Sailor Moon is one of the most popular anime ever created. Practically the mascot for the “magical girl” genre, the series is a mixture of the transformations and monster-of-the-day bullet points of Power Rangers, but with a fully-female team of fighting girls as the heroes and some wonderfully fleshed out characters, villains and subplots.

Along with Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon's original dub was one of the pioneering shows to make anime mainstream in Western world, and Sailor Moon has become nothing short of an immensely popular phenomenon to this day, with both old and new fans.

In fact, the series is so gargantuan and beloved that it's recently been rebooted and remade, along with having countless spin-offs including Broadway-style stage musicals, arcade games, toys, live-action television shows and so much more.

Part of the show’s popularity can be attributed to its fantastic cast and, while many of them are iconic in their own right, it’s the talking cat duo of Artemis and Luna that are the most recognizable.

These two cats have been through thick and thin, advising the Sailor Scouts throughout their many trials and tribulations, and the two have rightfully earned their reputation as being synonymous with the franchise.

Despite this, there are many mysteries regarding these felines, and we’re going to tackle them with our list of 19 Secrets About Luna And Artemis’ Relationship!

They're Not From Earth, Or The Moon

While both Luna and Artemis appear as standard, earthbound house cats (aside from their moon crests and ability to speak) they’re not from Earth. They’re also shown to have a long history on the moon, but that was not their point of origin either.

The truth is that Artemis and Luna hail from the planet Mau, far off in the cosmos.

Mau even had its own Sailor Scout, but she was tragically destroyed by Sailor Galaxia’s dreaded Shadow Galactica, and her powers were stolen and repurposed for use by the enslaved warrior, Sailor Tin Nyanko.

Little else is known about Mau, as it was only mentioned in the manga, never appearing in the original animated adaptation or any other spin-off, remake, interpretation or notes.

If Sailor Moon ever goes through another reboot (one that is hopefully superior to the often abysmal Sailor Moon Crystal, despite its stricter adherence to the original manga) it would be an interesting and rather captivating idea to visit more of the locales that are only briefly mentioned or touched upon in the current works, including Mau.

Sailor Moon has a lot of good things going for it in all of its interpretations and incarnations, but its world building isn’t always up to snuff.

Revisiting Mau (among other places) would be a great start to creating a far more refined universe for the series.

They Had Their Genders Reversed

Luna and Artemis names connected

For fans of the original Japanese version of Sailor Moon, along with the numerous English versions, the genders of Luna and Artemis have been pretty obvious, with Luna clearly being a female and Artemis being distinctly male.

This intent was carried over through countless other dubs, and rightfully so, but on two occasions, these rather obvious character traits were mixed-up and reversed, even to the point where the dub team had to correct their mistake.

In the Portuguese dub, Artemis was changed to a female and given the name “Artemisa” to reflect it, and Luna became a male.

Even more bizarre is the French dub, which claimed Artemis was a female, only to realize their mistake later in the run, and started to refer to him as a male, hoping people would simply forget their initial misstep.

These sort of dubbing and localization mistakes are always interesting, because one really needs to wonder as to how the decisions came about in the first place.

Notoriously, the Japanese dub of Beast Wars: Transformers switched character genders and roles around, although it seems like it was an intentional decision to go along with the intended tonal shift.

As for how and why the Portuguese and French Sailor Moon dub teams made their own errors, it’s likely we’ll never know.

They Have An Odd Relationship With Toys

With the popularity of the Sailor Moon series as intense as it is, it made perfect sense to expand from the original manga and anime, branching off into spin-offs, musicals and, most importantly, merchandise.

There are countless role-play toys, Sailor Scout dolls and other items available, all based on, or bearing the likeness of, fans’ favorite characters.

With the two talking cats being icons of the franchise and beloved by fans, they, too, made the jump into merchandise.

There are plushies, dolls, super-deformed figures, key-chains, coffee mugs, pillows and countless other cute things to own and proudly show off to the unconfirmed.

In a weird twist of capitalist fate, though, these two, cool, chatty cats literally became merchandise within the actual universe of the show.

For one, the future-hailing Rini, also known as Chibiusa, has a ball-like toy bearing Luna’s image. It has a slew of exceptional features, like being able to contact Sailor Pluto or transforming into tools for the youth to use.

As for the second, and most curious, implementation of the chatty cats as toys, was within the live-action series where, instead of using real cats or realistic puppets to portray the felines, they were simply retconned to be living toys.

Luna's Personality Was Heavily Altered

Sailor Moon Crystal - Luna

While the original English dub of Sailor Moon is highly praised for shattering the barrier between anime and the Western world, and also holds a nostalgic place in the hearts of many fans, it has come under fire for its comparably inaccurate interpretation of the original source material.

