Please note that I use the English names here, as on all the pages of this site; names used below are from the official Sailor Moon comics translation by MiXX.

Manga Sapphire

If you've ever read the Sailor Moon comics, then you may have noticed that there are quite few differences between that and the actual TV show, so I decided to point out few of these for my fav Sailor Moon villain. ^_^

Though Sapphire doesn't seem to be as powerful as his fellow members of the Black Moon family, in the manga, he is the one who creates the Droids (you know, those monsters the Four Sisters and co. send out?). It is presumable that this is his role in the anime as well, though it is only subtly referred to on the show: when he makes the crystal statuettes that turn into Droids for Emerald.

In the manga, Sapphire also has a pair of servants who work for him, much like Emerald's Chiral and Achiral (Doom and Gloom in the DiC dub). They are Veneti and Aquatiki, Sapphire's most "perfect" Droids. (While I believe Chiral and Achiral's names refer to crystal structures, theirs seem to be water-based.) And much like Emerald's servants, Veneti and Aquatiki are quickly eliminated when they try to attack Sailor Moon.

Sapphire doesn't reform in the manga, like he does in the anime... Actually, he strikes me as a tad psychotic. ^_^ Though he still realizes in the manga that Diamond is leading the family to their downfall, he tries to remedy this by attempting to kill Sailor Moon! Too bad she managed to transform... He's still cool, though. ^_~ And in the manga, Sapphire is not killed by Wiseman; he's killed by Diamond! Wiseman turns Sapphire against Diamond, so the Prince is forced to kill him.

Ever notice that Sapphire is the only Black Moon family member without those crystal earrings? I suspect this is because he turns good in the anime (But that wouldn't explain the Four Sisters... Well, that kills that theory). Anyways, he eventually does get a pair of those earrings in the manga. They are given to him by Wiseman, and give him special new powers for the final battle with the Sailor Soldiers.

Images from the manga:

Sapphire Blue Sapphire (Seen above) Sapphire's death, part 1 Sapphire's death, part 2 Sapphire, from a Sailor Moon artbook Another artbook image of Sapphire

(These were scanned by me:) With Veneti & Aquatiki Sapphire & Sailor Moon, part 1 Sapphire & Sailor Moon, part 2 Wearing the crystal earrings With his new powers

To see more of my manga images of the Black Moon family, go to the Gallery.

Similarities & Differences between the Anime & Manga

Here is a bit more info on Sapphire in the manga that wasn't mentioned in the previous section...

Similarities:
+ Sapphire is still the first one who discovers that the Sailor Soldiers are in the Time Warp
+ He gets hit by Diamond's third eye at one point, for belittling his older brother (this was cut out of the dub, but is still in the comics)

Differences:
- In the manga, Rubius is the onne paranoid about Wiseman, not Sapphire (Rubius also gets killed by Wiseman)
- There is no relationship between Sappphhire and Prisma in the manga (or him and Emerald, for that matter... Although in the manga, he is given the same power as her by Wiseman, the "demon hands".)

As a bonus, here is a translation I found of Naoko Takeuchi's notes on Sapphire, from page 35 of her Materials Collection (otherwise known as her sixth manga artbook). To make it easier to understand, I've changed the spelling of the names to those used in N. America (I've also added some of my own comments in square brackets.)

Watchet Sapphire

[I originally thought the first word was supposed to be watcher, but watchet is actually a very old adjective meaning blue.]

(Diamond's cute, cute younger brother.) [Even Naoko thinks he's cute! ^_^]
Occasionally calls Prince Diamond "big brother".

He's always quietly disagreeable.

His skin color is of a fairly light complexion.

Stainless steel rod-shaped ornaments.
[So that's what those things on his jacket are supposed to be... I thought they were tassels! *^_^*]

He doesn't remove his gloves very often.

Sapphire and the droids don't wear the Evil Black Crystal earrings.
[This is proof that Chiral and Achiral aren't supposed to be droids, at least in the comics!]


If you're interested, click here to see the same translation, along with the page it came from.

Sailor Moon and related characters created by Naoko Takeuchi, and used without permission.

Webpage graphics courtesy of 7 Rings

The manga artbook images found above are from Alpin's Sailor Moon Archive.* Translation from the Materials Collection by Alex Glover; the manga image is from Ladywren's Sailormoon,* with the english text added by myself. (* - Link is down)