7/9/2005

When presented with the choice of covering Sailormoon (known as, surprise, Sailor Moon in North America) in either the anime or manga section, despite the genuinely interesting deviances made the the anime, the manga is truly something spectacular, and if you passed it by thinking it was the same as the anime, you should think again. Aside from the breathtaking artwork, Takeuchi Naoko’s Moon Princess story is a true classic and well worth keeping.

Sailormoon got its start in Nakayoshi magazine after their sister publication, Run-Run, featured a short manga about a sailor-suited fighter, called Codename wa Sailor V. Fans will of course recognize Sailor V as the masked heroine in the early episodes of the anime and some of the manga, later revealed to be a true ally to Sailormoon. When Ms. Takeuchi was approched to turn Sailor V into an anime series, it ended up evolving into Sailormoon, while the new manga began its Nakayoshi run. It serialized from 1992-1997.

The story (my, it has been quite a while since I’ve read it) is that of Tsukino Usagi, an ordinary-seeming schoolgirl who has great power hidden within her. Having been searched for since a reincarnation from her past life, Usagi encounters a mysterious black cat who presents her with the opportunity (or shall we say…insists that she take the opportunity) to rid the world of the demons that pursue her and those she loves. She is joined later by the Sailor Senshi - one for each planet - a heroic masked man with secrets of his own, and many others. There are five basic story arcs, each one encompassing several tankubons of the manga.

Until very recently the series was licensed by Tokyopop, but it is now out of print and the license has been confirmed as expired. If you can get your hands on material copies of this series, it’s well worth having - and if not, refer to some of the links below to peruse scanlations of it and Sailor V.

Links:
The Manga of Takeuchi Naoko
manga style! pretty soldiers in sailor suits
Wishing Moon