It omitted and altered multiple sequences and even entire episodes (some of which were so intensely cut that they were spliced together into a single piece) and heavily localized the dialogue to be more in tune with the West’s 90s culture, meaning lots and lots of wacky slang.

One of the major casualties in this immense localization effort was Luna, whose personality was rather severely altered and reinterpreted for Western audiences, with seemingly little-to-no reasoning behind the change.

Luna, who is originally presented to be a young but mature voice of reason, is given the personality of an older, motherly woman in the dub.

While this change soured a faction of fans of who prefer a “pure,” unaltered translation, there’s still an enormous swath of Sailor Moon fans who will forever have the English-accented Luna as their personal canon.

Even if the change does seem a little bizarre in retrospect, it’s hard not to get behind the spirited performance of Jill Frappier, who really gave the role her all, creating a memorable and lovable character in the process, despite the changes.

Artemis' Personality Was Also Tweaked

Artemis was voiced by the same people who did L from Death Note and Hurly from Lost

In the first English dub of Sailor Moon, there was a concentrated localization effort. First and foremost was censorship.

Scenes of above average intensity or violence were trimmed down or cut out all together, including the some major characters being destroyed, like demises of the Sailor Scouts at the end of the first season.

Secondly, the scripts were given a coating of extreme 90s ‘tude. Characters would spout slang that seemed so commonplace during the decade, but were never actually spoken by anyone other than television characters. The word “creepazoid” comes to mind.

Although this reinterpretation of the material was the impetus for a bitter schism within the Sailor Moon fan circles, with some loathing the departures from the source material, and others accepting it and moving on, it’d be foolhardy to claim that the changes, no matter how preposterous in hindsight, were anything short of a success.

Localizing the show so heavily almost assuredly played a huge part in Sailor Moon’s ultimate victory: the building of a sturdy bridge between the West and Japan’s now-beloved anime exports.

Regardless, the controversial changes made to Luna were the most egregious to hardcore fans, so they were pleased that Artemis was treated much better.

It’s strange, though, because his seemingly minor changes weren’t necessarily due to the dub, but rather his transition from the manga to the anime, in general.

In the anime, he’s a goofy try-hard, but the manga has him as a sarcastic, harsh and sometimes unfeeling companion.

They May Have Appeared In That Weird Toon Makers, Inc. Version

Before Sailor Moon’s initial dub made it to the West and lit the fire of the quick-spreading anime revolution, Toon Makers, Inc. and Bandai had different plans.

Haim Saban, the man behind the adaptation of tokusatsu and Super Sentai into Power Rangers, Beetleborgs and VR Troopers, had proven the potential for hybridized import shows to become meteoric successes, and the blood was in the water for the next big thing.

Instead of a simple dub, this version of Sailor Moon would be partially live action with an English-speaking cast, and would then transition to an animated world, presumably for battles.

The designs of the characters were altered and Westernized, deviating immensely from the source material, but it appears that Artemis made the cut-- or perhaps it was Luna?

Only one white cat was seen in the footage, and it’s been theorized that perhaps the producers wanted to combine the two felines into one for ease of production.

Perhaps one day we’ll get a clean look at… whatever this thing was, but the best footage we have available at the moment is a grainy, handheld camera’s take from some convention in the early '90s.

Truth be told, this undesirable viewing experience, and the awful material it was showcasing, makes the entire saga even more intriguingly odd.

Their Family Has Meaningful Names

Luna and Artemis with daughter Diana

The cat-advisors to the Sailor Scouts were known as Luna and Artemis. Both names conjure images of space, stars and, in Luna’s case, the moon.

This was an excellent touch considering the iconography and settings of the manga and series, but the cool factor is even higher if we look below the surface.

Luna is literally the latin word for “moon,” and in the modern tongue, we use the word “lunar,” derived from “luna,” to discuss things such as the moon’s orbit.

One last fun fact is that the Brazilian Portuguese dub altered Luna’s name to “Lua,” which is the Brazilian word for “moon.”

Not to let space references be specifically with Luna, Artemis’ name is the same as the goddess of the hunt in Greek Mythology, who is often associated with the moon.

Then there is Diana, the future lovechild between the two cats. Diana is named for the Roman goddess of the hunt, who went on to replace Luna as the moon goddess.

It’s always cool to see subtle-yet-meaningful Easter eggs like this in any kind of media, but these are especially fitting considering the subject matter of the show and how big a role this family of talking cats plays in the entire mythos.

