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Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon
The very first season of Sailormoon lasted 46 episodes
from March 7, 1992 to February 27, 1993 and spanned the entire Dark Kingdom
arc. Bishoujo Senshi was originally used in English and in Japanese
on Japan-only merchandise as "Pretty Soldier". Some trading cards
listed it as "Pretty Warrior". Starting in 2002, it's meant
"Pretty Guardian" and all forms of Sailor Moon have been retconned
to have all translations of Senshi read as "Guardian" or
"Guardians". Senshi can be a singular or plural word, but for the
title, it is consistently used as a singular word. However, some fans use the
plural when referring to the final seasons, since Chibi Moon and Chibi Chibi
Moon appear with Sailor Moon, thus creating more than one 'Sailor Moon".
It's mostly used by fans in regards to Sailor Chibi Moon, as in the manga,
her father refers to her as the "next" Sailor Moon.
The series had mature themes, and initially was marketed
to a teen and adult crowd, but Toei and Kodansha also pitched a toy and
girls' line for fans ages 2-14, hoping to earn extra revenue and that more
families would watch together. While this season pulled much of it's story content from
the manga, several changes were made. Zoicite was made Kunzite's lover.
Sailor Jupiter, who kills Nephrite in the manga, was not shown on screen until
the episode after Nephrite dies. Nephrite is instead killed by Zoicite's
minions. Jadeite is frozen solid by Queen Beryl, instead of being burned
alive by Sailor Mars. Kunzite is killed by Sailor Moon instead of in a group
attack from the other four girls, Mamoru never receives the stones of the
Four Generals, and the final battle sees a dying Princess Serenity using
power from already dead Sailors Mercury, Mars, Venus and Jupiter. The season
ends with the girls and Mamoru dying, then being resurrected by the Silver
Crystal, but without memory. Also, Chibiusa is missing, while in the manga,
she debuts at the very end. Another change involves Naru. In the manga and in Crystal,
Naru has a very brief role as Usagi's friend, but is seldom seen. Here, she
is a focal point during the Nephrite episodes and appears heavily until a
little after Sailor Jupiter arrives. Also different is her family. In the
manga, Naru has a little sister named Naruru, who does not appear until the
StarS arc. It is not clear who or where her father is, but Naruru has their
father's credit card, and Naru's mother runs the jewelry store. Naru also has
a cousin who is also mentioned in Crystal, but is never seen. In this anime
however, Naru is an only child, has a friend named Rui who serves as an older
sister figure to her, and her father is never mentioned. Naru also falls in
love with Nephrite, while in the manga, the two never met. As of 2014, Toei began re-pushing the old series to adults
only, and most of the products from 2011 onward has been aimed at adults ages
18 and above. Both times the manga was released in the United States, it
was aimed at ages 13+ as is most current merchandise. When DiC had control of the episodes, they aimed a small
toy line at ages 2-11. Initially, the series was drawn with young men in mind,
hence the shortened skirts and occasional innuendo. Women and girls took a
liking to the series for the costumes, and also because it was an empowering
show for females. When DiC had control of this season, five episodes were
dropped due to content issues, and episodes 45 and 46 were cut up and spliced
together as one very short episode, due to the violent nature of the season
finale. Another major change they made was turning Zoicite into a girl. This
was done, because they did not want to tackle Zoicite being in a homosexual
relationship and his cross dressing habit. Many of the edits made involved
digitally painting over body lines during the transformation scenes, and
omitting and editing certain scenes involving violence or nudity. Quite often,
DiC would replay the same scene forwards and backwards, or add in their own
CGI digital effects to stretch out the episodes, and in an effort to appease
parental groups, each episode ended with a "Sailor SayS" segment,
where Sailor Moon would deliver a moral of the day about keeping the
environment clean, treating people well and avoiding people who might abuse
you. Often, these segments would feature clips DiC had cut out, making most
of their edits pointless. DiC also wanted to Americanize the names of the main
characters. Usagi became "Serena" which is a short form of
Serenity. Ami became Amy Anderson, Rei became Raye, Makoto became Lita,
Minako became Mina ~ a nickname Artemis does use in the original and also the
name of her daughter, and Mamoru became Darien. DiC's writing staff actually
thought US children would not be smart enough to follow Japanese names. This
made US fans of Dragonball Z laugh, as this was another anime to hit US
shores legally around the same time, where much of it's cast retained their
original, Japanese names. In a weird twist, Kunzite was renamed Malachite,
which made no sense as Kunzite is a stone mentioned in American textbooks.
Nephrite, also named after a stone, was renamed "Nephlyte" and his
Earth name of Masato Sanjoin was changed to Maxfield Stanton. Naru Osaka
became Molly Baker and Umino became Melvin. Shingo became Sammy. The Dark
Kingdom became "The Negaverse". Ikuko and Kenji were seen but not
named. The Silver Imperium Crystal retained it's name, though the
spelling changed off and on. The Moon Stick became the Crescent Moon Wand.
The words "Make Up" were dropped from all transformational phrases.
Moon Tiara Action became Moon Tiara Magic. Shabon Spray became Mercury
Bubbles Blast. Fire Soul became Mars Fire Ignite. Aku Ryo Tai San became Mars
Fireballs Charge. Supreme Thunder became Jupiter Thunder Crash. Crescent Beam
became Venus Crescent Beam. Moon Healing Escalation became Moon Healing
Activation, and in the final episode, Cosmic Moon Power. Another change was the group name for the team. In the
original anime, the team of five were called Sailor Senshi. Senshi can mean
Warrior, Soldier or in some cases, Guardian. Here, they were called Sailor
Scouts. This is one of two seasons from the 1990's to not have a movie
or special tied to it, with Sailor StarS being the other. It has been said that originally, the Toei Animation
animators and writers despised Mamoru, hence where they tried to split him
away from Usagi early on. There were even plans in development to "kill
him off" for good in episode 46, but by the time animation had started
on the episode, Chibiusa had debuted in the manga, and it was made very clear
that in order for her to exist, Mamoru must live. From that point on, they
took as many liberties as possible to undermine Mamoru and Chibiusa's powers
and to maim them. |
Episodes:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46
Follow
me back to the Battle Record!
Follow
me to the next season!
Um….
I was about to ask if you wanted to join me for the previous season… but that
doesn't exist. I mean, we ALMOST got a Codename Sailor V OVA… but…
Follow me back to Moon Sisters!