Oh, great, I'm already watching Sherlock Holmes and Chess simultaneously. Now I want to go to crunchyroll.com and watch PGSM, too.

Seriously, though, I only got to SKU through BSSM, and I still love that crazy damn show, flaws and all. I was a crazy-ass Minako fangirl from the start, although I was also in love with Zoisite. Speaking of which, my iTunes is being scary again and just randomly came up with a song I used to listen to while reading Wildflowers. Anyone else remember that fic? Epic, mad, and very, very odd. I couldn't stop reading. Until I did. Um. Too much character assassination for me by the end of it all, but damn, it was the first epic fanfic I ever read and I'll always have a curious fondness for it because of that.

Chess is on DVD??? Where have I been?

Anyway getting on topic...

Emiemipoemi there are a lot of filler episodes long running series tend to have them enmasse but I swear it's worth trying to trudge through them for the complete story. If anything I think if you wanted you could just try starting where things get really interesting with Sailor Moon S. At least there you have the new and (OMG they really are gay can't believe the English tried to make the "cousins") Sailor Senshi (Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus).


Sailor Moon is really interesting to watch in Japanese. If one ignores the dub life is better all around. If one reads the manga life is also slightly better.

Despite my feelings towards the dub I do have a soft spot for the female version of Zoicite though everything about that characters becomes ten times funnier when he's a flaming queen. I'm just sayin'...

I think Sailor Moon starts people talking because for many anime fans it was the first thing they new as anime, and being a fan fic writer it was the first series I had ever even considered writing fan fiction for.

My favorite character is Sailor Pluto (Setsuna). And my favorite pairing is Sailor Pluto and Queen Serenity (Sailor Moon's mom).

There are a lot of areas to explore within the boundries of Sailor Moon with reincarnation, and the effects of remembering one's past life. They way the Senshi's powers line up to to the planets they are named for, and that astrologically and mythicly characters seem to come together in interesting ways.

Emiemipoemi wrote:

OMG Chess awesome.

I really tried to get into Sailor Moon and I will definitely try again. The problem I had was I started from the beginning and there are so many filler episodes that I just had a hard time watching it. I think I got up to episode 15. D: I like the character designs, I love Magical Girl stuff, but it was just SO MUCH FILLER. Any suggestions? :/

I would suggest starting with episode 34.  Why?  Because it's where the plot of the first season actually starts.  It's a 2-parter, and even without any previous knowledge of the series, it might be enough to drag you in.  That was my very first episode back during its USA Network run in 1997.  It already has all of the Inner Senshi introduced, so you don't have to deal with episode upon episode with just Usagi or Usagi and Ami (love Ami, but love her more when there are more people to play off of).  Granted, there is filler after that point, but I thought it was enjoyable filler as it includes episodes for each of the individual girls.

Others might suggest starting with an entirely different season, but I really think the classic episodes provide the best introduction, and then skip to the "good" seasons if you like (personally, I loved every season but SuperS, and even it had its moments.)

Emiemipoemi wrote:

OMG Chess awesome.

I really tried to get into Sailor Moon and I will definitely try again. The problem I had was I started from the beginning and there are so many filler episodes that I just had a hard time watching it. I think I got up to episode 15. D: I like the character designs, I love Magical Girl stuff, but it was just SO MUCH FILLER. Any suggestions? :/

I have never had much patience for Chess before, but this version amuses me.

As for the filler...ah, well, that's where I get irritated with it, too. It's like Rurouni Kenshin; if they ditched all the filler and tightened the narrative flow, it would make a good thing utterly fantastic. About all I can say is that you just sort of have to sit through them, because they do tend to say SOMETHING interesting about a certain character, even if it doesn't directly impact the narrative arc of the story. With that said, PGSM doesn't have filler episodes in the same way because it is much shorter, and I really liked that aspect of it. But...yeah. It depends, really. My favourite season is the first, followed by the third and then the second, but they all have filler episodes that make you bang your head against the wall (the second is particularly bad for it, but the first season has two runs of filler episodes (only Zoisite's main villain arc escapes it to a large degree) and the third is fairly similar). But...I do love this crazy show.

