YMMV / Sailor Moon

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Sub-pages

• Adorkable
• Badass Decay
• Base-Breaking Character
• Broken Base
• Complete Monster
• Die for Our Ship
• Fandom-Specific Plot
• Hilarious In Hindsight
• Memetic Mutation
• Moral Event Horizon
• Ship Tease
• Values Dissonance
• What the Hell, Casting Agency?
• The Woobie
• Woolseyism

Tropes from the anime and manga

• Adaptation Displacement:
  • When the manga received its Animated Adaptation within months of publishing, the eventual 200+ episode anime thoroughly eclipsed its source via Adaptation Expansion for the better part of a decade, being the version that most of The Merch and all but one Video Game Adaptation was based on. Internationally, this was aided by a lack of or late-coming manga licensing in comparison to multi-language dubs as anime grew in popularity during The '90s. (In North America, it took three years after the DiC Entertainment dub's premiere for the manga to be acquired and translated by Mixx). A 2003 Updated Re-release of the manga (to tie in to an ironically lesser known tokusatsu version) revitalized the property and regularly topped bestseller lists when eventually released stateside in 2011. The newfound exposure eventually resulted in Toei allowing international re-licensing of the out-of-print anime during The New '10s, and beginning development on Sailor Moon Crystal, a new adaptation that is explicitly Truer to the Text of the once-displaced manga.
  • From the perspective of three years' time—due to the infamous early hiccups of Crystal and difficulty in reconciling some characterization and plot differences between the manga/Crystal and first anime (such as the first anime utilizing the popular Tsundere archetype with Rei), it still hasn't quite managed to escape displacement, though with the revitalization of the franchise and properly-translated re-releases of the manga becoming widely available, the manga has certainly gained a bigger base of appreciation in Japan and overseas.
• Americans Hate Tingle: North American fans of Sailor Moon hated Chibiusa/Rini, who is popular in Japan, at least partly because of her original portrayal in the dubbed version of the show (which most North Americans are familiar with) that made her far more whiny and bratty than she was in the Japanese script. Her original voice actress was particularly horribly miscast, only exemplifying her annoying nature by her ear-grating voice. Notably, her acceptance by North American fans seemed to increase when the original actress was replaced with a better one, Stephanie Beard, after the show switched from Di C to Cloverway (and that's not counting the re-dub by Viz). Which is odd, since Chibiusa is very hated in Latin America as well... despite having an excellent VA (Cristina Hernández) that would become a superstar in LA dubbing few after voicing her.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Some of the main characters fill this trope: two characters (Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask) were orphaned at an early age, two have dead mothers (one of which, Saturn, who in the manga, has a Big Bad for a father and thus becomes orphaned, while the other, Mars, hates her father), one is the child of divorce (Mercury), and three (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) never have their parents mentioned at all. Only three characters have whole nuclear families (incidentally, these are the happier, more-or-less well-adjusted characters: Moon, Chibi Moon, and Venus, whose hardships stem from something other than family). Furthermore, Usagi and the Sailor Guardians really ought to feel at least some angst about having to be mankind's defense against otherworldly threats. Thanks to the series being leaning on the idealistic side of the scale, this hasn't turned it into Dysfunction Junction. Only Mamoru ever expressed any issues with his lot in life, and that was really only in the first arc and very privately. Rei's issues with her father were briefly explored in the one-shot side story Casablanca Memories, though that was largely sidelined in favor of her love drama.
  • Both versions, the only Guardian that displays any anger towards Beryl or Metalia is Minako after regaining her memories of her past life (she being the first to do so), but even when the others do, we don't even see them have a passing through of an ill will.
• Archive Panic: There's at least two decades' worth of Sailor Moon media, including the manga (and Codename: Sailor V), the original anime consisting of 200 episodes, many licensed video games (including an Arcade game), several anime films, the Crystal reboot, two different English dubs of the original anime, Musical CD's, computer activity programs, Scholastic junior novels, alongside the live action series and a whole string of live musical shows.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the manga and in Crystal, Uranus first appears in a Tuxedo Mask-style cape and mask (with the manga also giving her a full tuxedo). On a narrative level this seems to be intended to obscure her gender and draw parallels to Mamoru, fueling the subsequent romantic tension between Haruka and Usagi and Usagi's related confusion over whether Haruka is male or female, but any in-universe reasoning for the costume is left a mystery since in all subsequent appearances Uranus simply wears the traditional sailor fuku and nobody ever comments on the change.
• Creator Worship: Fans that grew up with the 90s Sailor Moon anime admired Naoko Takeuchi, crediting her with the changes made to her original stories. She also has a massive LGBT Fanbase due to the Ho Yay and positive portrayal of homosexuality. However, Kunihiko Ikuhara, the anime's second director, was actually responsible for the iconic changes to the 90s anime, with the first two seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal, the adaptation that's truer to Takeuchi's vision, being widely viewed as the inferior adaptation.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Lots, one of the most popular being Chibi-Usa with Gohan, as they are both children of the series protagonist, who are also shipped with each other as well.
  • Setsuna with The Doctor is popular.
  • Usagi and Yusuke Urameshi, since the creators are married in real life.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Large number of villains, whether they get redeemed in the end or not.
• Epileptic Trees: Due to Chibi-Usa's pink hair and red eyes that neither of her biological parents, grandparents or the parents of Serenity/Endymion have, there have been theories that she's not Mamoru and Usagi's child, and is either adopted or the product of a love affair Usagi had with another man. No evidence of Chibi-Usa being an illegitimate child is present in canon, however and her being made fun of for not resembling her parents is a plot-point in-story.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • From the first arc, there's Queen Beryl's Quirky Miniboss Squad, The Shitennou — Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite. For every fan tribute to Beryl, there's hundreds more dedicated to them.
  • Thetis, a higher ranking Youma who served directly under Queen Beryl, is one of the most popular one-shot monsters because she had a distincter personality than the rest of the monsters and had a history and romantic interest in Jadeite.
  • Berthier of the Ayakashi Sisters tends to be the most popular, even more so after jokes about her being the Sailor Moon equivalent to Elsa from Frozen started up.
  • Eudial was just one of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in the manga's "Infinity Arc" and didn't really wow the readers. Then came the 90s anime where she became a Gadgeteer Genius and Combat Pragmatist who relied on technology instead of magic, was now lead member of the Witches 5, and an insanely reckless driver. She also managed to learn the identities of the Sailor Guardians and acquired two of the Talismans on her own. Fans seem to love Eudial not just for her ridiculousness, but because she was by far the most successful out of any of the sub villains in the entire show.
  • The Amazon Quartet of the Dead Moon Circus, who in the manga even become Sailor Guardians. Of special note is CereCere, the super-pink, super-feminine magnificent bitch, and PallaPalla, the childish Moe one who in Japan was even voted THE most popular villain in the entire series.
  • The majority of the Sailor Animamates in the 90s anime are popular with the fans, in part due to giving them various personality tics and legitimately funny lines that made them far more sympathetic than a few of the shows past villains. Sailor Iron Mouse because of her cute outfits. Sailor Aluminum Siren and Sailor Lead Crow because fans enjoy how disturbingly similar they are to Usagi and Rei respectively in the 90s anime, and also because of how they clearly care and trust each other despite being villains.
  • According to a recent popularity poll held in 2020 by NHK, Haruka Tenoh is the most popular Sailor Moon character, beating out Sailor Moon herself in her Sailor Uranus form and coming in third behind Sailor Moon in her civilian form.
  • In the same popularity poll, Fish's Eye came in 11th place, beating out several main characters such as Chibi-Usa, Luna and Mamoru Chiba.
• Evil Is Cool: Sailor Galaxia, Galactic Conqueror extraordinaire and Curb-Stomp Battle enthusiast, with a fully justified Awesome Ego. Between her terrifying power, gorgeous character design, and eleventh hour redemption, Galaxia is a triumphant villainess.
• Fan Nickname: The terms "Inner Senshi", "Outer Senshi," and "Asteroid Senshi." None of them appear in canon, though some are derived from terms that do appear. The Inners are given the title "The Four Soldiers of the Guardian Gods" (四守護神の戦士, Yon Shūgoshin no Senshi), although this is very rarely used. The Outers are given the title "Outer Solar System Warriors" (外部太陽系戦士, Gaibu Taiyōkei Senshi), and use this name to refer to themselves in the anime as well. The Musicals use Naibu Taiyōkei yon Senshi ("Inner Solar System four Warriors") and Gaibu Taiyōkei yon Senshi ("outer solar system four warriors"), but these do not appear in any other media. The last group is simply known as the Sailor Quartet in canon. It should be noted that the term "Inner Senshi" is derived from the shortened form of the Second Group's name (Outer Senshi), not the musicals. Thanks to Jupiter's inclusion in the "Inner Senshi", many fans often think the producers "screwed up" by including an outer planet as an "Inner" Senshi. Meanwhile, the new editions of the manga and anime have officially titled them Sailor Guardians.
  • Molly is the Official Energy Source of the Negaverse. "Molly The Monster Magnet" is her Alliterative Nickname.
  • Naruru is "Sailor Guccicci" and Ruruna is "Sailor Channel".
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • A number of western fans think the more emotionally expressive pop idol Seiya Kou would be a much better match for Usagi than the more subdued Mamoru, believing their similar personalities mesh well together. This is also not helped by the manga having Seiya love Usagi from afar (and even forge correspondence from Mamoru since Usagi was still in denial over him dying in front of her) and the anime actually using him as a Replacement Goldfish when Mamoru left for America.
