Minako a fort à faire pour déjouer les complots de la Dark Agency, cette organisation maléfique qui veut conquérir la Terre et vider les humains de leur énergie. Comme si ça ne suffisait pas, Sailor V doit à présent supporter la concurrence d'un autre justicier qui enflamme le coeur de toutes les filles : Ace, le mystérieux gentleman ! Il s'agit en fait du héros d'un feuilleton télévisé à la mode. Mais cet homme est-il simplement un acteur ou bien un allié potentiel ? À moins qu'il ne s'agisse d'un ennemi…
Naoko Takeuchi (武内 直子, Takeuchi Naoko) born March 15, 1967, a manga artist (mangaka), lives in Tokyo, Japan. Takeuchi's works have a wide following among anime/manga fans. She has become a well-known mangaka worldwide. Her most popular work, Sailor Moon, rose to become one of the most recognized manga/anime figures to date.
Takeuchi is married to Yoshihiro Togashi, the author of the YuYu Hakusho series and Hunter × Hunter series.
Please note that anime related books are listed under Kōdansha.
Heading into the second volume, the Sailor Moon prototype and prequel series Sailor V continues to be an weird read.
This volume contains 8 issues, published sporadically across three years. Issues 9 and 10 introduce potentially serious characters and plot arcs, all of which are dropped for issues 11-14, returning V-Chan to extremely lighthearted adventures. But in issues 15-16 all plot threads are bound up and Sailor V is given a grand send off.
The playful chapters are fun escapades. Sailor V battles animal based villains, from mosquitos to cats, and gets mixed up in volunteer activities and karaoke. The best part of these side stories are the interaction between lazy high school girl Minako and old man cat Artemis. They do make quite an odd couple.
Early on we are introduced to the mysterious Phantom Ace, a masked man who wishes to help young girls be beautiful. Instead of roses, Ace throws playing cards through the air; the Ace of Hearts in specific. Minako is immediately smitten. Ace never pulls up a straight up Sailor Save, a la Tuxedo Mask, but he's there to help out and be a TV show star and idol. Meanwhile a mysterious villain named Danburite is planning Sailor V's Doom...
The climactic chapters explicitly tie in Sailor V's journey into Sailor Venus and as the leader of the Sailor Senshi. It is in melancholy destiny and heartbreak where Naoko Takeuchi excels. What has always grabbed me about Sailor Moon is the contrast between the Senshi's slice of life normalcy and mythology that they are re-incarnated guardians of the Solar System, from some pre-history utopia that collapsed in tragedy. The Sailor Moon series purposely leaves this beautific past as mysterious and open as possible, but I'm not entirely sure how well Sailor V's final enemy slots into already established lore.
It turns out Phantom Ace is non-other than Danburite, leader of the Dark Agency and mastermind of most of Tokyo's mysterious energy stealing occurrences. Not only is he a member of the Dark Kingdom, serving under the Four Heavenly Kings, Ace is a reincated Venusian! As Adonis, Ace knew Minako in her past life as the princess of Venus and Sailor Senshi. A "lowly rankless soldier", he fell in love with Princess Venus on their home planet, and describes her as a "magnificent goddess of beauty and war." In this current twist of fate, he is finally able to meet Venus as an equal, but also as her enemy.
Remembering her past life, and casting off her sentai costume, Minako emerges in her classic sailor uniform as Sailor Venus, and kills Ace in her final battle. Before disintegrating, Adonis whispers her fortune: "Love or your mission... it's the hardest choice to make, and now it's been made for you. Your destiny demands that you keep fighting."
Takeuchi has made it clear that her Sailor Guardians have a mission bigger than finding love in school. However, it has always felt unfair that Sailor Moon, Princess Serenity, and Usagi has a love story for multiple lifetimes, but none of the other guardians will. For the Senshi, they may find love with each other (Uranus with Neptune, and potentially Venus with Mars), but their destiny has no room for anyone else.
The Sailor V Series rarely captures the grandeur of the Sailor Moon Manga and the joyful female friendships of the Sailor Moon 90's anime. However, I'm so happy to get a nice copy of this series in English, and I will always fervently wish for another Sailor Moon series, manga, anime, or live action, to get my claws on.
REALLY loved the ending. It was cute, not dissapointing and it actually makes me want to read the Sailor Moon manga again. The rest of the second edition of Codename: Sailor V was great too and I'm glad I had a chance to purchase the book.
Love all the little glimpses into the incoming Sailor Moon universe we get in these. Also just the growth in Minako and how she ultimately comes to find her role as a soldier and a leader. She's such a fun and vivacious character. Forever a fave.