They Were Both Advisors To Queen Serenity

In the series, we get to see a lot of Luna and Artemis on Earth. For quite awhile, the series focused exclusively on Luna and her guidance of Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury, acting as sort of a wizened guide.

She would give them advice, weapons, and items that they needed to continue their fight against the Negaverse.

As the series progressed, we were introduced to Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus, the latter of whom had her own cat companion, Artemis.

The two cats, despite their bickering, were instrumental in guiding the Scouts throughout their many battles, but it wasn’t the first time they had acted in a similar role.

Far back in the past, they were actually the advisors to Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom, before and during Queen Beryl’s apocalyptic assault.

No wonder they’re so good at their job: they’ve had years of practice.

While we learn enough about the events that occurred before Sailor Moon’s first season, it would fantastic get a full-on prequel series where we can delve into life on the Moon, at the height of its power and glory.

Here we see Luna and Artemis truly living out their duties as Queen Serenity’s advisors while she deals with her daily life of running the kingdom along with the growing threat of the Negaverse.

They Have A Daughter Together

While this may not be a surprise to long time fans of the Japanese series, manga or other entries in the franchise, the implied relationship between Artemis and Luna becomes un-obscured and thrust directly into the forefront with the revelation of Diana, a grey cat from the future.

Clearly a mix between Luna’s black and Artemis’ white fur, Diana is their daughter from the future.

For fans of the original dub, the series never progressed to the point where Diana was revealed, only debuting in Sailor Moon SuperS, the fourth season of the anime (although far earlier in the manga.)

While Cloverway, the US Branch of Toei, did eventually dub it, but by then, fans who would have been interested had moved on, or had migrated to subtitled versions.

Diana herself is an adorable, if not redundant, addition to the supporting cast and, with her expanded role in the manga, was close friends with Sailor Pluto, for whom she would guard the Space-Time Door when Sailor P entered the fray against the Black Moon Clan.

It’d be an exciting adventure for a future sequel series to show us a fully grown-up Diana acting as an advisor to a new generation of Sailor Scouts, taking the place of her mother and father as the beloved mascot of the series and as a critically important voice of reason for the Senshi.

Their Daughter Was Almost... A Fairy!?

Diana is such a cute character, and with parents like Artemis and Luna, it’s hard not to adore her, too. It’s rather strange in the long run, though, since Diana was almost some kind of little fairy rather than a cat. And maybe not even a relative of the two.

According to notes and a sketch within the "Materials Collection Artbook" by series creator Naoko Takeuchi, there was a creature named Moon Fairy Diana, and she was to be part of a trio including herself, Luna and Artemis.

She has a personality not unlike Serena/Usagi (including a similar relationship with Luna) but that’s all that’s really known.

In the artwork, she floats between Luna and Artemis, seemingly getting in the way of the two’s affections.

It’s easy to theorize that this character, or at least her name, was eventually developed into the Diana we know and love, but whether or not she was ever meant to be a relative to the cats, or a long-term partner, is still a mystery.

If we’re lucky, perhaps Naoko Takeuchi will one day grant us a “what-if” one-off manga or anime special detailing an alternate version of Sailor Moon, based on her earliest ideas and notes.

It was not unlike the comics series of “The Star Wars,” which adapts George Lucas’ original concepts for Star Wars before they were rewritten and refined into the product we know and love today.

Artemis And Luna Have A Strained Romance

Luna and Artemis are killed

While Luna hogged the spotlight for a meaty chunk of Sailor Moon’s first season, the eventual introduction of Artemis shook things up fairly considerably.

With much of the show’s subplots involving crush’s, puppy love, and trying to find boyfriends (like the hunky arcade employee, Andrew) it was only natural for devoted viewers to wonder if the male and female cats were going to fall for eachother.

Well, if Diana, their future daughter, is any indication, then they certainly do. Alas, things aren’t exactly all sunshine and happiness, and we’re not just talking about the constant bickering and lover’s quarrels.

Artemis, at least in the manga, appears to have a crush (or perhaps more) on Mina, which could certainly lead to some complications with Luna.

Worse yet, when Diana appears, it’s believed she is the result of Artemis having an affair with another woman… or cat. Or whatever. Regardless, an affair is an affair, and it’s never a good thing, cat or otherwise.

Thankfully, this is not the case, even if it wasn’t obvious at first, but the fact that it was even considered as a possibility by Luna reveals that perhaps Artemis wasn’t always as loyal as he should have been, which adds a rather uncomfortably dark layer to Artemis’ character.

