History Manga / SailorMoon

''Sailor Moon'' began as a 1991-1997 manga series written by Creator/NaokoTakeuchi, chronicling the adventures of a young, clumsy and underachieving schoolgirl named Usagi Tsukino. The manga was soon adapted into a popular anime series by Creator/ToeiAnimation, ''Sailor Moon''.

-->--'''Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon'''

!! Owing to the [[TropeOverdosed stupendous number]] of tropes associated with this work, we've split the trope listing into three separate pages. They contain examples of:

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%%"Moonlight Legend" and "Sailor Star Song"
(''For the proper reading experience, run the music from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYXftk1tJzw here]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh0K6ZMbovI here]] while reading this page.'')

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/74618543_Sailormoonbig2_n6gb3w3a_8328.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[AnimeThemeSong This is the miracle of romance]].]]

''Sailor Moon'' began as a 1991-1997 manga series written by Creator/NaokoTakeuchi, chronicling the adventures of a young clumsy and underachieving schoolgirl named Usagi Tsukino. The manga was soon adapted into a popular anime series by Creator/ToeiAnimation, ''Sailor Moon''.

In the ''Sailor Moon'' manga (which served as source material for the ''Sailor Moon'' anime), Usagi's life takes a turn for the unexpected when she discovers that she is the {{Reincarnation}} of an ancient lunar warrior from the [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas Moon Kingdom]]. With the aid of a [[TalkingAnimal feline mentor]] called Luna, Usagi must take up the mission of defending the Earth from the various evils that threaten it while searching for the reincarnation of the Moon Kingdom's princess.

Over the course of a year, Usagi grows into her role as the MagicalGirl Sailor Moon and greatly matures as a result, gathering a team of four other reincarnated warriors and realizing her true potential as both a fighter and a growing young woman. The series itself mostly follows a MonsterOfTheWeek format, with subsequent series introducing [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil progressively more powerful villains]] and [[SoLastSeason matching power-ups]], and greatly expanding the mythos behind Usagi's past life in the Moon Kingdom and her fated future in the [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas utopian Crystal Tokyo]]. The series is generally broken down into the following story arcs (not counting filler): Dark Kingdom, Black Moon, Destiny (Death Busters), Dream (Dead Moon Circus), and Stars (Shadow Galactica). Both the anime and manga end on a high note as Usagi brings peace to Earth and the galaxy.

* [[SailorMoon/TropesThree Tropes found in the manga]]

* [[SailorMoon/TropesTwo Tropes found in the 1990s anime]]

!This page covers the manga and 1990s anime. For the entire franchise, see Franchise.SailorMoon.

The anime was licensed globally throughout a good portion of TheNineties. Practically every country and region received its own international dub, which for many fans outside of Japan became the only version that they knew. The anime itself [[AdaptationDisplacement displaced the original manga]]. The regulation of translation accuracy, adaptation for ease of viewing, and editing due to local censorship concerns varied wildly by region. Thanks, though, to the concurrent flowering of Internet fan communities, fans became aware of these changes ([[TheyChangedItNowItSucks loudly, in the case of the North American fandom]]) sometimes well before episodes even aired.

The original English dub was produced by Creator/DiC for the first two seasons, and recorded at Optimum Productions in Toronto, Canada. This English dub was heavily edited and reduced the first 89 episodes to 82. Many plot points were changed and characters renamed. The show initially aired in "strip syndication" in the US in 1995, but was a ratings failure and moved to cable on the Creator/USANetwork in 1997 and later to Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/{{Toonami}} block in 1998 (after USA had dropped their remaining cartoons), becoming their first anime hit and the show credited with starting the anime boom in the late '90s and early 2000s. To this day, ''Sailor Moon'' remains one of the most recognized and mainstream anime titles in North America. If you approach anyone on the street and ask them to name a Japanese anime, ''Sailor Moon'' will almost certainly be one of the natural responses, along with ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''Anime/DragonBallZ''.

