Anime introduced in the 90s brought us some of the most popular and classics. There are a few like Cowboy Bebop, Dragon Ball Z, Trigun, and so much more. Thanks to the Cartoon Network programming Toonami, we were presented with those great anime. Another classic that has fascinated us is Sailor Moon. This magical girl show is about a fourteen-year-old girl named Usagi Tsukino, or Serena in the DiC localization, and when she found Luna, a talking cat, she is able to transform into the pretty guardian Sailor Moon.
This anime became one of the most insanely popular shows of all time, and with the reboot Sailor Moon Crystal still in the process, Sailor Moon will always be one of the recognizable anime that arrived here in the west. While it is an important anime, sometimes we cannot help but look at the issues the show has. We would scratch our heads and wonder how this or that makes sense.
Whether it is regarding logic or common sense, we notice that the issues might make us a bit annoyed with the characters, plots, or certain moments in the anime. It is not a crime to criticize an anime you love so much. In fact, it makes you love it more and know that not everything is perfect. Even with its flaws, Sailor Moon is still a beloved anime and will always be. Let’s take a look at some moments in Sailor Moon that we missed, but decided to ignore altogether.
25 Where’s The Resemblance?
After the defeat of Queen Beryl, Usagi and Mamoru go on a date, and as they kiss, a little girl with pink hair fell from the sky. We later find out that she is named Usagi, but we all call her Chibi-Usa, and she is the daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion. While it is an adorable moment since we get to see that in the future, Mamoru and Usagi will end up having a daughter, there are some things that are questionable.
Why does she have pink hair and red eyes?
The answer is actually simple. Concept art of Usagi was originally going to have her with pink hair, but since Usagi is blonde, it did not make the final cut. However, as a hidden reference, Chibi-Usa’s hair is pink instead.
24 Good Ol’ Switcheroo
The Outer Scouts are very powerful. There is Sailor Uranus, who is excellent with swordsmanship and has powers based on the sky and earth. Then there is Sailor Neptune, who can control the sea, and the two that will be talked about: Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn. Their powers are dangerous and very risky, with the former having the ability to control time, and the latter having powers revolving around destruction.
However, in the real world, their powers are sort of switched. With their planets being associated with Roman mythology, Saturn is more based on time and harvest while Pluto is associated with destruction and the underworld. Roman mythology can be confusing when compared to Greek mythology, but when it comes to Sailor Saturn and Sailor Pluto, you do not want to be their enemy.
23 Aren’t They Extinct?
Filler episodes in anime tend to drag the story a bit too much, but when the original writer of the manga is making more chapters to continue to the overall story, that is how filler is made. Sailor Moon is one of the many anime to have filler episodes, and even though they do not contribute to the main plot, some of them provide nice moments.
Filler would not be complete without a beach episode!
In the episode “The Ocean! The Island! A Vacation! A Break for the Sailor Senshi,” the Inner Scouts plus Chibi-Usa go to the beach to have a day off. Meanwhile, Chibi-Usa comes across an actual dinosaur. That moment in the episode got only weirder since as we all know, dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct. Chibi-Usa makes a lot of strange friends, doesn’t she?
22 How Times Have Changed
As much as we love the 90s for bringing us this amazing anime, times have changed and it shows today. 90s America was not ready to accept some controversial subjects, such as having a same-gender relationship. In the original version of Sailor Moon, Haruka and Michiru, known as Sailors Uranus and Neptune, are in a romantic relationship. Since Sailor Moon in America was aimed towards kids, they had to be introduced as cousins.
Yeah, because cousins are really that close.
Thankfully in the Viz Media dub, these two are back to being an awesome couple. In fact, it would not be a surprise if fans of the show who are of the LGBT community look up to these ladies for loving someone that would otherwise shun them. Today, we are relieved to have fans who can relate to Haruka and Michiru for who they are originally in the story of Sailor Moon.
21 Complete Character Change
Rei Hino, or Sailor Mars, is a very popular character in the manga and anime. In the show, she is boy-crazy, hotheaded, and has dreams of becoming a singer and get married. The manga and Crystal version of her is the complete opposite. Like the first anime adaptation, she is a Miko living with her grandfather, but she absolutely hates men, thanks to her father not being there for her and her mother when the latter passed away from illness.
Other than having a strong dislike of men, she is also cold and distant. But when she befriends Usagi and the others, she warms up eventually. It is strange to how she went through a major personality change, but whether you prefer her in the first anime or the manga/Crystal adaptation, Rei is still a cool Sailor Scout.
20 Any Relation?
Once again, filler in Sailor Moon usually drive us away from the plot of the story based on the manga, but there are hidden gems in some filler episodes. After the first season of the original anime, we are introduced to the villains Ali and An, aliens who are looking for an energy source to power up their tree which acts as their home.
