Since the release of the anime "Sailor Moon", his characters have literally captured the minds of girls in Japan, and a little later, around the world. There are several reasons for this popularity, but the main one is that the heroines are very diverse and "vital." Each girl can find among them the one that is most similar to her.
Briefly about the plot
In the Japanese city of Tokyo, seven of the most ordinary schoolgirls live with their worries, problems and joys. However, they have one secret, combining such seemingly different in nature teens. All of them, when the Earth is threatened by demons from other planets, are able to turn into “warriors in sailors” and fight against villains. One of them, Usagi (Bunny) Tsukino, the main character in the anime Sailor Moon, becomes the team leader. She learned about her abilities when she met the magic cat Luna, who spoke about her mission.
In the first of five seasons, brave warriors encounter a group of demons calling themselves the "Dark Kingdom". Taking away the energy from people, the demons are gradually gaining strength, and only Usagi with her friends is able to stop them. To do this, they need to find magical rainbow crystals. If you collect all these crystals, you can gain tremendous power, and therefore you can not allow them to fall into the hands of demons.
However, it turns out that in the hunt for the Crystals there is a third party - a mysterious masked warrior named Toksedo Mask. As is usual in most "girl" animes, Sailor Moon herself falls in love with Toxedo. This character, however, is trying to find crystals not for the sake of helping the warriors, but with his own goals.
Although in the end the Lunar Team of the warrior girls succeeds in defeating these demons, enemies from other planets threaten the Earth in each of the next four seasons, so Sailor Moon, her friends and Toxedo Mask will have to guard the good of justice more than once.
Characters
Perhaps those who have never watched the anime will wonder: what is he, a typical Sailor Moon character? What's this? It is very difficult to give such a definition, because all the main characters are very different in character, habits and appearance. However, one thing is certain: the heroes of this anime are the most ordinary Tokyo schoolgirls with supernatural powers.
main characters
The main, leading the plot, the heroines in "Sailor Moon" five. All of them are schoolgirls with different characters and different backgrounds, which were united by the mission to save the Earth about enemies ("We bring good and justice" - this is their motto). Each of the warriors in sailors is protected by her celestial body - the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus. This partly determines their character and combat abilities.
Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon)
The name of this bright and childishly naive fourteen-year-old girl is translated as “Moon rabbit”. She even outwardly resembles a bunny, especially due to the fact that she braids her hair in 2 characteristic ponytails resembling hare ears.
Fun and carefree Usagi (who is called Bunny in the first seasons of the anime) doesn’t like to study, although she’s not at all stupid and passes exams without problems when she prepares for them. But you don’t usually want to cook at all, it’s much more interesting to go to a karaoke club with your girlfriend, bake another yummy meal or quarrel with a harmful guy named Mamoru again.
And Bunny would have lived the most ordinary life if she had not once met a sweet (at first glance) talking cat Luna. The cat told Usagi that she was one of the “sailor warriors” who were called upon to defend Serenity, the princess of the Moon Kingdom, and in every possible way to interfere with evil demons in the implementation of their evil plans, in a word - to bring retribution in the name of the Moon. And how can one manage not to abandon school? The task is not easy, but Usagi is sure to cope.
In addition to the main character, there are characters in Sailor Moon without whose help she could not cope with the problems that arise.
Ray Hino (Sailor Mars)
The second most important character after Sailor Moon is Sailor Mars, aka Ray Hino. Her name means "Fiery soul", which is fully consistent with the planet, the patron, and the character of this girl. Long before Rey learned of her affiliation with the “warriors in sailors”, she possessed a supernatural ability to predict with the help of fire. Classmates were wary of her and even accused of all the oddities happening around.
Stubborn and quick-tempered, brave and independent, Rey did not immediately agree to join the Sailor Moon team, but still had to do so in order to counter the impending threat.
Rei is very disapproving of Usagi's frivolity, which is why friction constantly arises between them. But there is a positive side to this: thanks to its practicality and prudence, Rei often cools the ardor of her overly amorous girlfriends.
Ami Mitsuno (Sailor Mercury)
Usagi's classmate, Ami, whose name means "Water Rain," is another of the sailors in the sailors. Responsibility, obsession with studies and some isolation are all about her. In the class, the girl was considered to be crammed and did not want to be friends, so she is wary of others.
Upon learning that Ami is also a warrior in a sailor suit, Usagi tried to make friends with her, but she did not succeed right away. Like Rei, Ami did not want to accept her fate, but the reason was completely different. If Ami will spend time fighting evil forces, then how can she still have time to learn? And you need to learn necessarily, and certainly without fail, because Ami is going to devote herself to medicine in the future, like her parents. Perhaps, if she lived in our world, to the question “what is Sailor Moon”, this character would hardly be able to answer, because this girl has absolutely no time for such stupid things as anime.
And yet, what to be, not to be avoided, but because Ami also had to fight to protect herself and her friends.
