Sailor Moon (series)

Corrected spelling of Anne as per DIC VHS Sailor Moon, known in Japan as Pretty Soldier Sailormoon or Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン), is a Japanese multimedia franchise series which originated as a manga written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi.

Science fiction and fantasy historian, Fred Patten and journalist Paul Gravett, credited Sailor Moon for popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and resurrecting the magical girl genre. Sailor Moon redefined the magical girl genre, as previous magical girls did not use their powers to fight evil, but this has become one of the standard archetypes of the genre.

In 1995, the rights for Sailor Moon were purchased by DiC Entertainment and aired September 11, 1995 on the UPN Network. The series ran for one and half seasons (Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R) before its cancellation sometime in December 1995. In January 1997, General Mills agreed to syndicate the Sailor Moon English dub through The Program Exchange. It was later purchased by the USA Network in 1997 and aired until Spring 1998. Cartoon Network later purchased the rights to Sailor Moon in 1998 and the series premiered June 1, 1998 on the television block, Toonami. The remainder of Sailor Moon remained on air for five years before Cartoon Network pulled the series from their line up in July 2002 and lost the broadcast rights May 2003. On May 31, 2004, General Mills' license to syndicate Sailor Moon expired and was never renewed.

Protagonists

 * Sailor Moon/Serena Tsukino
 * Sailor Mercury/Amy Anderson
 * Sailor Mars/Raye Hino
 * Sailor Jupiter/Lita Kino
 * Sailor Venus/Mina Aino
 * Tuxedo Mask/Darien Shields
 * Rini/Sailor Mini Moon

Antagonists

 * Queen Beryl
 * The Negaforce
 * Alan and Anne
 * Prince Diamond
 * Wiseman / the Doom Phantom
 * Doctor Tomoe / Germatoid
 * Mistress 9
 * Pharaoh 90
 * Zirconia
 * Queen Nehelenia

Supporting characters

 * Luna
 * Artemis
 * Sailor Uranus / Amara
 * Sailor Neptune / Michelle
 * Sailor Pluto / Trista
 * Diana

English Localization


The English localization of both the Sailor Moon manga and anime series became the first successful shōjo title in the United States. Although anime started arriving in the US as early as the 60s, it's Sailor Moon that really paved way for other anime, like ' and ', to become equally or more successful. The first English localization of Sailor Moon attempted to capitalize on the success of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

After a bidding-war between Toon Makers, who wanted to produce a half live-action and half American-style cartoon version, and DIC Entertainment, DiC — then owned by The Walt Disney Company, — Optimum Productions and later The Program Exchange acquired the rights to the first two seasons of Sailor Moon, from which they cut a total of six episodes (five from the first season and one from the second season) and merged the final two episodes of the first season into one.

Editors cut each of the remaining episodes by several minutes to make room for more commercials, to censor plot points or visuals deemed inappropriate for children, and to allow the insertion of educational segments called "Sailor Says" at the end of each episode. The second season, named Sailor Moon R in Japan, was dubbed solely as Sailor Moon with the "R" removed from the logo.

The English adaptations of Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon Super S, produced by Optimum Productions and Cloverway, stayed relatively close to the original Japanese versions, without skipping or merging any episodes. Some controversial changes were made, however, such as the depiction of Sailors Uranus and Neptune as cousins rather than lesbian lovers.

Toei never licensed the fifth and final series, Sailor Stars, for localization into English. In 2004, the rest of the media franchise officially went off the air in all English-speaking countries due to lapsed and unrenewed licenses.

Viz Media's Sailor Moon dub
On May 16, 2014, North American manga and anime distributor Viz Media announced that they acquired the rights to the entire Sailor Moon series, as well as the three films and specials for a new English-language release in North America.

They began streaming the series on Neon Alley and Hulu in the United States on May 19, 2014 and released the first unedited, remastered and bilingual Blu-ray and DVD set, containing 13 episodes in Fall 2014. Similarly sized season sets followed in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The same year, Viz Media announced that they would produce an English localization for Sailor Moon Crystal.