Then we are introduced to Fiore in Sailor Moon R: The Movie. He greatly resembles Ali and An, but ironically, he never mentions them. Since they have similar clothing, hairstyles, and relations to plants, it is possible that they are related, but since Ali and An claimed to be the last of their kind, that leaves us to wonder how the continuity errors can go.
19 Eerily Looking Similar
It might sound silly, but there are some people who thought that Usagi and Minako are somehow related. They do both have blonde hair and blue eyes, but nope, they are not sisters or cousins. It is hard to argue that they still do kind of look alike. Before Sailor Moon became a huge hit, there was a prequel called Codename: Sailor V, centering around Minako and her adventures.
Because of that, Minako is actually the first ever Sailor Scout to be created.
When Naoko Takeuchi later began writing Sailor Moon, the intention of Sailor Venus’s character was to make sure that Sailor Moon is protected at all costs. Given this information, having these girls look similar is intentional, and Minako would serve as a decoy just in case Usagi were to be in danger.
18 The Strange Anatomy
The original anime will always be in the hearts of many Sailor Moon fans. The animation and art style was beautiful, the characters were people that can actually be relatable, and the idea of teenage girls saving the day made the show work. While there are moments that can be silly to the point that everyone will make fun of it, there are instances where we question the choices Toei Animation made when adapting the series.
If you live in the Sailor Moon universe, apparently you have a Dream Mirror inside of you. Appearing in the fourth season, Sailor Moon Super S, the point of the Dream Mirrors is to reside in humans who have the purest dreams. Looking back now, there were some strange choices made in making the first Sailor Moon anime.
17 Flawed Relationship
There are some memorable moments in the first anime that stand out, whether it being the transformation scenes or seeing Sailor Moon and the other Sailor Scouts save the day. From the manga, they were adapted fantastically. In some areas, there were parts that did not go so well, and we are talking about the relationship between Usagi and Mamoru.
In short, their relationship was revised terribly in the 90s adaptation.
They do end up falling in love and form an amazing relationship, but there were times of them fighting that was not needed. For example, in the second season where filler took over, Mamoru broke up with Usagi and was being a jerk towards her. Of course, they kiss and make up, but the fact still stands that the first adaptation of their relationship was not great. We can thank Sailor Moon Crystal for giving their romance true justice.
16 Continuity Errors At Its Finest
Like with some anime, there are chances of them having continuity errors, whether they are tied into the main story or not. Unfortunately, Sailor Moon is one of the victims to suffer from this. When it comes to the plot holes, they only are related to the first adaptation of the manga. In the Sailor Moon Super S movie, Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto arrive to help out Sailor Moon and the others.
It all sounds nice to have those three powerful Outer Scouts, right? Yes, but something is not right. Remember in Sailor Moon S where Uranus and Neptune were riding their helicopter, only to almost get offed from an explosion? Sailor Pluto sacrificed herself to give the two more time, and since then, Pluto went missing. Of course, she does come back, but during the events of the movie and fourth season, she was supposed to stay missing.
15 Something Just Seems Off About This Relationship
Whenever you pair up two people, whether it is canon or not, you get warm feelings when you think of them in a happy relationship. For Sailor Moon pairings, there are Usagi and Mamoru, Haruka and Michiru, and Luna and Artemis. Then there are pairings that should not have happened for a number of reasons.
Case in point: Naru and Nephrite’s relationship in the 90s anime.
Honestly, there was no point in making them form a relationship. Not only is it because Nephrite is paired up with Sailor Jupiter, but the idea of this girl dating someone who is probably in his mid-twenties is kind of red alert. The anime does have to do something different, but this part could have worked out completely different without the need to pair the two together.
14 A Tale Of Two Genders
Sailor Moon Stars being the series finale really went all out. The story took a mature turn as Usagi and her friends enter high school, and once Mamoru flies to America to study, his plane gets beamed. Sailor Galaxia is no joke when it comes to being a villainess. What she did before interfering with Sailor Moon eventually brought us the Sailor Starlights.
They are not bad characters, but what they do in the anime is rather unsettling. You see, they can transform into men, especially when disguising as humans. They did that in order to help Princess Kakyuu, but they also gained a lot of attention as a boy band. It breaks the rule of only females being Sailor Scouts, and you can bet that the creator, Naoko, was ticked off at the change.
13 What Happened To These Two?
Now we have mentioned earlier how impactful Haruka and Michiru are as a couple, especially for the LGBT community, but even these two are victims of horrible adaptation in the first Sailor Moon anime. For some reason, these two were more rude to the Inner Scouts because they thought that they were interrupting their mission.