Makoto Kino (Sailor Jupiter)
In a team of warriors in sailors, Makoto (translated from Japanese, her name means "Truth") seems older not only in age, but also in character and life experience.
Having lost her parents early, the future Sailor Jupiter was forced to learn to fend for herself. Perhaps that is why she formed a fighting, truly masculine character. Usagi is afraid of her new friend and her ability to use fighting techniques, but at the same time, like the other main characters in Sailor Moon, she respects her as an older sister. Despite his boyish behavior, Makoto loves to cook and generally bother with the housework; she can enjoy shopping with friends, so this heroine is actually not as straightforward as it might seem at first glance.
Minako Aino (Sailor Venus)
The famous pop singer, the idol of Tokyo schoolgirls, including Usagi and Ami, the beauty and the kidnapper of hearts - all this can be said about Minako. But she also has a second, hidden side of life: when there is a threat to goodness and justice, Minako turns into a mysterious warrior Sailor Vee (only later, having joined the team of Usagi, she began to be called Sailor Venus).
The beautiful blonde long-haired Sailor Wee looks very similar to Princess Serenity, who is called to protect the warriors in sailors. She uses this feature to distract enemies from the real princess - Usagi.
In addition to appearance, Minako has another similarity with Usagi - both helped the cats to awaken their magical powers. Minako has a white cat, Artemis, with whom she has a very warm relationship.
Minor Heroes
What anime for girls can do without the "handsome prince"? That is why, in addition to the main characters, there is another character who plays a leading role in the Sailor Moon metaseries, although it appears occasionally - Toksedo Mask.
The mysterious helper of sailor warriors, wearing a mask, always accompanies his appearance with a scarlet rose. Of course, Sailor Moon falls in love with this handsome man, unaware for the time being that he and the high school student Mamoru Jiba (“Earth Defender” in Japanese), who is always bullying her, are one and the same person.
The fate of Toxedo Mask, the incarnation of Prince Endymion, is destined to be with Sailor Moon (Princess Serenity). In the lunar kingdom in the future they had a daughter, Chibiusa. When the kingdom is in danger again, the baby goes to the past and literally falls on Usagi's head. This is how the character Sailor Chibi Moon first appears. From the anime, we learn what happened in the future and why such a little girl decided to become a warrior like Sailor Moon.
There are characters in the anime "Sailor Moon" that are not so significant, but are also warriors in sailors. “Sweet couple” - Neptune and Uranus (Michiru Kayo and Haruka Teno), for example, almost never part. They are both girls, but Hotaru (aka Sailor Uranus) looks and behaves like a guy in everyday life. Michiru seems to be the exact opposite of her friend. She is gentle and feminine, is fond of playing the violin and draws very well. Closer to the anime finale, they became practically foster parents for another warrior - Sailor Saturn (Hotaru Tomo). This girl differs from the rest not only in pain and physical weakness, but also in the origin of her gift. Due to the accident that happened in childhood, Hotaru became a dark warrior of destruction, and she was only able to return her to the brighter side, only turning her again into a baby and raising her again.
Setsuna Mayo (Sailor Pluto) appeared in the story when Sailor Moon and Chibiusa traveled in time. Pluto protects the Gates of Time from uninvited guests, and during its service has become very lonely and unsociable, although it treats the rest of the warriors quite friendly.
Villains
Characters appearing in the Sailor Moon anime, as in any fairy tale, are divided into positive and negative. Each season presents its own group of alien demons, who certainly need to capture the souls of people, power, the Earth and generally outlive Princess Serenity.
At the very beginning there appears a group of villains calling themselves the Dark Kingdom. They are looking for seven rainbow crystals, which, gathered together, will turn into one powerful, able to help seize power. Well, along the way, the leader of this gangster group, Queen Beryl, together with her assistants, takes away the souls of people in order to bring back their lord Metallia to life.
In the second season, when the warriors in sailors lost their memory and began to live a normal teenage life, the Children of the Dark Forest, Ayl and Anna flew to Earth. Considering that human energy was needed to revive their tree, they took away the souls of people and did not even suspect the true need of the Tree for love.
After the happy salvation of the two lovers, in the second half of the season, the sailor warriors had to fight one more demoness, the Sister-persecutors, who were hunting for baby Chibiusa.
In the third season, the warriors in sailors had to fight with Professor Tomo, the father of Sailor Saturn, and his Apostles of Death. And after Hotaru joined the Sailor Moon team, earthlings attacked the Dead Moon Circus, whose demons fed on human dreams. And finally, the final enemies of the warriors in sailors were Sailor Galaxia and other same star warriors like themselves.
And in addition ...
In addition to the five seasons of the anime, three full-length films also appeared on television: Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS, the game series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and many musicals. Manga lovers can also read the original source from which the anime was made, and in 2014 even re-release closer to the manga. In general, in Japan, and throughout the world, this anime has become one of the most popular. Almost all the characters represented in Sailor Moon became the inspirers of numerous cosplayers. Photos of them were presented in the article.