Summary: Usagi Tsukino was a normal junior high school student until a talking cat named Luna revealed to her that she was Sailor Moon, a beautiful soldier whose mission is to fight for love and justice. Soon she finds herself, along with others like her, protecting the world from demons, aliens, and others out to destroy the universe. In the process she discovers that her life extends backward to an ancient Golden Era on the Moon Kingdom, and into the future utopia of Crystal Tokyo. Though Usagi is an immature, irresponsible, whiny child, she learns as Sailor Moon that she possess the strength, love, and forgiveness to be the world's savior.

Review: Sailor Moon was my first real introduction to anime (although I had seen some Ranma 1/2 before, it was Sailor Moon that sparked my obsession), and as such it still holds a very special place in my affections. While to a large extent it is a silly kids show lacking the sophistication of other anime series, it still somehow manages to captivate not only myself, but other grown people as well. This has do to with the transformation that Sailor Moon, as a character and as a series undergoes in each season, and to a lesser extent, over the course of all seasons. The whiny Usagi and the hesitant Sailor Moon are almost intolerably annoying. But the Sailor Moon who by the end of each season is willing to sacrifice herself and her own desires to save everyone is a hero in every sense of the word. Sailor Moon is about love, forgiveness, and redemption. Almost no evil heart is to far gone to learn not only how to love, but how to be loved as well. This is definatly a series for the romantic. The characters in Sailor Moon are for the most part flat. Only Sailor Moon herself grows and changes throughout each season, and even she usually reverts at the beginning of the next. While Sailor Venus starts out with the potential to be a very interesting character, that potential is never explored and she becomes merely a clone of Usagi without the spiritual transformation that the latter undergoes. Other than that the characters fit into a pretty standard mold: Sailor Mercury is the brain, Sailor Jupiter is the brawn, and Sailor Mars is the sarcastic one. The most interesting characters are the "outer senshi" (Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Saturn) and the Sailor Starlights. These characters are older and thus less time is spent on their juvenile escapades. The plot is repetitive. Each season as one major bad guy with several underlings each of whom can summon some sort of minor demon-thing. The Sailors Senhsi must defeat each underling before tackling the head-honcho. The reasons for destroying the universe change from season to season. The methods also change slightly, although they always involve taking something from the body of innocent people (energy, rainbow crystals, heart crystals, dream mirrors, star seeds, etc). The animation is not bad, but nothing to write home about. Having said all this, it is still one of my favorite anime out there. Perhaps this is because of the mythological value of the themes of love and sacrifice, evil and redemption, that inevitably arise at the end of a season.

Ratings: Characterization: 5 Plot: 7 Animation: 7

Things to note: Sailor Moon, even in its unedited format, is appropriate for children. The only slightly questionable things in the unedited version is the relationship between Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune (which contains lesbian innuendo, though nothing explicit) and the Sailor Starlights (who are men in everyday life and women when they become the Starlights). For a detailed explanation of the changes between the unedited and edited versions go to Castle in the Sky:Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon music videos are available from Aluminum Studios, Senseless Productions, Doki Doki Productions, Griffen Studios, SMAC Studios, Chibi Serena, David Vasilik, Ashley, and Nikoyaka Tenshi.

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