Sailor Moon Series - Review

 

One day, Usagi Tsukino, clumsy 2nd-year middle school student, stumbles upon a talking cat named Luna. Luna tells her that she is destined to be Sailor Moon, “Soldier of Love and Justice”, and she must search for the fabled Moon Princess. Usagi finds friends that turn out to be destined Sailor Soldiers as well, and together they fight to save the world from the certain doom brought upon by various enemies. 

What I Like - Sailor Moon’s greatest strong point as a whole is a great plot and character development. With the introduction of each new Soldier I was very enthralled by their dreams and hopes and grew to love them. Though they didn’t have much of a backstory due to the fact that they were supposed to be regular girls, their place in the plot that changes them over the course of 2 years is amazing. While their core personalities remained the same they mature into young women that I would want my future daughter to be like. Never giving up on their dreams and sticking to their beliefs.

If there was any character that displayed this the most it was Usagi. If you were to watch the very first episode and the last there would be little comparison. She was a crybaby who complained a lot, and had a short temper. But by the end of the series she was a woman who hated the idea of fighting and wish for there to be  peace between everyone and did everything she could to avoid hurting anyone. And that can be reflected in her one off attacks (Moon Tiara Action, Moon Healing Escalation, Moon Princess Halation, Moon Spiral Heart Attack, Rainbow Moon Heartache, Moon Gorgeous Meditation, Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, and Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss). All of which are purifying attacks that don’t kill the enemy.

As I said before Sailor Moon has an amazing over-arcing plot in each season. Most of which, now that I think about it, involve Tuxedo Mask in some way. And I can bet you 2 american cents that Tuxedo Mask will have some sort of involvement with the end of the last episode of each season (I’m a cheap man).

What I Hate - When it comes to long running series like Sailor Moon the one thing that always gets them is repetitiveness. Now I’m not going to lie, I skipped about 1-2 episodes a season because it was so repetitive. I mean with each new season the new powers keep it some what fresh but the overall idea still reamins the same:

1). Sub-boss is trying to find someone to take something with a plan of some sort to appease the Boss who is angered by the sub-boss’ constant failure,

2). Sailor Moon and Co. meet this person and gets to know them,

3). The sub-boss carries out the plan,

4). Then Sailor Moon and Co. defeat the sub-boss’ minion 

5). Sub-boss returns in defeat and is eventually taken out by the Boss and is replaced by a new Sub-boss that is usually fore-shadowed an episode ahead. *(Which usually happens around the end of a season.)

6). Repeat Steps 1-5 until the near end of season/series at which the Boss will appear to the Sailor Soldiers.

Though the effects of repetitiveness will probably have a different affect on me since I watched it in a marathon format rather than a weekly format.

Another thing I didn’t like was the idea that no one could fight by themselves, aside from Sailor Moon at the start of the series. I just felt like there should be no reason as to why they can’t defeat the enemy by themselves. Especially Sailor Moon, her one off attacks always needed time for her to get ready and her enemy to be surprised. So I just feel that they seem useless without each other which sort of makes sense, since they can promote the sense of teamwork and all, but still.

And aside from the fact that we don’t really get to know much about Sailor Saturn and Pluto much after Sailor Moon S, or their daily lives I don’t have anything else to say.

So in the end Sailor Moon is a shoujo anime with enough action to keep action oriented people involved in the story, and enough drama for those romantics too. I would recommend Sailor Moon to pretty much anyone. I mean sure at first the idea may be a little strange, but I think if anything this is one anime that most people should watch (in subs). I would definitely consider Sailor Moon a modern classic especially in terms of animation techniques, (of which I personally like better than some of today’s effects).