  • In a poll conducted in 2020 in Japan, Haruka/Usagi won out in fan popularity over both the canon Haruka/Michiru (in itself a pretty decently loved yuri pairing) and Usagi/Mamoru pairings. Not helped by the fact that in the manga/Crystal, Uranus has an on-screen kiss (the only on screen same-sex kiss in the series) with Sailor Moon instead of her canon girlfriend, Neptune.
  • Mamoru and Ami are shipped together due them both being introverted and intelligent people who both share the dreams of becoming doctors one day. The pairing gained more followers thanks to the eighth episode of season three where Mamoru calls her cute and eases her worries of not having enough dreams. Usagi becoming more insecure, jealous, and possessive in regard to her relationship with Mamoru in season three also led to this ship gaining more support.
  • Ami and Taiki is a popular pairing due to them being the geniuses of their respective teams and their romantic and logical ideals clashing. Fans have had fun drawing Belligerent Sexual Tension from their comical tension during a card game in episode 184.
  • Minako and Yaten is another famous pairing, although the attraction is definitely one-sided on Minako's part. Yaten getting up close to Minako and clutching her shoulders during a game of cards after some teasing from her (she said she would discard her cards if "he" agreed to go on a date with her) in episode 184. Episode 192 takes it further when Yaten confronts Minako over her conflicts of her duty as a Guardian and her desire to chase her dreams, he confronts her with a position similar to a Wall Pin of Love.
  • Because of their close friendship, some fans would rather ship Chibi-Usa with Hotaru instead of with her canonical love interest, Helios. The fact that Chibi-Usa and Hotaru hold hands in the Stars arc, with Hotaru pointing out that Usagi and Mamoru also hold hands, adds fuel to this.
  • On the hetero side, of Chibi-Usa's two male love interests Helios and Perle, people tend to prefer Helios, as Helios is given more basis in canon^note Perle was only introduced in the Super S movie and doesn't show up anywhere else, making him a Canon Foreigner and is heavily implied to be the one that she ends up with in the future timeline across all Sailor Moon media, making the pair all but confirmed to be an Official Couple.
  • Hotaru and Shingo is the most common het pairing for Hotaru, even though their only appearance together is in one of the video games. This is mainly because of their close ages and the fact that it would make Hotaru and Chibi-Usa Best Friends-in-Law. While Shingo has a crush on Ami in the anime, that pairing isn't as popular as some other Ami ships, but Ami and Hotaru have similar personalities.
  • Makoto and Motoki has a following that started way back in the early days of the franchise. Makoto's crush on Motoki first came up partway through the first season of the first adaptation and persisted, even though Motoki already had a girlfriend. A lot of fans rejoiced when they hooked up for real in PGSM.
  • Rei/Sailor Mars and Minako/Sailor Venus also has a following, thanks to their bond in the manga and live-action series, their Opposites Attract appeal, and the fact that Mars and Venus were lovers in mythology.
• Faux Symbolism: In the Black Moon arc, Rubeus uses crystalline crosses to hold the captured Guardians.
• Fanwork-Only Fans:
  • In the recent years, especially in the West, Sailor Moon as a franchise has garnered a lot of fans that haven't actively consumed any of the canon media yet still consume fan related media or produce fan-works for the cutesy, feminine aesthetic. In fact, Sailor Moon in general has become a staple for that aesthetic overall.
  • There is a certain dedicated subsect of fans who prefer the DiC/Cloverway adaptation of Sailor Moon from the 1990's-2000's over the modern Viz Media rendition. Due to that version being in licensing limbo and among many reasons, Fans took up the mantle of finishing DiC/Cloverway's Unfinished Dub by giving the Stars season a DiC-style makeover, dubbing the missing episodes from the first season as well as the specials with its soundtrack, the name changes, and the general lingo and style.
• Follow the Leader: in the wake of the series' incredible popularity, many other Magical Girl Warrior shows followed in its wake, such as Wedding Peach, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, Tokyo Mew Mew, and the long running Pretty Cure series.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Dragon Ball Z, likely due to American audiences being introduced to both through Toonami (though they both actually began in syndication long before landing there).
  • In Mexico and Latin America, it's this with Saint Seiya instead, since both series were broadcasted in the same era and sometimes on the same channel.
  • In the United States and Canada, the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch is relatively popular among the Sailor Moon fandom due to their similarity in tone and premise. Interestingly, Melissa Joan Hart could have potentially portrayed Sailor Moon in a proposed live action Disney film that got shelved early into development.
• Genre Turning Point: While the original English dub may not be looked back on fondly by many people (including those that worked on it), it's success arguably played a huge role in the Anime-boom of the 90s as it helped pave the way for the popular dubs of shows Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Naoko Takeuchi meant for Usagi to be a bit chubbier than the rest of the Inner Guardians. Sailor Moon Abridged has ruthless fun with this fact at Usagi's expense.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Usagi is the Princess they are all searching for in the first arc, Chibi-Usa is from the future and is Usagi and Mamoru's daughter, the identities of all 10 primary Guardians and Tuxedo Mask. Not only that, most of this should be painfully obvious even to someone who has lived in a cave for the past twenty years and is watching the show for the first time. The original English dub didn't even attempt to hide "Serena"'s identity as the Moon Princess, and featured a prologue before the first episode using footage from other episodes to give the plot some extra context, and revealing more of the backstory early. YMMV on if this was successful in giving the character some extra dramatic irony.
  • Also, it was pretty impossible for Black Lady to keep her identity under spoilers.
  • Similarly, the twist that Mistress 9, an Eldritch Abomination possessing Hotaru Tomoe, is the Messiah of Silence rather than Sailor Saturn. The anime attempts to make this a twist, but given the show aired over 20 years ago and Sailor Saturn is prominently featured in marketing as a heroine alongside the other Senshi, the twist is pretty commonly known.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Usagi, who has not only been shipped with Mamoru and Seiya, but the rest of the Sailor Guardians, most commonly Rei and Haruka despite the latter being an Official Couple with Michiru. Although Haruka does flirt with a lot of girls and has even stolen a kiss from Usagi in the manga.
• LGBT Fanbase: A rather large one thanks to having several explicit gay relationships, and having a team of people who changed genders. This was all in a time when such things were hardly ever talked about in any medium. It would be nearly two decades before any show in the west would come close to Sailor Moon's level of LGBT representation, and Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar has stated Sailor Moon was a heavy influence in her work.
• Memetic Hair: Usagi, Trope Namer for Odango Hair.
• Moe:
  • Hotaru; it has been claimed (incorrectly) that the term originates from Tomoe Hotaru.
  • Ami also fits this trope, being a cute dorky girl and all.
• More Popular Spin-Off: The series was originally a spinoff of Codename: Sailor V, but it proved to be far more popular and well-known. The Sailor V manga wouldn't even get an official English translation until 2011, and even then most people thought Sailor V was the spinoff.
• No Yay
  • Disturbingly, people like to ship Usagi with Prince Demande instead of Mamoru, even though Demande kidnapped Usagi, forcibly changed her clothes through unknown means, used his powers to move her body against her will, and sexually assaulted her by kissing her without her consent, something Usagi felt terrible about afterwards.
  • Haruka/Sailor Uranus and Usagi/Sailor Moon also get this since they are both already in relationships. Where the No Yay truly comes in is in the beginning of the Infinity arc of the manga/Crystal where Uranus (who is in a relationship with Neptune) gives a non-consensual kiss to Sailor Moon (who she knew was in a relationship with Tuxedo Mask). It's unknown if Neptune knows about this. There's also the Adaptational Jerkass the 90s anime gave Haruka where she was condescending towards Usagi in the third season and controlling towards her in the fifth season (saying she wasn't allowed to see the Starlights and making decisions for her, even though she wasn't even one of her Guardians, i.e. one of the Inner Guardians).
  • People also hold this view of Haruka/Sailor Uranus and Seiya/Sailor Star Fighter. While their hostile interactions are contributing factors, Seiya being in her male disguise when shipped with Haruka in several stories and fan arts is a point of contention. Although Seiya is actually female, many fans found it homophobic that a lesbian was being shipped with someone who was male/male presenting when they could've easily depicted Seiya in her actual female form.
  • Chibi-Usa, or her evil aged up alter ego Black Lady, with Mamoru, full stop.
• Older Than They Think:
  • A story involving reincarnation and a civilization on the moon. Is this about Sailor Moon or Please Save My Earth (which predates Sailor Moon for at least six years)?
  • Moonlight Densetsu's famous melody comes from Chieko Baisho's cha-cha song "Sayonara wa dance no atoni".
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The franchise has several video game adaptations. Many are better than others:
  • The SNES Beat 'em Up titles and Playstation fighting game suffer from poor hit detection and Fake Difficulty while the puzzle game Kondo wa Puzzle de Oshioki yo!! is generic and forgettable.
  • The Megadrive Beat 'em Up, SNES fighters, arcade titles, and other SNES puzzle games (Kurukkurin and Fuwa Fuwa Panic) are all very fun and memorable.
  • The 1994 Visual Novel for PC Engine, set during the R season of the anime between the Doom Tree mini-arc and the Black Moon arc and featuring an original storyline involving the resurrection of the Dark Kingdom by Past Wiseman, seems all but unknown in the fandom (or at least the English-speaking side of it).
  • Sailor Moon: La Luna Splende, an Italian exclusive (yes, really) for the Nintendo DS, was a quick cash-in on the 20th anniversary franchise, and it shows (especially on the "quick" part, by which we mean "rushed"); uninspired visuals which look like the worst the Game Boy Advance had to offer with light colors, slug-paced gameplay, and barely-there sound make this a rather forgettable title for the DS library.
