Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon

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This is where the whole phenomenon started, and it won't disappoint. More direct than the anime (okay 90% of the anime is filler/ bad guy of the week) and more serious, the story line is still the same, with some new characters and transformations thrown in. Some of the main characters (specifically Mars) are very different from their anime counterparts (I actually liked Usagi more than I wanted to strangle her!). A little less childish than the anime (but not that that's a bad thing), for any Moonie, it's a treat.

Just like many people,I have a special bond with Sailor Moon considering it was the very first anime I was exposed to at the tender age of 3.I might not have many clear memories of that time but it did make an impact on me.Of course after than time it has been broadcasted on TV here again and again,though not always making it to the last episode.I've always loved this,I'd wake up at 6 in the morning just to watch it every time.
So for my love about Sailor Moon I feel it is my duty to write a review for the anime or the manga.I ... picked the manga cause it is more straightforward and direct than the anime,which spans 200 episodes or something he majority of which are uninspired enemies that don't even exist in the manga.

Upon reading the manga a sort of nostalgia overwhelmed me,I'm sure it's the same case for most people.I was enjoying my time reading and the first arc was pretty nice but it's after that when this manga exposes its true weaknesses.Which is...Tsukino Usagi is a Mary Sue character.I can already imagine everyone of you staring at me with horror as if uttered something unthinkable,but it's the truth no matter what.That's this manga's drawback and it's a serious one one.I know Usagi is the main character...but she could always share some of her spotlight and important role with the rest of the characters.They're her soldiers but honestly what's the point if she overpowers them all EVERY SINGLE TIME?
I like the character designs and abilities,but unfortunately,if we don't take into account the first arc where they are introduced they end up being pretty much useless.Usagi is another important person so she saves the day while the rest have fallen.I'm very bothered by this cause.I can't even believe it took by surprise when she defeated another antagonist,I was thinking..."This cannot be happening,is this what I loved so much?"
See,because the manga is a lot shorter than the anime this weakness is pretty apparent,whilst in the anime it is covered by the fillers that make the rest of the characters have more story and be useful.
After touching on this very important drawback that takes away so much I'd like to proceed to the following:

As far as the art is concerned I cannot say much since I hardly have much experience with manga of that year.I've rated it a 6 cause...it's Sailor Moon...and it's not that bad...and you can tell what is going on.

Moving on...Sure the story has been done many times considering the popularity of Sailor Moon and how successful it's being.I'm sure at the time it was pretty much ahead of its time.Heck I still enjoy watching unfold(on the anime).That should be a 7.

I already touched on the topic about the characters,really big mistake to put the focus on Usagi the whole time even if she is the main character.Gets a 3 from me.

Enjoynment...would have been more but like I mentioned earlier what was done with the characters really bothered me and took away from the experience.Perhaps I had other characters I liked besides Usagi who didn't act on their full potential or on a role that suited them way better than Tsukino.
Above average,6.

Overall,I feel it deserves a 6.It offered many things to the anime/manga world and it has establish itself as the representative of the genre(magical girl).We should not be blinded by the fact of how much we loved it when the truth is it has not aged well at all from many aspects(1.characters,2.art,3.story)
I was a tiny bit influenced by my own childhood memories though I feel the anime is superior to the manga despite its never-ending fillers for reasons mentioned above.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review.

(READ REVIEW BEFORE HATE RATING!!!!!)

One of the WORST manga I have ever read.

I am NOT the target demographic of a little girl, which this manga's story is supposed to be consumed by, therefore, I think it fair that I am NOT going to critique the STORY ITSELF, because it's a story that's meant for little girls to enjoy, and it is written to be that way. So in fairness, I will not criticise the story in this review. However, I AM going to critique how the story is PRESENTED, as well as the art, structure and so on. As the story could be the ... best, most violent adult thing ever, but the if the presentation is as bad as Sailor Moon is, then I will still critique it in the same way. As this is a product, while the story may be fine for little girls, the product itself is downright horrendous in the all the ways which it's presented to the reader, something that little girls wouldn't be mature enough to understand, but as an Adult, this is one of the worst presented manga I have ever read. This review counts for the horrid prequel, Sailor V, too.

