Sailor Moon Shingo Tsukino

Shingo Tsukino (月野 進悟 Tsukino Shingo, called Sammy in English) is the obnoxious little brother of Usagi Tsukino, making her the only Sailor Senshi with any known siblings. His influence in her life is alternately helpful and mocking; he considers her well-meaning, but a crybaby and a klutz.
Shingo first appears in the first installment of every version of the series, but is not heavily featured in any adaptations and little is known about him. Though unaware of his sister's true identity, he is impressed by the media-hyped urban legends of Sailor Moon and Sailor V. He is a particularly enthusiastic fan of Sailor Moon, because she rescued him from Dark Kingdom forces fairly early on in her career. He enjoys video games, and makes good grades. Shingo appears in several episodes of the first series, but only occasionally appears in later series. Episode #144 in Sailor Moon Supers is one of his most memorable later episodes, in which he has a crush on Ami Mizuno.
In the live-action series, Shingo is an extremely cynical character. He hates much of what his crazy sister and mother do, and seems to not care about much of life in general. In fact, he even discovers Luna's true identity and reacts to it just like he does to everything: ignores it and goes back to playing his video games.
In the video game "Another Story," Shingo is temporarily granted a large role, as he is kidnapped by the villains as ransom in an attempt to force his big sister Usagi (a.k.a. Sailor Moon) to hand over the Silver Crystal. In a conversation with one of the villains, the Opposito Senshi Sin, Shingo confesses that sometimes Usagi can be irritating, stealing his food and using his games, but also worries about him when he's sick or hurt. When Sin calls Usagi a bad sister, Shingo angrily tells her not to badmouth his sister, and is subsequently put to sleep through a spell. He is still asleep when the Senshi arrive and successfully rescue him.
His favorite book is listed as Shonen J*mp (a reference to Weekly Shōnen Jump), and he likes to play Famicom. At the beginning of the series, he is in Grade 5, meaning that he is between 10 and 11 years old or 3 to 4 years younger than his big sister, Usagi he is 13 or 14 by the end of the series.
In the Japanese anime, he is voiced by Chiyoko Kawashima (who also performs as Sailor Pluto and Haruna Sakurada). In the English dub, he is voiced by Julie Lemieux. In the live action series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, he is played by Naoki Takeshi.

Sailor Moon Kenji/Papa

Kenji Tsukino (月野 謙之 Tsukino Kenji) is the Earth father of protagonist Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon). Kenji, like his wife Ikuko, is totally clueless about Usagi's real identity. A stereotypical well-meaning Japanese salaryman, he works as a magazine reporter and later as an editor-in-chief. Kenji is quite affectionate with his wife. Early on, he becomes very upset when he sees Usagi with Mamoru Chiba, thinking he's too old for her and that Umino is a better candidate.
In the manga it can be noted that Kenji is the one member of his family who notices the similarities between Sailor Moon and Usagi. He senses a maturity in his daughter that comes when she is finally aware of her status as Princess Serenity, and notes that at times her beauty seems serene.
Unlike the rest of the family who have notable roles later on, he fades from the series after the second story arc of the anime. In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, he never appears in the main body of the series, which is explained by his always being away on business trips. His wife teasingly complains to him about this over the phone, but laughs it away and seems genuinely proud of and happy with him. He does appear briefly in the direct-to-DVD Special Act however, crying at Usagi's wedding.
His voice actor in the original Japanese version is Yuji Machi. His English voice actor is David Huband. In the Special Act of the live-action series he is played by series director Ryuta Tasaki.

Sailor Moon Ikuko/Mama

Ikuko Tsukino (月野 育子 Tsukino Ikuko) is the Earth mother of protagonist Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon). She cares for Chibiusa when she is present, whom she believes to be her niece, but who in truth is her granddaughter. She also cares for Chibichibi, whom she believes to be her second daughter. Ikuko's name and design are modeled after the mother of creator Naoko Takeuchi. She is often seen cooking and chiding Usagi for her grades in school; still, they're shown to be pretty close, since she gives Usagi advice on relationships of all kinds from time to time, and eagerly accepts her relationship with Mamoru.
Unlike the rest of the minor cast, Ikuko managed to appear in all five seasons, the only recurring character to appear in Sailor Stars. In the anime she is targeted by the Amazon Trio, and in the manga she cares for the injured cats when Usagi leaves to fight Galaxia. It is unknown whether or not she is still alive in the time of Crystal Tokyo.
In the live-action series, Ikuko is a completely different character than either of her other incarnations. She is extremely outgoing (even more so than Usagi), quirky, and determined. She changes her hairstyle almost every day, is constantly trying out new (and questionable) omelette recipes, and loves nothing more than being in the spotlight. She is even high school friends with Minako's manager, and it is said the two of them were big participants in their school's theater program.
In the Japanese anime, Ikuko is voiced by Sanae Takagi. In the English dub, Ikuko is voiced by Barbara Radecki (Who also does the voice of Sailor Neptune). In the live action series she is portrayed by Kaori Moriwaka.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Distribution and Reception