Luna Fell In Love With A Human... Or Two

Luna falls for a human

On the subject of affairs and tearing relationships apart, Artemis isn’t the only cat to have strayed (pun intended.)

Sure, Luna was crushed when Diana was revealed, as she immediately thought that the her white counterpart would have deviated from his love to her. And she’d probably be angry to know that Artemis had (or has?) feelings for Mina.

Due to her obvious sadness, jealousy, and suspicion, you’d think that she was innocent. However, maybe all of those feelings manifested because of a guilty conscience.

In “Kaguya-hime no Koibito,” a short story in a volume of the original manga (and the Sailor Moon S movie's adaptation of the tale), Luna develops feelings for an astronomer named Kakeru Ozora after he saves her from being hit by a car.

She’s crushed to discover that he has a girlfriend, and is only able to pine for him until she is transformed into a human form, Princess Kaguya.

While Kakeru is lost in a blizzard, Kaguya saves the man and the two kiss. After this dalliance, she reverts to cat form and reunites with Artemis. Classy.

She’d also develop feelings for Yaten in SailorStars, though things never get as far as they did with Kakeru.

Despite this, though, Luna and Artemis seem destined to be together, and they’ve likely remained happily together ever since.

Luna Picks On Artemis A Lot

Luna was nearly white

Luna and Artemis, famed talking cats, advisors to moon queens and planet-saving women in sailor costumes, and mascots of the franchise are rightfully beloved and favorites among the Sailor Moon fanbase.

They’re also lovers, having a daughter together, and a long, possibly troubled history. Despite those “historical” road bumps, the two behave like a long-time married couple.

Specifically in how Luna constantly teases, picks on, and humiliates Artemis at nearly any chance she can get.

Whether it’s the manga, the original or English dubs, or even Sailor Moon Crystal, Luna just can’t keep her paws, claws and sharp words away from the doofy Artemis, disparaging him like it’s as simple as breathing.

To be fair, Artemis gets in a few solid jabs at his black cat counterpart, but those retaliations are few and far in-between her constant barrages of jokes at his expense.

It’s all kind of cute, though.

It just proves how well the two know each other, how well they work together, and how much they care about one another.

They’re incredibly comfortable together, and never take anything too personally.

In many ways, it’s an ideal relationship: freedom to tease your partner without major consequences, and knowing that they’ll eventually get you back with a well-deserved burn.

Diana Is The Only Talking Cat Not From Mau

As a refresher for our first entry on this list, Artemis and Luna are not your typical house cats, and we’re not just talking about the fact that they can speak.

Both members of the dynamic feline duo hail from the planet Mau, which is somewhere deep in space.

Sadly, there is incredibly little information regarding this location, other than the fact that it was destroyed by the Shadow Galactica and that it had its own Sailor Scout.

It’s pretty wild to think that a planet beyond Earth could develop life forms that greatly resembled our own breed of cats, but Sailor Moon doesn’t really have a great track record with alien species that deviate too far from the common visage of humankind.

Though plenty of lingering questions exist about Mau, such as how Luna and Artemis found themselves serving the supreme royalty of the moon, Queen Serenity, in our own solar system, it’s likely we’ll never learn the hows or whys, which is a major bummer.

Despite this, we do have one cool nugget, and that’s the fact that Diana is the only cat of her specific species to not originally hail from Mau.

She’s a true citizen of our solar system, and the only one of her kind.

Artemis Is Luna's Professional Superior... Sort Of

Artemis is Game Machine

The start of Sailor Moon’s first season is rather mysterious.

We have a basic understanding of the world and the characters, an idea of what drives the villains and who they are, but so much is left to the imagination (unless you’re watching the English dub, which happily reveals the origins of just about everything within the opening minutes.)

One of these early mysteries is “Central Control,” or the “Game Machine.” A character exclusive to the anime, this entity is contacted through a game at the local arcade by Luna.

When contacted, he would offer advice or technology to further Luna and the Scout’s goals.

Of course, there was no “Central Control” (well, the dub is kind of iffy on that, to be honest) as it was really just Artemis acting like the Wizard of Oz within the machine.

Despite this, it seems that he had some authority and knowledge that Luna didn’t, so it’s possible he had a higher rank in the Moon Kingdom.

Another interesting tidbit is that it seems likely that Artemis was able to recover more of a solid chunk of memories than Luna in the early days of their adventures on Earth.

Whether this was by chance or by design is another question entirely, but with this apparent advantage, it seems about right that he’d pose as an authority figure, whether he actually was one in the past or not.

Till Their Ends Did They Part

The Sailor Moon series may occasionally be criticized for being silly or preposterous, with its overly emotional teenage girl antics.

