Codename: Sailor V(1992-1997)
Based on the 1991 Manga by Naoko Takeuchi, which ran from 1991 to 1997, concurrently with the Anime adaptation.
Season One(1992-1993)
The series follows the 13 year old middle school student Minako Aino, who encounters a talking white cat with a crescent moon shape on its forehead. The Cat reveals that Minako has the ability to transform into a warrior of justice dubbed Sailor V, who is a defender from the planet Venus. She is given a crescent moon shaped compact disc and magical pen to transform. The transformation makes her unrecognizable though just about anyone perceives her as beautiful. She battled the Dark Agency. An evil organization posing as an Idol talent agency, led by the villain Danburite, who is secretly her boyfriend. Minako has several adventures, including becoming popular in universe when she appears on TV, bringing her closer to the Idol Agency cover. She also discovers that there are other Guardians from other planets that have yet to be awoken on Earth and goes out to search for them[1]
The Other Guardians included the Cyborg Ami Mizuno(Sailor Mercury), hotheaded Miyabi Yoruno(Sailor Mars), tomboyish gang leader Mamoru Chino(Sailor Jupiter) and the ditzy Usagi Tsukino(Sailor Moon)[2]. Sailor Moon became the most popular of these new characters. Her popularity was such that she was made the Mascot for Japan’s Lunar program, a role similar to how Snoopy is the Mascot for NASA’s Apollo mission. Her image was often painted on the Spacecrafts. Ami Mizuno was also popular to the extent where she basically replaced the “SurReigate” due to her similarities in design to the character of Rei while remaining unique in her own right to the extent that she became more popular. A common legend is the other Sailor Scouts are based on the members of CLAMP.
The new villain became Queen Beryl of the Dark Kingdom. It is revealed that she was responsible for killing the Sailor Guardians in a previous life, destroying the Silver Millennium Empire which spanned the Solar System, leading to the Sailor Guardians being reincarnated and now seeks to revive Queen Metaria, who was imprisoned by Tsukino’s mother. In the ruins of the Moon Kingdom they found “Diana the Moon Fairy” who became a sidekick to the team. They track down the base of the Dark Kingdom to stop Queen Beryl from reviving Queen Metaria. In a final battle, all the Sailor guardians are killed except for Usagi and Minako, who also die but succeed in killing Queen Beryl and destroying Queen Metaria. The series ends with the reveal that Usagi was able to use magic to wish everyone would be reincarnated, which they are shown to have been in the epilogue, this time with their memories, As a result they return to Space and begin rebuilding the Silver Millennium including Usagi being crowned as Queen Serenity.
Season Two(1993-1994)
Season Two, adapting another arc, introduces Chibiusa, later revealed to the daughter of Usagi and her love interest Mamoru, the vigilante Tuxedo Mask[3]. Chibiusa tries to travel back in time to prevent the Death of the Guardians at the end of the first season as if they survived they would be strong enough to defeat the Black Moon Clan, which in her native time killed most of the Guardians while they were still recovering. The Guardians are warned by Sailor Pluto, who is in charge of time and was apparently exiled(possibly a jab at Pluto no longer being considered a planet) about Chibiusa but obscure her intentions as “Preventing your resurrection”(which is technically true). As a result, in the confusion, the Guardians end up preventing their own resurrection in the confusion. This leads into the first of two crossovers this season. The first was with
YuYu-Ki, thanks to Yoshihiro Togashi being the husband to Naoko Takeuchi, both marrying in 1992 the same year
YuYu-Ki[4] and
Codename: Sailor V came out. Yusuke and friends helps the Sailor Senshi travel through the spirit world and battle Queen Metaria and Queen Beryl to secure their own reincarnations. This established the two as sharing a universe. Thanks to this connection, strings were occasionally pulled to Get Sailor V characters into Shonen media such as cameos, Video Games as guest characters, and even in 1999’s
Jump World II, though these appearances are few and far between as Shonen has to pay royalties each time. Their Appearance in
Jump World II was accepted because the series was deemed “An icon of 90’s Anime” which warranted inclusion in an event celebrating the decade.
Clip from the Codename Sailor V/YuYu-Ki Crossover(Actually fanart from user tam0804).
Though the Sailor Senshi are still reincarnated, they still have to contend with the Black Moon Clan. Chibiusa, meanwhile succeeded and created an alternate future where the Senshi never died and trained to become stronger for the battle only to all be killed by the Black Moon Clan. While this breaks Chibiusa, mentally. The Sailor Senshi then learn there may be other warriors out there, which results in a crossover with
Rintaro of the Galaxy by Masami Kurumada[5], as the warriors are revealed to be “The Saints” interstellar former warriors of the Silver Millennium. Unlike the Senshi they are usually male and are named after constellations. These warriors then helped face off against the army of the Black Moon Clan while the Sailor Senshi deliver the final blow.
