Naoko Takeuchi

It's not like I wasn't familiar with this plot. I read the entire series back in its first English incarnation, and while that was hardly the gold standard of Japanese-to-English translation, the story itself came through. But it's only on rereading it in this edition, years later, that I'm realizing what a little bloodbath this series is, all wrapped up in romance and silver crystals. Oddly, the high death toll never seems to faze our heroines, which annoys me a bit. No, I never expected a show more dark angst-ridden story and it wouldn't fit this genre anyway. But the way the girls have no long-term effects from either the violence they suffer or that they inflict seems as magical and fantastical as their being reincarnated planetary princesses accompanied by talking cats.

But on to other matters. The Dark Kingdom story arc wraps up fairly satisfactorily and the Black Moon arc begins. The Black Moon arc has its faults—I'm still not wild about how time-compressed events can feel in this series—but overall, it seems like Takeuchi was finding her balance and things flow better in this arc. The dialogue seems clunky in spots; I'm not sure if that's because of the translation or if it sounds stilted in Japanese as well. Wow, I'd forgotten about Chibi-Usa's gun scene. The original manga was published in the 1990's in a country without much in the way of gun violence, and I know that, but it's now impossible for me to read that scene without thinking of real-life incidents with worse outcomes. Context is everything, I suppose. show less

Typical nutso plot, cheesy action and romance and characters I love. This is where chibi grows up for a bit and becomes sexy and evil and makes out with Mamo, who is her future dad, but he's not her dad yet, so maybe it's not supposed to be creepy? But it's fuckin creepy lol. And the bad guy is wise man, but nemesis, but death phantom, but actually a vengeful spirit controlling an entire planet? Who the hell knows. This manga is a soap opera on crack full of teen girls with legs for days. So show more much fun lol. Forever nostalgic. Glad we got more of my girl Pluto in this one too. Also there are 2 shorts at the end (previously part of 2 extra volumes that were dedicated to shorts) to break up the main plot. Can't wait for the next special edition! show less

There’s so much winking in this volume! ;)

Believe it or not, I have never read/watched Sailor Moon (and yet I know how utterly annoying Chibusa is, so, when I saw volume 1 at the library, I thought it was time to read what’s considered to be one of the GOAT (shoujo) mangas. The artwork is so BEAUTIFUL! I love the big eyes, the frills, and the fashion! I don’t have nostalgia glasses on, but this was pretty cute. I see the appeal.

The dashing Tuxedo Mask kissing a drunk, out-of-it Usagi show more is not cute in 2021 despite how utterly pretty the scene looks.

3.5 show less

I love how when new scouts are introduced to the group, they don't really try to explain who they are or why they showed up, so they're kind of viewed as enemies. It happened with the outer scouts and in this volume we meet the star lights, who are (I think) women who spend their days disguised as a boy band. They know who Sailor Moon is and that they are there to assist her, but rather than explain that right away, they spend half the book shrouded in mystery, leading the scouts to view show more them as enemies. As always, the magic system makes no sense and everyone is always getting new powers willy-nilly. Love it. show less