‘Sailor Moon’ Retrospective
Image Source: IMDb
If you are an anime fan and/or a millennial then you will remember when Sailor Moon was all anyone could talk about. We all rushed home after school to make sure that we didn’t miss a second of the series. While to newer fans the anime may seem like any other, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sailor Moon not only helped to shape the future of shojo anime and manga, but it also created a franchise that more than three decades later is still bringing in millions of dollars a year.
Sailor Moon was originally created as a manga titled Hepburn: Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn which translated to Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon and was later translated as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon before finally being called Sailor Moon. The manga ran from 1991 to 1997 and was written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. The series first aired in Japan in 1992 and immediately found success among fans. When it hit Canadian and American screens in 1995, fans could not get enough. The series filled a hole that previous anime could not. In the 90s, anime was all the rage, but most series focused on strong male characters and the female characters were either love interests or supporting characters.
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Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were what most people thought of when they heard the word “anime”, so when Sailor Moon was released, it gave fans the same level of action as the series they had come to love but the protagonists were strong female characters. The show followed Usagi Tsukino who is a 14-year-old middle school student. She is known as a crybaby, but when she rescues a cat that is being mistreated, she is granted the ability to become a “Pretty Guardian” or “Sailor Scout”. She becomes Sailor Moon, and over the course of the show, she brings the other Sailor Scouts together. The group fights evil in the name of “justice and love”, and they do so with incredible costumes and gadgets. In 2014, fans got a big surprise when Sailor Moon Crystal was released. It is the same story as the original series, but it stays truer to the manga than the original series did.
Image Source: IMDb
Shōnen anime are those that are targeted at young adult male audiences and typically focus on action, adventure, and battles. Some of the most popular anime within this genre are Dragon Ball, Chainsaw Man, and Naruto. Shōjo anime are targeted at young adult female audiences and typically focus on romance, fashion, lifestyle, and relationships. Some of the most popular anime within this genre are Fruits Basket, Komi Can’t Communicate, and The Apothecary Diaries. In the 90s, when we first got Sailor Moon, blending these two genres simply wasn’t something that was done. You had action-packed storylines with male characters for the boys, and girls were given storylines that were cutesy and not meant to showcase strong female characters. In 2025, we have seen multiple anime series that have found unique ways to blend the different anime genres, and we have Sailor Moon to thank for that.
Sailor Moon has achieved something that no other anime has seemed to be able to do. Decades after it ended, there are still companies releasing new lines of products featuring the characters. Plushies, makeup, clothing, and jewelry are just a few of the items that we have seen released just in the last year, and fans are eating it up. While there is no denying the fact that many anime and manga series have huge fandoms, none of them compare to the size of the Sailor Moon fandom. In my opinion, this points to the massive impact that this series and its characters had on the world of anime and manga.
Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal are available to stream on Disney + and Hulu.
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