|
|
||||||||||
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watch | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
|
[series:146#1552] |
|
Back in the 1990s, Sailor Moon was the queen bee of popular shoujo titles by helping to popularize the magical girl genre to international fans and being the first series within the genre to feature a magical girl fighting against the forces of evil instead of using her magic to do fun and mundane things that older titles like Creamy Mami did. I was a sucker for the series when I was a kid during that period as I watched the butchered American syndicated version of the series released by Dic during the mid-90s. Our heroine of focus here is klutzy and book-dumb middle schooler Usagi Tsukino, who is tasked by a talking cat named Luna to become the magical girl known as Sailor Moon to thwart the evil activity of the witch Queen Beryl and her forces among the Dark Kingdom. Along the way, Usagi gains several additional allies to assist her with four other middle school girls who can become Sailor Senshi and a mysterious tuxedo-clad man named Tuxedo Mask who often pops up as a walking plot device to save Usagi whenever she gets in trouble against the "monster of the day". Taking off the nostalgia goggles of watching this baby nearly 20 years later, I'd hate to say that Sailor Moon hasn't really aged all that well. All the character types and plot tropes that were milked by Sailor Moon during its heyday are a common part of many modern magical girl titles, many of whom offering more fleshing out of their plot and character elements than Sailor Moon does. Here, many of the characters are rather lacking in depth and have one-dimensional personalities with the good guys fighting for "love and justice" to save the world and the bad guys being evil for the sake of being evil. As a lead character, Usagi was rather obnoxious at many points in the series with her being ridiculously clueless, clumsy and crying incessantly if she ran into some sort of problem, which makes it kind of questionable why this would make her a character relateable to younger female audiences. Even with the romance Sailor Moon dabbles into at points, the relationship developments are either not convincing or are too underdeveloped to get seriously invested in thanks to the rather shallow character depth. The plot mostly follows a "monster of the day" format that takes up much of the show's run with Usagi stumbling upon the monster's plot, transforming to combat them, often getting herself in trouble, having Tuxedo Mask save her in the nick of time and then uses her powers to finish off the monster. Later episodes do slightly pick up in quality when revelations concerning the origins of Usagi and her friends come to light and the stakes are raised with Beryl trying to further her plans. But the series still resorts to monster of the day plots for many of its episodes and milks enough deus ex machina in thwarting perilous situations that Usagi and the other Sailor Senshi get themselves into. Pretty much, the series is very predictable with its plot developments if you've seen your fair share of anime. Visually, Toei was obviously running Sailor Moon on a limited budget with the reused animated frames, underwhelming action scenes, minimal detail on scenery and plain-looking character designs. The soundtrack isn't much better as much of it consists of bland and low-key tracks that don't do too well at effectively capturing the mood and tension within Sailor Moon's key scenes. I might get quite a bit of flak for this from purists, but I much preferred DIC's soundtrack to Sailor Moon since it at least attempted to capture some sort of mood during key scenes in spite of how cheesy it is nowadays. Overall, I suppose I don't get what makes Sailor Moon all that popular with fans. Sure it popularized magical girl titles. But the character archetypes and storytelling tropes within it haven't aged well and are a common occurrence in many modern magical girl titles, a number of whom offering better fleshing out of their premise and characters than Sailor Moon, like Cardcaptor Sakura and Princess Tutu. I would sooner recommend those titles and a number of other modern magical girl titles than Sailor Moon and I don't feel pressed to dig into the later seasons of the franchise anytime soon. Last updated Tuesday, May 05 2015. Created Tuesday, May 05 2015. | ||||||||
| Watch | 6 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
 Devil Doll
|
[series:146#752] |
|
[Score: 58% = Watch]
