Customer Reviews

Codename: Sailor V 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this manga! It was really interesting to see what helped the amazing mangaka, Naoko Takeuchi, begin the story of Sailor Moon.
Sailor V was the original Sailor Scout until Naoko Takeuchi began developing other characters and made Sailor Moon the central character. No wonder there are so many similarities between Sailor Moon and Sailor V including that of their looks.

Sailor V was discovered by Artemis and was an independent Sailor Scout until she reunited with the rest of the Sailor Scouts much later.
It was interesting to see that Usagi Tsukino admired Sailor V, and watched Sailor V on the news headlines, even before she knew that she was a Sailor Soldier herself.

Another interesting thing to watch out for in this manga is how the Sailors cross paths with each other unknowingly, how they hang out at the same arcade, and walk past each other like stangers on the road.

The only negative thing about this manga is that it's too short (only 2 books)!!

I'm a huge fan of Sailor Moon but I had no idea that Sailor V was the original Sailor Scout and the prequel to Sailor Moon until a friend told me about it. So I was super excited to get this series (vol.1 & 2) and I was not disappointed. Naoko Takeuchi merges the stories together very well, and you even see glimpses of Usagi (Sailor Moon) and others in the second volume of this series. It's very humorous and a little less serious that Sailor Moon, but a great read with fantastic art. I really enjoyed it!

I am extremely satisfied with this purchase. Like the Sailor Moon Volume 1 re-release, the book itself is attractive and shiny on the covers, and has a couple of color pages at the beginning. As expected, the artwork is gorgeous, and for sound effects both the original Japanese characters AND the English translation are present. This is done in an unobtrusive way that does not clash with the drawings.

So, the biggest problem I have with the Sailor V series is that it seems to have been written before the rest of the Sailor soldiers, and even Sailor Moon herself, was conceptualized. I know that Sailor Venus was supposedly the prototype for Sailor Moon and it's quite obvious, since Sailor V runs around shouting "Moon Power: Transform!", has a crescent-shaped compact (which Sailor Moon doesn't have, but it's essentially her symbol), and has a crescent moon on her forehead when she is transformed - something that is supposed to be specific to Sailor Moon.

I guess that can't really be changed, but it BUGS me... it's a sharp inconsistency that makes it harder to enjoy the two Sailor V manga books (1 and 2) by Kodansha comics, which I just recently purchased. It doesn't help that my introduction to Sailor Moon was around age 9 or 10 with the anime TV series, so I know what the complete concept of the Sailor soldiers is like (even if it still differs from the manga).

My other problem with the Sailor V 1 comic is that it's kind of cheesey. It's not funny, hardly interesting, and as such, it's barely worth reading. I'm glad Sailor V wasn't the main character, because if she were, I probably wouldn't have liked the anime, or felt enough interest 15 years later to actually watch the original Japanese version of the anime (which is better than the English one, in many ways, though the English one was good in it's own ways too). Of course, I have to watch it with subtitles since I don't speak Japanese...

Anyway, I still recommend buying it if you're a diehard fan, and definitely if you still like Sailor Moon even though like me, you are now in your mid-twenties. I sincerely hope that the actual Sailor Moon manga (I have to finish Sailor V 2 first!) is better. It still provides a lot of enjoyment despite it's obvious failings, since it gives background on the series that I wouldn't get just from watching the anime.