• Once Original, Now Common: In its time, it was groundbreaking in creating a new sub-genre (Magical Girl Warrior) by fusing the Sentai and Magical Girl genres, and also playing a big role in making anime popular internationally. Today it's usually looked down upon for falling oh so far on the Idealistic side of the Sliding Scale and, being from the early 1990s, appearing very cliche by more recent standards. A great deal of more recent magical girl series have deconstructed the tropes this show propagated, although those shows have also led to an inverse reaction that encouraged people to revisit the series and appreciate how brutally grim the series itself could get despite its idealism.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • While the franchise was generally aimed at teenage girls, the anime ended up attracting a decent amount of male fans and in practice its fanbase is pretty well balanced between the two genders. Sailor Moon memorabilia for boys is easy to find.
  • The franchise has a large adult following, likely made up largely of the kids who enjoyed it back in the 1990s.
• Rooting for the Empire: Some villains have this case for Evil Is Cool. However, the most notable example is the Black Moon Clan (excluding Wiseman). Being more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist organization in the brightest of lights, some viewers perceive them as rebels trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. This is very common in fanfics. The 90s anime puts them even more into the light when Sailor Moon's future self had her own Moral Event Horizon for leaving the descendants of criminals in the barren wastelands of Nemisis instead of accepting Diamond's arguments.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • Hotaru/Shingo is surprisingly popular, even though they're never actually seen together in the anime or the manga. It most likely has to do with the fact that they are close in age.
  • Mamoru and Minako also have a small following. While they don't have any significant interactions with each other, they're shipped mostly because Venus is the Earth's sister planet and in Japanese, "Venus" translates to "gold star", connecting it with Mamoru/Prince Endymion, the Prince of the Golden Kingdom and the keeper of the Golden Crystal. Minako looking strikingly like Usagi is also a contributing factor.
  • As popular as the Minako/Yaten ship is, Rei/Yaten has been getting some steam. While they haven't been shown speaking a word to each other (individually), they are shipped because of the things they have in common: both are a bit haughty, they both have a temper, are Tsunderes, are spiritually inclined, and get into arguments with their respective leaders.
  • There is Black Lady/Mistress 9, a technical case as they are the brainwashed, evil, grown up versions of best friends Chibi-Usa and Hotaru, respectively, who are already a very popular pairing. The problem with the former pairing is that those transformations are one season away from each other, and Chibi-Usa turns into and back from Black Lady many episodes before she and the audience actually meet Hotaru. And while Chibi-Usa and Black Lady are the same person, Hotaru and Mistress 9 are different people.
  • Setsuna/Taiki is the logical extension of Haruka/Seiya and Michiru/Yaten; while they only interact in the musicals, their personalities are considered a good match.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • As expected for a series like this one, the infighting between the various shipping camps in the Sailor Moon fandom gets pretty fierce. The worst of the combat Guardians with the Four Generals of the Dark Kingdom^note an idea originally introduced via an image drawn by Naoko Takeuchi for one of the artbooks, depicting the two teams paired off and embracing one another, with a note from Takeuchi indicating that she'd been interested in including a subplot about the characters being romantically involved in their past lives but never found opportunity to work it in; the concept was later incorporated into various spinoff media and Sailor Moon Crystal versus fans who prefer the '90s anime's Kunzite/Zoisite and Nephrite/Naru romances and/or various Guardians/Guardians pairings like Makoto/Ami and Rei/Minako.
  • Debates concerning who is more right for Usagi between Seiya Kou and Mamoru Chiba continue on to this day, especially for those who grew up with the 90s Anime and still haven't moved on from Mamoru's Ron the Death Eater characterization in that adaptation.
• Superlative Dubbing: The 2014 redub, one of Studiopolis' finest dubs to date.
• Testosterone Brigade: The series has a surprisingly significant male following, probably due to its action-oriented nature and the large number of attractive female characters.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • There's a vocal subset of fans who hate the 90s anime for changing stuff from the original manga. Common criticisms tend to be the amount of Filler episodes and Padding added to keep the show from Overtaking The Manga.
  • The Stars arc deserves special mention, as it was overhauled the most drastically for the anime, and the Lighter and Softer tone was not to everyone's liking. Sailor Galaxia in particular is generally considered a more compelling Evil Counterpart to Usagi in the manga, which explores the intriguing idea of a villainous sailor soldier and the kind of twisted worldview she might have. Galaxia's eleventh hour redemption and the ultimate shift in her philosophy are meaningful moments that show a depth of character for both her and Usagi. The anime stripped away her agency as a character by chalking all her villainy down to Demonic Possession.
  • The DiC Entertainment dub has a multitude of hatesites dedicated to it, by people who claimed to get up early to watch it when they were little, for any change made by the dubbers. After the license switched from DiC to Cloverway (though with the same studio, Optimum, still handling production), there are fans that still cry foul over the new translation team opting to keep the Japanese BGM in episodes, as they had been used to the DiC music and felt it was more appropriate. The inconsistent translations and dub terminology also didn't help matters, nor did the recasting of a few characters (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Venus in particular).
  • This went full circle with the announcement of the new Viz dub of the classic series consisting of all 200 episodes (including the unreleased Stars arc) and new series Sailor Moon Crystal. A Vocal Minority called for the old dub names, and sometimes actors, to return for the new dubs.
    • Of course, in the United Kingdom, it's more a case of "they changed it, now it's gone". The show cannot legally be obtained in this form across the pond. In Canada, the redub wasn't officially released until 2020, when the series was made available on the streaming service Crave.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Lethe and Mnemosyne, two standout villains from the manga who offer some challenging (and not altogether unfair) commentary on Sailor Moon's status as The Messiah, were not included in the 90s anime's Stars adaptation. Along with the softening of Galaxia's character and certain other tonal departures from the manga's darker final arc, their absence contributes to the Broken Base surrounding the anime's take on Stars.
• Unconvincingly Unpopular Character: Minako seems to be a victim of this; unlike the other girls she lacks any other obvious traits that would make her unpopular. It's likely The Artifact from working solo in her own manga to being retrofitted into the new storyline, as in that series her tomboyish act tended to scare away boys and gross out the other girls.
• Values Resonance: There are those who claim that Sailor Moon is outdated, with it having been created in the very early nineties, but it contains several concepts that remain timeless even after its conception:
  • There was a lesbian pairing portrayed in a sympathetic light (Haruka and Michiru), and the villainous gay couple from the anime loved each other deeply despite their alignment (Zoicite and Kunzite).
  • The girls themselves had all kinds of different personalities and were still friends in spite of how different they were. They also encouraged each other's goals ^note e.g., when Minako tells Yaten in the anime that even when her top priority was her Sailor Guardian mission and protecting Usagi, she still was a girl with a dream and Usagi herself told her to pursue it. and supported each other when needed instead of throwing each other under the bus for their own benefits (and the girls who did it weren't supposed to be in the right). On a related note, all of the Sailor Guardians' individual personality traits often bust up stereotypes as well. For instance, the character who states her dream is to "be a bride" in the manga, Makoto, is also a black belt in judo and one of the physically and mentally strongest characters in the Sailor Moon universe. And Michiru, the Yamato Nadeshiko Elegant Classical Musician, is all but stated to actually be the one with the reins in her and Haruka's relationship.
  • Similarly the series emphasizes the importance of female friendship and sisterhood, something that many female-centric series including ones that attempt to be feminist, still struggle to capture to this day as the opposite is more common.
  • Mamoru helped them, but he also needed help and protection from Usagi and the girls. In fact, he needed more rescue than Usagi herself! And while he sometimes worried a lot about Usagi's safety (to Idiot Ball levels in R), he didn't do it out of manly pride but out of sincere concern.
  • The manga in particular emphasizes that Usagi is a sexual person and has had sex with her boyfriend Mamoru to the point of being shown lying naked in bed with him on several occasions, but she's never portrayed as dirty for this or that it somehow disqualifies her from being both the hero and the epitome of Incorruptible Pure Pureness, with her sexuality simply being a part of the larger picture of who she is. She's also shown to be absolutely head over heels in love with several girls (including Rei, who gives her literal heart eyes when they first meet) but again, it's simply a part of who she is.

Tropes from the anime

• Abandon Shipping:
  • The way the 90s anime portrayed Usagi/Mamoru has turned a lot of people off due to the lack of communication and displays of affection that were present in the manga. The infamous break up arc in season 2 does play a large role because of Mamoru's apparent lack of trust in Usagi in choosing not to tell her about his premonitions and him pointing about that they shouldn't be lovers just because they were in a previous life, but most of the problematic behavior comes from Usagi (no, not Mamoru). While Usagi's immaturity and clinginess was always a main factor, her becoming more insecure, jealous, and possessive in regards to her relationship with Mamoru has disturbed a lot of people, beginning in season 3 with her slapping Mamoru for forgetting her birthday even though she never told him and she didn't know his birthday either (though she did feel bad afterwards) and proceeding to get jealous whenever Mamoru was kind/generous to one of her friends. And while the fifth episode of season four showed her displaying confidence in Mamoru's love and fidelity, she continued to be jealous and possessive of any female Mamoru shows any interaction with throughout the season, even getting jealous when he tried to be nice to an old woman. All this has made Usagi come off as a toxic girlfriend who many refuse to ship with Mamoru anymore.
