Who doesn’t love Sailor Moon? This peppy teen hero defeated evil and saved the world on more than one occasion with her crew of Sailor Soldiers and captivated young girls (and boys) with her inspirational wisdom and girl power mantras. She stole our hearts, educated us on the importance of exercise and studying, and was one of the most relatable animated characters for young girls in the nineties. Sailor Moon Crystal has also been doing the classic Sailor Moon justice and is super entertaining for now-adult fans, not just kids.
Even hardcore beloved fans of the show don’t know about these pretty interesting (and a little disheartening) facts about the franchise, the creator of Sailor Moon, and the characters within the original show. We put them all together for this list so you can brush up on your Sailor Moon history.
Check out 15 Things You Didn't Know About Sailor Moon.
15. Neptune and Uranus are gay and were intended to be gay
This is pretty much common knowledge nowadays, especially with the unapologetic depiction of Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus in Sailor Moon Crystal. But back in the day it was a little bit ambiguous.
In the manga and its translations, their same-sex relationship is clear. In the original Japanese-dubbed anime, there were enough euphemisms and underhanded comments and jokes from the pair that made the nature of their relationship clear, even if it wasn’t stark. In the English dubbed version of the anime, the dialogue between the two was completely changed and they were depicted as cousins instead.
Representation means everything to little LGBT kids growing up, so some legitimacy with their relationship could have helped a lot of American kids feel validated. This is a shame, but thankfully Sailor Moon Crystal is going to be different. It’s great that the makers of the new show have no problem taking Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus out of the fictional closet.
14. Luna is an alien (and not from the moon like Usagi)
It's true! In the original Sailor Moon manga, our favorite talking anime cats are actually aliens.
In Sailor Moon, Luna is Usagi's black guard cat and an advisor to the Sailor Scouts. Artemis, similarly, is another alien cat who belongs to Minako Aino (Sailor Venus). Luna served as Usagi's gateway into becoming Sailor Moon. In the manga, it is said that both Luna and Artemis are aliens from the planet Mau-- not the Moon, as we'd assume.
Little is known about the planet Mau, other than that its inhabitants are feline people who have dual forms-- talking cats and humans with cat-like attributes. The character Sailor Tin Nyanko is supposedly from Mau as well, as implied during Sailor Galaxia's galaxy siege. In the new Sailor Moon Crystal show, Luna's human form can be seen briefly. There is another cat in the manga named Diana who apparently did not come from the planet Mau and was born on Earth.
13. The show was inspired by The Power Rangers
In 1993, Han Saban's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became huge and was very well-received.
Sailor Moon's creator Naoko Takeuchi became inspired by the show's success and decided to write and draw her own version of a superhero team that was all female.
There's quite a bit of difference between Sailor Moon and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, though. While Naoko Takuechi's magical girl franchise had a target audience of young women and the team was powered by astral bodies, Han Saban's gang of costumed color-coded heroes were powered by dinosaurs and had a target audience that was mostly boys.
In an interview a while back, Naoki Takeuchi said herself that her goal was to make "a story like the 'Power Rangers' series [into] a girls' version, where the warriors go fighting upon the instructions from a Central Command Post. It didn't turn out that way, though. Of course, from this concept came 'Sailor Moon.'"
12. Sailor Venus is Cursed
"Protected by Venus, the planet of beauty, Guardian of Love, Sailor Venus! Allow me to punish you with the power of love!"
Sailor Venus, one of the five original Inner Sailor Scouts of the Solar System, is truly the Guardian of Love. She’s also one of the most badass characters in the Sailor Moon universe. It's a shame that she is cursed to never truly find the love she seeks to protect.
Before making her first appearance in the Sailor Moon manga, Sailor Venus, also known as Minako Aino, had her own manga called Codename: Sailor V. Thus, Sailor Venus is the first Sailor Scout to be awakened in the present. In her masked heroine drama, she fought a villain named Kaitou Ace. The Guardian of Love defeated him, but in Ace's final moments before death, he cursed her so that should she would never find true love. Poor Minako.
11. There was almost an American remake of the show
Sometimes Western remakes of Japanese cinema and animation can be really cool. This, we feel, would not have been. I mean, just look at the demo reel!
