So you want to get into Sailor Moon, aka the best franchise to have ever been made? Well this is my way of attempting to help people getting into SM.
Let me start by saying their are two main versions of Sailor Moon people talk about, the two earliest versions; The Sailor Moon Manga, and Sailor Moon Classic (the 90s anime). These two are really different, to the point that they can barely be called the same series. Every other version of Sailor Moon is somewhere between these two, which act as the endpoints. I'm gonna be honest, I am really biased towards one version. I love Sailor Moon Classic, but it can be a mess at times. The Sailor Moon Manga on the other hand is absolutely amazing...that said I'm going to try and present accurately.
First off let me say some weaknesses of the Sailor Moon franchise. If one of these are a major problem for you, you may find SM relatively unsatisfying.
1: Deus ex Machina: Probably the biggest problem to me, The Sailor Moon franchise has a bad tendency of introducing things exactly when it's convenient or maybe that episode/chapter.
2: No Moral Ambiguity: Outside of the third arc anyway. For the most part Sailor Moon villains, while some are sympathetic do not have any kind of point. They come in two varieties; genocidal monsters and normal people who are brainwashed or deceived by the first group.
3: Simple Fights: Sailor Moon is not a battle shonen series. It doesn't have very complex fight choreography. Fights are usually very short to preserve the emotional impact.
With that said, why should you watch Sailor Moon? That's hard to answer because there's so much good about this franchise. Generally speaking Sailor Moon has an amazing ability to bind the universal archetypal and the specific. Characters in Sailor Moon are both complex and potent. Plots are both emotionally and intellectually stimulating. Viewing Sailor Moon has some unknowable property about it, that seeing it uplifts everything else. It makes other series and even real life seem mysteriously deeper and more meaningful because it shows the archetypal skeleton hiding behind the specific and seemingly arbitrary.
But where do you start? Presuming you are starting with either the Manga or the 90s Anime, by far the two most popular places to start, let's talk about some of the major differences structurally in order to give a good impression of where to start.
As a general rule of thumb, the more unconventional your tastes in fiction, the more you will probably prefer the manga. The more conventional your tastes in fiction, the more you will probably prefer Classic. Why is this?
The Sailor Moon Manga was created by one female mangaka, Naoko Takeuchi for a teenage girl audience. Her writing was a radical revolutionary departure from the Magical Girl tradition up to that point in ways that are a bit complex to talk about here, but the major point of importance is that it became focused on the everygirl, and was incredibly optimistic of her.
Sailor Moon Classic was made by Toei Animation by a primarily male studio (leading to Naoko Takeuchi saying that the anime had a "slight male perspective") for a presumed demographic of young girls, and maybe any siblings or parents they had who would watch for them. Airing on mainstream television and aiming for a larger demo, attempts were made to make it more family friendly and more broadly appealing.
Most of the differences between the two series can be seen as coming from that distinction of authors.
The Sailor Moon Manga is a heavily genre-defying work, with elements of superhero comics, science fiction, urban fantasy, romance-drama, sentai, and anything else Naoko felt like. It centers around the planetary guardians (Sailor Senshi), alien entities who have taken on the form of humans in the current incarnation, and the long history of the universe's defense by the Sailor Senshi against the forces of the primordial void before existence. It has a plethora of references to all sources, both Japaneses and Global. Naoko clearly had a lot of faith in her young audience to understand a work like this.
It has a general arc structure of:
Big Bad serves Eldritch Abomination that is really dark aspect of primordial void. The Sailor Senshi get into a sequence of battles with the Big Bad of the arc's Generals who seek to restore or summon the Eldritch Abomination. Eventually Sailor Moon defeats the Big Bad and Abomination in the emotional climax of the arc. There is NO filler.
The Sailor Anime on the other hand massively ramped up the sentai elements and downplayed the estotericisms, philosophy, and general unconventional nature of the manga. The Senshi are basically normal humans in this version with some poorly defined level of superpowers, instead of cosmic beings. It's a lot more formulaic.
General arc structure is Big Bad is trying to awaken some ancient evil eldritch abomination. The Big Bad sends out generals one at a time for each sub-arc who send our goofy sentai monsters one a time. The senshi kill this with a generally bigger cooler end to each sub arc as they beat the general of the arc and ending each season with a fight with the eldritch abomination where it briefly becomes the manga. There is a LOT of filler.
In other words, the manga is like reading a strangely optimistic cosmic horror story, while Classic is like watching a female version of power rangers or super sentai except it gets really trippy at the end of each season.
Starting with the Manga:
Good choice! :P
Manga is 60 chapters, being pretty long for a Magical Girl Series. Not a single chapter (or act as the manga calls it) is filler. Act 4 is probably the closest. Still if you skip any act you will get some confusion.
There is also 10 side stories. 9 of these are the size of a normal chapter, but the Christmas special (Lover of Princess Kaguya) is really long. Only one of these ten (Rei and Minako's Girls' School Battle) is referenced in the main story and even then it was only once briefly. There's also a 16 Act Prequel called Codename: Sailor V. This is not essential to understanding the story but does contribute to it. It is a lot more filler-y then the main manga. Note all of the above could be read after reading the main manga if you like it.
If you want a chronological order in universe of the stuff:
First Arc Starts
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 1
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 2
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 3
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 4
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 5
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 6
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 7
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 8
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 9
Sailor Moon Act 1
Sailor Moon Acts 2-4 (Could take place anywhere in relation to the following Sailor V Vol.)