  • For others who heard about Usagi/Mamoru due to their infamy as one of anime's greatest couple or they watch the other adaptions (mostly Crystal) before hand, they abandoned it as soon as they were introduced as a Belligerent Sexual Tension couple. It was very common for fans to not ship them because they were so rude to each other (mainly Mamoru to Usagi) and even after they did become a couple, there was the whole 'break up' arc where while it was out of good intentions and he did have good points as to why without flat out telling her, people still abandoned it due to it clearly negatively affecting Usagi, making Mamoru look very Unintentionally Unsympathetic in contrast. Many people were glad this problem was avoided in Crystal for this reason.
  • And then there are those that claim that both were equally hard to root for during the first two seasons (and Usagi's birthday episode).
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Fans often poke fun at the special ending used in episode 200 because it featured a feather which shape is... interesting.^a.k.aphallic
  • "I watched while you changed."
  • For the Cloverway dub, calling a team of Hot Witches led by a creepy nerdy-looking male scientist the "Bureau of Bad Behavior" brings to mind a strip club, especially when there's deliberate innuendo involved.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: For fans who hated Chibi-Usa, it hits hard when she near the end of the Nehellenia Arc in Stars dies/becomes Ret-Gone while Usagi holds her. It's also sad when realizing with Fridge Tearjerker that because Mamoru dies by Galaxia's hands, the last piece of Chibi-Usa we see is the remains of Usagi's memory/dream before everyone around her in the dream near the episode is gone with the implications that Chibiusa was erased from existence at that point.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The final fate of Nehellenia in the Stars season. The most common interpretation is that her court was restored, with her potentially getting a second chance to relive her life and become The High Queen. Another one is that the Guardians actually performed a Mercy Kill and that Nehellenia's final scene is her in Heaven, meaning she Died Happily Ever After. The dreamy quality of the lighting supports the latter, while the Guardians' dialogue after supports the former.
  • The original English dub has spawned a few joke alternate character interpretations, such as Lita having numerous fake ex-boyfriends and Amara and Michelle really being unrelated but trying to hide their relationship by saying they're cousins.
  • Some fans theorize that Rei isn't as interested in boys as she initially appears to be. Despite wanting to get married, she isn't depicted actually thinking about a groom, and in one episode she seemed more interested in a wedding dress contest's vacation prize than anything wedding-related.
  • When Uranus and Neptune pretended to join Galaxia and kill Pluto and Saturn, did Pluto and Saturn catch on to the ploy? The fact that they went down without much of a fight lends credence to this theory as some find it hard to believe they would just accept letting their teammates kill them.
    • It seems likely because they didn't try to fight, plus Galaxia was also moments away from killing them anyway so even if it was just to buy some time they clearly needed to do something. And they're both okay towards Haruka and Michiru at the end without the slightest bit of anger nor do they call them out.
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • Although Japanese audiences were quite fond of Chibi-Usa, in America, Rini was taking the brunt of criticism for the SuperS because it's centered around her. A large part of this was due to fans' strong negative reaction to Rini's original dub voice (Tracey Hoyt) in the Canadian dub, which was considered ear-grating. It did get better when Viz Media re-licensed the series and casted Sandy Fox in the role. And back when Cloverway took over the dubbing from DiC for the original dubs of S and SuperS, Rini's new voice (courtesy of Stephanie Beard) was already being far better received and praised as a perfect fit, thus lessening the hatred a little bit (though some still remained, due to Cloverway's habit of forcing cringeworthy slang into the dialogue).
  • Many in the Western fandom despise Mimete for being an annoying, incompetent Replacement Scrappy for Eudial, especially given that she killed Eudial to get this position. But in Japan, Mimete is considerably more popular, even more so than Eudial, in fact being the second-most popular member of the Death Busters following Mistress 9.
  • 90s Anime Mamoru Chiba/Darien Shields is still widely disliked by westerners who grew up with that version of the Anime, with many westerners still upset that he ended up with Usagi in the end, even though the Anime made it clear that it was inevitable by the time Chibi-Usa showed up, even for those that hadn't read the Manga.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako during the start of season 2 have this after Luna restores their memories of their time as Guardians and their battle against the Dark Kingdom, revealing that they died painfully trying to stop the DD girls from killing Sailor Moon. Only Usagi has an arc about where her powers stop working as she keeps trying to repress her trauma. The other Guardians are more matter-of-fact about it, even though they were all killed, with Mars fighting to her last breath.
  • All the victims of the MotWs. You'd think that being attacked and hurt by a horrible monster (repeatedly, in the case of Naru und Unazuki) would scar them for life; instead they're usually cheerful again ten minutes later.
• Anvilicious:
  • In Episode 13, Jadeite appears to have killed Tuxedo Mask and then, out of nowhere, starts screaming out sexism at the Sailors and accuses women of being too weak to win against him in a fight. They respond with an equally non-subtle speech about how discrimination against women is wrong (though very much toned down in the first English dub), then run him over with his own planes. The lesson's a good one, but the way it's delivered is jarringly anvilicious. Jadeite had been shown to see women as inferior in the occasional mental commentary about his victims, but this episode turns it up to 11. It's also worth noting that he never displayed this traits towards his boss (Queen Beryl, which would have been suicidal), and while he regarded his entirely-female (and usually red-headed) youma rather lowly, it was theoretically more because of rank than gender, and he had been shown to pay them compliments and respect whenever they were doing a successful job.
  • The Mood Whiplash at the end of Episode 20 (US/Canada DiC version). It goes from a scene that's actually pretty sad no matter which version you're watching^note Even those who hate the first English dub have commented on how well it treated this episode to Sailor Moon talking about how Naru saw the good in Nephrite, and how nobody (In real life) is a Complete Monster. It's quite Anvilicious, but arguably not exactly a bad message to be sending to the kids.
• Arc Fatigue: The "Dream" arc in SuperS is especially guilty of this, because in a grand total of 40 episodes, nothing happens until the very last 7. The episodes consist entirely of the villains repeatedly trying and failing to find Pegasus' host by targetting random characters, even though the audience knows perfectly well from episode one that Chibi-Usa is Pegasus' host. It takes 33 episodes of filler until the plot finally moves.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation:
  • The original 90's English dub by DIC Entertainment possesses a lot of discrepancies from the Japanese version of the anime, had lots of censorship, awkward voice acting, script and name changes, changed the music and story, and a few episodes were cut completely. But despite its flaws and numerous criticisms, the show still proved to be entertaining and a hit with children in North America, and its theme song was very iconic and was one of the catalyst shows that kicked off the anime boom in the 1990's and 2000's. To many fans the 90's dub and all of its flavor and lingo was their definitive experience with Sailor Moon, and it's really hard for them to see the show any other way. To them Usagi is always Serena, Mamoru is always Darien, her nickname is always "Meatball Head", Naru/Molly always sounds like a Brooklynite, and Luna will always have a british accent. Which is why a Broken Base formed over the quality of the newer Viz Media Dub. While it is lauded for its improvements and much more faithful to the original version and not making any censorship edits or cuts, it lacks the campy fun and energy and distinctiveness of the 90's dub that made it so memorable, the voice acting and direction isn't as natural, and DIC's replacement soundtracks was cited to be sorely missed by many fans.
  • In an instance where another version of an English Dub colors the reputation of another, today the DIC adaptation (Consisting of the first two seasons) is often lumped in with the infamous Cloverway Dub of S and Super S as "that bad 90's rendition" of Sailor Moon. When the show switched off of DiC to Cloverway after the R season, most of the voice cast was changed, and Cloverway was responsible for adding the pop culture lines, the notorious censorship of Uranus' and Neptune's relationship, and the generally subpar voice performances. The most infamous being Linda Ballantyne replacing the beloved Terri Hawkes as the title character, whose performance was regarded as a really poor rendition of the latter, which really soured audiences on the first dub. DIC, while not without its own flaws, was no longer in control of the series, and thus not responsible for any of it, but the damage to their reputation (as well as their dub work) was already done.
• Broken Aesop: The (original English) dub-invented "Sailor Says" PSAs would have these from time to time.
  • In the episode where Molly gets her energy sucked by Neflyte, the Sailor Says segment says that Molly was being true to her heart when she told Neflyte how she felt about him and treats this as a good thing and an important lesson...even though it put her in a coma. Naturally Sailor Moon Abridged has fun with this.
    SMA Serena: When Molly told Neflyte what she felt, she was being true to her self! See what that got her? Stupid bitch should've kept her mouth shut.
  • The first season finale's Sailor Says had Serena tell the viewer never to give up, no matter how bad things seem, using herself as an example. Except Serena burst into tears and tried to give up every time another Sailor "was captured by the Negaverse".
  • During Sailor Moon R, Mamoru breaks up with Usagi and starts treating her coldly so she'll forget about him. Usagi is devastated and spends half the season trying to win him back. A few episodes later, Koan is also on the receiving end of this, being mistreated by Rubeus. While dealing with Usagi, Rei gives her the advice that loving someone is trusting them 100%, no matter how coldly they treat you, and urges her to not give up on Mamoru. Koan argues against that by saying if someone is treating you coldly, then you should dump them... and she's treated as being in the wrong for it. Later in the same episode, Rei straight-up tells Koan to her face that Rubeus doesn't really love her. Two girls going through a similar situation are given a different piece of advice by the same character, the only difference being that one of these girls' lover is a main character while the other is the villain.
  • A particular episode from SuperS features a small girl being viciously beaten up by her own mother for having the dream of wanting to be the greatest swordsman in Japan. Turns out that the mother was beating her up because she was trying to teach her to not be so single-minded. Ironically enough, being single-minded is described in S as having a pure heart, and even then, it doesn't excuse the mother beating the ever living lights out of her own daughter. The episode concludes with the mother promising to beat the child again off-screen while Usagi reminds the audience that the little girl will reach her dreams someday, because "she has a wonderful mother to support her".