Thank goodness this adaptation never made it to television screens in the US. After a notably bad screening (we are all that guy laughing in the demo reel) and poor audience response, the project was dropped. The television show was supposed to be a mix of live-action and animation, which with all due respect could have been pretty neat. But the style of animation they chose, the goofy music, and the entirely non-Japanese cast of characters left a bad taste in the audience's mouths. It would be fairly easy to make a show about American girls who are secretly superheroes with directly making an adaptation of Sailor Moon, so why did they bother?
Let's just all enjoy the awesomely cheesy Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon to satisfy our need for a Sailor Moon live-action series.
10. Each Sailor scout had their own castle
The Sailor Scouts are living it up in outer space, it seems.
In the manga and most notably in Sailor Moon Crystal, we get to see Sailor Moon's Moon Castle in all its fancy marble glory. In the manga exclusively, however, each member of the Sailor Scouts (Inner and Outer) have their own personal luxurious mansion to live in. They even have their own names-- Mercury has Mariner, Venus has Magellen, Mars has Phobos Deimos, Jupiter has Io, Saturn has Titan, Uranus has Miranda, Neptune has Triton, and Pluto has Charon.
Since Sailor Moon Crystal is being fairly authentic and sticking to the original storylines in the manga, we may just get to see their castles on the show in all their extraterrestrial glory.
Not only are the Sailor Scouts living in luxury in the Solar System, but as human beings they lived pretty fancy too. Which leads us to our next entry...
9. Most of the Sailor Scouts were super well-off
Believe it or not, just about every Sailor Scout in Sailor Moon is pretty affluent in their human life.
The Juuban district in Tokyo is very much a real place. And it is a very wealthy area. Usagi's house is in this district and just looking at it says enough-- it is a two story home in an area where land is expensive and looks very well-made. Her father is a photographer for a newspaper, which can be a pretty well-paying job. Mako (Sailor Jupiter) is able to live on her own from what seems like a hefty inheritance from her deceased parents' life insurance. Not to mention, the mother of Ami (Sailor Mercury) is a doctor and they also live in the area.
However, this is never really talked about in the series, and there is some debate amongst fans on whether or not every member of the Sailor Scouts is wealthy.
8. All of the attacks are said in english
And no, we’re not just talking about the English dubbed version of the show.
Before every intense attack from either Sailor Moon or the other Sailor Scouts, the name of the attack is powerfully proclaimed and is accompanied by a flurry of bright colors, exciting lights, and typical magical girl visuals. In the original Japanese-language version of the show, all of the attacks are said in English while the rest of the show's dialogue is in Japanese. The Japanese love for saying English words probably comes from the fact that even though English probably sounds very boring and gunky to the native English speaker, it has sounds not usually found in the Japanese language and have an element of strangeness and fun to it. There's quite a bit of English in a lot of anime, whether it is because an English-speaking character is using the language or just because it sounds cool to Japanese audiences.
7. Usagi's family members are named after the creator’s family
This little fact about Sailor Moon's creator is just plain adorable.
Our favorite teenage Sailor Scout’s family members include her passionate mother Ikuko, her newspaper photographer father Kenji, and her goofball younger brother Shingo. All of these family members, including Usagi Tsukino herself, are named after Naoko Takeuchi's own real-life family members. Takeuchi hasn't revealed which name is based on which family member in order to preserve her family's privacy.
This act of basing characters on loved ones or family is actually really common. Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, named Homer, Marge, Maggie, and Lisa after his own parents and siblings. Bart is supposedly named after Groening himself as an anagram for his family nickname, "Brat". Stan Lee has even said that the Fantastic Four characters are all based on a few of his own family members, and Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) was based on Stan Lee himself.
6. Tuxedo Mask is a mess
This is pretty obvious to anybody that watched more than a handful of Sailor Moon episodes. However, it is an actual solid fact that Tuxedo Mask, the alter ego of Mamoru Chiba, has been both kidnapped and brainwashed more than any other character in the show's history.
This aspect of Sailor Moon is actually kind of cool. Tuxedo Mask is the only prominent male character in the series and he is also assuming the role of the "damsel in distress". In Sailor Moon, Usagi has to save his useless butt constantly-- out of any other character, Sailor Moon saves him the most.
Too often, superhero-based films and shows feature a lone female character whose primary role is nothing more than a plot device that the hero can save from danger. It's cool to see the roles reversed, but we're also glad that Tuxedo Mask isn't just a vapid character either. He's funny, tries his best to help, and genuinely loves his magical girl partner.