Creator/DiC, depending on who you ask, was unable to, or declined to, license future episodes, Cloverway (Toei's US branch) teamed up with YTV in Canada and Cartoon Network in the US to localize future episodes (Cloverway had previously worked with [[Creator/{{Geneon}} Pioneer]] and Optimum to bring the movies to the states). They ended up dubbing all of the third and fourth seasons with Optimum Productions returning as dubbing studio (although only a few of the original voice actors returned). These dubbed episodes were visually uncut (though lightly edited for TV), but continued localizing names and plot points and were poorly received by fans and viewers. Most infamously, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune's lesbian relationship was changed into their being [[KissingCousins "cousins"]].

The original North American DVD releases were handled by Creator/ADVFilms (Seasons 1-2) and Creator/{{Geneon}} (Seasons 3-4 plus the movies), using the existing dubs. ADV released separate dub/sub editions, while Geneon's were bilingual. ADV's releases in particular were heavily criticized for being of poor quality.[[note]] ADV has insisted they were forced to use Toei-supplied subtitle scripts and the same video masters [=DiC=] was given years earlier.[[/note]] In 2004, Creator/{{Toei}} discontinued licensing the franchise worldwide due to legal reasons which are still unclear, with ADV's releases going out-of-print in 2005 and Geneon's in 2007. This happened right when ''Sailor Stars'' sat on the cusp of getting dubbed into English, meaning that season never got dubbed '''or''' released in North America. This would be the situation for the next ten years, with the original ADV and Geneon [=DVDs=] selling for lots of money online.

[[http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/16792.html In 2010, Toei began shopping the show in its entirety around again,]] and many countries began rebroadcasting the series and/or re-releasing it to DVD, but mostly using their old dubs. For years, anime fans speculated on if the series would ever be licensed again in English. However, in May 2014, [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-05-16/viz-licenses-original-sailor-moon-anime-franchise Viz Media announced the release of a completely remastered, re-dubbed, uncut version of the entire 200-episode original television series.]] That same month, the original anime began streaming subtitled on Creator/{{Hulu}} via Creator/NeonAlley, and the new dub – produced in Los Angeles by Studiopolis (the same studio that dubbed ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'') – premiered on Neon Alley in September 2014, with the bilingual DVD/Blu-ray releases beginning on November 11th, 2014. While the reception of the home video releases was met with mixed reviews (mostly for the video quality being the biggest criticism), the reception of the redub itself has been overwhelmingly positive.

Then, in 2012, 15 years after the conclusion of the anime series, Creator/ToeiAnimation announced ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal'', a ContinuityReboot premiering in 2014 on Niconico. This series adapts the manga more faithfully instead of remaking the original series.

Creator/DiC , depending on who you ask, was unable to, or declined to, license future episodes, Cloverway (Toei's US branch) teamed up with YTV in Canada and Cartoon Network in the US to localize future episodes (Cloverway had previously worked with [[Creator/{{Geneon}} Pioneer]] and Optimum to bring the movies to the states). They ended up dubbing all of the third and fourth seasons with Optimum Productions returning as dubbing studio (although only a few of the original voice actors returned). These dubbed episodes were visually uncut (though lightly edited for TV), but continued localizing names and plot points and were poorly received by fans and viewers. Most infamously, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune's lesbian relationship was changed into their being [[KissingCousins "cousins"]].

The manga has a {{prequel}} of sorts in ''Manga/CodenameSailorV''. The first issue was released before ''Sailor Moon'', but the series itself finished after ''Sailor Moon'' ended). A pilot for an aborted American live-action/animation blend adaption also exists – a company called Toon Makers pitched this to Toei instead of a dub, but since Toei didn't pick it up, a two-minute music video put together using footage from the pilot remains the only footage ever seen by the general public. You can find more information on this project at ''WesternAnimation/ToonMakersSailorMoon''.