Sailor Moon 1

by Naoko Takeuchi

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

741.5952

Publication

Kodansha Comics (2011), Edition: 1st, 240 pages

Description

"Usagi Tsukino is a normal girl until she meets up with Luna, a talking cat, who tells her that she is Sailor Moon. As Sailor Moon, Usagi must fight evils and enforce justice, in the name of the Moon and the mysterious Moon Princess. She meets other girls destined to be Sailor Senshi (Sailor Scouts), and together, they fight the forces of evil!"--Provided by publisher.

User reviews

LibraryThing member PhoenixTerran
In 1997, Naoko Takeuchi's manga series Sailor Moon was one of the very first titles published by Tokyopop. It, along with the anime series, became somewhat of a phenomenon in the United States. But, Tokyopop's license ended and Sailor Moon has been out of print for years despite its popularity.
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Then, in 2011, Kodansha brought the manga back in a completely new edition under the title Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Kodansha's version is based on the 2003 revision of the original series, which was first published in Japan between 1991 and 1997. I'll admit, I mostly missed out on Sailor Moon the first time around except for a single day that I was sick in bed and there happened to be a marathon of the Sailor Moon anime on television. I don't really remember much of it though, and the whole incident may very well have been a fever dream, but I'm pretty sure it actually happened. Still, I was very glad that Sailor Moon was selected for the December 2011 Manga Moveable Feast so that I could be properly introduced to the series.

Usagi Tsukino is an average fourteen-year-old middle school student at Minato Ward Juban Public. She enjoys eating, sleeping, and having fun. Her grades could stand to be better, but she would rather visit the local game center than study. On her way to school one morning, late and in a rush as usual, Usagi comes across a strange cat. After helping it--she was the one who stepped on the poor thing after all--the cat begins appearing wherever she goes. That night the cat, Luna, reveals its ability to talk and declares Usagi to be a guardian, destined to find her allies, defeat her enemies, and protect the princess and the legendary silver crystal. Usagi's not really sure what Luna is talking about or even that she wants anything to do with it. But given the ability to transform into Sailor Moon and the powers needed to save her friends from harm, Usagi suddenly discovers she's not just a normal teenager after all.

For a cat that appears to know just about everything about what is going on, at the same time Luna doesn't seem actually to know anything. Although I'm sure that Takeuchi has some basic idea of where she is taking the story, in this first volume of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon I really feel like she's making up most of it as she goes. Things just kind of happen and the readers and characters are simply there for the ride. The guardians themselves seem oddly accepting of everything that is occurring around them and of the revelations of their true natures--they just seem to go along with it. I actually found the resulting narrative chaos to be rather delightful at first, but I do hope that the story finds a bit more direction and focus in subsequent volumes.

Probably the thing I like best about Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon so far is the cast. While the villains come across as a bit one note, Luna and the guardians and Tuxedo Mask are all very likable. I particularly appreciate the range of their personalities. I was actually a little surprised by how much I ended up liking Usagi. She's a bit of an airhead and an admitted crybaby, characteristics that tend to annoy me. But those aren't her only defining qualities. When her friends are in trouble she will do anything she can to help them and will give it her best. Usagi's an unlikely leader, but her confidence is growing and the others trust her. I think that Takeuchi's artwork has held up pretty well over time. Granted, I do read a lot of older manga, so maybe it just doesn't bother my stylistically. However, the more action oriented sequences and fights can be difficult to follow. I wasn't astounded by the first volume of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, but I did enjoy its charming silliness enough to want to read more.

Experiments in Manga
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LibraryThing member kanders2
Sailor Moon is a classic story about a young girl, with seemingly no talent at anything, who finds out she must transform into Sailor Moon and save the world from evil, all the while locating a missing queen.
LibraryThing member DanielleHuslinger91
This is a book about Usagi Tsukino who thinks she is a normal girl until she meets up with Luna, a talking cat, who tells her that she is Sailor Moon. As Sailor Moon, she must fight evils and enforce justice, in the name of the Moon and the mysterious Moon Princess. She meets other girls destined
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to be Sailor Senshi (Sailor Scouts), and together, they fight the forces of evil. This would be a good book for 8 year olds. This would be good for a lesson where the students would write a story where they are the superhero and they have to save someone.
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LibraryThing member rjmoir
A newly formatted and translated edition of the seminal manga, which follows 14 year old klutzy cry-baby Usagi Tsukino as she stumbles, quit literally, over her destiny. Tripping over a cat with a strange, crescent moon marking on its forehead, Usagi soon finds the cat in her bedroom, and
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talking.Its name is Luna, and it has been looking for Usagi, who is really a member of the moon kingdom reborn, charged with finding and guarding the reincarnated moon princess and the mysterious Silver Crystal. Granted the ability to transform into the magical hero Sailor Moon, Usagi reluctantly sets out to find her allies, her princess, and the Silver Crystal. Comparatively very clean, the Kodansha reprints removes the out of place teen lingo, the awkward amalgamation of Japanese and English names, and the painful fonts. The new edition does not attempt to replace or hide the written Japanese sound effects, which Takeuchi weaves within the art; rather, the place unobtrusive translations along side each artistic set of characters. The back matter provides several helpful notes on translation, not just of specific words, but Japanese cultural cues that might entirely bypass English-speaking readers. The original story, told using a long limbed and wide-eyed shoujo art style, advances at an incredibly fast pace, introducing several heroes and defeating several heroes over the course of a few chapters.This first volume stumbles a bit, charging forward as quickly as it does, but ultimately evolves into a formative tale beloved by lady comic fans the world over, and thus comes very recommended in its new package.
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LibraryThing member thelukewarm225
I'm not sure what's so comforting about reading Sailor Moon, but it's what got me through marathon 27 hours of work in two days last weekend. We got a huge stack of these at work and its already gone, so I must not be the only one to find our whiney, clutzy heroine soothing haha Side note: this new
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translation is MUCH better than what I remember reading previously.
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LibraryThing member ToasterFaerie
I've waited a long time for this to come out. This part of the story I am pretty familiar with, but I was pleased to have an accurate English translation in my hands.

