Sailor Moon 1 [ペーパーバック]

The first volume of Sailor Moon begins with 14-year-old Usagi finding a cat named Luna. When trouble arises, Luna grants Usagi the ability to transform into Sailor Moon, to defeat the evil attacking Tokyo's residents. It is here that Sailor Moon has her first run-in with the mysterious Tuxedo Mask. Unable to decide if he is friend or foe, Luna remains wary of Tuxedo Mask, while Sailor Moon is inexplicably drawn to him. The following three chapters revolve around the introductions of more Sailor Senshi, as well as their civilian counterparts. Sailor Mercury, Mars and Jupiter are introduced, while Tokyo continues to be attacked by negative forces. Sailor Moon is again and again thrown into situations where Tuxedo Mask comes to her aid, and along with haunting dreams of her name being called that she can't remember much of upon waking, Sailor Moon is more confused than ever.

I am far from a new Sailor Moon fan, but it was with great eagerness that I awaited this new translation of Sailor Moon. The new translation returns Usagi to her rightful name - no "Bunny" or "Serena", with the rest of the cast returning to their original japanese names as well. The manga reads right to left, without the flipped drawings that were in the previous translation. Minor things have been updated to show updates in technology, such as a floppy disk becoming a CD. These updates are handed down from a recent rerelease of the Sailor Moon manga over in Japan, and are completely unnoticeable if you aren't looking for them. Honorifics have been preserved well for the most part, although I did cringe a little at a 'Princess-sama' moment. A minor complaint is that names have been swapped around to english format, of First Name, Last Name rather than kept to their original Last Name, First Name, however this is a pretty common thing to do when translating manga over.

If you have before only been a fan of the Sailor Moon anime, it is a HUGE recommendation that you pick up the Sailor Moon manga. The manga has a much smaller age gap between Usagi and Mamoru. Instead of Mamoru being in college while Usagi is in middle school, Mamoru is a scant 2-3 years older in High School to her Middle School. The interaction between Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask flows much more naturally and rather than only at the end of the first season, with Tuxedo Mask discovering who Usagi is at an earlier stage. The anime seems to have played up Usagi's "stupidity" to a higher extent, and the first volume alone already has Luna praising Usagi for her insights.

Ever since the ill fated Mixx/Tokyopop lost their license to the series I've been hoping that Sailor Moon would eventually hit these shores again and they have. Happy day!

Fangirl gush aside, I really enjoyed this volume. The artwork is gorgeous, which is what you'd expect for a mangaka of Takeuchi's caliber. It's interesting to flip through the pages and let my eyes slide over the illustrations.

The translations are a little awkward at times, though. One of the things that Kodansha really hyped up was that they were going to be as faithful as possible, which included the honorifics. I was actually looking forward to this since I enjoy reading honorifics for the most part. I enjoyed much of the honorifics but I'd be lying if I said that some of them just felt really silly to tack on. Things that sound fantastic in Japanese with the untranslated word just sound clunky here, such as Hime-Sama being turned into Princess-Sama. (As one reviewer so aptly put it.) I think that Kodansha just tried a little too overly hard to stay faithful to the original translations, possibly due to all of the complaints over the Tokyopop translations. This just doesn't come across as organically as it should, which might bore a few readers.

I can't really hate the Sailor Moon manga for this and I waffled over giving it 4 stars and giving it 5 stars. I eventually had to concede that while the flaws didn't ruin my experience as a whole, they were definitely noticeable and kind of interrupted my reading at least slightly.

For the Sailor Moon fans, this is an absolute 100% must buy. For any new readers or those on the fence, I'd still recommend it. It's worth having in my opinion and the awkward translations should ease up over time as Kodansha gets used to what they do and don't have to add.

I am not reviewing the Sailor Moon series, which is perfect, but the reprint. The art is still very beautiful and I like the colored, glossy pictures. The re-done covers are fun, too. As for the translation, one thing I did like is the use of the original Japanese names! Usagi, Mamoru, Makoto... they're all there! However, I was a little disappointed overall with the new translation. I thought since this series is known to be so popular here in the US, that they would have put in a little more effort this time around to give us a translation that is accurate AND makes sense. This translation is accurate, but some of the translations don't make sense... For example, the constant use of the word "bro" when the girls are talking about Motoki at the arcade. Are they middle school girls or college frat boys? Its just weird! Also, some of the word choices were strange, Usagi uses words that you wouldn't expect a 14 year old girl to use. I don't usually nitpick things like this, but these are things that would have been easy to fix! Anyways, ultimately I am just glad we have Sailor Moon back here in the States :)