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WARNING! The following contains spoilers related to my upcoming series of reviews of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The TV Series (now available on youtube).
If you’d rather wait for the full reviews tune in soon as I’ll begin submitting those ASAP. But for now… don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon : An Introduction

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
The following contains spoilers to the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series! If you’d rather just find out about it piece by piece please wait for the next review (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 1-5) to begin your assimilation of the reviews of the series… if not then dig right in, it won’t bite you.

OK. We’re starting now. Don’t say I didn’t WARNING you… cause’ I just did.

So… just so we’re clear on this…

WARNING!! SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!
WARNING!! SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!
WARNING!! SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!

Ok. Nuff said about that. Let’s do this.

It’s with series like this that youtube really shines, doesn’t it. Because without youtube we would never be able to see series like this at all (Japan only release my left foot)! (Hmm… maybe I should go look for some other hard to find series and review them as well during this Summer drought of quality animations to watch… and my unwillingness to admit Batman : The Brave and the Bold rolled out of it’s first season with an increasingly worrisome lineup of episodes that seem to strain my resistance to tossing the show a 2 out of 5 for failing me so…)

Produced by Toei… oh, right, so if you noticed all the rubber suited monsters in the series and kept making references to Kamen Rider you probably have good reason to, since Toei is the company best known for putting out the Kamen Rider Series. So I guess they just tagged their on staff Kamen Rider monster makers to make the youma for Sailor Moon… cheap, but effective. Anyway Toei ran the series for a year (from October 4th 2003 to September 25th 2004), and it contained 49 TV Series “Acts” (episodes),  and 2 direct to DVD OAV… wait, wait, OAV refers to animation so… OLAV (Original Live Action Video)… yeah, that works. One I guess is a prequel and the other a sequel though we won’t really go into those (Except briefly later on) until the last review so hang tight until then.

From the word go right from the launch of the series you begin to realize that the makers of the live action series took some liberties with the retelling of the beloved franchise when making the live action series (and by that I don’t just mean the moderization of the series setting it in the here and now of the 21st Century and all that, we can overlook that just fine thanks). According to Wikipedia the “storylines are more character-based and driven, focusing on the girls’ civilian lives and their connection to the past more than on action sequences“… hmm… less time to criticize the Kikaida/Kamen Rider like youma? Again no problem (in fact this is a plus considering it digs deeper into all their personalities which is something fans should appreciate—including looking into the never really touched upon thing with Rei and her father (the j-hole politician) for example (great episode we’ll be reviewing in two weeks).

According to Wikipedia, the show tried to stick to the series format… but by Episode 6 (the arrival of Sailor Jupiter) that might as well have been a lost cause since the seires took on a life of it’s own and couldn’t be constrained by the mere boundaries of the original series. At that point (or just from the beginning for those of us who saw it coming) the series was set out to become part of a new trend we have seen going about, which can be best exemplified by the 2009 Star Trek movie… the revisionist slash remastering trend.

Let’s face it, this is a remastering of the series even if the makers of the show probably don’t want to think of it as such. As of late the revising/remastering of series seem to happen primarily for two reasons—one, in Star Trek’s case, the series has hit several hard roadblocks (bad movie releases, bad TV release, not so stellar merchandising, etc) and it needs fresh blood to revive a slowly lagging series. The second reason, ala the failed attempt to revive Knight Rider or in Sailor Moon’s case, is because the series has been out of the mainstream loop for years (not as long for Sailor Moon as Knight Rider of course) and it needs a fresh shot in the arm to pep it back up and get it in the forefront again. Hence Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.

Changes to the series will be noted along the many reviews, but in short here’s some notables.

The Luna Experience
First off note that they decided to make Luna (and later Artemis) in this series intelligent CGI/at times really good puppeting generated talking plushies…  because, apparently, stray cats are not commonplace in Tokyo… except for the fact a great deal of mangas, animes, live action series and movies all seem to say otherwise (which means the writers, series creators and so forth must have seen actual stray cats to have noted them or wrote actual story content about them in their series)… not to mention the fact I’m sure Animal Control Tokyo (or whatever they’re called) may also have a thing or two to say about the whole “no stray cats in Tokyo” thing. Yeah.

Then there’s the making Luna into Sailor Luna near halfway through the series.
Don’t look now but Sailor Luna is basically a ChibiUsa clone in a different colored outfit!
So… what… bringing up the fact Sailor Moon/Usagi (an underaged girl) and Mamoru/Tuxedo Kamen are going to get married, she’s going to get preggers, and ChibiUsa is the result is… what… bad?!?
Also I guess this means we won’t see Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Super since that’d mean rolling out everyone’s favorite lesbian couple/Sailor Soldiers—yes, Sailors Neptune and Uranus… insert your own entirely inappropriate sexually related humor there, I’m so not touching that… oh, and then that’d mean bringing in ChibiUsa and then Hotaru… they make such a cute couple together and… ahh… never mind. Forget I said that. Let’s move on… (cough)… shall we?
(We should be back in the Fall by the time the first review with Sailor Luna comes up, stay tuned!)

Rei No Angry?
Another change to the series is the fact that Rei (Sailor Mars) seems to be rather mellow in terms of her relationship with Usagi. In fact compared to her original version Rei seems to be practically near love fest mode with Usagi… sure they disagree here or there, but the days of Rei going nuclear on Usagi’s rear seems to be long gone… she does (Episode 8) seem to have a toss-up with Mako-chan (Sailor Jupiter), but that’s all straightened out by the end. (It seems to set up abit of delving into Rei’s dad (the jerk) and her mom (deceased) which we haven’t had before, though, so the trade off is OK by me.)

