| The Series | ||||
| Ahh yes....The trusted series section. Just choose the series of your choice and away you go. Here's a little background on the series.
The series originated in Japan in March of 1992. It was based on Takeuchi Naoko-sensei's manga "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon". It was the story of five girls and two cats who protected the world from the evil Dark Kingdom that was set on taking over the earth. In the fight with the Dark Kingdom, Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon) met up with Mizuno Ami (Sailor Mercury), Hino Rei (Sailor Mars), Kino Makoto (Sailor Jupiter), and Aino Minako (Sailor Venus). With the aid of their two cats, Luna and Artemis, they fought the Dark Kingdom trying to prevent the awakening of Queen Metallia. In the fight with the Dark Kingdom, all of the Soldiers died, and were brought back but with no memory of the struggle with the Dark Kingdom. Originally only a 46 episode package, Toei was convinced to make another series since Naoko was pursuing another Manga series, the Black Moon Saga. This next season, titled "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R", started with the 5 soldiers struggle against Ail and Ann, who were gathering energy for their life force, some sort of tree. Since the "R" anime started directly after the original series (in fact, it started the week after the last episode of the original series) and Naoko had decided to take short break before making more manga, the first set of episodes were an anime invention. There is not fight with Ail and Alan in the manga. Afterwards, the anime began the Black Moon Saga (still called "R"). It introduced a new character, Chibi-Usa, a girl who fell out of the clouds and was looking for the ginzuishou. It also introduced Sailor Pluto, the Sailor Soldier that guarded the gates of time. After the R season, the ratings were so high that Toei wanted to pursue another anime series. Unfortunately, Naoko had no plans to take the manga any farther than the Black Moon Saga, but with a little persuasion, they convinced her to make another manga series, the Infinity Arc. The corresponding anime series, Sailor Moon Super, became the most popular series to date, and the Infinity Arc manga is cited as Naoko's best work. It introduced the Outer Senshi, consisting of Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Pluto, and Sailor Saturn. The outer senshi became an instant hit with fans and Toei once again pursued another anime series. The fourth anime series, Sailor Moon SuperS, was based on Naoko's fourth Sailor Moon manga series, the Dream Arc. Although the Dream Arc was a huge success for the manga, SuperS wasn't as accepted. This time, Toei had decided to stray from the manga's story line and make their own interpretation of Naoko's story line. The two stories varied significantly, and if you read the Dream Arc manga and watch SuperS, you will notice many differences. The Dream Arc was a very serious series for the manga and was centered around Chibi-Usa. There were many plot twists and plot developments. Also, the outer senshi returned in the manga around halfway through to help with the fight. On the other hand, SuperS did not feature the outer senshi at all, a huge letdown for fans. It was also more focused on humor than plot, which many fans believe was not a good move. In fact, there is basically no plot development in SuperS until the end of the series. Ratings plummeted for this series, and Toei was reluctant about another anime series. Since Naoko was making one final manga series, they decided to leave SuperS at a cliffhanger point (with the main enemy not dying), and start with the new series, Sailor Stars. The final manga and anime series, Sailor Stars, marked the return of viewers to the anime. Naoko had announced that this would be her last Sailor Moon manga story line, and since Toei had not had success with making their own story, they tried to be more faithful to the manga this time. The Sailor Stars series proved to be a success, but was still dealing with a loss of ratings. SuperS had lost a lot of Sailor Moon viewers, so Sailor Stars had a huge gap to fill in. Luckily for fans though, Sailor Stars saw the return of the Outer Senshi and the appearance of three new Sailors, Star Maker, Star Healer, and Star Fighter. The anime proved to be a success, and with a 6 part ending, the anime went out with a bang. Around the time that Sailor Stars was being made, DiC entertainment and Saban were battling for the rights to Sailor Moon. DiC wanted to make the anime a "cartoon" for little girls to watch on Saturday morning, this was bad, but at least it was better than what a company called Toonmakers wanted to do. Toonmakers wanted to make it half live action/half animation (original animation, not the Japanese animation). They wanted to redo Sailor Moon in the same way "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" was done. Luckily for us though (Lucky!?!?), DiC was the one who got the rights. DiC took the show and then completely changed it around to make it "cartoony". Characters were changed (one was even changed gender) and plot elements were erased. In total, 65 episodes were dubbed with 7 episodes being cut by DiC, some of which for reasons unknown. When Sailor Moon was syndicated, it did very poorly. After the 65 episode package was done, DiC basically gave up on the show. The USA network, followed later by the Cartoon Network, bought the episodes to air on their station, and when they started airing the show, the ratings went through the roof, especially when Cartoon Network started showing the show. Cartoon Network viewers LOVED Sailor Moon. This convinced DiC to produce 120 more episodes for the anime, but since fans and advertisers were upset at their last move of leaving the series off at a cliff hanger point, they decided to cut it down to 17 episodes, which would bring the series to the end of "R". After this, DiC did SOMETHING (we're not sure what) that made them in breech of their contract to hold the rights to Sailor Moon. Since there was a high demand for more episodes, Toei's representatives in the United States, Cloverway, picked up where DiC had left off. Cloverway got permission to dub the "S" and "SuperS" seasons of Sailor Moon. While these episodes were a step up from the DiC dubbed episodes, using the original music and staying closer to the original story, these episodes were a let down for fans hoping that Sailor Moon would stay faithful to the original. |
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