She fights evil by moonlight and wins love by daylight. Sailor Moon helped brought anime into the mainstream thanks to Cartoon Network’s Toonami. Created by Naoko Takeuchi, this magical girl manga turned anime series has inspired many other shows as well as brought timeless characters. The franchise spawned eighteen original volumes, five seasons, a number of musicals, a live-action series, and an anime remake currently in progress. Even though it is a shoujo, which is a manga or anime aimed at a female demographic, guys have also taken a liking to the series. It is certainly a romantic, but thrilling franchise.
Throughout the story of Sailor Moon, a lot of dark things happen, but there are also some secrets that have been kept hidden for those who have seen Sailor Moon in a different localization. Whether it has to do with the fate of the characters or how the show was viewed in America during the 90s, it still left an impact on fans who grew up with the show. But still, these facts make us question how we view the characters or how that Sailor Moon became a legacy that it was offered for adaptations outside of Japan. Some events that occur in the manga differ from the anime, but with the reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal, there are some scenes that you might have never witnessed before!
You better be ready for some interesting trivia, because here are twenty-five facts you did not know about the show Sailor Moon!
25 They Are Not Cousins?!
Yeah, yeah, this one is a given. However, it is still a fascinating fact. In the original Japanese dub, Michiru Kaioh and Haruka Tenoh, also known as Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, were in a romantic relationship together, and a cute and wonderful one at that! When the third season, Sailor Moon S, first came to America, they were introduced as cousins.
Well, cousins do not really get that close in most cases.
While any references of them being a couple are removed in the first English dub, the fact that the animators portrayed them as a doting and loving couple really push the boundaries for them being “cousins.” It is perhaps the most common fact that any Sailor Moon fan knows, but it was very controversial that it had to be censored.
24 It's A Swap!
Trust me, this is not the only type of censorship the original English dub made in Sailor Moon. This time, certain characters have been gender-swapped due to their appearance and behavior. One of the four generals of Earth, Zoisite, was changed from male to female due to his relationship with Kunzite. Then there is Fisheye in Super S who was also changed from female to male due to his flirtatious nature with men. There are other interesting facts of the gender swapping that happened outside of America. Did you know that in the French version, Artemis was female? Later on, when his daughter Diana came along, his gender was changed back to normal. Also, in the Portuguese dub, Luna and Artemis’s genders were swapped. Localization teams definitely made some weird choices back in the day.
23 Lots Of Cuts Made
Like with some anime that was dubbed back in the day, cuts in Sailor Moon were made to either remove references, anything that was too violent or even removes the concept of any character passing away. For example, the final fight between the Sailor Scouts and Queen Beryl, and later Queen Metalia, the Sailor Scouts minus Sailor Moon told the latter that they were going to fend off the enemies.
That is what we thought when we watched that episode.
But in the original Japanese and Viz dub, Sailor Moon was the only one that survived while Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter perished along the way. You may also notice scenes such as Rei slapping Usagi being cut from the dub. So, the first English dub allow fighting villains from the galaxy, but a girl cannot slap her friend? Totally makes sense.
22 Why Does the Classic Anime Hate Him?
Honestly, Tuxedo Mask is a really important character, especially to his love interest Sailor Moon. In the first anime, he is always the victim, acting as a damsel-in-distress type of character. He even throws roses for crying out loud, which makes him unfortunately useless. Since the classic anime was going for a Power Rangers type of show, Toei Animation always focuses on the Sailor Scouts kicking butt while Tuxedo Mask plays the distracting caped crusader. It is rather unfortunate that whenever he stood a chance, that was when he was turned evil thanks to Queen Beryl. The animation studio made him so useless that he gets captured most of the time and Sailor Moon has to be the one to save him. Thankfully, Sailor Moon Crystal has reverted back to the real Tuxedo Mask and actually made him more useful than his first anime counterpart.
21 Older Than You Think
This beautiful lady is Sailor Pluto, the guardian of time and space. She is absolutely one of the most powerful Sailor Scouts in the series, and her powers are definitely one of the reasons. Due to her ability to control time, she is actually the daughter of Chronos, the Greek god of time.
Given this information, that makes Sailor Pluto the oldest Sailor Scout in the series.
What is also very interesting is that she is seemingly immortal, but stopping time can actually cost her life if used at all. Despite being immortal, her real age is a big mystery. With the Greek gods having lived thousands of years ago, there is no telling how long she has lived. Maybe Sailor Pluto herself cannot recall how old she is currently.
20 Strange Allergy
Sailor Mercury, or Ami Mizuno, is a genius. She is a very sweet and shy bookworm but is always there to help out Usagi and her friends when it comes to homework or fighting off bad guys. Despite being flawless in the world of geniuses, she actually has a serious flaw. In the anime special Ami's First Love, it follows Ami as she manages to receive a love letter. What is the catch you might ask? Well, Ami is actually allergic to love letters, which makes her break out in a rash. She had a crush on what she proclaims to be her rival Mercurius, and because of her crush on him, she started feeling ill. It does not help that a spirit named Bonnon wanted to feed off of Ami’s desire for him. Thankfully, Ami managed to survive the evil spirit’s attack and managed to recover from the situation.