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 10
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 11
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 12
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 13
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 14
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 15
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 16
Sailor Moon Act 5
Sailor Moon Act 6
Side Story: Casablanca Memories
Sailor Moon Act 7
Sailor Moon Act 8
Sailor Moon Act 9
Sailor Moon Act 10
Sailor Moon Act 11
Sailor Moon Act 12
Sailor Moon Act 13
Sailor Moon Act 14
Second Arc Starts
Sailor Moon Act 15
Sailor Moon Act 16
Sailor Moon Act 17
Sailor Moon Act 18
Sailor Moon Act 19
Sailor Moon Act 20
Sailor Moon Act 21
Sailor Moon Act 22
Sailor Moon Act 23
Sailor Moon Act 24
Sailor Moon Act 25
Sailor Moon Act 26
Side Story: Chibiusa Picture Diary 1: Beware of the Transfer Student
Side Story: Chibiusa Picture Diary 2: Beware of Tanabata
Third Arc Starts
Sailor Moon Act 27
Sailor Moon Act 28
Sailor Moon Act 29
Sailor Moon Act 30
Sailor Moon Act 31
Sailor Moon Act 32
Sailor Moon Act 33
Sailor Moon Act 34
Sailor Moon Act 35
Sailor Moon Act 36
Sailor Moon Act 37
Sailor Moon Act 38
Side Story: Chibiusa Picture Diary 3: Beware of Cavities
Side Story: Exam Battle 2: Ami-chan's First Love
Side Story: Exam Battle 3: Rei and Minako's Girl School Battle?
Exam Battle 1: The Melancholy of Mako-chan
Side Story: Lover of Princess Kaguya
Fourth Arc
Sailor Moon Act 39
Sailor Moon Act 40
Sailor Moon Act 41
Sailor Moon Act 42
Sailor Moon Act 43
Sailor Moon Act 44
Sailor Moon Act 45
Sailor Moon Act 46
Sailor Moon Act 47
Sailor Moon Act 48
Sailor Moon Act 49
Side Story: Chibiusa Picture Diary 4: The Secret Hammer Price Hall
Fifth Arc
Sailor Moon Act 50
Sailor Moon Act 51
Sailor Moon Act 52
Sailor Moon Act 53
Sailor Moon Act 54
Sailor Moon Act 55
Sailor Moon Act 56
Sailor Moon Act 57
Sailor Moon Act 58
Sailor Moon Act 59
Sailor Moon Act 60
Side Story: Parallel Sailor Moon (takes place in an alternate universe, and so doesn't fit in normal canonicity)
Starting with Sailor Moon Classic:
...you sure? :P
Just kidding. So Sailor Moon Classic is 200 episodes long. There's a LOT of filler, and then some episodes that sort of pretend to not be filler because some character is introduced or a senshi gets a new attack but aren't REALLY. I am gonna list the episodes that have plot relevance, with the italicized ones being ones that are "kind of" plot relevant most often they get a new attack or something.
Season 1: 1, 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 22-25, 26-32, 33-36, 44-46
Season 2: 47-48, 51, 58-61, 62-65, 68, 70-77, 82-88
Season 3: 90, 91, 92-93, 101-103, 106, 109-113, 115, 119-126
Season 4: 128, 130, 133, 135, 143, 148-149, 150, 151-152, 154, 158-166
Season 5: 167-174, 176, 180-182, 187-191, 193-200
Some of the filler is good but a lot is pretty average. If you wanna skip to the plot: well there you go.
In the same continuity are the 3 Sailor Moon Movies. If you want to watch those:
Sailor Moon R: Promise of the Rose takes place sometime between episode 77 and episode 82 so feel free to watch it between those two.
Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice takes place around either 122, either before or after is not clear.
Sailor Moon SuperS: Black Dream Hole doesn't fit well in the timeline but most likely takes place between seasons 4 and 5.
There are also a number of shorts
Make-Up! Sailor Senshi takes place just before the R Movie and was shown in theaters just before the R Movie
The Three SuperS Specials take place sometime early in Season 4. Anytime between episode 128 and episode 148 should be fine
Ami's First Love takes place around the same time as the SuperS Specials
Starting with Sailor Moon Crystal
Crystal is the reboot anime that is closer to the original manga, though if I'm honest the parts I don't like about Crystals are mostly the diversions they DID take from the manga hmmmm
I wouldn't recommened starting with Crystal but if you want the manga experience, but want to watch instead of read it should be fine.
Starting with PGSM
PGSM (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon) is the 49 episode (4 specials) 2003 live action series. It's got a really engaging plot and a deeper characterization then probably any other Sailor Moon Series. It's very sentai-ish but also a lot more romantic like the manga then Classic was. If you're one of the people who wants to watch a crazier soap opera, a Sailor Moon themed one this would be a fine place to start.
I have to warn though, the special effects are legendarily terrible. This series is also good if you like making fun of bad special effects.
I haven't watched the series enough times to say what is and isn't filler, but it's got less then Classic.
Sera Myu:
Sera Myu is the Sailor Moon Musicals. They're basically Sailor Moon fanservice and has stuff like Beryl and Galaxia teaming up. If you're not already an SM fan you probably aren't gonna get much extra out of it.
Also it has various timelines, like it tells the story in several different timelines. This makes it really confusing if you aren't a Sailor Moon Fan.
Sailor Moon: Another Story
Another Story is a Final Fantasy styled RPG but Sailor Moon Themed. It is set after the third arc and has elements of both the manga and Classic.
It has a fan sequel that continues the story past the fifth arc.
It does not actually tell the plot of the first 3 arcs so if you don't already know the SM story from all the other versions it's gonna be really confusing and lost on you.
If you like RPGs though you may like it, especially if you are already an SM fan.
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