able to find a service that will take up custom jobs like that as long as you supply the image, the item you want it on, and some money for the work.