19 Just As Powerful As Sailor Moon
Sailor Saturn, also known as in her civilian form, Hotaru Tomoe, is the misunderstood Sailor Scout. Ever since her childhood, she was always sick and never had friends until Chibi-Usa came into the picture. Later on, Hotaru would awaken to become Sailor Saturn, who is the guardian of death and rebirth. In fact, with her weapon, the Silence Glaive, she is able to destroy a planet at the brink of destruction, only to rebuild it, giving the planet new life.
Because of that insane power, she is arguably just as powerful as Sailor Moon.
Sure, she does not possess the Silver Crystal, but still, being able to destroy a planet is just unbelievable! Calling Sailor Saturn a ticking time bomb is definitely an understatement. However, every time she uses up her powers, her life is sacrificed but is immediately reincarnated, just how her powers are made to be.
18 Forbidden Love
While the first Sailor Moon anime is typically a show taking the route of the Power Rangers, the manga is more romantic. We know that Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask are a thing, but what about the other four Sailor Scouts? Well, during the Silver Millennium, Tuxedo Mask was known as Prince Endymion of Earth. He had four generals at his side, that being Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite. Just like Endymion falling in love with Sailor Moon, or Princess Serenity at the time, the four generals fell for the other Sailor Scouts. Jadeite fell in love Mars, Nephrite with Jupiter, Zoisite with Mercury, and Kunzite with Venus. However, due to the war between the Moon and Earth Kingdom, their love was forbidden. Even in the present, while Sailor Moon got her man, the four Sailor Scouts never recalled the four generals at all. Fate is cruel for those girls.
17 Too Much Partying
For this entry, you may have never known the real reason why Usagi was feeling uneasy when she had some drinks while going to a party with her girls and Mamoru. While Ami talks with an older gentleman with ease, Minako, Rei, and Makoto stand there confused on what the two are saying. Meanwhile, Usagi wanted to be professional in terms of speaking and she read from her book with her saying “In a situation like this, have something to drink.”
She definitely did that, only to make her instantly inebriated as she went over to Mamoru.
While the scene is hilarious, having a young teenager like her having a drink is very dangerous, especially in public. It is definitely not recommended to do something Usagi did, but here is a clip with the Viz Media dub! It is pretty funny to watch!
16 Who Is Her Father?
Ever since we discovered that Usagi is actually Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom, we were surprised to see her actual mother show up in the process. Even though we do not see Queen Serenity raise her daughter throughout the show, but she was a loving and protective mother who knew that her daughter wanted to be free from royalty. However, we do not know who Serenity’s father is. There have been some interesting theories that Queen Serenity had what the princess had, and that is a star-crossed lover. Others believed that it is possible the queen could have been able to reproduce with no partner since no mention of Serenity’s father was ever introduced. To this day, we still question about more of the history surrounding the Silver Millennium.
15 This Remake Sucks?
Ever since the announcement of a new Sailor Moon anime was revealed, fans rejoiced greatly. Despite being delayed twice, we still waited patiently until it finally arrived. While reception of the first episode was rather positive, some fans were not feeling the use of CGI during the infamous transformation sequence. Unfortunately, that is not the only criticism the show had. Some parts of the animation looked off. Some scenes are not as detailed. Also, the pacing was faster compared to the original anime.
It was to be closer to the manga, so it kind of makes sense.
Because of that, ratings for Sailor Moon Crystal were not high enough. However, the third season acknowledged all of the problems regarding animation. It went back to the traditional style for the transformation scenes as well as fixed almost all glaring problems. Check out this Tumblr page for some funny errors!
14 The Past Catching Up To Her
Even though fans have different opinions on whether who is the most beautiful Sailor Scout, but Sailor Neptune is definitely very gorgeous. She goes by Michiru Kaioh as her civilian identity and is the other half to her beloved Sailor Uranus. The wavy teal-haired beauty is talented when it comes to playing the violin and also an intelligent young woman.
So, what is unique about her that stands out from the other Sailor Scouts? You see, she was the only one to awaken as a Sailor Scout without any help. Because of that, she was able to remember her past life during the Silver Millennium. Also, with her talisman, which is a mirror, she can even predict events from the future, so that probably implies that she is sort of a psychic. While she seems like a very sweet and gentle person, she is quite powerful whenever a situation is dire.
13 Poor Unfortunate Soul
As mentioned earlier, Hotaru, also known as Sailor Saturn, has had a rough past. She is always sick and can never get friends because they think that she is a freak, but thankfully Chibi-Usa was not afraid of her. In the original series, her father, Professor Tomoe, was possessed by an alien called Pharaoh 90 in order to save his daughter from passing away.
