Sailor Moon is one of the most successful anime franchises. Naoko Takeuchi began publishing the manga Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon in Kodansha's shojo magazine from 1991-1997. The manga was adapted into one of the most popular magical girl anime in 1992.
The Sailor Moon franchise is still quite active, with amazing and cohesive manga republications (the Sailor Moon Eternal Editions), a prequel about Sailor V, and a second anime reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal. Sailor Moon Crystal is still active and nearly finished adapting the full manga series. Over the last thirty-plus years, there are plenty of Sailor Moon details and media that fell through the cracks that are worth remembering.
Sailor Moon Originally Had Pink Hair
Naoko Takeuchi envisioned many different versions of her Sailor Senshi uniform and character designs. Early Sailor Moon concept art shows Usagi Tsukino, aka Sailor Moon, with petal pink hair. She wasn't the first magical girl protagonist with pink hair; Magical Princess Minky Momo preceded her. Pink is thought to be feminine and cute.
Takeuchi then decided to change Sailor Moon's hair from pink to silver but kept the pastel hairstyle for her future daughter, Sailor Chibi Moon. Sailor Moon's hair ultimately ended up being yellow-blonde for the anime because it looks better on dolls. Naoko kept the silver odango for Sailor Moon's mother, Queen Serenity, though.
Rei & Mamoru Only Dated in the Original Anime
Sailor Mars, Rei Hino, gets a crush on Tuxedo Mask right away when she meets him as a Sailor Senshi. Sailor Moon hates it because Tuxedo Mask is her crush. Rei also goes on a date with Mamoru Chiba, though she isn't sure whether he's Tuxedo Mask, though she suspects he is.
The love triangle is such a big deal that there's an entire episode devoted to it in the original anime. In the manga, Sailor Mars is never smitten by Tuxedo Mask, and she certainly never dates him. Rei Hino is a very serious person, and she has zero interest in dating in the manga, whereas, in the original anime, she has a serious crush on at least two different guys — Mamoru and Yuichiro.
Tuxedo Mask Has Powers
Tuxedo Mask's powers are more apparent in the manga, and far more subtle in the original anime. They're so subtle and seldom-used that fans often say that he has no powers whatsoever. In the manga, and more recently in Sailor Moon Crystal, he routinely uses the attack Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber.
Tuxedo Mask even has his own magical girl-style transformation sequence, though it's only depicted once in the original anime. The rose darts he throws are also more than just a calling card. The roses can have some tactical use when he's protecting Sailor Moon — he uses them to shatter a rock shard that Queen Beryl hurls at Sailor Moon, interrupting her deadly attack.
Ail, An & Fiore May Come From the Same Planet
An and Ail are two major antagonists from the Makai Tree arc. They come from a destroyed planet with their life-giving tree in tow. Ail and An don't say much about the planet they come from or their tree aside from it being gone, along with the rest of their alien species.
The Makai Tree simply dwells in space until it lands on Earth. Similarly, the lonely alien Fiore comes from a lost planet and lingers in space with no home or direction. Though it's never outright said which planet the three aliens come from, their similarity is undeniable. They both have two-tone hair in shades of teal and pink, pale green skin tones, pointed ears, and a similar filigree pattern on their clothes.
Only Girls Are Sailor Guardians
Tuxedo Mask should technically be Sailor Earth, but he plays more of a stand-in role for Sailor Earth rather than an officially dubbed Senshi. Naoko Takeuchi was very clear that only girls are Sailor Senshi. There would have been good Sailor Senshi allies, like Pegasus and Prince Demande and Prince Saphir before Wiseman, but they'd never be official Senshi.
Naoko Takeuchi's girl-only Senshi rule gets confusing when it comes to the anime version of the Sailor Starlights. In the original anime, the Sailor Starlights are men in their civilian forms and women in their Senshi forms. Takeuchi never wrote them to switch genders; she just intended them to be women with masculine features and styles.
There's a Tabletop Sailor Moon RPG
Sailor Moon was such an instant hit across countries in the '90s that the franchise grew from manga to anime VHSs to dolls to T-shirts to chapter books. Everything printed in the '90s in Sailor Moon's first wave of popularity is out of print now. Some items are easier to find secondhand than others, like the Makai Tree arc chapter books.
One Sailor Moon franchised book is so hard to find that many people forget or never even knew that it existed — The Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book. It's impossible to find in stores, and there are only a few collectors' listings, so it's sadly not very accessible. It's full of great information, like character profiles and episode breakdowns, and an entire section with rules and directions for playing a Sailor Moon role-playing game.
There Were Some Sailor Moon Video Games
Sailor Moon fans outside the United States may feel crestfallen to know that there were several Sailor Moon video games. They were just never released in the U.S. It's possible to get some copies today, but they're hard to find, expensive, and are only playable on vintage platforms like Game Boy and Super Nintendo.
Most of the Sailor Moon games were beat 'em up side scrollers, like the classic Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon. The games had an old-fashioned arcade game charm. Players could choose which Sailor Senshi they'd play as. They would face off against villains across the seasons, from Dark Kingdom youma to Prince Demande from the Black Moon arc.
Toon Makers Tried To Westernize Sailor Moon With a Cartoon Adaptation
It's understandable to make some changes while translating an anime because different audiences may not understand specific cultural references and jokes. Toon Makers took it a bit too far by trying to westernize Sailor Moon into a fully American-style cartoon, stripped of all anime style. The 1994 cartoon Sailor Moon, also nicknamed Saban Moon, seems inspired by She-Ra: Princess of Power and never left the pilot stage.
The only thing that the 1994 Sailor Moon cartoon kept from the original concept was the girl superhero group, their color schemes, and some bare-bones characters. They kept Queen Beryl as the central villain but renamed the Sailor Guardians as Princess Warriors, and Usagi Tsukino as Victoria. It was considered lost media until 2022 when the pilot was posted on YouTube.
The Finale Song Is Different in the VHS Release of Sailor Moon R: The Movie
Fans from the '90s may miss something if they watch Sailor Moon R: The Movie, The Promise of the Rose on DVD. The Sailor Moon franchise has a few different English dubs. DiC did the original English dubs for Western audiences, but after company mergers and changes, the licensing rights to Sailor Moon lapsed, and the series was difficult to watch for a long time afterward unless someone collected the limited release and abridged VHSs and DVDs from the '90s.
When Sailor Moon R: The Movie, The Promise of the Rose was re-licensed, the production company had to find actors different from the original Sailor Moon voice actor cast and include different music. This means that fans who grew up with the iconic song "The Power of Love" may be disappointed to find a different finale song on the remastered DVD. Luckily, the original English finale sequence is available in the bonus features and online.
The Moon Queens Only Have Daughters
Every Sailor Moon fan knows that Usagi Tsukino comes from a strong line of Moon Kingdom matriarchs, but there are some clear traditions and nuances about the matriarchy. Just like how Sailor Senshi are only women, Moon Queens have only daughters. Specifically, each generation issues one single daughter who will become the Crown Princess.
There's some understandable debate about whether Usagi Tsukino has one or two daughters because of Chibi Chibi Moon. Princess Serenity, Chibiusa and the late Queen Serenity all have moon powers and long flowing hair dressed in odango. The character Chibi Chibi Moon has an oddly similar character design, and Naoko Takeuchi did write an alternate universe short story where she is Neo-Queen Serenity's second daughter, so it's debatable whether it's canon that Usagi has two Moon Princess daughters.