I remember when I was in 6th grade and I watched it on tv EVERYDAY after having to sit through Hawaii 5.0.

I HATED that show. I hate it to this day because I had to sit through it to get to SM.

Fave character?

I couldn't even pick one. I think it kept changing the older I got.

Raven Nightshade wrote:

Cerise wrote:

That was my very first episode back during its USA Network run in 1997.

Holy crap, someone else remembered when it was on USA! What was sad is that USA even edited the overedited DiC version.

Episode 34 aired on July 29, 1997.  I even know that much!   I remember that a friend of mine told me I should watch Sailor Moon because I was talking about Speed Racer and Voltron.  She mentioned that it was going to be airing on USA.  That was in January or so of 1997.  Flash forward to July 29th when we were waiting for my mom to finish getting ready so we could take our exchange student to the airport.    I flipped on the television and saw "Sailor Moon" and thought, "Hey, that's what she told me to watch!"  At which point our exchange student leapt to her feet and yelled "Sailor Moon!!!"  Apparently, she was also a fan.

It was love at first sight, as I never, ever had seen anything like it.  When I started taping R, I would rewind "Serena's" transformation and watch it over and over again (yeah...now I fastforward.)  There wasn't a single thing about it I didn't love.  Except for Raye, she was a hag.

Just thinking about it gives me warm fuzzies all over again...

My Senshi Ranking:

1. Makoto
2. Minako
3. Haruka
3. Hotaru
3. Ami
3. Setsuna
4. Michiru
5. Usagi
6. Rei
7. Chibiusa

Yeah, I love Ami/Haruka/Hotaru/Setsuna pretty much all the same.  Michiru is just a breath away from being tied for number 3 as well.

Middle of the first season is a good place to start, if you ask me, perhaps right when Makoto is introduced.  (Epsiode 25) You really haven't missed much of the plot at that point, and enough characters are in play to keep it from being all about Usagi, but you'll have some episodes before getting thrown into things.

And yes, the filler.  Let's be honest, Sailor Moon is not great anime.  There are plenty of flaws to it, and pacing is one of them, but the characters are the kind that just stick with you.  For me, this show has always been about characters.  You'll see one on a poster or ad years later and get warm fuzzy feelings, like you've just bumped into an old friend.

Since it seems to be in style, my ranking:

1. Ami
2. Hotaru - this one kinda snuck up on me
3. Makoto
4. Minako
5. Haruka & Michiru
6. Usagi
7. Setsuna
8. Rei
9. Mamoru
10. Chibi-Usa

All the cool people are doing it!

My ranking:

1 Minako
2 Seiya - he always made me laugh X3
3 Haruka
4 Usagi
5 Helios
6 Rei
7 Setsuna
8 Artemis
9 Luna
10 Yaten Kou
11 Michiru
12 Hotaru
13 Ami
14 Makoto
15 Mamoru
4578 Chibi-Usa

I love 1 - 12 and it was really hard to put them in a list!

13 - 15 I'm just sort of ambivalent about.

Anyone is better than Chibi-Usa.

Edit: I forgot Kaitou Ace! ..wow.. He's numbah 1.5 X3

Last edited by Dross (10-27-2007 07:32:46 PM)

You know, I never really could get into the Starlights.  I liked Seiya fairly well (which surprised me), but Yaten and Taiki were just a bit too mean in my opinion.

Taiki = Johnny Weir.  Particularly when he's doing his Swan Lake performance with his hair all slicked back and wearing a red swan glove named Camille.  I'm serious, he's Taiki!!

My god, Chibiusa just gets no love, does she? Except from her numerous preadolescent beaus.