The broadcast originated from Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting. Another 28 television stations in Japan retransmitted the series, though some of them were weeks behind the TBS schedule because they started airing the series late.
There are several radio programs called "DJ Moon" based on the show that originated from Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting radio and were broadcast on other radio networks in Japan. The shows were a combination of a radio drama and promotional tool for the TV series, often foreshadowing upcoming events. These shows were later sold on CD.
The broadcast's ratings were not as high as those of the original show. The show had a high start, but then the ratings slid. They picked up in January 2004 and then again at the end of the series.
In addition to the broadcast television show, there was also a stage musical performance, Kirari Super Live! by characters on the show. Some footage from the filming of the stage show was used in the television broadcast. A special limited-edition promotional video, Super Dance Lesson, was available for purchase only through order forms found in the magazines Youchien, Mebae, and Shougaku Ichinensei in July 2004.

Ratings Snapshot from theNewtype USA magazine

Act 14 January 10, 2004 - 4.0%

Act 15 January 17, 2004 - 3.2%

Act 16 January 24, 2004 - 3.2%

Act 17 January 31, 2004 - 4.7%

Act 18 February 7, 2004 - 3.8%

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cast

Miyū Sawai as Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon/Princess Serenity/Princess Sailor Moon/Queen Serenity
Chisaki Hama as Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury/Dark Mercury
Keiko Kitagawa as Rei Hino/Sailor Mars
Myū Azama as Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter
Ayaka Komatsu as Minako Aino/Sailor V/Sailor Venus
Rina Koike as Luna Tsukino/Sailor Luna
Keiko Han as Luna (voice, cat form)
Kappei Yamaguchi as Artemis (Sailor Moon) (voice)
Jyōji Shibue as Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Kamen/Prince Endymion
Aya Sugimoto as Queen Beryl
Jun Masuo as Jadeite (Sailor Moon)
Hiroyuki Matsumoto as Nephrite (Sailor Moon)
Yoshito Endō as Zoisite (Sailor Moon)
Akira Kubodera as Kunzite (Sailor Moon)
Alisa Durbrow as Mio Kuroki
Chieko Kawabe as Naru Osaka
Masaya Kikawada as Motoki Furuhata
Kaori Moriwaka as Ikuko Tsukino
Naoki Takeshi as Shingo Tsukino
Moeko Matsushita as Hina Kusaka
Narushi Ikeda as Sugao Saitou, Minako's manager

Many of these actors also appear in the Kamen Rider series, including Jyouji Shibue (Mamoru), as Kamen Rider Ibuki in Kamen Rider Hibiki (and later in Kamen Rider Decade as well), and Masaya Kikawada (Motoki), as Kamen Rider Ichigo (Kamen Rider: The First and Kamen Rider The Next). Hiroyuki Matsumoto (Nephrite) and Akira Kubodera (Kunzite) also appear, as well as Tomohisa Yuge (the fake Tuxedo Mask from PGSM Act 9), who was the suit actor for Kamen Rider Zolda (from Kamen Rider Ryuki) and Kamen Rider TheBee (from Kamen Rider Kabuto), Satoshi Ichijo (Yuuto from Act 32), who played Kamen Rider Gai in Kamen Rider Ryuki. More recently, Rina Koike (Luna in human form) played Shizuka Nomura from Kamen Rider Kiva, and Miyuu Sawai (Usagi) appeared in the Double: Begins Night segment of Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Double & Decade: Movie War 2010 as Erika Mutsuki, a deceased musician whose ghost apparently had returned to haunt her sister.
Keiko Han and Chieko Kawabe had been involved with Sailor Moon previously: Keiko reprise their roles as Luna's (in cat form) voice in the anime and Chieko previously played Sailor Mercury in the Sailor Moon Musicals or SeraMyu.
The cloaked youma which appeared starting in ep. 37 are redesigned Golem Hei from the 1992 Super Sentai series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (which were adapted to the Putty Patrol in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).
Keiko Kitagawa (Rei) also made an appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, as Reiko.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Kirari Super Live

