Manga Review: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi Collection 1

Manga Review: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi Collection 1 by Naoko Takeuchi

Usagi Tsukino is a more or less typical fourteen-year-old girl. She likes food, video games, and sleeping, and dislikes homework and tests. She’s clumsy and a bit of a crybaby, but has a good heart and a kind streak. Also, she has a secret–she’s the superhero known as Sailor Moon!

This is a new edition of the popular shoujo manga that combined the magical girl and sentai subgenres, launched a generation of anime fans, and has been a perennial favorite for the last thirty years.

This thicker volume covers Sailor Moon’s origin, the recruitment of Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter, and the first in-person appearance of Sailor V (soon to become Sailor Venus.) It comes with a color page of all the Senshi (some of whom will take a while to appear) and a fold-out poster of Usagi and her alter ego. This is Ms. Takeuchi’s preferred English translation, and comes with updated end notes that explain what floppy disks and videotapes are. (Feeling old yet?)

Since this is by now very familiar material for me, just a few notes that struck me.

These early chapters just zoom by as we introduce the main cast. The villains drop like flies and don’t get a lot of characterization. (The manga came out monthly while the anime was weekly, so a lot of filler got into the latter, and a bunch of the minor characters got more fleshed out.) We also see a lot of the author creating on the fly, and putting off solid world-building with characters (mostly Luna) saying “I can’t explain that right now.”

Luna’s suspicions of Tuxedo Kamen make more sense when you know that his outfit is meant to evoke Arsene Lupin and the “phantom thief” archetype. He’s dressed like a criminal! There’s even brief mentions of him being a jewel thief, though this is never really followed up on.

The art is gorgeous, and the costumes are pretty. Sailor Moon’s mask lasts all of a few panels before being permanently discarded. We also don’t really see her ultrasonic waves power past chapter three, as the other Pretty Guardians take up combat roles.

This edition is spiffy, but if you’re a casual fan who’s already got a copy of the manga, you may not need this. It’s an excellent choice, however, as a gift for someone who hasn’t had the chance to enjoy the series before, middle school readers on up and especially girls.