• Catharsis Factor:
  • For all the cruel things Rubeus did, his Karmic Death courtesy of Green Esmeraude is nothing short of rewarding.
  • Whenever Chibi-Usa gets spanked by Usagi for her brattiness, it's wicked satisfying.
  • For fans of Eudial/people who generally hated Mimette, Tellu's "Sorry, too late" right before she pulls the plug on Eudial's machine, thus trapping Mimette inside it forever, counts as this.
  • A few fans, who disliked the plot of the breakup and viewed Mamoru as Unintentionally Unsympathetic, would grin when Usagi slaps Mamoru for forgetting her birthday, despite never telling him (with a few pointing out that this was something needed after how much of a Jerkass he was in the previous season).
• Common Knowledge:
  • The Inner Guardians only die twice in the entire first anime series: at the end of the first season and the fifth season. They do not die and revive every season^note In the manga, they briefly get their souls stolen during the third arc, but this event doesn't happen in the anime.
  • Mamoru is supposed to be around 18 years old in the first season of the first anime. Thanks to his age only being mentioned in a few official artbooks and the anime only describing him as a college student, a lot of fans believe him to be in his early twenties. His manga self being a high-schooler instead only adds to the confusion.
  • Naru Osaka does not speak with an Osaka accent in the original anime, or any other version of Sailor Moon, for that matter. She speaks in standard Tokyo dialect, as with virtually everyone else in the series. Yes, her surname is Osaka, but this is a common Japanese name, and does not mean she is from Osaka, any more than someone with the surname "London" must be from London. Furthermore, fan materials often state that the DiC dub gave Naru/Molly a Brooklyn accent to parallel her non-existent Osaka accent, even though the same dub gives other characters accents for no apparent reason (e.g., Luna sounding like an English grandmother.)
  • A part of the fandom often jokes about how the Monster of the Week just waits for Sailor Moon to finish her transformation. In the actual series, the sailors never transformed in front of any enemy and kept a Secret Identity. The only occassion when a villain witnessed the transformation of Sailor Moon (in Sailor Moon Stars) happened by complete accident.
• Creepy Cute: PallaPalla can be borderline sadistic (particularly the way she plays with her toys), but her Third-Person Person talk and childlike demeanor make her pretty adorable nonetheless.
• Designated Hero: Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune can come off as this. They occasionally play the Rich Bitch card, act condescending to the other Guardians (including Pluto and Saturn made worse by the fact they DID kill them later in the series, and if it was part of a plan that would get them revived in the end, they did not ask for their consent before enacting this plan), are not team players, and tried to kill Sailor Moon at the end of S. And if this was an act to test Usagi's powers, they were unnecessarily nasty.
• Designated Monkey:
  • Usagi Tsukino. While she is lazy, whiny, and careless, she is abused relentlessly by the other characters (especially Rei and Chibi-Usa), regardless of how many times she actually saves the day or helps them out. Although they do love her and share a lot of heartfelt moments with her, their pranks and criticisms still come across as unacceptably mean-spirited.
  • Artemis the Cat. He constantly gets treated poorly by Luna despite his loyalty and support towards her. Also, he was once accused of infidelity, and nobody (except Minako) backed him up, ignoring Luna's numerous instances of infidelity as well.
• Ending Fatigue:
  • The fight with Galaxia at the end of Stars, which can be summed up as "some way to stop her is brought up, and it fails, rinse repeat" for the last few episodes of the show.
  • The ending of "S" could also count — after the main plot has been resolved it goes on for two more episodes.
  • The several episodes on end spent in the Dead Moon Circus big-top tent at the end of SuperS.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Several people started to love Dr. Tomoe, who was changed from the Complete Monster he is in the manga to a Well-Intentioned Extremist with a tragic past. What was most appreciated of him, though, was his extremely hammy persona who was considered one of the best part of the entire season. Some watched S mainly because of him.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • The Ail/An episodes are much more popular among American and Canadian fans. This is because these episodes had very faithful translations, and not as many censor cuts and no missing episodes. These episodes were actually held up during the first run of the original English dub and initially aired after the first 12 Rini episodes due to an attempt by DiC to sell them exclusively to a Network (the first episode of this arc actually did air on a Fox Kids Saturday morning slot). They were also released to VHS in a 4-tape boxset before such a release was commonplace. To the rest of the world, they're just filler episodes.
    • Among the same lines, the original dub was (and still is) more well-regarded in its native Canada than the rest of the world.
  • Chibi-Chibi is much more popular amongst American fans as due to her cuteness and not being bratty like Chibi-Usa.
  • The anime itself is becoming this among Americans thanks to Viz Media. According to various sources, it's become THE number one show on Hulu, and pre-orders for the DVD sets are the highest Viz has ever gotten.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In episode 3, Usagi talks about how much fun it must be to never wake up again, because you get to stay in your dreams forever. Naru and Umino give her identical weird looks about it. It wasn't so much fun in episode 69, when she almost died because she couldn't wake up.
  • The same episode has Naru mentioning how she makes up future boyfriends to write love letters to them. One of her future boyfriends was an alias for a Dark Kingdom general, and he would later die in her arms and deeply traumatize her.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: In the Princess Dia episode, said princess faints when Luna talks to her. Luna says lightheartedly that Dia isn't the Moon Princess because the latter would know Luna from their past lives. We find out that Sailor Moon is the real Moon Princess, and she spent most of season one bonding with Luna. Luna was right that the Moon Princess would know her, in more ways than one.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Episode 2 of the anime features Naru giving Umino advice when he has a crush on Usagi. Meanwhile, Usagi crushes on Motoki and yells at Mamoru for making her feel bad. By the end of the series, Naru and Umino are dating, Motoki is in a long-distance relationship with Reika, and Usagi and Mamoru are engaged. Wow.
  • A certain scene in S is awfully similar to the climax of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, organ and all!
  • This isn't the only time Robert Tinkler appeared in an anime with a villain named Wiseman.
  • Apparently, someone on Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V's production team watched the original English dub, because that anime also features a girl named Serena who uses a deck of Moonlight^note localized as "Lunalight" monsters. Incidentally, the English dub changed her name to Celina, as if they wanted to avoid legal troubles with Sailor Moon's producers. Another famous Serena associated with the moon is the female protagonist of Pokémon X and Y and its associated anime series, the generation that introduced Fairy-type Pokemon which invoke the power of the moon in many of their species and moves.
  • There was a two-off Victim of the Week named Greg (Ryo Urawa in the original) in the English dub who was a Temporary Love Interest for Ami in the first season. The Canadian news channel CBC later interviewed an obsessive fan of Sailor Mercury who was first introduced to the series with Greg's first episode. His name? Greg.
  • In one episode of the original English dub, Darien makes a quip about Serena's clumsiness, calling her "Hurricane Serena." While there has never been a tropical cyclone named Serena, there have been four (as of 2021) tropical cyclones named Usagi in the Western Pacific, including a typhoon which affected the Philippines and China in 2013 and caused 39 fatalities and over $4.3 billion in damage. The other Usagi to reach typhoon strength (in 2007) actually made two landfalls in Japan, but was much weaker and caused no deaths.
  • Another dub example: Rubeus was calling girls simps before it was cool.
  • In episode 178, Minako declares that she wants to be a cat in order to get closer to a guy she likes. A few years after the Viz dub was released, her Viz voice actress would voice another girl who would turn into a cat in order to get closer to her crush, who was coincidentally voiced by Artemis' Viz actor Johnny Yong Bosch. The cat form Muge takes on even looks similar to how Artemis looked in the 1990s anime, having blue eyes and sporting a white fur coat.
  • In episode 14, the Victim of the Week is a tennis player who Naru said was like a sister to her. Usagi misinterpreted that, thinking she was Naru's sister and Naru reminded Usagi that she was an only child. The manga would later have a short story featuring a girl named Naruru, who was revealed to be Naru's younger sister.
• I Knew It!: It was generally accepted by the fandom that the R in Sailor Moon R stood for either Return and/or Romance. This was never once been confirmed by the anime. In fact, while the eyecatch for Sailor Moon S states its full name (Sailor Moon Super), the eyecatch for Sailor Moon R simply calls itself Sailor Moon R. However, a Sailor Moon magazine revealed that R stands for "Returns!".
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Part of the reason why the Viz Media/Studiopolis Redub received its solid but overall average reception and thought to be "bland" and lifeless. The redub of the series received praise for being having no censorship and being accurate to the Japanese version, but at the same time, some believe the Viz Media Dub overcorrected the issues from the DiC/Cloverway dub and is too accurate for its own good at points. To these fans the Viz Dub placed such a premium on accuracy at the expense of characters and voice direction and acting, with many stiff performances and weird dialogue with minimal regards to whether or not it translates well or sounds plausible in English. Its because of these reasons to certain fans think the Viz dub lacks an identity or personality of its own, defeating the purpose of a series re-dub to any but the most fanatical literalists. The original 90's dub was antiquated and had its flaws, but its Woolseyisms became stuff of legend within the Sailor Moon fanbase, and at the very least it tried to be entertaining on its own and stands out more as a result.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • The Makaiju and the aliens it created — the Makaiju tree created a race of aliens because it was lonely. However, Makaiju watched the race it created eventually start falling to warfare and self destruct, leaving the planet a barren wasteland. Taking the loyal followers for better lands, the Makaiju departed. But it was too weak to create any more followers, so it was forced to watch all of the Makaiju aliens die one by one... until only two were left. (Ail and An) As a result of this, Ail and An grew up without love. Fortunately, Sailor Moon managed to heal the Makaiju's suffering, and granted all three of them a second chance.