In the manga and Crystal, they felt guilty for letting the Death Busters get near the inner part of the solar system since they are Outer Scouts and are supposed to protect any harm that comes near. In the original anime, they would even go so far as to let innocent people lose their lives in order to complete their mission, and that is something that did injustice to their characters.
12 What’s In The Letter?
Ami is the second Sailor Scout to be shown in the Sailor Moon series and is insanely popular due to being a great role model to kids who aim to study and work hard in school. If there is anything Ami is not good at, it would be the concept of love. In the anime special Ami’s First Love, Ami gets a love letter and amazingly comes down with a fever.
How can one get allergic to a love letter?
Given that Ami is more focused on school than her love life, she has never experienced the sensation of falling in love before, but it is strange for someone to be affected by a letter. Oh well, the short was sweet and harmless, so it does not need to be over-analyzed.
11 Wow, They Look So Familiar
Whenever you have a secret identity, it is your responsibility to make sure that you keep it safe from anyone that is not affiliated with your team. In the case of Sailor Moon, the logic behind that is thrown out the window. For us viewers, we are able to identify who the Sailor Scouts are since we watch them interact and fight.
For the people that know them in person and eventually see them in their alter egos just somehow do not recognize them. Even Naru couldn’t tell that it was Usagi when she saved her and her mother in the very first episode. At least Sailor Venus has a mask when she is Sailor V, but that does not help since when she joins the Sailor Scouts, she does not have it anymore.
10 Too Lazy
One of the first villains to be introduced in Sailor Moon was Queen Beryl. She declared war on the Moon Kingdom, which resulted in Queen Serenity using the Silver Crystal to let everyone be revived to live their lives in peace on Earth. Knowing that the Moon Princess was somewhere on Earth, she relies on the four generals, especially Jadeite, to do the job.
Why couldn’t she just do it herself?
Granted, she does somewhat do something, but for most of the first season, all she does is sit on her throne and gaze into her crystal ball. In fact, she was probably aware that Mamoru, who was Prince Endymion, resided there too and could have captured him earlier. A queen like her was probably too good to do all the dirty work.
9 It’s Not A Shock, Guys
When danger arose in the first season of Sailor Moon, Luna was responsible to find the Sailor Scouts and bring them together to stop the forces of Queen Beryl’s future threats. Along the way, they would also have to find the princess from the Moon Kingdom. Now by reading that summary, you can already tell who it is. Ding, ding, ding! It’s no other than Sailor Moon!
Literally, everyone in the show was surprised!
It only takes deduction skills to figure out that Usagi is the reincarnation of Princess Serenity. It is baffling how the others could not figure out that since she is Sailor Moon, she is more than likely the princess of the Moon Kingdom. Predictable plot twist that made us facepalm ourselves? Check.
8 Easter Egg Or Continuation Error?
Even though Sailor Moon is the bigger story, Codename: Sailor V still came first when it comes to publication and timeline standards. In the first episode of Sailor Moon, we see Usagi looking at a poster of Sailor V as she wishes she can be her. Since she admires her, it makes sense for Usagi to wish she could have her life.
Something about that seems fishy. Now it is true that Minako took up the mantle as Sailor V elsewhere, but it is weird how there is a video game revolving around her. While it does seem too good to be true, there were intentions. First off, it was created by Artemis, and whoever plays the game actually helps Minako train to use her powers. Confusing? Most likely, but it is pretty cool.
7 She Has The Power, Why Not Use It?
The abilities Sailor Moon can use are extremely powerful but surprisingly beneficial. With her Silver Crystal, she can cleanse people if they are under the influence of evil, heal them, and bring back memories to those who lost them. Another power that is very valuable is reviving or reincarnate people who have passed on. Queen Serenity used that power in the very beginning of the Sailor Moon story, and it served its purpose greatly.
How come Sailor Moon herself doesn’t use that power to her advantage?
There were some characters that did not deserve to have their lives cut short, and it saddens us that Sailor Moon has the power to bring people back to life, but she does not use it on certain people. Who are the people exactly?
6 Please Bring Them Back
As mentioned in the previous entry, there are some characters in the story that should have been brought back to life. Firstly, there are the four generals of Earth: Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite. They are important characters who happened to serve Prince Endymion before the war between the Moon and the Earth Kingdom broke out. They were even in love with Princess Serenity’s guardians, that being the four Inner Scouts.
Two more men also should have been revived: Prince Demande and Saphir. These two were serving under Wiseman, who had evil motives of his own. When they realized it was too late, their lives were cut short. Sure, Demande was in love with Sailor Moon, but he was never truly evil, to begin with, along with his brother. It is wishful thinking, but having these characters alive would have spared us the heartbreak.
