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Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン, Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn?, officially translated as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) is the title of a Japanese media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. It is generally credited with popularizing the concept of a sentai (team) of magical girls, as well as the general (re-)emergence of the magical girl genre itself.
The story of the various metaseries revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a kingdom that once spanned the solar system, and the evil forces that they battle. The major characters—called Sailor Senshi (literally "Sailor Soldiers"; frequently called "Sailor Scouts" in the North American version)—are teenage girls who can transform into heroines named for the moon and planets (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, etc). The use of "Sailor" comes from a style of girls' school uniform popular in Japan, the sērā fuku (sailor outfit), after which the Senshi's uniforms are modeled. The elements of fantasy in the series are heavily symbolic and often based on mythology.
Creation of the Sailor Moon manga was preceded by another, Codename: Sailor V, which centered around just one Sailor Senshi. Takeuchi devised the idea when she wanted to create a cute series about girls in outer space, and her editor asked her to put them in sailor fuku.[1] When Sailor V was proposed for adaptation into an anime, the concept was modified so that Sailor V herself became only one member of a team. The resulting manga series was a fusion of the popular magical girl and sentai genres of which Takeuchi was a fan,[2] making Sailor Moon one of the first series ever to combine the two.
The manga resulted in spinoffs into other types of media, including a highly popular anime, as well as musical theatre productions, video games, and a live-action (tokusatsu) series. Although most concepts in the many versions overlap, there are often notable differences, and thus continuity between the different formats is limited.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Usagi fights using the identity of Sailor Moon, and as the story progresses she learns more and more about the enemies which face her and the evil force that is sending them. Gradually she discovers the truth about her own past life, her destined true love, and the possibilities for the future of the Solar System.
The plot spans five major story arcs, each of which is represented in both the manga and anime, usually under different names. These are the Dark Kingdom arc, the Black Moon arc (Sailor Moon R), the Infinity arc (Sailor Moon S), the Dream arc (Sailor Moon Supers), and the Stars arc (Sailor Stars). The anime added an additional minor arc at the start of the second series, and spent the first few episodes of Sailor Stars wrapping up the plot from the previous series.
[edit] Adaptation
[edit] Manga
The Sailor Moon series began as a manga written and drawn by Takeuchi, the series' creator. It was an evolution from her earlier Codename: Sailor V idea, expanding the concept into a team of five girls rather than just one.[1] Recurring motifs include astronomy, astrology, Greek myth, Roman myth, geology, Japanese elemental themes,[4] teen fashions, and schoolgirl antics.[5]
Only one story arc was originally planned,[6] and the storyline developed in meetings a year prior to publications,[7] but after it was completed Takeuchi was asked to continue. Four more story arcs were produced,[6] often being published simultaneously with the five corresponding anime series. The anime series would only lag the manga by a month or two.[7]The complete original manga spans 52 issues, known as Acts, as well as ten separate side-stories. Its main series was serialized in Nakayoshi, Kodansha's shōjo magazine, from 1991 to 1995; the side-stories were serialized in Kodansha's Run Run.
The entire series has been published in book form by Kodansha. The first edition came out as the series was being produced, from 1992 until 1997, and consisted of 18 volumes with all the Acts and side stories in the order in which they had been released. The second edition, called the shinsōban or "renewal" edition, began in 2003 when the live-action series was running. The individual Acts were redistributed so that there are more per book, and some corrections and updates were made to the dialogue and drawings. New art was featured as well, including completely new cover art and character sketches (including characters unique to the live-action series). In all, the new edition consists of 12 story volumes and two separate "short story" volumes.[8]
[edit] Anime
The Sailor Moon anime was produced by Toei Animation, and started airing only a month after the first issue of the manga was published. With 200 episodes airing from March 1992 to February 1997 on TV Asahi, Sailor Moon is one of the longest magical girl anime series.[9] The anime sparked a highly successful merchandising campaign of over 5000 items,[10] which contributed to demand all over the world and translation into numerous languages. Sailor Moon has since become one of the most famous anime properties in the world.[11][12]
Strictly speaking, Sailor Moon is an anime metaseries. It consists of five separate series averaging around 40 episodes each, often referred to as seasons by North American fans because of the over-arching storyline. Each series roughly corresponds to one of the five major story arcs of the manga, following the same general storyline and including most of the same characters. There were also three theatrically-released movies, as well as four special animated shorts. The series saw many adaptations into other languages, but not all episodes were always included, such as with the English-language releases.