Compared with today's anime series, this is pretty much a catastrophe. Art and animation standards aside, you have a two groups of more or less one-dimensional characters, most of them very stupid, and a huge number of repetitive episodes. The bad guys are presumptuous, yet fail to beat the Sailor warriors all the time as they quarrel too much amongst themselves. Needless to say that those magic battles between good and evil almost never hurt anyone. And why do they have the time to exchange announcements about how the will punish each other at the beginning of each and every fight, instead of just finishing off each other? One more thing: Very soon I learned to look at the time index of my DVD player, because if Sailor Moon is transforming and this isn't happening during the 14th minute of the episode, there's trouble ahead... So why am I watching this series at all? Because it is a classic, and I intended to understand more about other animes quoting or making parodies of this series (such as Love Hina episode 8, for example). Certain characters are actually likeable, and the development (which girl is falling in love with which boy, rather than how the epic battle evolves...) kept me watching. The ending of this series was a positive surprise for me. I didn't expect the battle to actually become important, which it does in episodes 45 and 46. In a way the series could have ended here, but as we all know it did not... Last updated Saturday, June 14 2008. Created Sunday, March 20 2005. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Lonely Lockheart
|
[series:146#801] | ||||||
|
I personally love the show to a point. But that would have to be AFTER the original season. The translation that DiC did was horrible, and made the show seriously look like a total bore. After that, Pioneer took over, and produced the show in both the original lanuage, and a rather close translation, but still butchered it. Some believe that to have women in short skirts with super powers is unbelievable, and yet we can turn and look at Wonder Woman and other americanized shows and pass it off as wonderful. Just because someone loves Sailor Moon, doesn't make them childish. The art is a little weird in the beinnging, but as the show continues into the later S and SuperS seasons, you can definently tell that it improves drastically. The original music for the show is beautiful as well. I have to agree with Jenn-chan. Either you love the show or you don't. Overall, I prefer the manga as well, but the movies (or OAV's) are pretty good too and are worth buying. Last updated Tuesday, June 24 2003. Created Tuesday, June 24 2003. | ||||||||
| Buy | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 |
 Rirath.com
|
[series:146#802] | |
|
I truly believe Sailor Moon is a absolute gem of an anime series that no one should miss. The character designs are so detailed it's amazing. It's so unique that it's never been truly duplicated. Sailor Moon sets many standards in anime and should be held in high regard. The character and story development is nearly unmatched, you literally get a birds eye view of nearly the entire lives of the characters. By the end of the series I had literally grown up with them. As the team grows in power, new members arrive, new threats appear the wow factor only gets stronger and stronger. Unlike so many long term animes that get the first season right then go downhill, Sailor Moon only gets better and better with each passing episode and the story only becomes stronger. If ever there was an anime for the whole family, this is it. And please don't buy in to that ridiculous nonsense about it being a girls only anime... believe me, I've seen that type and this isn't it. If you honestly can't enjoy the romance, stick around for the action, the story, and the cutest anime characters ever drawn. - Rirath.com Reviews & Fan Art Last updated Tuesday, June 24 2003. Created Tuesday, June 24 2003. | ||||||||
| Watch | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
 Sesen Kelader
|
[series:146#471] |
|
It's just plainly weird that the war can only be saved by couple of girls who wear sailor suits and defeat the "evil" with LOVE---and there is a weird tuxedo guy who hurts enemies with roses!!! Geez! To simply say it, Sailor moon is a LOVE STORY. Personally I think the comic series better than the anime. It has better developed characters, scenes, and stories. If u compare the OVA which the black cat LUNA falls in love with a guy and transform into a human once with the TV series, u'll find out the OVA gives out better feeling. Why? Because it's originaly in the comic!! The TV anime series is so repetive. The main character in the ainme is so childish and silly. The monsters look stupid. And the fighting scenes in the anime are just HORRIBLE. It can't be said as full action. It can't be said as full magic, either. If one older than 14 finds Sailor moon's TV anime series interesting, I don't know what to say. On the other, both in the comic and in the anime, there is a character I like a lot, since she is the most "serious" one. She is Sailor Saturn--so dark, so cool, and so sexy (although she is the youngest among all the sailor warriors P.S. plz don't include the pink hair kid). It's a pity she does not have a lot scenes. Last updated Saturday, January 04 2003. Created Saturday, January 04 2003. | ||||||||
| Watch | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 |
 Atsumi_Yamaki
|
[series:146#259] | |
|
This is one of my favorite anime. I tend to like anime others don't. But think about this, How many anime have sailor suited Senshi. Ok well alot do but thats not the point. The manga is better than the show though(it gets more in depth) But if you like the show you might want to chesk it out.