But seriously, get it together Tuxedo Mask.
5. Sailor Moon was almost made with pink/silver hair
This fact actually makes a lot of sense. I mean, how do you combine the blonde Usagi and the raven-haired Mamoru to make... a kid with pink hair?
Early designs for the Sailor Scouts showed some pretty big differences between the final look of all of the members, not just Sailor Moon. The most obvious one had to be Usagi's pastel pink hair. After that idea was trashed, she was designed as blonde while in her human form (Usagi) and silver-haired when in her magical girl form (Sailor Moon). Both original ideas were scrapped completely and Sailor Moon was designed as just plain blonde. Naoko Takeuchi claimed that the change to solely blonde made Sailor Moon stand out more when she was in the group. This doesn't make a ton of sense, especially because her blondeness makes her hard to distinguish from Sailor Venus at times. We would have loved the pink hair, but Takeuchi knows best!
4. Sailor Moon SuperS was almost a Uranus/Neptune movie
How cool would this have been? Sailor Moon Super S, also known as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S, was the name given to the fourth season of the original Sailor Moon anime series. Like the rest of the series, it was adapted from the manga. This season featured two story arcs-- the story of Chibiusa and Pegasus against the dreaded Dead Moon Circus, and the story of the villainous Amazoness Quartet.
Season four was just as fun as the rest of the Sailor Moon series, but apparently the spinoff Sailor Moon Super S movie that came out in 1995 was supposed to be based entirely on a story arc between Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. Kunihiko Ikuhara, the director of Sailor Moon S, tried to pitch an idea for the film that involved a focus shift to the two girls as they steal a talisman from Sailor Moon and try to awaken a Neptune god in a place called The End of the World. The producer apparently approved it, but it sadly never happened.
3. The show is the creator’s "one hit wonder"
This fact is kind of a bummer.
A few of Naoko Takeuchi's other works include Love Witch, Toki Meka!, Prism Time, and Miss Rain. However, none of these works have matched the hit that is Sailor Moon.
Naoko Takeuchi is clearly a talented manga artist, writer, and storyteller. It's a shame that since creating Sailor Moon over twenty years ago, she hasn't created another hit series. Takeuchi doesn't seem too worried about it, though. Not only is Sailor Moon still crazy popular, but the franchise continues to expand and pull in money.
Princess Naoko Takeuchi's Return-to-Society Punch!! is another work from Takeuchi about her life after Sailor Moon's success and details her career slump and recovery, as well as the story of how she met her husband and father of her children, fellow manga artist Yoshihiro Togashi. It's a heartwarming and genuine look into the often-enigmatic artist behind our favorite magical girl manga series.
2. Sailor Mercury was supposed to be a throwaway character
Sailor Mercury, also known as Ami Mizuno, was one of Princess Serenity's guardians and was the first Sailor Scout to join Sailor Moon. Ami as a character has a sharp, analytical mind and is considered the strategist of the group.
Apparently, Sailor Mercury was intended to be a throwaway character with little visibility or screen time. However, fans of the manga were singing her praises so intensely that Naoko Takeuchi decided to make her a more prominent character.
There's a ton of reasons why Sailor Mercury was so popular. In Japan, children liked her because she encouraged and influenced them educationally. She had a smart big sister role model vibe that Japanese children really liked. She was sort of the sweet, fun, kind nerd of the group that cared about things like reading, doing well in school, and learning. She even mentions in the original series that Albert Einstein "would be her ideal man."
1. Sailor Neptune is more special than you think
"Guarded by Neptune, planet of the deep blue sea. I'm the soldier of affinity, Sailor Neptune!"
Sailor Neptune, also known as Michiru Kaioh, is more special than you'd think. And not just because she's one of very few LGBT characters in the franchise.
Out of all the Sailor Scouts, Sailor Neptune was the only one that was able to awaken in her human form by herself. She's also one of the only Sailor Scouts to possess psychic abilities, other than Sailor Mars. Not to mention she's one of the only Sailor Scouts to not have her backstory of becoming a Guardian revealed in the manga or anime, other than her partner Sailor Uranus. Naoko Takeuchi also stated that Sailor Neptune is her polar opposite when it comes to personality.
Sailor Uranus gets little love for her character, but she does have the most unique qualities compared to the rest of the Sailor Scouts.
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Did we teach you anything new about Sailor Moon? Sound off in the comments!