Of course, that criticism is entirely without base because, if you’ve actually seen the show for longer than a glance, then you’d know how dark and troubling things often get.

We have legions of incredibly well-rounded, relatable villains. We have genuinely touching love plots that end in tragedy. We also have character demises-- lots of demises. Main characters, side characters, no one is safe.

Sadly, this point is violently driven home with Luna, Artemis, and their young daughter, Diana.

During Sailor Galaxia’s saga in the manga, one of her servants, Sailor Lethe, wants to demoralize Sailor Moon, and she chooses the cruelest way possible: the passing of her longtime friends (and also really cute cats).

Of course, this horrifying experience is eventually undone, but it still stung to see them be destroyed, and together as a family no less.

Yeah, it was pretty painful to watch the Sailor Scouts be destroyed one by one, or see premonitions of their passings, and it left an impact on many fans. Perhaps even more legendary (and touching) was Nephlite’s destruction as a traitor of the Negaverse after falling in love with Molly.

However, for some reason, seeing these innocent cats so callously terminating is the apex of soul-crushing sadness in likely the entirety of the Sailor Moon franchise.

Both Were Shunned In The Musicals

Luna in the sera myu

 Sailor Moon is huge. It was huge worldwide, for sure, but in its homeland of Japan? Well, “huge” doesn’t begin to describe it. Perhaps “gigantic” or “colossal” would be adjectives better suited to the task.

Not only was the anime and manga devoured as quickly as they could be produced, but the series spawned merchandise, but also some live-action spin-offs shows and even stage musicals.

Considering that Luna and Artemis are some of the most, if not the most recognizable characters and icons in the franchise, you’d think that they’d get some time to shine in the lavish musicals, right? Wrong.

For some reason, the two cats are practically non-existent, appearing in only one these spectacles, and then being shunned for the rest of entries.

It’s such a wild thought that these critical, central characters, who are arguably the glue that holds each and every saga together, would be the ones to get cut.

Why not some one-dimensional characters instead? Or maybe it was a matter of the perception that audiences would have a hard time taking people portraying cats seriously.

Yeah, people playing talking cats is absurd, but so is everything else in the show. If Spongebob can successfully cram his weirdness into something believable on stage, Luna and Artemis deserve another shot.

They Aren't Really Cats

Luna, Artemis and Diana as humans

For anyone with even a minimal understanding of Sailor Moon, they’d probably be able to pick out the cats with the moon crests on their heads, hanging out and talking with the humans.

Beyond that, they’re vitally important characters, who play major roles in the background of every season, giving much-needed advice and offering meaningful support, plus they’re hysterically written, which is like icing on the cake.

They’re almost like mascots for the series, and their iconic cat-looks are easily identifiable.

The thing is, though, they’re not really cats.

They’re from the planet Mau, and they are aliens that have the ability to change into human form if necessary, albeit briefly.

This is yet another weird aspect of the franchise that isn’t explored adequately, and does little to actively build the world that houses the franchise.

It’s such a strange detail and concept that you’d think there would be some genuinely major devotion to it, but nope, you’re just expected to accept that Luna and Artemis have this ability, and deal with it.

So for all the time countless fans have spent loving these cuddly cats, they’re actually weird little humans in disguise, like Transformers, but far less mobile and with far less utility-- and with no Decepticons to hunt them down, or any real reason to be in disguise.

However, that’s all beside the point, we suppose.

They Are Responsible For Saving The Cosmos

Yeah, okay, the Sailor Scouts did the heavy lifting throughout the series. You’ll hear no argument from us. They managed to beat villain after villain, trained to become exquisite fighters, saved the present, past and future of Earth and beyond, and are great examples of heroes.

However, do you know who allowed for any of that to happen in the first place? Artemis and Luna.

Without these feline compatriots, who would have delivered the pens and locket needed to transform? Who would have been able to instruct the Scouts on how to use them? What about brief them on who they were up against and how to deal with the threat?

Imagine if Luna had been captured or destroyed by those bullies she’s saved from in the first season? Would Sailor Moon ever have awakened? Would Artemis even be able to find her?

Without these cats and their wisdom, there would be no Sailor Scouts. No one would have awakened. No one would have risen to the challenge of the Negaverse, Queen Beryl and the Negaforce.

Even if Earth somehow survived this threat, how would they handle the next? And the one after that?

Without Artemis and Luna, there would be no cosmos, and there would be no Earth.

These cats are owed everything.

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Can you think of any other interesting facts about Sailor Moon's Luna and Artemis? Do you know any secrets about their relationship? Sound off in the comments!