Starlight* Examines the Anime and Manga of Sailor Moon

As with most manga to anime series, there are almost always changes made to the story line – whether to give the story a new edge in the new medium, to fix it up, or to simply prolong the life of the series with “filler episodes”. This happened with Sailor Moon.

Most of us here in the west were first exposed to the anime version in the mid to late 90s. Here in Canada, Sailor Moon premiered on YTV, and for many of us this was our first exposure to this type of animation that would soon consume our everyday lives. With its release of memorabilia, Sailor Moon’s popularity sky rocked and its fan base soon became very large – that is until fans discovered the manga and what DiC had done to the original animation.

DiC, ah what a lovely topic for anime and Sailor Moon fans a like to discuss. Though I do give them props for getting it onto our televisions; when I found out how much footage was edited out of the show I nearly hit the roof...but I digress. We’re not talking about DiC and how they completely butchered the show – we’re talking about the differences between the anime and the manga.

The changes made to the anime version were very significant, as many Sailor Moon fans can attest to. For example, in the anime Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion were murdered by Beryl. This is not so in the manga. After witnessing Prince Endymion’s death at the hands of Beryl, Princess Serenity commits suicide. It’s a rather bittersweet part in the whole of the manga. It’s also far more dramatic than the anime, and from my experience – people like a lot of drama (with a happy ending of course).

The anime is also full of episodes that really don’t add anything to the whole of the story – the evil “filler episodes”. I believe that more people would have continued to watch Sailor Moon if it wasn’t full of so many episodes that really didn’t add anything to the show. Most people don’t have that large of an attention span – particularly as they get older. For example: How successful was Evangelion or Escaflowne, which only had about 26 episodes apiece?

The manga, however, was straight to the point, and fit in an abundance of information, character development, and a good storyline in, what – 16 volumes? The story was also straight from Naoko’s heart. The romance, drama, and action were much more real than in the anime (which was plagued half the time with bad animation).

I’m not trying to directly attack the anime, I’m just simply trying to present a point of view than many Sailor Moon fans now have, after having read the manga. I’ve watch the entire Sailor Moon series, and I won’t lie that the anime doesn’t also have something to offer. So decide for yourself which one you think is better. I happen to like both equally, because they both present the story in a new light. If I had seen the live action Sailor Moon, I’d bring that into the conversation as well, but I haven’t yet. All I do know about the live action version is that it also has had changes made to it.

Comments? Questions? Email me.