A Special Live Event occurred on May 2, 2004 at Yomiuri Hall. This Special Event was held for the 1,000 winners of the Sailormoon Campaign (a contest held earlier in the year, in which viewers had to send in UPC symbols to enter). The event combined musical performances, in which the cast members sang and danced to songs from the PGSM soundtrack, and a dramatic storyline with spoken dialogue, in which the Senshi had to stop the Shitennou from stealing the energy of the audience members. The show was recorded and released on DVD. The DVD also included bonus behind-the-scenes footage of the performance and interviews with the cast members.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Super Dance Lesson

A quick video hosted by Luna, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Moon, that instructed the viewer how to perform the dances from different songs from PGSM. The dances included were for the songs "Romance" and "Here We Go! -Shinjiru Chikara-" (Here We Go!-信じるチカラ-) Also demonstrated were "C'est La Vie ~ Watashi no Naka no Koi suru Bubun" (C'est la Vie〜私のなかの恋する部分 Seito ra Bui ~Watashi no Naka no Koi suru Bubun) and "Kirari*Sailor Dream!" (キラリ☆セーラードリーム! Kirari Sērā Dorīmu!) although no formal instructions were given on how to dance to them.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Mini-episodes

Act Zero also comes with two mini-episodes. Each one is approximately five minutes long and tells a quick short story. Hina Afterward shows what happened to Hina after breaking off her engagement with Mamoru Chiba. Tuxedo Mask's Secret Birth shows the origin of the Tuxedo Mask persona. It includes a joke-henshin sequence in which, rather than transforming magically, he pulls his clothes on with dramatic flair.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Act Zero

The last special made for the series is a prequel of sorts that leads directly to the first episode. In it we see how Minako Aino met Artemis and became Sailor V on Christmas. She must use her newfound powers to foil a stage magician/jewel thief called Q.T. Kenko and his Killer Girl assistants. Meanwhile Usagi and her friends decide to dress in their own homemade sailor fuku in order to scare the thieves away from the jewelry store owned by Naru Osaka's mother, (Usagi as Sailor Rabbit, Naru as Sailor N, and their other friends, Kanami and Momoko as sailors K and M) only for Usagi to get kidnapped by Kenko. The actors who portray the Shitennou are featured as the inexperienced police officers group self-dubbed the "Police Shitennou" for comic relief: Captain Kuroi (Kunzite), Officer Akai (Nephrite), Officer Shiroi (Zoisite), and female Officer Hanako (Jadeite). The story ends with Luna coming to Earth, feeling the burn of hitting the atmosphere, in order to give Usagi her powers.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Special Act

A sequel to the series, set four years later, that portrays the wedding of Mamoru Chiba and Tsukino Usagi (which, in the anime, is first shown in the Dark Moon arc of Sailor Moon R). Before their nuptials they must do battle with Mio Kuroki who has been resurrected and claims to be the new queen of the Dark Kingdom. She kidnaps Mamoru and Usagi and intends to force Mamoru to marry her. However, the Shitennou are revived and help their master to defeat Mio's youma, Sword and Shield. Meanwhile, the Sailor Senshi, minus Sailor Mars who is hospitalized with injuries from battling Mio while in her civilian state, use the Moon Sword provided by Queen Serenity to restore their power, enabling them to transform and defeat Mio. The story ends with Usagi and Mamoru's wedding, and Motoki and Makoto's engagement. This act is an hour long, twice as long as all the other acts.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Mio Kuroki