Sailor V(enus) - The Worst Offender of All
Maybe it was just the liveification of the series, but the one who was altered the most (to the detriment of the character) is Minako Aino, aka Sailor V(enus). Once upon a time she was a happy go lucky wannabe who wanted to be an idol singer and a volleyball star (as seen in her childhood flashback at the start of Sailor Moon SS The Movie not to mention sprinkled along the series in many an episode, usually with hilariously disastrous results included mostly in the “idol“ department—cause nothing quite says quality humor as laughing at somebody‘s shortcomings).

That Sailor V isn’t here folks, instead we got a girl who became a pop idol… and is slowly dying from some strange disease. It makes her totally depressive at times to watch, as she seems to want to be this loner persona so nobody will miss her terribly when she dies… which would have been nice if it didn’t completely nuke all the characters’ good points (and her positively cheery chipper upbeat persona) at the same time. Remember, this is a girl who once lamented over not having a “pure heart” (Sailor Moon S The Series), and then (upon discovering she had a pure heart after all, in the form is a strange little crystal gimmick shot out of her chest) she proceeded to grab her own “pure heart”, and run off with it like a crazy woman (with both Usagi and the member of the Witches 5 who did that to her in hot pursuit) rambling on about her purity or whatever… ah, the crazy insane Minako Aino… you’ll not see that kind of pure insanity in the live action version… dammit!!

Strike a Pose and—Be Japanese!!
One of the least important changes made for the sake of “reality” was the hair color thing.
Obviously, the series staff rationalized, Japanese people just don’t have blonde/blue/brown/black hair that just waves and shimmers with that kind of life… so everyone looks “normal” in civvies, but get colored wigs (each to match their character look) when transformed. So Sailor Moon only has her trademark look when she’s Sailor Moon, Ami only has blue hair when she’s Sailor Mercury… Rei has a wig on… I think… I’m not sure why since black hair isn’t supposed to be a problem… right?

If you think the wigs look bad on the girls? Fuhgeddaboutit! Check out the Generals! Jadeite’s blonde wig makes him look… off… and I won’t say the obvious so stop expecting me to. Neflite (or however you spell that) looks like a punk (there’s a garage band somewhere in Japan looking for it’s missing punk guitarist right now…) while Zoicite seems to have this—wow… it’s hard to describe but easy to laugh at. And then there’s Queen Beryl and her… oh, let’s stop about hair already. It’s silly and campy and funny to look at so nuff said.

Another Sailor V Moment
BTW as noted by Wikipedia, Sailor V/Minako Aino’s most popular song is “C’est La Vie” (which Wikipedia says is French for “That’s Life!”—which is odd since isn‘t she like dying?).
Anyway the song is like so obvious since, when sung, it sounds like everyone is saying “SAILOR V“… so, you know, when she‘s finally revealed to be Sailor V halfway through it shouldn‘t have been a surprise because… never mind. It is a surprise, nobody saw it coming, I couldn‘t believe it (you won‘t either).

We Have Secretly Upgraded Your Transformation Gear…
Season One old transformation gear/comms were far different than they are now.
The old pens/comm watches (think they were watches) were updated by combining the two (and the new more powerful transformation power allowing the girls to change appearance for undercover work) into a simple (highly marketable merchandising gimmick) camera phone/bracelets combo pack… hmm… I wonder if any Japanese telecommunications companies ever got the right to sell Sailor Moon Camera Phones on the open market…? Or at least the phone jacket you can put over your cellphone?

Speaking of Upgrades…
Their new base of operations. Formerly out of the Crown Arcade, now they work out of the Crown Karaoke Room… which, really, just goes a long way to showing the new Usagi’s addiction to Karaoke… honestly, it’s people like Usagi that keep game franchises like Karaoke Revolution and American Idol the Video Game alive and well.

New Villainy Is Afoot!
One is not so new as a change.
Dark Mercury - Remember when, in the original, it was Tuxedo Kamen who was made evil for a time in Season One? Well change that, now it’s Ami/Sailor Mercury. She’s made evil for a time… though I have to wonder if it’s because of series creators attempt to make the series fresher, or because the actress needed some time off from the series for personal reasons and they mostly shot around her absence by turning her evil (so she would only have to make a base minimum amount of appearances in so many episodes until she was available again for full time shooting)? Either way she’s dark, you’ll miss the happy Ami for a time, and you’ll appreciate it when she’s finally purged of evil and returns.

Oh, and for a time Tuxedo Kamen leaves the show (goes to Europe I think), though I didn’t seem to miss him at all… go figure. Then there’s a Princess Sailor Moon and a new live action original character in the form of Mio Kuroki.

Mio Kuroki - Tokyo’s Next Evil Queen?
Eventually the character joins the cast as a dark element in Usagi’s class at school. Another pop idol who happens to be a rival of Minako Aino, she pretends to be Usagi’s friend while being a jerk hole at the same time. Usagi, however, being the ultra forgiving sort, seems to constantly forgive the girl for being the spawn of evil… then she runs off with Mamoru and tries to make her into the new plaything of Queen Beryl… yeah, right, did Queen Beryl lower her standards that much?!?

As it turns out Mio is some sort of Queen Beryl clone/copy/something and ends up getting the whammy as the series wraps only to return in the sequel OLAV Special with greater powers, and a rather odd idea to make Mamoru her own King… yeah, good luck on that one lady.

OK. We’re all up to speed! Time to start reviewing!
Next Week - Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Acts 1 to 5
A Sailor Moon is born! Then Sailor Mercury… then a reluctant Sailor Mars… then the hazards of forcing peer pressure on your Sailor Mercury (in this highly uninstructional video of the pressures facing the average young Sailor Mecury in her quest to fit in and become a better friend). See you then!

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