Category Archives: Characters

Is Princess Serenity Just Another of Sailor Moon’s Transformations?

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Filed under Articles, In-Universe Lore, Usagi Tsukino
Princess Serenity against Super Beryl

Princess Serenity against Super Beryl

What, exactly, is the connection between Usagi and Princess Serenity?

For a question that sounds so simple that it’s almost stupid to even ask, it’s a lot more difficult to answer than you’d initially think. And that’s what I find so fascinating about the topic.

We all know that Princess Serenity died back in the Silver Millennium to be later reincarnated as Usagi Tsukino. That much is clear and not really open to debate. However, how does the Usagi and Princess Serenity relationship play out after she becomes aware of her past?

Today we’re going to take a look at the the idea of whether Usagi is actually Serenity, or whether Serenity is lurking inside of her — not much unlike any of her other Sailor Moon forms.

Let’s start unraveling this thread, shall we? Continue reading →

What Do the Sailor Moon Transformations Look Like to Other People?

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Filed under Ami Mizuno, Articles, In-Universe Lore, Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino
Do they really henshin in front of people?

Do they really henshin in front of people?

Though I’m not a betting man, I’d feel relatively comfortable saying that nearly every Sailor Moon fan out there that has watched the anime with a friend or family member who isn’t a fan of the genre has had to deal with the question: “why doesn’t the bad guy just attack her when she’s transforming?”

And can you blame them? It’s a really good question.

Though fans have come up with a multitude of reasons to explain this away over the years — with answers ranging from the Youma wanting a fair fight to the Sailor Soldiers teleporting away during the henshin sequence — we’re actually here to address a much more fundamental question today.

Do these transformations actually take place, or are they like the eye catches between commercial breaks, and only for the viewer’s benefit?

Stick around, it’s about to get interesting!

Continue reading →

Who Knows the True Identities of Sailor Moon and the Sailor Team?

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Filed under Articles, In-Universe Lore, Inner Senshi, Supporting Cast
Usagi makes the decision to transform in front of Mamoru

Usagi makes the decision to transform in front of Mamoru

To be completely honest, I love casually posing the question of who knows the Sailor Soldiers’ identities to other fans. Responses span the entire gamut of a vehement “no one!” to pretty much every member of the supporting cast, who were apparently just too nice to tell Usagi that they knew the truth.

Like all things in life, however, the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes.

Join along as we take a magnifying glass to the Sailor Moon anime and manga in an attempt to suss out just who actually has figured out the secret identities of our favorite sailor-suited soldiers of love and justice!

Continue reading →

Does Naru Know That Usagi Is Sailor Moon?

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Filed under Articles, In-Universe Lore, Naru Osaka
Naru worries about her friend, but how much does she know?

Naru worries about her friend, but how much does she know?

The question of whether or not Naru knows about Usagi’s secret identity has been a constant point of contention among fans since… well, since the show first came on air. What seems like a question that should be a simple “yes” or “no” answer gets muddy quickly due to the complicated interactions between each of the different tellings of the Sailor Moon story.

Today, I’m going to try my hand at answering this highly charged question and see if maybe I can at least shed some light on both sides of the argument.

You better stick around — there’s a Youma holding Naru captive at the bottom of this article, and she needs your help!

Continue reading →

Was Sailor Moon the First Magical Girl to Transform With a Compact?

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Filed under Articles, Making Of, Other Series, Usagi Tsukino
The Crystal Star Compact is hardly compact...

The Crystal Star Compact is hardly compact…

With how amazingly popular Sailor Moon wound up becoming, it’s easy to forget that the series was not the first to have explored… well… practically any of the concepts that made it famous. Not to downplay the achievements Ms. Takeuchi’s genre-defining classic, of course, but nearly everything that we know Sailor Moon for nowadays had already been done in other series before it.

Many of the so-called “tropes” that 21st century fans would readily attribute to Sailor Moon were in fact already well-established before our favorite sailor-suited warriors were even conceived.

While Usagi may have made the idea of a “magical compact” famous, the great grandmother of magical girls is the one who made it a staple in the genre.

Today we’re going to take a look back to the earliest days of the “magical girl” genre and tell the story of one of its earliest pioneers!

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What is Princess Kakyuu and the Starlights’ Connection to the Moon?

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Filed under Articles, Real World, Starlights
"Your princess is in another castle..."

“Your princess is in another castle…”

One of the things that I’ve always loved most about Princess Kakyuu is how she serves as such an excellent counterpoint to Princess Serenity — and all in such a subtle way that neither the anime nor manga ever directly calls attention to it.

Despite how Japanese the myth of the “bunny of the Moon” our hero may be based on, it’s hard to deny that everything else about the Silver Millennium is about as western as they come. From their style of dress to the castles they live in, you can plainly see that the Moon Kingdom is most definitely not based in Japan.

And that’s where Princess Kakyuu and her entourage come in. As western-inspired as Princess Serenity and the Moon Kingdom may be, Princess Kakyuu and Kinmokusei take every bit as much inspiration from the east.

So today we’re going to talk about some of those inspirations, and about Princess Kakyuu’s mythological connection to the Moon. I hope you brought your reading glasses, because I’m about to get wordy!

Continue reading →

Why Does Sailor Moon Use a Kaleidoscope in the Dream Arc?

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Filed under Articles, In-Universe Lore, Real World, Usagi Tsukino
Kaleidomoon Scope? Moon Kaleidoscope? Who knows!

Kaleidomoon Scope? Moon Kaleidoscope? Who knows!

… and why does it look nothing like a kaleidoscope??

After watching season after season and following Sailor Moon’s adventures from one story arc to the next, we cheered along as our sailor-suited hero fought the forces of evil with various sticks, rods, and… well, more rods. It’s a simple idea with an even simpler naming scheme, so I never really thought much of it.

Well, except for the naming travesty that is the Moon Stick, but let’s put that aside for a second.

Today, we’ll be taking a look at Sailor Moon’s fourth wand — and the first one belonging uniquely to Super Sailor Moon — the Kaleidomoon Scope. While it may seem to make little sense on the surface, once you peel back a few layers, the puzzle starts to come together.

Stick around, things are about to get colorful!

Continue reading →