Mio Kuroki (黒木ミオ Kuroki Mio), played by Alisa Yuriko Durbrow, is a strange and manipulative girl who joins Usagi's class at school. She is a fellow pop idol and thus has a rivalry with Minako Aino. She pretends to be Usagi's friend while doing all in her power to cause her sadness. Because of her forgiving nature, however, Usagi continually gives Mio extra chances. Mio soon becomes very envious of Usagi's closeness to Mamoru and fakes fainting in front of his motorcycle in order to kidnap him and take him to Queen Beryl. There, Mio taunts Mamoru, telling him that Beryl will kill him if he does not join the Dark Kingdom and become Beryl's lover.
Mio is revealed to be created from a part of Queen Beryl herself, apparently to do harm to Usagi. After kidnapping Mamoru, her main role is to keep an eye on him for Beryl. The only powers of her own she demonstrates are slight mind control powers, and teleportation, of both herself and others.
Toward the end of the series, Mio is apparently killed by Endymion/Metaria; she is somehow resurrected, however, as the main villain of the "Special Act". Once again, she kidnaps Mamoru, this time wanting to marry him so they can rule a new Dark Kingdom as King and Queen. She is confronted and attacked by the Shitennou, forcing her to transform into a plant-like monster that makes quick work of her former allies. Ultimately, her final form is destroyed by the Senshi's combined powers, channeled through the Moon Stick in the Sailor Planet attack.
After her revival for the Special Act, she seems to gain new powers. She can repair objects, cause them to appear out of thin air, and create monsters from flames. She can also summon legions of pierrot, or clowns, to serve her and gather energy, even creating replicas of the Shitennou. Mio is also able to brainwash others and transform into a plant-like monster. At one point she interrupts a television broadcast to announce that she is taking over.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Changes to Story

Queen Beryl as seen in the tokusatsu series, played by Aya Sugimoto.

Although Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is a retelling of the first manga story arc, there are many differences that set it apart from the manga and anime. The storylines are more character-based and driven, focusing on the girls' civilian lives and their connection to the past more than on action sequences. While the first few episodes seemed directly based on anime and manga story lines, by the time Sailor Jupiter had arrived the show was starting to spin off in its own direction. Additionally, Usagi and Rei's relationship is closer in spirit to the manga; while they have their disagreements, it never gets to the heated level that it does in the anime.
One of the largest changes was to the character of Minako Aino, who, rather than being an ordinary girl among the other Senshi, is a famous pop idol. When introduced, she is fighting crime under the alias "Sailor V" (as in the other versions), and makes subtle reference to this double life in her music. Her most popular song, "C'est La Vie (Watashi no Naka no Koisuru Bubun)" (C'est la vie 〜私のなかの恋する部分), is a Japanese pun: "Sailor V" (セーラーV Sērā Bui) and "C'est la vie" (セ・ラ・ヴィ Se Ra Vi) are pronounced nearly identically.
In addition to plotline changes, some updating has been done to minor elements of the series, making them more in line with modern culture. For example, in the original anime and manga, there were scenes involving Ami and a cassette tape. In the new version, the tape is replaced by a MiniDisc. Instead of a transformation pen and communicators, each Senshi is given a magical camera phone and bracelets. Also, their secret hideout is not hidden in a video arcade, but rather in a magic karaoke room.
With the new adaptation of the show, certain characters were modified to give it freshness and originality. New aspects and forms include Sailor Luna, Dark Sailor Mercury, and Princess Sailor Moon. A new antagonist, Mio Kuroki, is also introduced.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Plot

A great evil, consisting of Queen Beryl, her four generals, and an amorphous evil power named Queen Metaria attempt to steal energy so that Beryl can take over the world.
Standing in their way are the Sailor Senshi, five middle-school-aged girls: perky Usagi Tsukino, genius Ami Mizuno, paranormally gifted shrine maiden Rei Hino, tomboyish Makoto Kino, and J-pop idol Minako Aino; two beings that appear to be sentient stuffed cats (Luna and Artemis); and Tuxedo Mask, a jewel thief in search of a Silver Crystal.
Later in the series, Metaria and Sailor Moon each get too powerful to be reined in, and the conflict shifts to attempting to postpone the inevitable destruction of the planet Earth. (It looks like Earth is plunged into darkness and not actually destroyed per se, but the effect is the same.)

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

The Five Sailor Senshi

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn, often abbreviated to PGSM ) is a tokusatsu television series in the Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon metaseries originally created by Naoko Takeuchi. It is produced by Toei, the same company that produces the Super Sentai Series and the Kamen Rider Series.
PGSM came out exclusively in Japan. It ran from October 4, 2003 to September 25, 2004, and was a retelling of Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon's first major story arc, albeit with considerable plot divergences.
The theme music is called "Kirari*Sailor Dream!" (キラリ☆セーラードリーム! Kirari Sērā Dorīmu!) and was performed by J-pop singer Nanami Yumihara under the name Sae (小枝).
The series lasted 49 episodes (called "Acts"), and also included two separate made-for-DVD specials, for a total of 51 acts.

