Sailor Moon Vol. 1 (Manga)Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: September 2011
Price: $10.99
Creator: Naoko Takeuchi
Format: 248 pgs.; B&W; Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-9354-2974-6
Age Rating: T/Teen/13+
ICv2 Rating: 2.5 Stars out of 5
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: September 2011
Price: $10.99
Creator: Naoko Takeuchi
Format: 280 pgs.; B&W; Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-9354-2977-7
Age Rating: T/Teen/13+
ICv2 Rating: 2.5 Stars out of 5
Usagi is a scatterbrained middle school student whose only outstanding attribute is her gigantic appetite. But one day a talking cat comes to Usagi and tells her that she’s the chosen one--"The pretty guardian in a sailor suit! Guardian of Beauty and Justice"--Sailor Moon. Soon, along with the other guardians, Sailor Moon is hard at work saving the world from dark and dangerous forces.
Sailor Moon, as Takeuchi's series is popularly known, was one of the titles that kicked off the manga revolution in America in the 1990s. It has been out of print for some time, but Kodansha has now brought it back with a new translation and fresh new covers. The question is whether today’s young female comic fans will enjoy it as much as their predecessors did back when there were fewer comics aimed at women and girls. In many ways, Sailor Moon and its prequel Codename Sailor V are not strong titles. Usagi and Minako (Sailor V) are air-headed to the point of caricature and the other characters in the series are equally two-dimensional. Every page is jam-packed with shojo sparkles, decorative panel borders, motion lines, and sound effects, and the result strains the eyes.
But there is something appealing about Sailor Moon's eagerness. Takeuchi puts a lot of girl power into her stories, even among all the cuteness and squealing over boys. And there's a lot to be said for nostalgia. It's likely that fans who fell in love with Sailor Moon her first time in America will now be buying it for their daughters and it's a decent bet that younger manga readers who like sparkly shojo titles by creators such as Arina Tanemura will also enjoy this classic series, no matter its age.
--Snow Wildsmith: Writer and former teen librarian and ALA/YALSA committee member.
