by Lola Batling

Created on: May 16, 2008

Anime and manga are all over the place these days. Found in bookstores and comic book shops all over America. America was one of the last countries to jump on the craze that started in Japan during the 1940s. "Astro Boy" created by Osamu Tezuka was the most notable title. Many manga and anime creators and fans still hail Osamu Tezuka as a god. If that's true then Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi should be hailed as the goddess. She created the popular Shojo manga title "Sailor Moon" which spawned the wildly popular anime series by the same name.

"Sailor Moon" is one of the anime often cited as the start of the modern Japanese culture invasion. Numbers of young girls tuned in to Cartoon Network to watch "Sailor Moon" on Toonami. "Sailor Moon" is a story, loosely based on a Japanese folktale about the Moon Princess, about young girls coming of age and discovering they have a magical destiny to save the Earth and, by virtue of, the Moon Kingdom. DIC, the original people to bring us "Sailor Moon", thought that younger viewers shouldn't be exposed to certain things present in anime. They switched the genders of a certain couple from the Negaverse. Other companies would later make two lesbian sailor scouts cousins, while, oddly enough, not removing flirting between the pair.

The Japanese creators felt "Sailor Moon" was meant to grow with the audience, which explains why more adult themes are present in later story arcs. It's been said that "Sailor Moon" became needlessly complicated. However, it's also been said that many series get complicated at a certain point. Perhaps that is simply due to the non-linear way of storytelling.

"Sailor Moon" had an amazing two hundred and nine episode run. In which we see all nine planets found. Tuxedo Mask represents Earth. They all work together to avert one disaster after another. With each arc representing another building peril to the world and the future of the Moon Kingdom or Crystal Tokyo.

Each story arc has a definite ending except for the Super arc. It just ends with them saving Hotaru, the future Sailor Saturn, from a monster created my Hotaru's father and a time rift created accidentally by his assistant.

Watching it as an adult, the villains seem to get dumber and the powers just keep increasing along with the changes to Sailor Moon's costume as the series goes on. It's still captivating and fun to watch, no matter how hokey it seems through more mature eyes.

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