Season Three(1994-1995)
Season Three introduces the Death Busters as the new villains who summon Monsters to attack the Sailor Scouts. They are searching for a dormant being called Mistress 9, who is revealed to be trapped in the body of a young girl named Hotaru that Chibiusa befriends. Mistress 9 is revived and attempts to revive her even stronger husband Pharaoh 90. The arc also introduces Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who are in a gay relationship(something which was unchanged in dubs, despite some moves to censor it). The threat is ended and Chibiusa decides to stay in the past a bit longer.
Season Four(1995-1996)
The next antagonist is the Dead Moon Circus, which are capable of entering and consuming dreams. Their plot is to release their arrogant leader Queen Nehelenia, who was sealed in a mirror.
Season Five(1996-1997)
The Finale, Sailor Galaxia revives several previously dead enemies from the previous seasons. The Sailor Scouts meanwhile had drifted apart, moving to other countries and in Chibiusa’s case returning to their own time. They are called back together to deal with the villains forming their new team. In the resulting battle, known as the Sailor Wars, many are killed. Sailor Galaxia’s origin is revealed to have once been a hero but was corrupted by the entity Chaos in an attempt to stop the corruption from spreading. Despite wishes for Sailor Venus to just kill Galaxia, she instead finds a way to destroy the evil, those reforming Galaxia, who proves powerful enough to undo the deaths. The series therefore ends peacefully with the world celebrating, and a jump forward to Chibiusa’s time.
Dubs
The Series has two US dubs due to a bidding war at the time as it was extremely popular in the US. Saban Entertainment attempted to get the rights but failed to win over Toei with their pitch. Disney got the rights and released the series as close as possible to the original (despite getting backlash from several parents whose children were traumatized by the violent deaths of the Sailor Senshi at the end of the first season in a watershed moment for children's programming, and some complaints about Sailors Uranus and Neptune being lesbians). Saban however, refused to back down and created their own blatant ripoff in the infamous “Sailor Moon” often nicknamed “Saban Moon” by fans, which only had one season in 1994 and was hit by a cease and desist by Disney, who believed it sullied the original show[6]. Another reason was Disney was considering making a Live Action Codename Sailor V film and looking for Geena Davis to play Queen Beryl and possibly with the likes of Winona Ryder and Elizabeth Shue playing the Senshi[7].
"Saban" Moon
Another bidder, Cartoon Network, after losing the rights, approved a pitch from Lauren Faust titled
Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls, on account of the similar concept of having girls personifying planets[8], which became a cash cow franchise thanks to the toys based on the series proving to be popular.
The Characters of "Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls"
NOTES
[1] Like with
Dragonboy this is a case of what if the Prototype was greenlit for a Show. In this case however,
Codename: Sailor V works as a prequel to Sailor Moon pretty smoothly as the exploits of Sailor Venus before she met Sailor Moon.
[2] Changes to the Scouts beyond their less uniform outfits include Ami being a cyborg as planned, which according to TV Tropes, The Rei Ayanami Expy would have been the Sailor Mercury expy. Makoto is Mamoru instead. Rei is Miyabi(justified if Alcion has already popularized a "Rei").
[3]
DragonMan also used this plot but the connection is somewhat reversed. OTL Dragonball the time traveller is the child of two supporting characters and in Sailor Moon it is the child of the protagonist and their love interest. ITTL DragonMan has the child of the protagonist and their love interest travel back while Sailor V has the child of two supporting characters travel back.
Sailor Moon: Everything's great until your child from the future comes back and ruins your plans.
Vegeta: I know the feeling.
-Ask an Anime Character Panel, OTL. Paraphrased.
[4] YuYu-Ki was the original title for YuYu Hakusho but an obscure manga had a similar name in
Chin-Yu-Ki. It changed to YuYu Hakusho, which means Poltergeist Report while YuYu-Ki means Poltergeist Chronicles. Characters from both franchises had cameo'd in each other due to the two creators being married.
[5] Saint Seiya was originally conceived by its creator as a Karate Kid style series. As a result his next work
Rintaro of the Galaxy, will be the closer equivalent to Saint Seiya and the Space theme allowed it to merge with Codename: Sailor V. I originally has Sailor Moon's creator and Saint Seiya's creator get together, resulting in a hybrid franchise of both, but Seiya creator Masami Kurumada is more than a decade older than Sailor Moon's creator Naoko Takeuchi, who is only one year older than her OTL Husband so that was dropped but the franchises are still similar enough to crossover.
[6] The Infamous DiC dub doesn't exist ITTL but this "Saban Moon" takes its place and is even worse.
[7] An OTL plan. It fell through as Disney hoped to get the Director who made the live action Mr.Magoo movie to direct it, then that flopped hard and DiC pulled out of the deal.
[8]Originally conceived by Lauren Faust, who pitched it but was rejected several times due to companies believing "Animation wasn't for Girls." despite several shows to the contrary including
The Powerpuff Girls. She ended up making
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as a result of this idea not coming into existence. Here it's pitched earlier due to the Catch 22 of the series would likely be seen as a
Sailor Moon ripoff in a world where that show's equivalent was more successful, so here its leaned into and finds its own identity. It also helps cushion the fact that ITTL
The Powerpuff Girls equivalent is
The Whoopass Girls, who lean more towards older audiences, leading
Galaxy Girls to somewhat fill that void.