Music for the series was written and composed by numerous people, including the series' creator. All of the background musical scores were composed and arranged by Takanori Arisawa, who won several awards due to the popularity of the various soundtracks in Japan and other countries. Over 40 Japanese-language music albums based on the series were released, as well as some 33 CD singles. In North America, only three CDs albums were released.[13]
Traditional animation techniques were used throughout the series. The series was directed first by Junichi Satō, then by Kunihiko Ikuhara and later by Takuya Igarashi. Character design was headed by Kazuko Tadano, Ikuko Itoh and Katsumi Tamegai, all of whom were also animation directors.
[edit] Musical
The musical stage shows, usually referred to collectively as SeraMyu, were a series of live theatre productions that played over 800 performances in some 29 musicals between 1993 and 2005. The stories of the shows include anime-inspired plotlines as well as a large amount of original material. Music from the series has been released on about 20 "memorial" albums.[13]
Musicals ran twice a year, in the winter and in the summer. In the summer, the only venue for the musicals was the Sunshine Theatre in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo; however, in the winter it went on tour to the other large cities in Japan.
The final incarnation of the series, The New Legend of Kaguya Island (Revised Edition) (新・かぐや島伝説 <改訂版>, Shin Kaguyashima Densetsu (Kaiteban)?), was staged in January 2005. After that show, the series went on a hiatus. There have been no signs that the show will continue.
[edit] Game
Numerous Sailor Moon console and arcade games were released in Japan, all based on the anime series. They were primarily made by Bandai and a Japanese game company called Angel, with some being produced by Banpresto.[16] The early games were side-scrolling fighters, whereas the later ones were unique puzzle games, or versus fighting games. Another Story was a turn-based role-playing game.
The games mainly saw release on the Super Famicom, with the first side-scroller being ported to the Sega Mega Drive. Two side-scrolling adventure games were produced for the Game Boy (Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R), and a side-scrolling game was also produced for the Game Gear (Sailor Moon S), as well as a game for the PC Engine. A final versus fighting game was released for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation. The last Sailor Moon-related game to date was released in November 2001 - Happy Chibiusa World. There was a rumored game for the Wii console in development by NAMCO with the working title of "Sailor Moon" but this turned out to be just a rumour.[17]
The only original Sailor Moon game to be released outside of Japan was the Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon game developed by Angel, released in France as "Sailormoon" in 1994.[16] The other games are hard to find in any other country, unless downloaded from the internet as ROMs, some of which have been translated into languages other than Japanese.
A handful of games were produced in North America, including "The 3D Adventures of Sailor Moon". This title was not include a game that using sailor senshi charset like sexy beach.
[edit] Live Action
A tokusatsu (live-action) version of Sailor Moon was broadcast from October 4, 2003, through September 25, 2004. The series is known officially as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (usually abbreviated to PGSM by fans), and it is the first series in the franchise to have a complete English-language title. It lasted a total of 49 episodes, and the broadcast originated from the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Numerous other television stations in Japan retransmitted the series.[15]
The series' storyline more closely follows the original manga than the anime at first, but in later episodes it proceeds into a significantly different storyline from either, with original characters and new plot developments.
In addition to the main episodes, there were two direct-to-video releases after the show ended its television broadcast. These were the "Special Act", which is set four years after the main storyline ends and which shows the wedding of the two main characters, and "Act Zero", a prequel which shows the origins of Sailor V and Tuxedo Mask.
