This is a review is
of the first manga collection of probably the most well know shoujo
manga ever, Sailor Moon. This is the series that ignited my pasion
for anime, and now here it is in print ^_^
Sailor Moon 1 has both good and bad parts, the bad mainly being Mixx’s
shoddy translation, artwork replacement, and choice of font, (not
only to mention they kept the really annoying term ‘scout’ and for
some reason use ‘morph’ instead of ‘transform’, both of which are
accurate translations of the original Japanese ‘henshin’).
I really wish this company was not the main shoujo translators in
the world, but sadly they are. However, Naoko's quality shines through
even Mixx's cack-handed approach to translation.
Takeuchi's artwork is stunningly beautiful - okay its cutesy, but
its also simply gorgeous at times. She also has very a very endearing
main character in Bunny (the US name for Sailor Moon's civilian identity)
In Japan she is called Tsukino Usagi or Rabbit of the Moon, as they
believe you can see a rabbit’s face on the moon instead of a man.
In the manga, if Bunny is out of the panel and speaking, she is often
depicted in the speech bubble as a kawaii little rabbit face.
Luna the talking cat is drawn very sweetly and she has to put up with
Bunny’s failings all the time while instructing her on how to become
the Sailor Warrior she is meant to be. We also see the other supporting
characters, Amy a.k.a Mercury, Raye, a.k.a Mars and Lita, a.k.a Jupiter
begin to come into their own, but it's Bunny who dominates the proceedings.
Darien Shields also shows his mysterious presence along with his alter
ego Tuxedo Mask. Darien/Mask is a lot less annoying than in
the Anime as he doesn’t have that annoying 'show up, make corny speech,
throw rose' thing going on and he actually is helpful very often.
Unfortunately Naoko isn’t very good at character depth when in comes
to villains but that is her only real failing.
8.5 /10 I would given it more but Mixx can’t translate. And
I would have liked original names and terms to have been used.
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