-Art/Structure/Layout

The art in general if fine, with some stunning art here and there, especially with the character designs. However, the way in which the Mangaka, Takeuchi-sensei, presents this art is abysmal. This is a clear case of page and panel over-saturation. While it may seem commendable at first to have so much going on in a single page, with full-spread characters overlaying the page and all sorts of twinkles and posh decorations littering every panel and empty space, it leads to absolutely INSANE levels of visual noise. There's nary a white space to be found. This over-indulgence may have been tolerable if reading as it came out, as it was a monthly release, however, reading the entire manga back to back leads to crazy amounts of eye-strain and visual clutter that tires you out. Part of this is due to the target demographic, as the main cast are mainly females, so have a lot of "dreamy" moments (faces in the sky, etc.), which little girls could perhaps relate to. Nonetheless, it's an agonising read despite the clear effort Takeuchi-sensei puts into it. Panel layouts are wild, they break the mold of what is traditional in favour of using up as much space as possible, sometimes even going as far as putting over TEN panels in a single page. There is absolutely ZERO room for the panels to breathe, and they all blend into one another in a mish-mash of twinkles and over-layering. I realise that this is a monthly manga, which are sometimes forced to adopt as much panels as possible per page to keep up the pace, however this manga is so terribly messy despite it's chic and fancy facade.

Speaking of Pace:

-Pacing and Story presentation

You've probably heard that Light is the fastest thing in Existence. You're wrong, it's actually the damn pacing of Sailor Moon's Manga. Characters, plot points and fights all take place at a breakneck speed. I mentioned before about the layout of the manga not having space to breathe, well, the story doesn't either. It reads more like a plot point summary of a story than an actual story with natural build-up and exposition and down-time. In the span of only 14 chapters, what could've been the plot to a 140 chapter weekly manga takes place only in those 14 chapters. It's utter insanity. While the story itself is extremely simple, just a female team of heroes fighting against clear-cut evil, with themes of royalty, which is par for the course for an accessible little girl's manga. Especially as this manga gave little girls all over the world female heroes to look up to and wish to be like. Although, there's a lot of the manga which could be further elaborated on if given the chance. You're left feeling breathless only 14 chapters in, and there's still 50 more. There's practically no character development, as the entire point of the Sailors is that they "awaken" to their memories of their previous lives, rather than developing as actual characters. There's also the issue of morality, as the Girls are 2 separate entities of their lives before the awakening and after. So the implications that the lives they led up to that point was for nothing and they don't get to live their own lives, but the lives they get forced into, is an issue nobody talks about. It also doesn't help that the manga repeats things like crazy, such as character introductions. Which is fine for little girls with short attention spans who may have forgotten between each monthly release, but is grating and patronising for an Adult like me binging it back to back. The fights? What fights? The fights last panels, and the action is so extremely hard to make out that it's laughable. I keep wondering what I'm supposed to be seeing only to not get what is being shown. Choreography is non-existent, powers are so wishy-washy and inconsistent and there are undeniably no stakes at all. Leading to relentlessly boring back and forths making them the worst part of the manga.

The fights are perhaps the WORST FIGHTS of any single product I have ever seen. I'm not joking.

The 2nd worst thing it does is repetition.

Takeuchi-Sensei uses the exact. same. plot. for every arc.


The exact same things happen, just wearing a different skin. It's truly one of the worst stories in history, and while the story itself in isolation is fine for what it is, it's irrefutable how much DeJa Vu one gets reading this. I do not kid when I say I was suffering reading this manga, if painless torture exists, this is it. For the hundredth time, this reusing of the same premise every time would be fine for ignorant children, but oh my goodness, does it accentuate the worse parts of the manga even more by not even gracing the reader with actually new content or scenarios.

I've never read a story that felt like the author was forcing huge handfuls of story down my throat without even being able to swallow between each handful. While it may have worked for a little girl reading monthly, as intended, it's lack of foresight in the collected volumes which make up a lot of the sales, as well as literally every sale overseas, is asinine. I don't wish to be rude, this manga did a lot for the industry, however It is a problem that cannot go without scrutiny.

Sailor Moon fans think Sailor Moon could beat Goku in a fight, but they are wrong. However, Sailor Moon's manga can absolutely beat Dragon Ball's manga with how much characters are killed and brought back to life! The way in which the manga doesn't care for it's characters or tension may sway the hearts of little girls who take things at face value, but again, as an Adult, it's just.... lame.

Overall:

Official translation also doesn't replace the sound effects with English, instead translates it below the SFX, which is lazy. But a good release nonetheless. While some people would call me stupid for reading a manga meant for little girls as an adult, I do say that there are plenty of "for kids" products that can appeal to adults as well as children, many of which I have enjoyed (Harry potter, Dragon Ball, and more). However, this is NOT one of them. The poses the Sailors make are at least PRETTY cool (pun intended). While the manga does nothing actually "bad", like pushing wrong messages or hostilely making fun of groups of people, the low rating is based purely on how little enjoyment the manga provides as well as it's horrible presentation, as opposed to doing anything outright malicious or lazy like certain other manga.

I do not recommend this manga to anyone, unless, of course, you are a little girl.

2/10

(P.s, this review ISN'T "CONFUSING" If you actually read the manga without bias!!! Each and every "Confused" rating just makes your fandom look like they can't take Criticism well!)