Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
Based on the Japanese mangas by Naoko Takeuchi, the story evolves around Tsukino Usagi (Serena), who in the beginning of the 200 something episodes was just 14. Right at the start, people might find her a bit whiny and more than a coward, but first impressions can be decieving. She rescues a black cat one day from a bunch of kid tormentors, took off the bandage on the kitty's head (revealing a cresent symbol), and since she was late, waved good-bye to the cat and rushed off to school. This cat is Luna and she will be the one who tells Usagi of her alternate identity and secret power as, Sailormoon, the fighter for justice and love in order to protect the Earth. Sounds really lame huh? But if you have the patience, you'll see that there is more to the show then the standard beating of the enemy and so on. So, afterwards Luna needs to find all the Sailor Senshi (soldiers) in order to find and protect Princess Serenity and the Imperium Crystal. As the anime progresses, other scouts also join: Sailor Mercury who is really the very academically smart girl, Mizuno Ami; Sailor Mars who is a temple priestess with foretelling powers Hino Rei; Sailor Jupiter, a long haired, tall, karate adept named Kino Makoto; and Sailor Venus, a ditzy, blonde haired and owner of Artemis the white cat called Aino Minako. That's in the first season, and the main evil perpetraitor is Queen Metalia who controls Beryl and the four Jewel-named guys. Their main goal is to extract as much energy from humans in order to revive Metalia and to find the Imperial Crystal. The Imperial Crystal is sort after by the Senshis to find their moon princess as well as by the mysterious Tuxedo Kamen (Mask), who seeks it learn about his past life. Ok, Spoilers: Sailor Moon is in reality the reincarnated Moon Princess, Serenity and Tuxedo Kamen a.k.a Chiba Mamoru (Darien) was Endymion, the Prince of Earth and Serenity's love. The imperial cystal is actually hidden in Sailor Moon which formed from Sailor Moon's tear and the seven Rainbow crystals. Within the last few episodes of the first season, Tuxedo Kamen and the four Inner Senshi get killed by the bad guys. At first, Sailor Moon is too scared to face Metalia on her own, but with the support of her friend's spirits, the Imperial Crystal managed to wipe out Metalia as well as Serenity. Of course, the Imperial Crystal cannot let the heros die out like that! The five girls and Mamoru get "revived", but all of their memories of knowing each other and of their alternate identies is erased. This is to give them all an opportunity to live normal lives.
In this continous fight to try to prevail over evil, it does get sort of tedious... Due to the fact that there has been at least 5 chapters in this series, the plot does get old. But I still enjoy the additional characters because of their own personal attitude and flair. The outer senshi that appear in Sailormoon S, are all so mature and cool that I sorta just want the inner senshi to grow up too. But the outer senshi do sometimes lack compassion and can even be termed cold blooded. I forgave their attitude after Pluto sacrificed herself for stopping time and Neptune and Uranus returned baby Saturn to her father...
My Bias OpinionSailor Moon is my absolute favorite anime of all time. Although I know it was in no way perfect or without it's cliches, this is by foremost "THE" anime at the time (circa early 1990s). I still have all the sticker cards and pics to prove it as well. The basic morals, such as no one should ever have to be sacrificed, and the way friendship and love always pulls through and triumphs in the end. You cannot get the gist of the pain these girls go through to constantly have to fight between their trust in friends and the enemies eveil plotting. I watched the Chinese version of the series and parts of the SailorStars in English sub, and the although drawings have improved a lot, the transformation does get tedious after showing consecutively for 20 straight episodes. But it was way cool anyway because the daily events that occur between the sailor soldiers as regular students are just mad entertaining sometimes. Also, I have a few comments on the English dubbed episodes. I saw most of the first segment of this series in this format and no offense, but they were crap. I hate that high pitched voice they gave to Serena and the much more mellow voice to Raye. They changed the openning song lyrics and I shudder to hear that tune played... I saw the original Japanese voice acted ones, and I must say that the english voice acting is a bit bizarre... because I couldn't associate the characters with a new voice expression. Aside from that, another problem I have with them is that they cut out parts of an episode either because it was too violent or something. (UsagiSakura 10/10/03)
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