The Sailor Moon History

Sailor Moon's saga actually began even before Sailor Moon was created. An odd way to think about it, but it's true. When a talented twenty four year old artist named Takeuchi Naoko got a suggestion from her editor to dress her heroines in Sailor suits, her first thought was not on the moon, but on Venus. Soon, Codename Wa Sailor V, a manga(rough translation: comic), was created. The story of this manga focused on thirteen year-old Aino Minako, a girl who is basically a normal teenager, that is until she lands on a white cat with a crescent moon on his forehead while playing voleyball. The white cat, named Artemis later gives Minako a transformation compact that turns her into Sailor V, a sailor suited super heroine that fought crime. In the manga of Sailor V, a few characters subtly appeared who some people at that time would have wondered why they appeared at all. Those were two girls who were known as Ami and another tall, brown haired girl on a train to Tokyo.

While this manga was in the process of being finished, it became so popular that Ms. Takeuchi decided to create another one, mainly because producers wanted to turn the story of a pretty soldier into anime. This time, however, the story of the new manga/anime would focus on a fourteen year old klutzy crybaby who Ms. Takeuchi would later say acted a lot like her. Tsukino Usagi, or rabbit of the moon, was born, odango pigtails and all. The new manga came just in time for Takeuchi-san to wrap up her last manga in a way that it connected the two stories perfectly. The idea of Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon, or pretty soldier Sailor Moon at first, did not include any other sailor soldier, except for Sailor V, or Sailor Venus. However, after watching other anime(japanese cartoons, and a show where the Power Rangers were derived from *Go-Rangers...hehe, I remember watchin' those in tagalog*), Ms. Takeuchi decided to turn the Sailor soldiers into a team. Thus, Sailor Mercury, Mars and Jupiter were born.

That wouldn't explain how the other sailors appeared, now would it? That's because the manga of Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon was only intended to go through three volumes. Sailor Moon, as many people already know, became VERY popular among diverse age groups, and Ms. Takeuchi decided to continue the story. The anime, however, soon came ahead of the manga. The producers of Sailor Moon then decided to add another part to the anime story that involved Ail and Ann, the two evil aliens who were infatuated with Usagi and Mamoru. So, the two aliens were born on screen but were never actually added onto the manga

As for the others, Naoko continued the first Sailor Moon saga with Sailor Moon R, the second part of the manga series in which a little girl with pink cone hair appeared from the clouds to wreak havoc on Usagi's life. With her, appeared, the Black Moon family who would be the main villains of the Sailor Moon R story. Also included in the second part of the series is the time soldier Sailor Pluto. The little girl also is introduced as Sailor Moon's future daughter, Sailor Chibi-Moon.

In Sailor Moon S, the story continues, with the remaining three senshi: Uranus, Neptune and Saturn along with the introduction of the Death Busters. Finally, the three Sailor Starlights, Sailor Chibi Chibi, Sailor Galaxia and the most powerful senshi in the galaxy, Sailor Cosmos, Sailor Moon's future form were introduced in Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. Also, during the Sailor Stars story, the original sailors find out that there is a senshi for every planet. Sadly, the anime did not remain faithful to it's manga counterpart, probably because the anime was bent on having young girls as it's audience.

Sailor Moon began in Japan during 1992 and lived on to February 8,1997 in Japan and 2000 in the US. All in all, Sailor Moon originally aired 200 episodes and three movies, had 18 volumes of comics and 120 episodes in the US. The story has been translated into so many languages and even had a few different versions, including the N/A version. Their names usually stay the same, but there are a few occasions in which they change them.*A very good example is the N/A version in which none of their names stay the same except for a few villains. Even now, seven years later, the love for Sailor Moon has not yet diminished. Websites about her have been popping up everywhere, even a musical(gasp) has been created and the SOS campaign, dedicated to bringing more NA episodes has thousands of signatures of US residents who do not want to see this odango-atama disappear into the pages of history.