Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Manga Series Review: Good Start, Dreadful Finish

“Sailor Moon” fans rejoice- Kodansha comics’ twelve volumes of “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon” are uncut, with a new translation and are a blessing to all “Sailor Moon” fans.

One of the first things readers will notice about the manga is how tight and light the books are on the filler chapters that were prevalent in the anime. It doesn’t waste time with all the trivial bits and instead opts to get right to the point. There is still that “monster of the week,” but it’s combined with plot progression.

There are also some minor character changes from the anime. One big noticeable difference is Rei (Sailor Mars) is anti-male, unlike her anime counterpart. Artemis is also not as big of a doofus as he is in the anime. Some characters, like Yuichiro (Chad) and the five holders of the Nijizuishou (Rainbow Crystals) are non-existent and Rei’s grandpa is only seen twice. This is for the best since, as mentioned above, makes the story more compact and better written.

The art in the first few chapters look jagged and amateurish. The art does improve as the series goes on, though.

The biggest complaint with the series is that it’s a great ride up until volume 11, which starts the “Sailor Stars” arc. This is the only saga that was never released in the U.S. One of the reasons is the Sailor Stars’ masquerade as men and their then transformation into females- a major no-no according the FCC. This is also the worst of all the arcs. One reason is that there are way too many sailor guardians. There are the original five, plus the four that appear later on (Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto and Chibi Moon) plus the three sailor stars and at least a dozen others. These new guardians are evil and only appear for a short while then die.

Then there’s the fact that the original five are pushed to the side for the sailor stars. All that character development and the originals are reduced to side characters. This is also where we find out the name of the cats’ planet and it is as stupid and cliché as ever: Mau which is named after the Egyptian Mau breed of cats. Let’s not get started with Sailor Tin Nyanko (“nyan” is the Japanese onomatopoeia more “meow.”) Then there’s the sailor stars themselves. They’re basically Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto version 2. Their characters are so identical that it seems like Takeuchi just ran out of idea.

Despite a dreadful ending, the manga version of “Sailor Moon” is much better in quality than the anime in terms of storytelling and pacing.