By the end of the third season, he was given a second chance to raise his daughter.
In the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal, however, he was more sadistic and heartless. Hotaru was even part cyborg! Due to the events that take place in the manga and Crystal, he actually perishes, leaving Hotaru to be an orphan. However, Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna (Sailor Pluto) vowed to raise Hotaru until she grows back into her normal body.
12 Strong Orphan
Makoto Kino looks tough on the outside, but she has dealt with so much before she awakened as Sailor Jupiter. She lost her parents from an airline accident when she was young. Because of that, she lived by herself since then. Due to that tragic event, Makoto has a fear of airplanes. Even though it was a hard time for her, she still kept her feet on the ground and managed to take care of herself. It is strange how she was not placed in an orphanage since her parents passed away, but possibly due to the inheritance she obtained from them, it managed to help her financially. Even though she has does not have a family anymore, she can always rely on the other girls to hang out with whenever she feels lonely.
11 They Are Not What They Seem To Be
Luna and Artemis are a huge benefactor to the Sailor Scouts. With Usagi, Luna was able to help awaken her as Sailor Moon. Artemis was a bit early on the job since he was with Minako at the time before the events of the show began. As cats, they are cuddly and are perfect to have as companions, and they can even transform into humans! In fact, they are actually aliens from the planet Mau.
Due to that, they most likely came from a planet where inhabitants are cat related in some way.
But still, imagining Luna and Artemis being aliens is a strange thing to think about, but it does make sense. While they might classify as aliens in a certain point of view, they will always be one of the most iconic cats in anime.
10 Translation Gone Wrong
Sailor Saturn is definitely a Sailor Scout to be centered around dark facts, huh? With this entry being the third to revolve around her, that is saying a lot. Well, while the manga was being translated in Poland, a “little” error came about regarding Sailor Saturn for the two volumes she debuted in. Instead of Saturn, the word was replaced with Satan. Now, Sailor Saturn is definitely the Scout of Destruction but with the translation error, it kind of makes the powerful Sailor Scout so dangerous and pretty scary (then again, she can destroy an entire planet). Thankfully, the issue has been fixed in the Polish manga after those two volumes were released. Translation errors can be funny, but it is a difficult process overall.
9 Strangely Younger By Appearance
Luna has been an amazing and encouraging adviser and friend to Usagi ever since she entered her life. If it were not for her, then Usagi would still be the crybaby and never have found the other Sailor Scouts. Her human form is actually one year younger than Usagi’s.
The idea around that is insane since Luna has been alive much longer than Usagi.
While the way she is drawn makes her look like an older teenager or young adult, having Luna appear thirteen (if Usagi was fourteen at the time) is very strange to comprehend. She is far older than she appears to be. But if anything, Luna in human form is very beautiful and Artemis is probably happy about that too.
8 Talk About Irony
Minako Aino, better known as Sailor Venus, is a very strong Sailor Scout due to having experiences fighting before Sailor Moon was awakened. As the Scout of Love, she fights based on that feeling with her chain, sword, and many more abilities to name. Even though she fights for love, since she is the protector of it, it is unfortunate to say that she is cursed to never find love at all. Before the events of Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus fought Danburite, who served under Kunzite (who also happen to fall in love with Sailor Venus), who in the present day is the leader of the Dark Agency. Because he worked for the enemy, Sailor Venus had to end him, and because of that, before his passing, he cursed her to never find love. Talk about irony for the Guardian of Love.
7 Chaos Consumes
Sailor Galaxia was certainly the most threatening and powerful villainess Sailor Moon and the others had to fight. She singlehandedly took down all of the girls except for Sailor Moon, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn, and Sailor Pluto. This dastardly woman even managed to eliminate Mamoru when she showed Sailor Moon her star seed collection.
While she was definitely a terrifying threat, she was never evil to begin with.
What caused Sailor Galaxia to become the way she appeared happened when she fought against Chaos, the creator of all evil. She lost her fight against Chaos and was consumed by him. To be controlled by an entity of all evil is definitely not a fun thing to go through, and it was certainly a very difficult time for Sailor Moon to go through in the end. Thankfully, she managed to save Galaxia without having to take her life.
6 Lost Episodes
Not only did America make cuts to satisfy the FCC and be able to grab a young audience, there were some episodes that never aired in America until Viz Media obtain the rights and eventually dubbed the lost episodes. For example, one episode was cut because it actually involved Usagi’s brother, Shingo, kicking Luna while he was possessed by chanela. Another episode that never aired with a beach episode where Rei wanted to do some training, but the gang catches up and spends the day at the beach. Meanwhile, Chibi-Usa finds two dinosaurs. In DiC’s defense, they knew that episode was too much filler for the story, so the never dubbed it. However, it is interesting to know what we have missed now that Viz Media redubbed everything so the lost episodes were found!