Redirected from Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon
Takeuchi combined many seemingly disparate themes in the creation of Sailor moon. Combining her love of space with Greek Myth, Roman Myth, Japanese elemental themes, and Meiji-era sailor-fuku school uniforms, she managed to fuse the popular magical girl and sentai[?] genres and create a completely new and original idea.
The premise is as follows: Immature, underacheiving student Usagi Tsukino discovers that she is the reincarnation of Princess Serenity, the princess of an ancient Moon kingdom. Her role as defender of the Solar System has been reissued to her in light of the reemergence of the evil force that originally destroyed her kingdom, the Silver Millennium. (Note: Silver Millennium is the name of the kingdom; it's not a time.) She fights using the identity of Sailormoon. As the series progresses, Sailormoon is reunited with other reincarnated defenders: the princess's guardian soldiers. She is also reunited with her lover, the prince of Earth, who serves equally as romantic interest and primary protector.
Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon ("Sailormoon" is written as one word or two when addressing the Japanese version because "Sailormoon" and "Sailor Moon" can be found in the original Japanese sources; the English dub shows just "Sailor Moon") is composed of five separate series: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon R, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon S, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon SuperS, and Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Sailor Stars. There are three Sailormoon movies, and these have independent stories that are separate from the series. The movies fall in the general timeline of each of the three middle series (R, S, and SuperS). Additionally, there are several Sailormoon soundtracks available.
A dubbed American version of the anime was created in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, many changes was made to the basic storyline; it was rewritten to be aimed at very young American girls. Plots were vastly changed; others were completely dropped. Some of the changes include: naming the team the Sailor Scouts instead of the much more accurate Sailor Soldiers; making each of the Sailor Senshi princesses; renaming almost all of the original attacks; censorship of much of the adolescent sexuality; and a complete omission of the Japanese version's original music. This American version was many peoples' first experience with Sailormoon, and the differences between the versions led to unnecessary confusion. However, many fans worldwide would never have known about the series had it not reach America. Most fans regard the American version as a mixed blessing.
Yon Shugo Jin no Senshi and the Princess[?] ("Yon Shugo Jin no Senshi" in Japanese means "soldiers of the four guardian deities;". That is their official name) -- These five senshi are the first to be introduced in the series. They serve as Earth's protectors.
Gaibu Taiyôkei Yon Senshi[?] -- The four soldiers of the outer solar system protect the solar system from external threats. They are introduced in the third series.
Sailor Starlights -- The Starlights were introduced in the final series of Sailormoon. The trio adopt human identities as male pop stars, but in truth they are three mysterious new -- and naturally female -- Sailor Senshi.
Additional Characters
More to come..
Contributions by Surly Bob, Ian_Andreas_Miller[?]
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump