I decided to dedicate one page to what I think about this story, what are my favorite characters, and everything about my feelings. I did that not because I think I'm the God in Earth, and I think I know everything about this serie, and that I can't be wrong. I did that because I really would like you know my opinions, and my feelings, and I really would like to start a discussion about that with everyone that would like to: my message board exist for this reason, after all! And if you don't know my opinion, you can't say what you think about it, and your own opinion. I would like to tell to people that hasn't a lot of patience, that this document may be a little long to open: it weight on the server 31 Kb, and I hope it won't be so long to open: I would really like that you read all what I write here, because in these comments, there's a little part of myself.
First of all, I'd like to make you know something about me: I think that in an anime the really important thing is the STORY, the psychological depth of the characters, and the message the story wants to give to people. The drawings are the last thing to me. A serie is really good to me, only if it has a good story in its background. If we had to think only about the drawings, if the drawings were the most important thing in an anime, we had to consider DNA² a masterpiece. But the story hasn't thickness, and this anime is really a mediocre work. I use the same approval method to every serie I watch, and so, even for Sailor Moon. In this case (Sailor Moon), I focus my attention on the baddies, on their role and on the psychological depth of their temper's interpretation. In fact, I think that what "makes" truly Sailor Moon, aren't the soldier, or Tuxedo Kamen. No, what makes Sailor Moon are buddies. In every story, in every book, in every movie or TV show, the buddies role are surely the most difficult to play for an actor. In fact it's very simple to be the goodies: in every case, you will have the public at your side. Instead, to play the baddies role is really difficult: you have to be so great, to make people hate you: you risk to be false, and to be mocked.
I made this introduction to make you understand why in my opinion, the best Sailor Moon serie is Sailor Moon R. I know I'm against the tendency. Lots of you will tell me that the best Sailor Moon serie is the third, or the fifth. Well, in the third serie, and in the fifth there's some great buddies, and surely the buddies of these series are most powerful than the R ones. But in Sailor Moon R there's something that makes it unequaled in my hearth: baddies conversion. Buddies in Sailor Moon R have a psychological change during the serie: they understand their faults, and they ask Sailor Moon to be purified.
Exemplary in this speech, it's the first part of the second season, Sailor Moon Return. In this season we meet Ail and An, two aliens that "seems" to be evil. In reality, as we discover slowly, the two creatures had misunderstood their necessities, because they hadn't experience on it. They lived quite all their life alone. And when they were children, and they lived with their own people, they were involved in a war that they didn't deserved. That war was made by a corrupted people, that deserved to be boundless. So, anyone said to them how they had to behave, and what feelings were for. They lived alone for all their life! During the serie, they slowly discover the feelings, and they are taken in front of their faults. And this "walk" of their hearth, culminates on the death of An, to save the life of the man that she loved. This episode will always be cutted into my hearth as one of the most beautiful of the whole serie.
And what about the second half of the season, Sailor Moon Romance? We can find some unforgettable characters even here, like Pets and her sisters, or Price Demando and his brother, Safiru. In this half, the REAL enemy is Death Phantom, that used these poor persons, and that make them buddies deceiving them. At first, we think that they are the real buddies, and we despise them. But soon we understand the reality where they lived (Nemesis, the tenth planet of the Solar System, a world dead and cold, where anything could live, where they had to spend their life, in exile). We understand that they were deceived by that monster, and our affection start to enclose them. We hope that they will change, that they will understand their faults. But only Pets and her sisters survive to the serie. The poor Safiru dead trying to make his brother understand the Death Phantom's deceit. In his dead, he cut away a big part of Pets hearth: the episode is one of the milestones of the serie. But the episode I love more in this season, is Demando's death: I hoped until the end that Demando (that I really liked even physically ^^;) could save himself, but his death is really moving, because he dead to save the life of the only girl he ever loved, Usagi. These were the "buddies", people that we hated at first, and that, at the end, we would like to save. The message that this season gives to me is really beautiful: I think that in the first half there's a message of peace and love, that it's transformed into repentance in the second half. The message is the same that we can find, more recently, in some great anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but that you can find even in Magic Knight Rayearth: we think always to be to the right way, and we think that the goodies mission is voted to the "Truth" and the "Justice". But what's the REAL Justice? What's the REAL Truth? For our enemies, WE are the real buddies. They fight for ANOTHER "Truth", and ANOTHER "Justice". That is different by ours, and it's against ours. But it's always ONE Justice and ONE Truth! So, where's the REAL Goodies, and where's the REAL Buddies? It really exist the Evil? In Sailor Moon serie there's always a REAL Evil that deceive some poor person. But in life, it's different, and these stories are made to make us understand better the world where we live.
Then, suddently, another character is worthy of our "hate". I have to tell you that, when I first saw Chibiusa in the show, I didn't like her. But when I understood why she went on 20^th Century Earth, I changed my mind of her. When the child trasform herself into the Black Lady, she obtained only my pity, my compassion. That's because she's a very weack person, and Death Phantom gave his upper hand over her with easiness. The monster could deceive her, and he gave to her the most groundless grudges. In our childhood, everyone between us hated his parents. Everyone has been punished for something that he hasn't made, or he could be leaved alone home when he would like to go out. Death Phantom used these grudges to destroy Chibiusa's psychology. He makes her forget all the beautiful moments of her childhood, and he emphasizes the bad ones. And in that moment, it's really great Usagi, to understand her internal conflict, and to gave back to her the hope and the love in her parents. Yes, I really think that this serie is the one I loved most of all the show.
Immediatly then, in my love, there's the First Season. I think that perhaps I love so much it only because it was the first. But I think also that Silver Millennium tragedy is really poetic and romantic. It's beautiful the slow remember of the Soldiers, that found back their precedent life, that cover all the story with the nostalgic veil of wait. And I really loved the final of the season, with Usagi's death to destroy Beryl and Metallia.
In this serie too, there's character that I loved more than the others, that is the second General of Yoma, Nefrite. I loved his psychological change he gave with Naru's help: the girl could make him remember that he's an human being. The moment of his death is really one of the most beautiful of the whole serie. I very blubbered in the moment when Nefrite's body transforms into star dust, and I start to be moved even now that I write these words. It's better that I change speech, or I won't be able to continue ^^;
Third in my love scale, there's Sailor Moon Super. It's undeniable the pregnancy of characters like Haruka and Michiru. They are surely my favorite characters of the third season. I loved even Pluto, but her role is a little marginal in the serie. But I loved her for her role of "the person that knows everything but that cannot tell the truth even to her best friends". I'm sure that Pluto known from the beginning that Usagi was the Messiah that Haruka and Michiru were searching for. And I'm sure that Pluto known every thing that would happen. I understood that by a glance of her. When Usagi uses the Graal the first time, then, she's exhausted. Haruka tells her that it's impossible she's the Messiah, and the evidence is that she's so exhausted after the Graal use. Pluto goes away with the Outers, and she glances to Usagi: her eyes are really full of meanings. It's like she's would like to tell to Usagi that it's not true, that she's the Messiah. But she cannot tell to her that. She's the Guardian of the Time, and she cannot tell to people what they would happen, or she would change the succession of the events: in this sense, Pluto is really like to Greek Cassandra, the prophetess that knew everything about the Troia's destiny. She tried to beware people, but she was every time mocked. Nobody trusted in her. Even here there's the same tragic POWERLESSNESS. And when Pluto stops the time, to make her friends enter in Mugen gakuen, she places before her Guardian's must the love she felt for her friends, and for the Earth. But this weack is costed a lot to her: it's costed to her the eternal exile from the Earth! Pluto is really a very interesting character by this point of view. But even Haruka and Michiru are very interesting. The feeling that ties them is made bigger by the kept of the same secret. They have a mission: they have to defend the world, to save the Earth, to find the three Talismans that can destroy Evil, and they have to find the Messiah that can use the Graal in this sense. To obtain their purpose, they are alone. I think that the knowledge of this loneliness is what makes this characters so loved. Haruka and Michiru are alone against everybody. Against the monsters that attack them, and even against the other soldiers. In fact, they don't trust in them. They think that the others aren't at their same level, and they despise them. They don't want to tell them their secret, and their pain. They think to be in the right way, but even Usagi and the others think the same thing. When the serie started here in Italy, I really HATED them. I couldn't understand why they would prefer that a person dead to find the talismans. The same thing that the other soldiers thought. Then, something happen, and I changed completely my mind about them. There's an episode where it's shown Michiru and Haruka's story, and they explain the reason of their mission. Suddently, I understood everything, and I started to love these characters. But by my point of view, I was sure that they were wrong. It's for this reason that Pluto's glance was so meaningful to me. In fact I was sure that Sailor Moon was the Messiah, as all the people that watched the show. And when the Outer said that they would kill Hotaru, there's someone between you that hadn't thought "But I would like to kill YOU"?
The mission of Haruka and Michiru, and their behaviour are against the good feelings and the normal behaviour. I think that it's even for this reason that their characters are so strong, and so loved. They are wrong, but they think to be good. They would like to kill Hotaru only because she's the reincarnation of Sailor Saturn, the destruction soldier. But what they would do, if they would ever know that Hotaru was even the Evil Messiah, the Mistress 9? The poor Hotaru is a victim, the events victim. , She tried until the end to win against the other things that possessed her, but when the moment arrives, her conscience disappears. Hotaru begun an envelope, at first the envelope of the Mistress 9, and then the Sailor Saturn's one. Hotaru isn't Hotaru any more. It's only thanks to Usagi that her conscience can be saved. Hotaru is a very particular character, just for her destiny to be destroyed and to resurrect, every time. It's an evidence of that what she said to Neherenia, during the first episodes of the Stars season. Neherenia told her that, if she would use the destruction's power, she would be the first person to be destroyed. But Hotaru said her that it's her destiny, she can't avoid it. In fact in the third season it's Usagi that can make her resurrect, and that can stop the destruction's process that started when the Pharaoh 90 arrived on Earth. Usagi, in every serie, is the Light of Hope and Love. Thanks to her big love, she can win against the stronger enemies.
The only character that I haven't appreciate in Sailor Moon S is Professor Tomoe. He's really slave of the situation. When he saw his daughter that was dying, he accepted that a monstrous creature posseded him. Then he lived all his life with this monster in him, and he can't do anything to destroy it. And when finally the monster is killed, he had a big shock, so big that he's transformed in an idiot. Tomoe is really the worst distinguished character in all the third season.
After the third, the season i love more is surely the fifth. Someone between you may wonder why I consider the Star serie quite the last one in my love. the reason is simple: the character hasn't a lot of thickness. The only two that I really love are Seiya/Sailor Star Fighter and Galaxya, the best evil person I ever found. Wonderful is the point when she grasps Usagi's hand, and she come back to Good. Galaxya is a soldier even more alone than Haruka and Michiru were. After all, Haruka had Michiru, and Michiru had Haruka. Galaxya was really alone in front to her tragedy. I can say that Galaxya is Haruka and Michiru, putted together and taken too far. She was the most powerful soldier in the Universe, and she had the weight to fight against Chaos. She had to finish the eternal war between Sailor Soldiers and Chaos. But she never trusted in others: she was so alone, that she couldn't trust in some people. She trusted only in herself. So, she thought that only capturing Chaos into her body it was possible to win him. She had thought to everything. She made her Star Seed (Chibi Chibi) go away, searching for a Soldier so strong that could be most powerful of her, in the moment when she wold be posseded by Chaos. This soldier had to KILL her. By this point of view, Galaxya seems to me very similar to Rayearth's Emeraude, and Usagi would be similar to Hikaru. But Galaxya can be saved, instead the destiny of Emeraude is the death. But this is another story, that will be debated in another section of my site. Usagi can make Galaxya understand that it wasn't killing her that Chaos would be destroyed. In fact every people has a bad side, and a good side. These sides have to exist together in people, because it's only with the knowledge of what's bad that we can be happy of the Good things. So, it's thank to Usagi's Light's Hope that Galaxya makes Chaos go out to her body, and she's saved. Chaos came back in the hearth of every person in the Galaxy. We have to trust in people: everyone can win his Dark Side, and there's no necessity of a sacrificial lamb.
Speaking about Good people, my preferred character is Seiya/Sailor Star Fighter. He's the only one in Three Lights that can understand Usagi's message. The other two can understand it only at the end, even if they start to understand it thanks to Ami and Minako, during the serie. But they are too proud to admit it. So, Seiya is alone too: he's misunderstood by his friends, that maintain with him the big pain for the destiny of their people, but he's misunderstood even by Usagi, that can't understand the feelings that the boy has for her. I was very touched by the episode where Seiya was wounded very hard to save Usagi's life. In this moment, he was alone even if he had a lot of people near him. he would like to make his friend understand his feelings, but it was impossible. I have to say that, at first, I hated Yaten. He was the one that misunderstood completely Seiya, and he brought to his way even Taiki. He was the most egoist. But sometimes, even the egoism is a way to take care of somebody, it depends by the person's temper. When I understood that, I understood Yaten. But my preferred character is still Seiya. It's only thanks to Princess Kakyuu that Yaten and Taiki could understand what Seiya would like to tell them: they had to fight all together to win!
The last season, in my opinion (but I think even to the most part of people) it's Sailor Moon SuperS: it's a serie that is more appearence than substance. The drawings are really gorgeous, and the transformation and the attacks sequences are really good animated. But the STORY HASN'T THICKNESS! The worst part of the serie, is the Amazon Trio's one. I loved only two episodes of this half, the last two ones, when the Trio understand that they haven't a dream. These two episodes are so different from the rest of the serie, that someone said that "mummy Naoko" poked her nose in them. I don't know if that's the truth. But I thought, watching these two episodes on my TV, that perhaps, the 4^th season could have something good inside. It's really wonderful the psychological change of Fish Eye, that understands slowly that they weren't human beings, because they haven't a dream. It's funny when Fish Eye "attacks" Tiger's Eye with the "one, two, three", to be sure of what he was thinking. Yes, it's funny... but it's even sad. The moment of their death, when they came back to their animal form, really touched me. And I loved Pegasus when he made them live forever in Crystal Forest, giving to them a dream. If all the 4^th season had the same message, and the same psychological introspection of these two episodes, it would be one of the best Sailor Moon seasons. But unfortunately this isn't happen. The Amazones Quartet aren't as bad as Amazon Trio. Their knowledge of the fact they were on the bad way arrives slowly, from the moment they meet Usagi and the other soldiers in the normal clothes. But the story of the 4^th season is still stupid, and it doesn't give the same powerful message of the others.

Now, we can continue on the animated side of this show, and we can speack about the movies, episodes that aren't based upon the manga, except the second one (but the episode of the manga where it's based isn't tied with the rest of the story, and so it can't be thought as a part of the manga, but only a displaced one). The movie I loved more than the others, is surely the first. I know that perhaps you can think that the best one is the second. It's made by a story of Takeuchi-san. But in my opinion, the story of the first movie is better. I really LOVE Fiore. He's an exploited person, he's been deceived by an Evil thing, that, in this case, is the Evil Flower, Xenian. Like Ail and An, Fiore is one of the last survivors of the Makaiju's people. When he was a child, he met Mamoru, that was in Hospital, because his parents dead some days before. Mamoru brought in Fiore's life the friendship. Fiore lived all his if alone, and Mamoru was his first and unique friend. Fiore had to go away, but he decided that one day, he would come back to Earth, and he would give to Mamoru a great gift. But the gift he chosen was the Evil flower, that posseded him. Xenian used the weakness of the persons, and used them to destroy the worlds The flower made Fiore think that people in Earth were bad, because they made Mamoru be sad. And Xenian made even Fiore think Usagi was a bad person, that would to steal to him "his" Mamoru. It's wonderful the point when Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Venus tried to make him understand that Usagi was a really wonderful person. She had make them live together: if there weren't Usagi, all the girls would be alone. And it's really sad the point when Mamoru throws to Fiore his rose, and Fiore thinks that Mamoru hates him. I think that the person that isn't touched by the point when Princess Serenity dead using the Maverick no Gunnysacks power to save the Earth is really an insensitive. All the movie is a Friendship poem, and when at the end, Mars says to a dead Usagi that she was a liar < <You told to us that everything would finish in a good way! You're a liar!>>, well.... hearing these words, I really cried, even if when I heard the first time them, they were adapted in a every bad way, in italian language. This point is really touching in japanese, above all for the beautiful "Moon Revenge", that in Italy has been cutted. I think that this movie is the best conclusion of a gorgeous serie like the second one is.
The second movie, is dedicated to Love, and to Luna. The kitty is surely the most ignored character of the whole serie, and in this movie, finally, it's the focus of the attention. I liked a lot the character of Kakeru, even if I think he's a victim, like Professor Tomoe. But he's not hopeless like him. He has a big dream: to watch the dawn by the Space. And it's really touching the moment when Usagi, transformed in super using the power of all the soldier, Transforms Luna in an Human being, to make her grant Kakeru's wish. And it's beautiful when Usagi fights against Snow Queen, because she would to save this world: <<This world is beautiful for the flowers, for the birds, for the trees, for the animals, it's not fair that it would begun everything a glace deserted!>>. But there's anything more. I really appreciated this movie only because it spoke about Luna.
The tragedy arrives with the third movie. I don't like it any more. The only character that I like a little is Peruru, but the other elves are really stupid, as deficient is the Evil Enemy. The victory of the soldier is taken for granted by the beginning, and the movie hasn't a message, it's only appearence like the serie that inspired it.

Now I think that I can start speack about the manga. I voluntary neglected the OAVs Dreaming Moon and Amichan no Hatsukoi, because I haven't anything to say about them: they are so stupid!
The manga is made by Takeuchi Naoko, and I have a lot of opposed feelings about it. In fact, I really love the way Takeuchi naoko go into some important points of the story, and gives to them a romantic veil. I can make an example of that speaking about the Silver Millennium tragedy. I really cried when I read the death of Princess Serenity in the manga. She had to kill the man she loved, and then, she killed herself with the same sword. And the same tragedy was happening even in the present: I'd like to remember you that it's only Mamoru's kiss that brings Usagi to life again in manga, and Mamoru is saved by Usagi's sword only by the help of Kunzite. In fact Kunzite was transformed in stone, and Mamoru kept him into his jacket, at hearth's place. In manga the story of Silver Millennium is deepen, and it's a lot more tragic than in anime. I cried on death of princess Serenity in manga, but the same scene, gave to me only a nostalgic feel in anime. All the story is more exciting and involving. All the manga is similar to it: even Chibiusa's story is more introspective in the manga. She had a big problem, because she was more than 900 years old, but she couldn't grow up. All people in the Palace was mocking her, because they thought that she was a nullance. And Death Phantom uses THIS hate steeled in Chibiusa's hearth to transform her into the Black Lady. And Chibiusa came back normal only when she saw the death of her best friend, Sailor Pluto. Pluto was the only person that Chibiusa loved, because she never said to her bad words. So, it's not Usagi, as in the anime, to make her understand, but she understand herself. It's different, but it's always beautiful. Unfortunately, that's not the same for the enemies. All the baddies aren't psychologically studied in the manga: they are used only to be against the soldiers. Nefrite hasn't a psychological change thanks Naru, and his death is like Jadeite one. Even all the other Baddies are like that in manga: the Amazon Trio hasn't even the little thickness that had in the last two episodes. They are only an instruments of Amazones Quartet. Only Demando has a little psychology, because he's inlove with Usagi even in the manga. In manga, he could even KISS her. But there's no contrition in manga, there's no conversion. The message of the manga is completely different, Takeuchi-san thinks more to Usagi and the others, making us know their psychological problems. The enemies use these problems to attack them psychologically. I like very much the third season in the manga: there's a lot of pathos, more than in the anime, and the story is more complete. But the final of the serie (volume 18) filled me with sadness. And it's not because it's beautiful. It's just because it's absolutely inferior to the anime. When the soldier have to fight against Galaxya, they dead ALL. Even Usagi dead. It's Sailor Cosmos to make everything finish in a good way, making the soldier and every person of the world sleep for a lot of time. They wake up only in 30^th century, when there's the wedding between Usagi and Mamoru. As always there's no conversion. galaxya isn't saved, and there's not the same message of the anime. Usagi tries to save galaxya, but she can't Galaxya disappears, and she's not converted away to Good. It's like Takeuchi Naoko would like to give to Fan a booby prize. Yes, I think that Usagi and Mamoru's wedding (that is really some very lovely pages) is a booby prize! The end of the manga hasn't substance, or, in any case, that is my opinion, when I read the french version of volume 18. I don't know if french adaptors made a mess, or if it's the real story of the manga. I have the volume 18 in japanese, but I don't know it, and I cannot control. I will know that only when I will read italian version's end.

So, what can I say at the end of this long comment I wrote? Sailor Moon kept company with me for years, and it made me feel some wonderful feelings, thanks to its characters, and its messages. Sailor Moon is finished. There won't be any other story that will continue this little masterpiece of Japan Fantasy Literature. In any case, it will live forever in my hearth. And I'd like very much to close here my speech. But there's another important thing: we have not to think to this story too seriously. When I went on internet, searching Sailor Moon sites, sometimes, I found some "anti-character" sites. There were people that thought to this thing as a joke (like my friend Pandora of "Everchanging Sailor Moon Gateway") and I agree with them. But there's even people that think seriously to that, persisting upon the character, and telling seriously that he (or she) had to die, and other things similar. There were even people that insulted the webmasters of the first type of sites, saying that that character was really better than them. I read even that the webmaster had to DIE! Well... we haven't to mix fantasy with reality. Sailor Moon is a fantastic story, full of messages. But it's a story. It's a fantasy work. All the characters are made by the fantasy of a woman named Takeuchi naoko. They aren't real, we cannot think that they are better than a real person, and we haven't to think that a real person has to dead only because he/she doesn't like a character. These character are so loved because there's a little part of them in us. Every person in this world is a little Ami, a little Mako, a little Mina, and a little Usagi. They are caricatures of the real persons, they are the exaggeration of the real people. it's impossible that a character like Ami, or like Usagi exists in the reality. They are too perfect in their own way. Just like Donald Duck, or his cousin, that I can't remember the name in English, the very lucky one. It's impossible that a real person IS REALLY like Donald Duck. Perhaps sometimes it's happen that we have a bad day, and we were similar to him. And it's for this reason that we can understand him, and felt what he felt. But it's impossible that I say to a REAL person to dead only because this person says that he hates Donald Duck, and I like him. We haven't to think seriously to them: they aren't real, but WE ARE real. We have to keep what the Authors wanted to TEACH to us using these characters, and we haven't to degenerate their work in a sterile war of stupid fans!