Sailor Moon Possible International Revival

As of 2004, Toei has control over the license to distribute Sailor Moon outside of Japan. On February 4, 2010, Toei began negotiations to re-license the entire series globally. If such a revival occurs, the international re-airing would start in Italy after a Japanese debut, then work its way around the world. In February 2010 the show returned to Albania in its original form. As of March 1, 2010, a new remastered Sailor Moon has returned to Italian television. Toei has also stated if it is popular in Italy, an international revival will begin. However, it has yet to be announced if the English version will be re-licensed, especially the un-aired Sailor Stars series. Recently, Toei is offering 200 refurbished episodes of Sailor Moon at MIPTV. The anime is also scheduled to begin playing on TVB J2 channel in Hong Kong once more in August 2010.
In 2009 Funimation announced that they were considering an entire re-dub of the Sailor Moon series and asked people to take part in a survey on what their next project should be. The re-dub of the Sailor Moon series was included. The results of the survey have not been released to the public.

Sailor Moon Legacy

The anime has been cited as reinvigorating the magical girl genre by adding dynamic heroines and action-oriented plots. After its success, many similar titles immediately followed. Magic Knight Rayearth, Wedding Peach, Nurse Angel Ririka and Revolutionary Girl Utena all owe much of their basis to the popularity of Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon has been called "the biggest breakthrough" in English dubbed anime up until 1995, when it premiered on YTV, and "the pinnacle of little kid shojo anime". Matt Thorn notes that soon after Sailor Moon, shōjo manga began to be featured in book shops, as opposed to fandom-dominated comic shops. It is credited as the beginning of a wider movement of girls taking up shōjo manga. Gilles Poitras defines a "generation" of anime fans as those who were introduced to anime by Sailor Moon in the 1990s, noting that they were both much younger than the other fans and also mostly girls. Poitras credits Sailor Moon as laying the ground for other shōjo series such as Fushigi Yuugi, Vision of Escaflowne and Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a Super Sentai-like team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical girl genre itself. The series is credited with changing the genre of magical girls—its heroine must use her powers to fight evil, not simply to have fun as previous magical girls had done.
In the West, people sometimes associated Sailor Moon with the feminist or Girl Power movements and with empowering its viewers, especially regarding the "credible, charismatic and independent" characterizations of the Sailor Senshi, which were "interpreted in France as an unambiguously feminist position." As such, it has been compared with Barbie, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Its characters have also been described as "catty stereotypes", with Sailor Moon's character in particular being singled out as less-than-feminist because her favorite class is home economics and her least favorite is math, although Japanese audiences viewed her character as tomboyish. The series creator has said she based Usagi on herself, and is meant to reflect her reality.
In English-speaking countries, Sailor Moon developed a cult following amongst members of the "Save Our Sailors" campaign and male university students, and Drazen considers that the Internet was a new medium that fans used to communicate and played a role in the popularity of Sailor Moon. Fans could use the Internet to communicate about the series, using it to organize the "Save Our Sailors" campaign to return Sailor Moon to U.S. broadcast, and to share information about episodes that had not yet aired. In 2004, one study suggested there were 3,335,000 sites about Sailor Moon, compared to 491,000 forMickey Mouse. NEO magazine suggested that part of Sailor Moon's allure was that fans communicated, via the Internet, about the differences between the dub and the original version. The Sailor Moonfandom was described in 1997 as being "small and dispersed". In a United States study, children paid rapt attention to the fighting scenes in Sailor Moon, although when questioned if Sailor Moon was "violent" only two would say yes, the other ten preferring to describe the episodes as "soft" or "cute".