Last updated Friday, January 11 2002. Created Friday, January 11 2002. | ||||||||
| Buy | 8 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 10 | 7 |
 V-babe
|
[series:146#237] |
|
To me, this is one of the best animes known to mankind. It is the whole reason I even know about anime. Like Jenn-chan, I remember getting up early to watch it. So since I'm a moonatic, this is going to be a pretty biased review, but I'll try to be fair. The music is isn't always the best although there are a few songs that I really like. The animation and art counld have been better, but I still think that it is pretty good. The dub butchers it, but I really like the original. The magna is also great. You should really go check it out. (I LOVE the magna!!) This is a classic anime and should be watched by any good anime fan at least once. It has a captivating story line and after a while you come to really love the characters. As a biased moonie I say that although there are some filler episodes that are better left unwatched, the other episodes definaitly make up for it. Definatly worth your money. Last updated Tuesday, November 13 2001. Created Tuesday, November 13 2001. | ||||||||
| Buy | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
 Courtney
|
[series:146#80] |
|
Japanese Version: Give credit where credit's due, a good show, admittedly not perfect, but it's the first "Pretty Girl" anime to gain popularity all over the world and help to make Anime not a rare thing. The animation is average and the music is the usual, boarder-line obnoxious composition some anime shows are known for (the only saving grace is the Opening theme and a song here or there that really captures the mood). People can usual find at least one of the Sailor Senshi (I will not say scouts...grumbly...) to be fond of though they do follow the standard of most anime teams (The smart one, the pretty one, the nice one, the tough one, etc...) All in all, it's taken a fairly creative turn with a anything but novel genre (If only there were less enchanted teen heroines with cutie phrases and recycled character concepts)so I give it credit for managing to separate itself a little from the herd. Despite the usually great ideas for each season, the 40-some episode run for each of the 5 parts of SAILORMOON moves at the pace of a marathon for coma patients. In so many words, they put in A LOT of needless filler stories between the good stuff. But when you get to the chewy center of the show, you'll find that sometimes the villains are really cool, the fights are pretty entertaining, and the main characters really are heroes. It's a feel good show if you give it a chance because it runs of the simple premise of "good vs. evil and good wins" of course sometimes it can be a pretty hard battle of major loses and minor victories (Sometimes a death scene will really tug at your heart). SAILORMOON is more a "security blanket" series in my opinion. You get attached to it when you're young and have a hard time letting go when you're older. I've been watching SAILORMOON for 6 years and I still pop in a tape or watch (shudder) the dubbed on TV every so often. Buy the Japanese (I think that's all you can do for right now) and get one of the better episodes (need a list, I'll give it to you) and I think you might like it. But, like most thing, SAILORMOON is for some not all. For more Pretty Girl fun check out these titles: REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA Last updated Thursday, November 22 2001. Created Thursday, September 28 2000. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Jenn-chan
|
[series:146#31] | ||||||
|
No matter how many people say it's sucks, you have to admit that SM has played a huge roll in bring anime to the US. Badly dubbed, hokey villians, long transformation sequences, cheesy stock footage attacks, and one of the longest running series next to the Dragon Ball series...this title will always have a special place in my heart. I remember getting up at 6:00 in the morning just to watch this before school, and I'd do it all over again. If you haven't seen this series yet, then you've probably been living under a rock. Heck, even those that live under rocks have probably seen this anime! You either love Sailor Moon, or you love to hate Sailor Moon, and that's why it's so great. (does that make sense? 0_o)
Last updated Thursday, April 27 2000. Created Thursday, April 27 2000. | ||||||||