antics include: -incredibly fatphobic plot in early chapters with a villain who makes girls fat and a hero who makes them skinny again with diet tips and "candies" -13 year-old Mina whines about eating too much chocolate by kneeling on the ground, pointing at her face and saying "my mouth is so lonely"(???!!!) -Mina gets yelled at by adult male cop and she gets heart eyes for his "angry face" -13 year old Mina kissing an adult male cop, later giving her number to an adult female cop who is openly in love with her -canonically bi female cop who is nearly identical to Mars (and in love with Mina!) -femboy Tuxedo Mask (who gives Mina heart venus symbol ring to wear on her left ring finger?? gay-coded boy giving straight girl a lesbian-coded ring??) -Artemis has a crush on Luna...a dog...who turns out to actually be male -Mina transforms into a "super sexy" idol for a swimsuit competition, which means looking like her normal 13 year-old self but in a school swimsuit, and the other competitor is jealous because she has to wear the apparently less sexy bikini because she's an adult -a mosquito villain (lol) poses as a doctor who Mina finds cute, and tries to take off her clothes for a "full-body checkup" and the villain doctor gets uncomfortable and stops her -mosquito doctor villain is revealed to actually a woman and Mina is upset -a mangaka character wears branded Chanel clothing, because of course she does -Mina talks about making a yaoi manga with femboy Tuxedo Mask and another ripoff Tuxdeo Mask -Mina asks where the "man of [her] destiny" is, Artemis corrects her and says it could be a woman, which upsets Mina -a whole page of fart jokes, and fart gets censored as fa*t
but also the final chapters get to the actual story and establish Venus' primary motivation and inner conflict in a pretty compelling fashion, making me appreciate her character more
Finally, the last volume of the Eternal Editions is out!
Physically, this volume is beautiful. The whole Eternal Editions are beautiful. The art is gorgeous, as always.
But I didn’t love this Sailor V prequel as much as the main series. I thought this the first time I read the original editions but I thought maybe I was burnt out on Sailor Moon (since I read it after the original series) but no, after reading it again, I definitely feel the same. Mina can be very annoying. And most of the chapters feel like filler comedy. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed a lot reading this but I was longing for more serious moments to balance out the over the top humor, like in the original series. (Also, what was up with Sailor V kissing an unconscious grown ass man??? Wakagi works for the police. He has to be mid twenties!!! And she’s 13!!! Cringe!!!!)
Anyway, I feel like this prequel series could be skipped. I wanted my Eternal collection to be whole, so I went ahead and bought them anyway! One more thing!!! I would not read this first, as a prequel! It will spoil the twist/surprise of the first arc of the original series!!!!
This was cute too! We continue to follow along with Sailor V who was awakened first amongst the sailor guardians. She continues to be boy crazy falling for some character Ace who is a bad guy with the Dark Kingdom.
She travels to China to film a movie.
And she gets her memories back of Usagi and the other guardians and what happened on the moon. She even has run ins with the girls before she realizes who they are. We also get a Luna mention and Artemis’ obvious crush.
We still don’t learn why she was awakened first. Who the ‘boss’ is AKA the voice at the base and in her transformation pin. She’s able to defeat bad guys all on her own with a special power I had never seen on the show.
I am still very curious if the rest of the manga will answer these questions. The show made it seem like she lives abroad fighting evil but that hasn’t been the case so.
not much to say with this one except i really enjoyed the ending and the big reveal with that “final boss”, it concludes sailor v’s story very nicely. while also setting things up for those that might want to read sailor moon after reading this which is definitely the order i would recommend for any new readers.
my only problem with this edition which the original sailor moon anime had the same issue is the volume/episode centered around the villain that makes women and men gain weight, and then being shamed for being fat by society which leads to them working out, dieting, taking “diet candies”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Why these previous stories of Minako where never animated? I think it was a missed opportunity. A couple of OVAs would have been enough. Minako's and Artemis' perspective on the story is really entertaining since her journey to become a Sailor Senshi is so different. Also, their relationship is also on a different level. These two volumes are definitely interesting and will be enjoyed by anyone who loves Sailor Moon.
I would have liked this more without the fat-shaming. I still enjoyed it but the first story made me kind of upset. And then we still have the weird age-gap crushes/romances that I just can't deal with. Otherwise it's fun. I find it weird though that Mina's bestie Hikaru looks EXACTLY like Ami and we have a lot of characters that I feel just get drawn exactly like other ones sometimes so i ended up confusing myself a lot.
Seconda ed ultima parte della storia di Sailor V. Finalmente Minako sblocca i ricordi della sua vita passata e di chi sta cercando realmente, non è l’amore per un ragazzo ma qualcosa di più, collegato ai suoi doveri di guerriera. Conclusione bellissima che si allinea a come poi è stata introdotta nel manga. Lettura apprezzata da fan della saga di Sailor Moon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Great conclusion to Sailor Vs side stories. Although the differ a little in tone from Sailor Moon, toward the end, they begin to match up.
The episode with the villain who made everyone chubby with evil chocolates was problematic, revealing Sailor Venus's fatphobia, but at this point, she's an immature middle schooler, so hopefully she'll grow up.
I had a hard time deciding between 3 and 4 stars. Sailor V (like the Sailor Moon manga) is full of 90's stereotypes. It can be a little uncomfortable. Also since Mina is younger in this, she's more like Usagi and it can be a bit grating. However it was so fun to see Mina getting her memories since in Sailor Moon she has them by the time the other Sailor Senshi meet her.
I remember someone saying recently that Takeuchi-sensei had more freedom to play around and make Codename: Sailor V more fun and silly, instead of what she went through creating the various Sailor Moon arcs.
Still just a fun and nostalgic read being back in the Sailor Moon universe. It was nice to see Sailor Venus before she joins the rest of the girls and learning everything just like Sailor Moon does at the start. I'm glad I finally read these volumes.
Gli ultimi due capitoli sono molto interessanti perché gettano le basi della serie di Sailor Moon. La saga dei animaletti è cringe quanto il suo titolo.
The last two chapters really carry this book. I wasn’t a fan of the anti-Chinese racism or some of the filler. But as an addition to the main Sailor Moon saga, it stands up and is a fun diversion.