Story

The protagonist of Sailor Moon is Usagi Tsukino, who lives as an ordinary middle school girl until she is found by a talking cat named Luna. Through Luna, Usagi learns that the world is about to be attacked by a Dark Kingdom that had appeared once before, long ago, and destroyed the kingdom of the moon. Her dormant powers are then awakened to defend the Earth against the coming onslaught, and she is led to a number of friends who join her in the battle.

Usagi fights using the identity of Sailor Moon, and as the story progresses she learns more and more about the enemies which face her and the evil force that is sending them. Gradually she discovers the truth about her own past life, her destined true love, and the possibilities for the future of the Solar System.

The plot spans five major story arcs, each of which is represented in both the manga and anime, usually under different names. These are the Dark Kingdom arc, the Black Moon arc (Sailor Moon R), the Infinity arc (Sailor Moon S), the Dream arc (Sailor Moon Supers), and the Stars arc (Sailor Stars). The anime added an additional minor arc at the start of the second series, and spent the first few episodes of Sailor Stars wrapping up the plot from the previous series.




Usagi Tsukino (月野 うさぎ, Tsukino Usagi?) The main character of the series, called Serena in the English anime (nicknamed Bunny in the English manga). Usagi is a carefree schoolgirl with an enormous capacity for love, and transforms into the heroine called Sailor Moon. At the beginning of the series she is portrayed as an immature crybaby who hates having to fight evil and wants nothing more than to be a normal girl. As she progresses, however, she embraces the chance to use her power to protect those she cares about.The Sailor Moon series began as a manga written and drawn by Takeuchi, the series' creator. It was an evolution from her earlier Codename: Sailor V idea, expanding the concept into a team of five girls rather than just one.[2] Recurring motifs include astronomy,[2] astrology, Greek myth,[5] Roman myth, geology, Japanese elemental themes,[6] teen fashions,[5][7] and schoolgirl antics.[7]

Only one story arc was originally planned,[8] and the storyline developed in meetings a year prior to publications,[9] but after it was completed Takeuchi was asked to continue. Four more story arcs were produced,[8] often being published simultaneously with the five corresponding anime series. The anime series would only lag the manga by a month or two.[9]

The complete original manga spans 52 chapters, known as Acts, as well as ten separate side-stories. Its main series was serialized in Nakayoshi, Kodansha's shōjo manga magazine, from 1991 to 1995; the side-stories were serialized in Kodansha's Run Run. All chapters and side stories have been published in book form by Kodansha. The first edition came out as the series was being produced, from 1992 through 1997, and consisted of 18 volumes with all the chapters and side stories in the order in which they had been released.

The second edition, called the shinsōban or "renewal" edition, began in 2003 while the live-action series was running. The individual chapters were redistributed so that there are more per book, and some corrections and updates were made to the dialogue and drawings. New art was featured as well, including completely new cover art and character sketches (including characters unique to the live-action series). In all, the new edition consists of 12 story volumes and two separate short story volumes.

By the end of 1995, the thirteen Sailor Moon volumes then available had sold about one million copies each, and the manga had been exported to over 23 countries, including China, Mexico, Australia, most of Europe and North America.[10]

A special artbook was released for each of the five story arcs, collectively called the Original Picture Collection, which contain cover art, promotional material, and other work done by Takeuchi. Many of the drawings are accompanied by comments on how she developed her ideas, how she created each picture, whether or not she likes it, and commentary on the anime interpretation of her story