  • Chibi-Usa counts; she does cause Usagi and the Guardians a lot of trouble, and insults Usagi constantly (to the point where she steals Usagi's brooch since she felt Usagi didn't deserve to have it), not to mention trying to steal Mamoru away from her, but she is just a kid under a lot of stress from being alone in a different century with many villains hunting her down, with her parents in danger.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains:
  • Most of the villains stand out for being so over-the-top and amusing. Even the more serious ones manage to stand out for their Evil Is Cool status. The most divisive character in the series is Chibi-Usa, a Bratty Half-Pint who constantly treats Usagi, her future mother, like dirt, despite the fact that Usagi has constantly put her life on the line to protect her from danger. It doesn't help that she stole the spotlight in SuperS. Fortunately, in Sailor Moon Crystal, her bratty characteristics have been greatly toned down.
  • Haruka Tenoh (Sailor Uranus) and Michiru Kaiou (Sailor Neptune) are also divisive for their status as The Load, being smug and condescending towards the Inner Guardians despite their own lack of initiative, which results in a lot of preventable troubles. Their attempt to kill Usagi after Pharaoh 90 is defeated hasn't helped either. Like Chibi-Usa, these negative traits are almost non-existent in Sailor Moon Crystal, which faithfully adapts the manga where these traits did not exist.
• Love to Hate: Most of the villains are so memorable despite being such despicable scumbags. Special mention goes to Rubeus, the biggest Jerkass in the entire series.
• Macekre: Lots of changes were made to the DiC Entertainment and Cloverway dubs to make it more palatable to America's powerful Moral Guardians, including:
  • The Sailor Guardians' given names are changed or anglicized, though a few throwaway lines suggest family names have stayed mostly intact. In the Tokyopop English manga, Usagi's name (which means "Rabbit") became Bunny, though it was implied that this was a nickname and Serena was her real name.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad member Zoisite being changed from a flamboyant homosexual male into a full-blown (heterosexual) woman. The same happened to a similar character Fish's Eye.
  • Sailors Uranus and Neptune being portrayed as "cousins" instead of "more than just friends" despite no real change in their interactions with each other.
  • The ending of the first series being cut down into one episode, to avoid the suggestion of an "Everybody Dies" Ending.
    • A heavy Bowdlerization comes in Usagi's fight with Metalia, with it being changed to Luna telling Usagi everyone is counting on her and she can't lose, while in the Japanese version it was Luna telling her not fight because she'd die from using the Silver Crystal even if Metalia didn't kill her, which takes away from Usagi's Heroic Sacrifice since she was going ahead to save the world even if she was going to die from the fight. Also, Metalia's dialogue before fusing with Beryl is ALOT less threatening the dub, with it being changed "turn this world pitch black" to berating and saying she was getting a last chance.
  • Raye's character was flanderized in the first season to be a lot meaner than she actually was and create a character arc in which she attempts to usurp control of the team. Although thankfully it's "concluded" by Raye apologizing and saying she never should have doubted Serena as leader.
    • It comes back into play in the final DiC-dubbed episode in which now everyone wants to take over as team leader. In the original version, it was merely a recap episode and they were debating on who should be the new main character.

• Magnificent Bastard: Germatoid is the enigmatic and affable yet vile acting leader of the Death Busters. Taking advantage of a tragic lab accident, he makes a deal with Professor Souichi Tomoe to save his daughter, Hotaru Tomoe's, life, possessing the man's body in doing so. He then implants Mistress 9 within Hotaru and pretends to be the Souichi for years, sending the Witches 5 and Kaolinite to further the goals of their superior Pharaoh 90. Treating his subordinates with nothing but kindness and even encouraging them to do better upon failures, he eventually succeeds in awakening Mistress 9, who successfully summons Pharaoh 90 so that Germatoid can attempt to destroy Earth as planned. Even as he perishes, he smiled as he has attained exactly what he wanted.
• Memetic Badass: Tuxedo Mask. He can solve any problem by throwing a rose at it.
• Memetic Loser: Tuxedo Mask. He has throwing roses, an extendable cane (which he uses as a baton), and a propensity for dramatic entries to save and encourage the Sailor Guardians. He's somewhat useful in both Anime and Manga versions (although he goes Out of Focus in a couple of seasons and in one he got a bridge dropped (temporarily) on him off-screen while he was going to America). This has only fanned the Fanon of him being pretty damn useless period and no lack of jokes and curb-stomping are done at his expense in (mostly Crossover) Fan Fiction.
• Mis-blamed:
  • Contrary to popular belief, the changes of voice actors had nothing to do specifically with the change from DiC to Cloverway, as the same company- Optimum Productions- handled the dubbing process for the entire series. Optimum also handled the production of the scripts themselves. As the dub itself kept going in and out of production during the duration of its original English license, changes in the production were largely due to routine changes in staffing that tend to happen over such a protracted period. Also the fact that the Cloverway-era dubbing was produced on a much tighter schedule and a lower budget. Though DiC and Cloverway would still have provided some level of oversight to the final product, DiC was far more hands-on than Cloverway.
  • Also, according to Fred Ladd (the one in charge of the original 65 DiC episodes), Toei approved of each and every change they made to the show.
  • Similarly, Stars's No Export for You was because of licensing issues, not because it was "too raunchy" or "too violent" for the dubbers to handle — at least this was before Viz acquired the license.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the entire franchise's No Export for You (in Arabic-speaking countries) was because of the show's inclusion of elements featuring within the series that are against the Sharia law, not because it was "too violent" for the distributors to handle — at least this was before Netflix's announcement on the release date of Sailor Moon Eternal in these countries. Over 100 Magical Girl anime fell into the Banned in China trope (including CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura but not Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon) in many Arabic-speaking countries because of this.
• More Popular Replacement:
  • Chibi-Chibi is introduced in the series' last season to replace Chibi-Usa as the resident Tagalong Kid. Many western fans like her better than Chibi-Usa, mainly because she's sweeter and not a Bratty Half-Pint.
  • The Starlights are often seen as this in the final season. Their behavior resembles that of the Outer Soldiers' during the S season, though fans find them to be better due to them having a compelling backstory to explain their standoffish behavior (the lack of which for Uranus and Neptune has been a source of aggravation for the fans), helping Sailor Moon on several occasions and allowing her to heal monsters instead of destroying them after seeing her power, and even agreed to ally themselves with her after she thanked them for helping her. The only reason that alliance never came to be was because Uranus and Neptune attacked before Sailor Moon and Sailor Star Fighter could shake hands to seal the deal.
  • Casting wise, Terri Hawkes was the second actress to voice Sailor Moon from the 90s English dub. While Tracey Moore (her first actress) has her fans, she's considered to be the best.
• Movement Mascot: Usagi from the '90s anime is considered as one of the mascots for Future Funk along with Lum, especially thanks to MACROSS 82-99's album SAILORWAVE, one of the foundational albums of Future Funk.
• Never Live It Down:
  • In most areas of the world, Sailor Moon is just a bonafide classic anime. In the West, however, even after 20+ years, the numerous attempts to exile it, and a commendable effort to "fix" things with a more faithful English re-dub of the series by Viz Media, the series is still more known for the censorship of the first English dub, which took on a life of its own to where it became synonymous with the series.
  • A lot of fans don't like Taiki despite her having more Pet the Dog moments than Yaten. Why? Leaving Sailor Mercury for dead against Sailor Gamer late in the series was her Moral Event Horizon for them.
    • Another thing Taiki will never live down is her attack name "Star Gentle Uterus". Of course, with her Guardian name being "Sailor Star Maker", it kind of makes sense.
  • Some fans will never forgive Luna for her hostility towards Artemis after meeting Diana, even though Luna mostly treats Artemis fairly.
  • Darien/Mamarou's and Rei/Raye's treatment of Usagi/Serena. It's even worse in the Dic/Cloverway Dub as well as the fact they're much more kinder to her in Crystal and the manga.
  • Naru falling victim to monster attacks frequently throughout Season 1, resulting in people calling her a Damsel Scrappy, even though in future seasons Naru being in peril happenedless and less until it stopped altogether.
• Popularity Polynomial: The Original 90's English Dub became a major hit with kids in North America and was one of the shows that energized the anime boom of the Late 90's. In the 2000's, numerous hatesites sprung up on the internet dedicated to lampooning the dub. Namely the voice acting, name changes and the rampant edits and censorship. Combined with growing Creator Backlash finally resulted in the show being pulled off the air, and was never been re-released in any form since. The New '10s saw the release of the more accurate uncut and uncensored Viz Media dub, a move which appeared to put the original dub on the shelf for good. Come The New '20s, interest and popularity in the original dub grew when previously unreleased soundtracks of the DiC dub were put on the internet, invoking nostalgia for a lot of 90's kids, and spurring on a movement to resurrect the original dub in some fashion. Reception to the original dub also considerably improved. Cited that while the dub is clearly a relic of its time period and not without its faults, was still entertaining to watch, and the weird changes and censorship made to the show just made it funnier and added to the show's already hilarious charm.
• Retroactive Recognition: Sarah LaFleur (Sailor Uranus's Canadian VA) would later go on to voice Trish in the first Devil May Cry. Fans of Ugly Betty will also remember her as Daniel's girlfriend Molly.