I will always be blown away by the effortless elegance of Takeuchi's art.

The translation was a bit stilted and formal in many places.
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The Mixx translation, though less accurate I'm sure, felt much more lively. Including the color pages was a nice bonus on Kodansha's part. I also would have been prepared to pay more for this volume if the printing was of higher quality, but I guess that's the market and you take what you can get.
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LibraryThing member Vania_Coates
A refreshing change from the male superheroes for girls. The superheroes in this manga are all girls with different backgrounds and strength. Each girl is unique in their own way and they are beautiful for it. More importantly, the main character isn't the typical popular girl but instead is an
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average girl. Every girl who reads this will be able to relate to at least one of the sailor scouts.
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LibraryThing member vonze
Being a Sailor Moon anime fan since it appeared on Toonami, I wasn't sure if the manga could add much to my love or understanding of the storyline. I was WRONG. Wish I had read this years and years ago.

While the American version of the anime focuses a lot of comedy, the manga seems to have more
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action. Sailor Moon is still a dork, but she appears to be less of an airhead. To me, she came across as kinder and less whiny.

Four stars, because the translation was still a little strange in places.
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LibraryThing member devafagan
I missed Sailor Moon by a few years when it first became a thing in the US, but it's always popping up everywhere, so I decided to check it out. My understanding is that these "Pretty Guardian" editions have more accurate translations so I went with that.

I can totally see why these appeal to
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readers. Sure, they are a little fluffy and silly, but it's great to see so many different types of girls being heroes.
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LibraryThing member rabidgummibear
I picked this up on a whim. I learned quickly that they were doing a reprinting of all the old mangas with better translations though which is awesome.

It was fun to read though. I can't wait to pick up the second volume. I was huge fan of the show and the book is just as good if not better.
LibraryThing member Shahnareads
I want Mamoru to call Usagi meatball head. :'(
LibraryThing member Count_Zero
Basically, I started reading this because 1) I remember how big Sailor Moon was when I was a kid, and 2) I needed a palate cleanser after reading volume 1 of Uzumaki (so I probably have this read date and start date wrong).

The manga was okay, but I know that I'm not the target audience. It's
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melodramatic and silly all at the same time - which is kind of what I needed after Vol. 1 of Uzumaki.
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LibraryThing member AnnaWaffles
Man, I wish I had gotten into this when I was a kid!
LibraryThing member sarahlh
Well, that was fun! As a huge fan of Sailor Moon since childhood, how could I resist the Kodansha USA re-release of the manga? The answer is, of course, I could not. Funny enough, I don't think I read these chapters when they came out via Tokyopop, which makes it much more fun. The quality of the
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release is much higher than what Tokyopop came out with, although sometimes the translation seems stiff. Takeuchi really breezes through the plot - by volume's end, we already have three out of four of Usagi's guardian senshi and Queen Beryl looks like she's going to need to call a temp agency to replace all the minions that have been dusted by Usagi's tiara. Still, this manga is just as fun and wonderful as I remember, especially Takeuchi's art. So glad I already own volumes two and three; I'd hate to have to wait too long to finish up the Dark Kingdom/Imperial Silver Crystal story arc.
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LibraryThing member Koralis
I just want to read a manga series dedicated to Sailor Mars because I like her the most out of all the guardians. Maybe it's because we are both Aries? I do not know why Usagi is the leader. I won't be continuing this series. Artwork is awesome though.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2003
2003-09-22

Physical description

240 p.; 5.01 inches

ISBN

1935429744 / 9781935429746

Barcode

1579

Other editions

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