Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon // An Introduction
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon can most effectively be described as a phenomenon. It all started with an evolution of Naoko Takeuchi's Codename: Sailor V (original title Codename wa Sailor V) manga from which the character of Sailor Moon and her magical fighting team were born. Despite its humble beginnings, the story of Sailor Moon and the Sailor Team would go on to take over multiple media formats, as well as the hearts and minds of millions all over the world.
The Codename: Sailor V manga was the first appearance of a pretty soldier. It was intended to be just a side-story, appearing in Nakayoshi's sister publication Run-Run. Naoko wanted to create a story about heroines, like the ones she saw in tokusatsu and sentai shows. Thanks to her editor, the idea of "sailor-suited allies of justice" was born, as was Sailor V along with it.
Shortly after Sailor V's publication, Naoko Takeuchi was approached by TV Asahi, which had plans to turn her story into a TV anime. Sailor V's story was to be expanded and re-launched as a regular series in Nakayoshi simultaneously with the airing of the anime. Naoko created a team to fight along side the story's new lead heroine, Sailor Moon. The new series Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon's manga debut was February 1992, and the anime's first episode aired on March 7th, 1992.
Although Sailor Moon is rooted in the Magical Girl genre and its traditions, including standard feminine items becoming tools for magic as well as animal guides, it was still revolutionary in its own right. For example, no magical girl series before Sailor Moon had starred a fighting team, with the idea being borrowed from the sentai genre. Furthermore, Sailor Moon's life as a magical girl was portrayed in a different light than any of her predecessors. The gift of magical abilities in earlier Magical Girl stories was always an overwhelmingly positive thing for the heroine, which allowed her to transform herself the way she wanted and often times live out her dreams. However, magic represented something else for Usagi Tsukino, it was rather a deferment of her dream, as she wanted more than anything to simply live a normal life.
As the manga and anime continued, both were building immense popularity, far surpassing the expectations of TV Asahi and Naoko Takeuchi herself. Initially, only 46 episodes of the anime were slated for production, but in 1993, the second Sailor Moon series, Sailor Moon R began. Along with the unexpected second series, we witnessed the coming of something new: the Sailor Moon musical.
Anime series have spawned stage musical versions of themselves in the past, as did Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sakura Wars. The Sailor Moon musicals, or Seramyu, have long been an enigma to most Sailor Moon fans. Many aren't aware of their existence, while others are either indifferent or don't care for them. There are of course, however, very devoted fans to this unusual version of Sailor Moon.
The first Sailor Moon musical enjoyed financial success but was not appreciated by critics. Despite bad reviews, the musical version would continue on, performing different productions up until 2005, eight years after the anime and manga ended! All together, 29 separate productions were performed, and it is currently not known if the musicals will continue or not, as they are on a "hiatus".
The Sailor Moon manga and anime both ended in 1997, with the manga spanning 60 Acts as well as side stories, and the anime concluding at episode number 200 (movies and specials were also released). Although the musicals continued, it looked like the end of Sailor Moon as most fans knew it. However, in 2003 rumors began circulating about a new Sailor Moon production. Most assumed it would be some kind of anime series, a TV or OVA series. No one could know what was to come.
In October, 2003 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the tokusatsu live action TV show aired for the first time. People received this new series differently, some loved it, and some hated it. But everyone could appreciate the fact that Sailor Moon wasn't dead forever, at least for now. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon offered a re-telling of the fight with the Dark Kingdom, with an entirely new ending. It enjoyed a 49 Act run, and several special episodes were released direct-to-video.
Over the years, Sailor Moon has represented many things to many people. For a huge number of anime fans, Sailor Moon was their "first anime" which makes it nostalgic for a lot of fans, and for some, it doesn't mean much else. However, some people never truly grow out of Sailor Moon, and it always holds some special meaning for them. It has unquestionably affected many peoples lives, and dramatically so. Who knows what it is in particular that drew us all to the sailor-suited pretty soldier in the first place, but we know that we're here to stay.