  • Stephanie Beard (a.k.a. Sugar Lyn Beard), who voiced Rini/Sailor Mini-Moon in the S and SuperS seasons, would later go on to host The Zone on YTV in Canada, and has supporting roles in recent films like Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and The Disaster Artist. She also has a recurring role on The Flash on The CW.
  • Rino Romano, the very first voice for Darien/Tuxedo Mask, would go onto voice Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Batman.
  • Resident Evil fans would be surprised to find out that both of Tuxedo Mask's English dub actors would voice characters in their own preferred franchise. He was initially voiced by Vincent Corazza, who would voice Carlos Oliveira, (and later still, Corazza would voice Zexion), while his later dub actor, Rino Romano would voice Luis Sera.
  • In the the original promo for the DiC dub, Sailor Jupiter was voiced by Debi Derryberry, who would, among other things, go on to voice Diana and Momoko in the Viz dub of the anime.
  • Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus's Canadian VA) would go on to have a career as a TV/movie producer and director after she spent some as a live-action/voice actor. Some of those credits include Flashpoint, X Company and Nurses.
  • Before becoming a CIT and Total Drama contestant, Courtney was a Sailor Guardian in the Cloverway dub of the original anime.
  • In the case of the Japanese version, U-Chouten and Sailor Tin Nyanko would later go on to become Pikachu.
  • Another Japanese example, Kyuusuke Sarashina was one of Daisuke Sakaguchi's earlier roles, nowadays he is far better known for his role as Gintama's resident punching bag, Shinpachi Shimura.
  • A third Japanese example, Jun'ichi Kanemaru who did two minor character, Asai Tsutomu and DJ Jack/Sailor DJ, would go on to be the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog starting with Sonic Adventure.
• Nightmare Retardent:
  • Yuko Minaguchi's cute Hotaru voice doesn't make Mistress 9 sound threatening.
  • Esmeraude's signature laughter tends to be this way, even if she tries to be a threat.
  • Starting with S, the monsters of the day tend to be very goofy and comical considering they are trying to steal people's hearts and threatening their lives.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • A lot of the hate Chibi-Usa received back in the day was due to her truly dreadful dub voice in the R season. Some fans started liking her better when she got a new, better voice actress (Stephanie Beard) in the S and SuperS dubs — and more when she got perhaps her best voice yet in Sandy Fox for the Viz re-dub.
  • Crystal did this for Sailors Uranus and Neptune where they're closer to their manga incarnations. They're still anti-heroes but nowhere near as abrasive and the borderline Jerk Sues that they were in the original series.
  • Crystal also did this for Mamoru Chiba for fans that weren't fond of his borderline Jerkass characterization in the 90's Anime, to the point where some westerners were even onboard for the Mamoru/Usagi ship after watching that Anime.
    • While the 90s rendition of Rei does have its fans, people were very glad that in Crystal, Rei's bad behavior towards Usagi was mostly removed and even when it she did, it's mostly treated as teasing.
• Seasonal Rot: SuperS and Stars are often cited with this trope in play, the former for focusing more on comedy rather than character development and placing the majority of the focus on Chibi-Usa while the Inners were all Demoted to Extra, and the latter since it didn't offer much of anything that earlier seasons didn't have and featured many controversial moments and elements. While Stars was regarded as the better of the two, it wasn't enough to undo the ratings damage done to the anime as a whole by that point.
  • Stars itself is often looked at as recycling plot points from previous seasons but not doing it as well. Examples include a group looking for their lost Princess (first season), all of Usagi's friends dying in front of her with Rei being the last, but brought Back from the Dead at the end (first season), a mysterious young girl with unknown origins who looks similar to Usagi brainwashes her family and lives at her house (second season), the Earth being a key place alien invaders want to destroy (both second and third seasons), Haruka and Michiru being jerkasses towards Sailor Moon and the others because of "their mission" (third season), one minion of the Big Bad murdering another to take their place (both the first and third seasons), said minions looking for "special" manifestations of people's souls that always turn out to be held by the Guardians (third and fourth seasons), and Seiya's arc towards Usagi being at times very similar to Mamoru's (first season, though this one is at least lampshaded).
• She Really Can Act: Mary Long as Molly in the DiC dub is not well-liked for the odd choice to give her a thick Brooklyn accent. But in Nephlite's death scene, even her detractors will agree she shone. According to Sailor Moon Reflections, she had no preparation for the scene in advance due to the rushed schedule - and still managed to bring the entire crew to tears.
• Signature Scene: The mirror scene with Sailor Moon in the reflection cheering up Usagi in the opening is a popular template for crossover fanart due to Rule of Symbolism.
• So Bad, It's Good: The Dic/Cloverway dub is either the most awful thing you'll ever hear or the most hilarious, you choose. So many fans believe the latter that it's even spawned a cult following dedicated specifically to the dub (similar to Prequel Memes from Star Wars fandom), and it helps that the series is already full of Narm Charm, even in the original Japanese.
• So Bad, It Was Better: The fans of the Dic/Cloverway dub tend to see the redubs as this. The Sailor Moon anime runs on being campy and Narmy, which is a lot of the charm, and the inept censorship, bizarre vocal choices and obvious random changes in the original dub just made the series funnier. The redubs were more faithful to the original and more serious, but that took away the hilarity of the first dub.
• So Okay, It's Average: How some fans see the Viz/Studiopolis redub. Few will call it outright bad, but it has gotten some criticism for having bland and uninspired voice acting, with stale direction and too many characters sounding similar to each other. Some also lament that more effort wasn't put into the final product, given the years of anticipation of an uncut redub. It doesn't help that expectations would be through the roof regardless.
• Squick:
  • There seem to be a rather large and unnecessary panty shots for Chibi-Usa... even more disturbing is how many of these weren't censored in the DiC dub.
  • Mimete's... struggling and moaning while playing Twister as Professor Tomoe watches on in S season episode 117 is much less fanservice-y than it sounds.
  • Chibiusa falling in love with Pegasus before finding out he's really human.
• Strawman Has a Point: When Mamoru breaks up with Usagi to protect her, one of the fake reasons he gives her is that he doesn't want to be in love with her just because Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity were lovers in the past. This statement would be a wonderful takedown to Because Destiny Says So, Reincarnation Romance and Strangled by the Red String, except that he's lying through his teeth and still quite in love with her, and the viewer knows this already.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • The melody of the first opening theme song, "Moonlight Legend", was inadvertently borrowed from the 1965 J-Pop song, "Sayonara wa Dansu no Ato ni (Goodbye after the End of the Dance)", which was performed by Chieko Baisho. This actually led to an arbitration case between the songs' respective composers, Daria Kawashima (aka Tetsuya Komoro) and Hirooki Ogawa, when the series first aired; as a result, Ogawa obtained a percentage of the "Moonlight Legend" royalties. The melody of the "Moonlight Legend" can also remind other listeners of Alan Silvestri's iconic Back to the Future theme.
  • Several of the songs in the DiC dub were based on popular songs at the time:
    • "My Only Love": Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love" and The Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You"
    • "It's a New Day": Elvis Costello's "Veronica"
    • "Call My Name (and I'll Be There)": The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There for You"
    • "Oh Starry Night": A reworking of Rei's Image Song "Eternal Memory"
    • "She's Got the Power": Stan Bush's "The Touch"; can also considered to be a Sequel Song
• Subbing vs. Dubbing: In terms of English, this takes a bit of a debate. Many point out that DiC and Cloverway were borderline Macekres and the Viz re-dub is more competent. But at the same time, a few moments in the Viz dub are prone to Dull Surprise, most notably the death scene of Nephrite in the DiC dub.
• Theme Pairing: The Doctor from Doctor Who and Sailor Pluto share many things: filling the role of The Only One, being Time Travellers, having Survivor Guilt, and being Genocide Survivors.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Despite the many flaws of the DiC dub, it's clear from interviews and their interaction with the fandom that the people involved cared a lot about the show, and it's why many fans still have nostalgic memories of it despite the rest of the fandom viewing it as at best, a relic of edited translations from the '90s. In particular, many 90s kids still recall Terri Hawkes's stint as Sailor Moon very fondly.
• Tough Act to Follow: Not helping the unpopularity of SuperS is that it came off of the heels of Sailor Moon S, which is held in high regard by a lot of fans.
• Unexpected Character: Asanuma, a recurring character in the manga since the Black Moon arc, was seemingly Adapted Out of the whole series, so it was a bit of a surprise to have him briefly pop up in the final season.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Yaten/Sailor Star Healer and Taiki/Sailor Star Maker. While it was wrong of them to blame Usagi for their troubles when she was in no way directly responsible for anything that happened to them, the Three Lights/Starlights were still dealing with the trauma of losing their princess and their planet being destroyed by Galaxia and while Yaten and Taiki are portrayed as unreasonable for berating Seiya — who was supposed to be their leader — for constantly trying to see Usagi, they were on a mission to find their princess and rebuild their destroyed home planet and save their people. With an important responsibility like that on their shoulders, it's a little hard to sympathize with Seiya whenever he brushes off his teammates.
  • Zig-zagged for Usagi during the breakup arc. While she is a Clingy Jealous Girl and it is clear Usagi's depression is supposed to be tearjerking, the fact she gets little to no sympathy for her time of need (in the DiC, 'Amara even jokes about taking 'Darien' for herself before 'Michelle' tells her to knock it off) and Mamoru takes a while before getting back together with her makes this even worse.