And yay for the Starlights, although they suffer somewhat from being the Outer Senshi II: Electric Boogaloo (strange powerful new ends-justify-the-means Senshi who may or may not be allies? Never seen that before!). I love their complete unconcern with gender. Seiya is masculine, and Yaten's kind of girly, and Taiki just comes across as awesomely asexual, but they never seem to be concerned in the slightest over whether they're male or female at any given time. They're like the anti-Ranmas. And nobody else bats an eye when they find out about their true identities, either (even Usagi, who has been hit on by Seiya for some time). I think only Kakyuu even mentions it in the slightest...

My first cosplay was school-uniform Taiki.

Speaking of the Starlights, I'm pretty fond of the Sailor Animamates (and use them as my MSTing crew). As the series goes along (particularly starting with S), I feel like the villain sub-generals get progressively more endearing - it's one of the things the anime just beats out the manga on, hands-down.

Paradox wrote:

And yes, the filler.  Let's be honest, Sailor Moon is not great anime.  There are plenty of flaws to it, and pacing is one of them, but the characters are the kind that just stick with you.  For me, this show has always been about characters.  You'll see one on a poster or ad years later and get warm fuzzy feelings, like you've just bumped into an old friend.

True on all fronts! Sailor Moon's great strength is that it has an awesome cast of characters. They avoid being stereotypical because they're the ones who set a lot of the stereotypes, and they approach archetypal. In Sailor Moon fanfiction, I'm always impressed by the range of ways each of them can be approached... and it's not because they're undefined, it's because they all have different aspects that can be worked with.

Oh, and speaking of fanfiction and Ami/Mako conjecture, check out this fanfic, probably the only non-disturbing thing Jon Carp has ever written (okay, "Showerbrooding" too). The Sailor Moon supporting cast is under appreciated, I think.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/871054/1/Th … Make_Sense

Emiemipoemi wrote:

I really tried to get into Sailor Moon and I will definitely try again. The problem I had was I started from the beginning and there are so many filler episodes that I just had a hard time watching it. I think I got up to episode 15. D: I like the character designs, I love Magical Girl stuff, but it was just SO MUCH FILLER. Any suggestions? :/

Last year, my friend and I interspersed watching Serial Experiments Lain with a just-the-highlights viewing of Sailor Moon S (you know, to dilute the Lain-ness), and I think it's a successful strategy. Sailor Moon filler gets more bearable as the series goes along, but still, you just can't watch that much of it at one time...

Anyway, for season 1, you could try watching just episodes 1, 8, 10, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 27, 32, 33, 34 (alternately, all of 25-34, which I think is a pretty good mini-arc), (35, maybe?), 36, 41, (42?), 43, 44, 45, 46. That cuts the long and slow first season down to a much more reasonable length. If you're moving beyond plot highlights, be sure to hit episode 6, the first Ikuhara-directed episode and in my opinion the neatest of the Usagi-only episodes; and episode 31, featuring the best one-shot character of all time (thanks again, episode director Ikuhara!). Or I agree, just starting at 25 isn't a bad plan either.

The whole Chibi-Usa and Pegasus thing in SuperS still kinda creeps me out...

Last edited by Imaginary Bad Bug (10-27-2007 11:22:16 PM)

ShatteredMirror wrote:

I don't really have solid enough preferences to rank the cast in order, but I have to join everyone in not liking Chibi-Usa. I have to admit, though, that she's a pretty spot-on depiction of a spoiled kid.

I agree with that.  Honestly, while I dislike Chibi-Usa, it isn't intense hatred.  As a character she's fairly believable in R.  She's a bright but bratty kid.  She does a lot of things that seem stupid to us, but she's what, 6?  She's intelligent enough that she generally seems older, but now and then, she thinks and acts like a 6 year old.

What I loathe is the Chibi-Usa Effect, where whenever she shows up, Usagi regresses in maturity by about four to five years.  It pretty much wrecks large parts of SuperS, which outside of Usagi & Chibi-Usa is a rather harmless little diversion between the more serious S and Stars.