Category: Sailor Moonshine

All posts relating to the Sailor Moon franchise – whether it’d be manga, anime, live-action, or anything else that falls within said purview. Also featuring memes.

Quick Thoughts on Codename: Sailor V

I had been on-and-off reading the re-released Codename: Sailor V, the supposed prequel to the wider-known Sailor Moon manga, which has also been re-released. Reading the first few acts and recollecting my admittedly faint experiences with the (dubbed) anime, Sailor V comes off as being more of a prototype Sailor Moon than an actual prequel. Minako/Sailor V is as much of a slacker and lazy girl as Usagi/Sailor Moon was a crybaby and lazy girl. Both girls have loud abbrasive mothers that scream a lot. And both spend time at Crown. Some of the Sailor V supporting casts do bare slight resemblances to other better-known Moon characters (Hikaru-chan bares a strong resemblance to Ami/Sailor Mercury, the inspector-police is almost a dead ringer for Hino Rei-chan.)

But setting that aside, Codename: Sailor V has very little plot development at the beginning. It’s mostly episodic fare comprising Sailor V fighting off against pop idols working for a group called the Dark Agency while looking for first loves (many of which she’ll come across and have broken hearts over). There’s also bickering spats between Minako and Artemis, which are funny. There’s quite a bit of funny stuff to be found here and it does quite a bit to garner a chuckle.
Overall, I’m really digging this one. The initial Sailor V manga had always been something I wanted to get my hands on, even long before I began following the PGSM live series back in 2003. For what it is, it’s a pretty fun read that, if nothing else, provides a bare template for the Sailor Moon saga that would eventually be told… or something.
Now I need to find the first volume of said Moon saga.

DTM Gallery – Rejected Moon Montage

Some random clips of the “lost” Toonmakers’ Sailor Moon pilot make up the background while sad Moon from the 2003-2004 live drama sheds a tear. I don’t recall the actual date, but I’d imagine this was made during PGSM’s initial run, shortly after the debut of cat-turned-plush toy Luna in kid sailor fuku mode…

It’s safe to say that I wasn’t a fan of these kid characters because they’re generally done poorly, although in hindsight, calling Sailor Luna ugly when she was a kinda, sorta cute little kid may have been a bit much. It is what it is.

In hindsight, Sailor Luna was kinda cute and not ugly… so I don’t know where that came from.