  • In the Dark Kingdom arc, You’re supposed to think that Usagi is simply being a whiny, immature brat for not wanting to be Sailor Moon at first. The show doesn’t take into consideration that she’s only 14 and she is too young to be having responsibilities like saving the world as a middle schooler (and the first episode of the DiC dub even has her state that she's Just a Kid upon her reluctance to help before being reassured), not to mention how many a Monster of the Week on this show tend to be Nightmare Fuel, so one probably can't blame Usagi for being hesitant.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The first anime is very much a product of its time, mainly due to the characters' fashion sense, though there are also things like floppy disks and videos being used. The original English dub became this as well thanks to its use of 90s slang. This is Lampshaded in the Viz dub of episode 12, where Usagi angrily says "Jean jackets are making a comeback, you know!" after Rei insults her fashion sense.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Haruka/Uranus and Michiru/Neptune during Sailor Moon S. The season presents them as soldiers burdened with the responsibility of dealing with outside invaders and grapple with the fact that they would have to sacrifice talisman holders, innocent people, to prevent The Silence from happening. The end of the season portrays them as being rightfully angry with Usagi for the outcome of the battle and for sparing Hotaru, seeing such actions as being too idealistic. However, it can be hard to sympathize with Uranus and Neptune when one takes into account that they were not considering any options beyond sacrificing people, choosing killing as their first and only option, and were condescending and dismissive towards Sailor Moon and the Inner Guardians even though the five of them are more experienced soldiers who outnumber them and while they (judging by comments and flashbacks from the anime, were active for roughly a year, with the Death Busters as their only threat to investigate) were two rookies who only had vague premonitions to guide them. They place all the blame on Usagi for the outcome of the battle with Pharaoh 90, but the way they were needlessly antagonistic towards Sailor Moon and the Inner Guardians by refusing to cooperate and share information that could have led to better solutions, contributed greatly to the way things turned out, making them partially responsible as they were producing unnecessary drama out of arrogance. Even their reasons for wanting to kill Saturn makes them unsympathetic since not only were they unaware of her true purpose, they acted on vague premonitions rather than legitimate proof of Saturn being an evil figure and would have killed her for nothing.
  • While the show tries to make it clear Mamoru has good intentions for breaking up with Usagi and it's not like she's a perfect girlfriend, but he acts like such a JerkAss towards her during this arc, that and she herself could be seen Unintentionally Sympathetic (add in people's dislike of their Belligerent Sexual Tension and the age gap where people were mad at Mamoru regardless because they thought Usagi had an excuse due to her age) and it doesn't paint him in the bad light.
• The Un-Twist:
  • Chibi-Usa being Usagi and Mamoru's daughter from the future. In her very first appearance, it's obvious to the viewers who she is given her appearance and the fact she claims to be "Usagi Tsukino" in both the anime and the manga. This is pretty much a gimme to the viewer, since the real mystery is not her identity, but where she came from, why she needs the Silver Crystal, and why there's a bunch of murderous psychopaths chasing her down.
  • Usagi is the princess. Despite what some detractors may tell you, no, the dub didn't really ruin the surprise. As 13 episodes before we even find out who the princess is Mamoru's dream shows a girl who looks exactly like Usagi and sounds exactly like Usagi as the princess. Even the second opening for the series shows Sailor Moon transforming into the princess so it really was no surprise.
• Values Dissonance: Found in both English dubs, understandable considering the cultural differences between Japan and the U.S. and between the 1990s and now.
  • DiC had much of the dialogue of the Season 1 DiC episode "Slim City" (aka "Learn How to Be Skinny from Usagi") rewritten to be considerably more Anvilicious with the episode's moral about exercise and weight loss, and likely to avoid any appearance of perpetuating eating disorders, a major issue in the series' chief demographic. By contrast, the original Japanese and the Viz dub play it more for laughs.
  • Viz's dub did this notably with episode 96 ("Coldhearted Uranus: Makoto in Danger," aka "Lita Borrows Trouble" in the Cloverway dub), which deals with Makoto developing a fondness for Haruka and her friends' outright disgust at the idea that Mako might be gay, to the point of trying to "talk her out of it" and telling her to find a guy instead. In keeping with more tolerant attitudes toward LGBTQIA+ people in modern American society, Viz's dub rewrites the other Sailor Guardians' reaction to this notion as surprise, curiosity and a little good-natured teasing rather than shock or disapproval. A more detailed discussion can be found here. For its part, Cloverway rewrote the episode as the Sailor Scouts being concerned that "Lita" is spending too much time with "Amara" and neglecting her friendship with them.
• Vindicated by History: It's become common for modern fans to discover the 90s DiC dub online and enjoy it; compare to a few years ago when fans who grew up with it turned on the dub for any change made to the original. What really helped the old dub was that, with the existence of the completely uncut Viz dub, it's no longer the only way to watch Sailor Moon in English. In hindsight, it's also common for people who simply prefer the 90s voice actors compared to the modern Viz actors. The changing reception and attitudes to the original English Dub has changed considerably that articles like these are being written, which would be absolutely unheard of in the 2000's and the New Tens.
  • For the Western fandom, the show was a glorified cult classic when it first aired in the States^note  The show was treated slightly better in Canada, partially due to the Canadian voice actors being able to promote the show., being relegated to an early morning time-slot with Invisible Advertising. The show is considered much more of a mainstream classic, even with newer fans.
• Wangst:
  • At times, Usagi's whining and bawling can come off as this. Her Clingy Jealous Girl behavior towards Mamoru can also count.
  • Chibi-Usa's attitude towards Usagi in R comes off as this, constantly giving Usagi flak in spite of the latter repeatedly going out of her way to protect her from danger. Fortunately, she does get better afterwards.
  • Haruka and Michiru's constant lamenting over how cruel it is that they have to sacrifice the lives of the talisman holders despite the fact that they refuse to consider any alternative options, especially when Fridge Logic kicks in and one realizes that since the Death Busters can't summon Pharaoh 90 without the Holy Grail, all they have to do is make sure the Death Busters don't get it.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Just try and tell a fan of the original that in Japan Sailor Moon's target audience is 4-12 year old girls. The final episode of Sailor Stars has a TV-MA rating on Hulu (largely due to Usagi prancing around naked the whole episode) and the episode beforehand, while still TV-PG, was given a parental advisory warning. Interestingly enough, when the rating of the two final episodes was changed into TV-14, the reason given was "Fantasy Violence" with no mention of nudity.

Tropes from the manga

• Angst? What Angst?: Rei is fairly aloof and deals with Guardian business in a stoic manner, apart from when Usagi's life is in danger. These include dying, being kidnapped and left to suffocate with her friends, and witnessing the apocalypse several times. Rei bears it all; in fact, she's more upset when reconnecting with one of her father's proteges and bluntly asking why he didn't consider pursuing a relationship with her to further is ambitions.
• Awesome Art: Sailor Moon is iconic for a reason. The color pages and art books add to this trope, with the beautifully soft colors emphasizing Takeuchi's unique art style.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The very end of the Stars arc, reveals that Sailor Moon managed to defeat Chaos and keep the Galaxy Cauldron intact, allowing everyone to eventually be reborn from there. Her friends all end up being resurrected, life does not cease to exist as Sailor Cosmos intended, and she marries Mamoru in the end. It sounds happy enough, right? Not quite. Chaos is only stopped temporarily, having been melted in the Galaxy Cauldron from which all life in the universe comes. And as long as the Galaxy Cauldron still exists, Chaos will keep rising as an all-powerful enemy who will eventually wage a devastating war across the entire galaxy. Sailor Cosmos' final speech helps to soften the impact of this information, but it doesn't change the fact that Chaos will always be present to devastate the Guardians' lives in the future. Also, Sailor Cosmos is revealed to be Sailor Moon's future self, meaning Usagi is destined to outlive everyone she loves and continue fighting a literally endless battle against chaos.
• I Am Not Shazam: Naruru and Ruruna aren't actual Sailor Soldiers, but they're avid Sailor Moon fans and dress in outfits resembling them. Their nicknames come from their favorite clothing brands.
• Narm: The 2011 Kodansha Comics USA translation can be seen as this, due to it being very literal with extremely stiff dialogue for all characters. It almost has a creepy vibe to it, but then it has blunders like "I am Princess Beryl! Queen of the Dark Kingdom!," "Spark Ring Wide Pressure!" (instead of "Sparkling Wide Pressure"), and the odd choice of referring to Motoki as "bro," going directly against the style of the rest of the translation. Fortunately, the 2018 translation for the Eternal Editions is completely different. It flows very well, and the difference is quite dramatic.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • EVERYONE in the supporting cast in their Eternal forms are killed off quickly to show that the new villains are not someone to mess with. Only two of them are shown to have new powers on-panel, Sailors Jupiter and Mercury were killed off by the supporting villain of the chapter, even the Outers were killed by Sailor Galaxia rather anti-climatically, with Sailors Uranus, Neptune and Saturn being off-panel. They were briefly revived by Sailor Galaxia as evil golems made specifically to kill Sailor Moon, which winded up being their only moment of awesome in the arc. They never got to defeat the Big Bad in the end, revived at the very last minute, and none of them got proper epilogues as the only appearance after that are as Usagi's bridesmaids.
  • Princess Kakyuu as Sailor Kakyuu would have been an awesome new Sailor Senshi, if only she wasn't killed off on the very chapter she revealed herself to be a Sailor Senshi.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Stars arc had pretty neat ideas like the origins of the cats and how the Sailor Animamates became who they are today. Alas, nothing was explored properly since this is the final arc and the Sailor Animamates origins was left with a vague "they kill the Sailor Senshi from their home planets in order to join Sailor Galaxia" without any explanation.

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