Sailor Moon Reception

The manga won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1993 for shōjo.
Originally planned to run for only six months, the Sailor Moon anime repeatedly continued due to its popularity, concluding only after a five-year run. In Japan, it aired every Saturday night in prime time, getting TV viewership ratings around 11-12% for most of the series run. Commentators detect in the anime adaptation of Sailor Moon "a more shonen tone," appealing to a wider audience than the manga, which aimed squarely at teenage girls. Later episodes of the anime added nude transformation sequences for the male audience, to the annoyance of Takeuchi. In the edited English version these scenes were censored. The media franchise is one of the most successful Japan has ever had, reaching 1.5 billion dollars in merchandise sales during the first three years. Ten years after the series completion, the series has featured among the top thirty of TV Asahi's Top 100 anime polls in 2005 and 2006. The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1993.Sales of Sailor Moon's fashion dolls overtook that of Licca-chan in the 1990s; Mattel suggested that this was due to the "fashion-action" blend of the Sailor Moon storyline. Doll accessories included both fashion items and the Senshi's weapons.
Sailor Moon has also become popular internationally. Spain and France became the first countries outside of Japan to air Sailor Moon, beginning in December 1993. Other countries followed suit, including Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, Italy, Peru, Brazil, Sweden and Hong Kong, before North America picked up the franchise for adaptation. In 2001, the Sailor Moon manga was Tokyopop's best selling property, outselling the next-best selling titles by at least a factor of 1.5.
Critics have commended the anime series for its portrayal of strong friendships, as well as for its large cast of "strikingly different" characters who have different dimensions and aspects to them as the story goes on, and an ability to appeal to a wide audience. Writer Nicolas Penedo attributes the success of Sailor Moon to its fusion of the shōjo manga genre of magical girls with the Super Sentai fighting teams. According to Martha Cornog and Timothy Perper, Sailor Moon became popular because of its "strongly-plotted action with fight scenes, rescues" and its "emphasis on feelings and relationships", including some "sexy romance" between Usagi and Mamoru. In contrast, others see Sailor Moon as campy and melodramatic. Criticism has singled out its use of formulaic plots, monsters of the day, and stock footage.
Drazen notes that Sailor Moon has two kinds of villains, the Monster of the Day and the "thinking, feeling humans". Although this is common in anime and manga, it is "almost unheard of in the West". Despite the series' apparent popularity among Western anime fandom, the dubbed version of the series received poor ratings in the United States and did not do well in DVD sales in the United Kingdom. Anne Allison attributes the lack of popularity in the United States primarily to poor marketing (in the United States, the series was initially broadcast at times which did not suit the target audience - weekdays at 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 pm). Executives connected with Sailor Moon suggest that poor localization played a role. Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements go further, calling the dub "indifferent", and suggesting that Sailor Moon was put in "dead" timeslots due to local interests. The British distributor, MVM Films, has attributed the poor sales to the United Kingdom release being of the dub only, and that major retailers refused to support the show leading to the DVD release appealing to neither children nor older anime fans.
Both the manga editorial vid and the anime series were released in Mexico twice in a quite accurate translation in Imevisión (what is now TV Azteca), which also aired almost complete versions of Saint Seiya, Senki, Candy Candy, Remi, Nobody's Girl, Card Captor Sakura and Detective Conan. With quite a success and in the U.S. censored version in the Cartoon Network that was very quickly taken off the air due to the lack of viewers being lackluster compared to the original version; due to sensitive or controversial topics a Catholic parents' group exerted pressure to take it off the market, which partially succeeded - but after the whole series had been aired once from Sailor Moon to Sailor Stars and some of the movies.
Due to anti-Japanese sentiment, most of Japanese media other than animated ones was banned for many years in South Korea. A producer in KBS "did not even try to buy" Sailor Moon because he thought it would not pass the censorship laws, but as of May 1997, Sailor Moon was airing on KBS 2 without issues and was "enormously" popular.
In his 2007 book Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson gave the manga series 3 / 5 stars. He enjoyed the blending of shōnen and shōjo styles, stating that the combat scenes seemed heavily influenced by Saint Seiya, but shorter and less bloody, and noting that the manga itself appeared similar to Super Sentai television shows. While Thompson found the series fun and entertaining, the repetitive plot lines were a detriment to the title which the increasing quality of art could not make up for; even so, he still states that the series is "sweet, effective entertainment".
James Welker believes that Sailor Moon's futuristic setting helps to make lesbianism "naturalized" and a peaceful existence. Yukari Fujimoto notes that although there are few "lesbian scenes" in Sailor Moon, it has become a popular subject for yuri parodic dojinshi. She attributes this to the source work's "cheerful" tone, although she notes that "though they seem to be overflowing with lesbians, the position of heterosexuals is earnestly secured".
When comparing the manga and anime, Sylvian Durand first notes that the manga artwork is gorgeous, but that the storytelling is more compressed and erratic, and that the anime has more character development. Durand felt "the sense of tragedy is greater" in the manga's telling of the "fall of the Silver Millennium", giving more detail on the origins of the Shitennou and on Usagi's final battle with Beryl and Metalia. Durand feels that the anime leaves out information which makes the story easier to understand, but judges the anime more "coherent", with a better balance of comedy and tragedy, whereas the manga is "more tragic" and focused on Usagi and Mamoru's romance.