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Fandom Overview: Sailor Moon
Hello,
I'm Lilly and this month I'll drive the anime/manga van. English isn't my mother tongue but I hope it isn't too bad. :)
So let's start the van and hopefully I can persuade you to give my favorite manga/anime a chance.
This is one of the catchphrases of one of the most popular animes/mangas in the world. In the year 1991 Kodansha published the first chapter of a shojo manga called 'Sailor Moon' written by Naoko Takeuchi. This was not only the start of an overwhelming franchise but also the beginning of the Magical Girl boom.
18 manga volumes (12 in the reprint), an anime with 200 episodes (and soon there will be a new one!), a live-action TV series with 49 episodes and two specials, 29 musicals, more than 20 videogames and many merchandise articles later the story of Sailor Moon and her friends still has a huge fan base.
But what is so special about it?
Maybe this (really long) overview will help to answer this question.
In Sailor Moon we follow the adventures of Usagi Tsukino whose life drastically changes after she meets a talking cat called Luna. After this meeting, she learns that she's a magical warrior who not only has the duty to save and protect the Earth but she also needs to find the Moon princess. A thousands year ago the Dark Kingdom destroyed the Moon Kingdom. Severely injured, the Queen of the Moon sent her dead daughter and her guardians, advisors and her true love into the future so that they'd be reborn and have another chance to be happy.
Now, it's Usagis duty to find these reborn people and to give them their happy ending.
Her adventure spans into five major arcs.
Season 1 - Sailor Moon (Classic) - The Dark Kingdom Arc (46 episodes)
The fourteen years old Usagi meets Luna and learns that her destiny is to save the planet. Thankfully, she meets the mysterious Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus who help her to fight against the Dark Kingdom. This Kingdom includes various monsters and their main evil source Metallica, their Queen Beryl and their four generals (the Shitennou), called Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite (Jedite, Nephlite, Zoycite and Malachite in the Engl. dub).
In the end it becomes clear that history repeats itself. Usagi and her friends die, but they will be reborn without their memories.
This plot is heavy with alterations adapted into the live-action series. The dub gets many hateful comments because Zoisite got changed into a woman. Why? Surprise! Yes, he and Kunzite are in love, so naturally one of them need to be a woman(or they could have been cousins but okay that's something for S3) and no, I'm not bitter about this.
An Original Poster from Italy with the Inner Senshis and Queen Beryl with her four Generals.
From left to right: Jadeite, Nephrite, Beryl, Kunzite, Zoisite
Sailor Mars, Jupiter, Moon, Venus, Mercury
(x)
Season 2 - Sailor Moon R - The Black Moon Arc (43 episodes)
S2 starts with a filler plot which many people hate and some people love. The first 13 episodes tell us the story of the Doom Tree/Makaiju which gives the two aliens (An/En and Eiru/Ali or Natsumi/Anne and Seijuro Ginga/Alan Granger in their human forms) life energy. But the tree seems to die so they decide to settle on Earth and to use monsters called Cardians to steal the life energy of humans. Sailor Moon and the other Senshis need to leave their normal lives to fight again.
In the end Sailor Moon can heal the tree and the two aliens leave the planet.
After that Usagi seems to finally have found the peaceful life she wants, but a mysterious girl appears in Usagis family and everyone seems to think Chibiusa is her cousin?! Soon, it becomes clear that Chibiusa isn't a normal girl but what is her connection with the Black Moon family?
In the end only a trip into the future seems to bring all answers.
Because of the filler episodes in the beginning and the unnecessary break-up subplot between Usagi and her boyfriend Mamoru many people have problems with this season.
Season 3 - Sailor Moon S - The Mugen/Infinity Arc (38 episodes)
The S stands for Super and this season definitely deserves this title.
The antagonists of this S3 are called the Death Busters, which is led by the possessed Prof. Souichi Tomoe and the Witches 5. Their goal is to collect heart crystal of people with a pure heart so that they can use their energy to reactivate Mistress 9. With her help, they try to relocate their master Pharaoh 90 on the Earth.
New Senshis called Sailor Uranus, Neptune and later Pluto who are prepare to sacrifice everything and everyone in their mission to destroy the enemies are other problems for Sailor Moon and her wish for peace. Also, there is still the question who is Sailor Saturn? Is she really the bringer of death for Earth?
The dub version of this season gets a lot of hate because the lesbian relationship between Uranus and Neptune got changed into the one of cousins. (I really don't want to know what the people of the dub do with their cousins if this is a normal family connection for them. Also look here to see why it is almost impossible that these two are cousins.)
Season 4 - Sailor Moon SuperS - The Yume/Dream Arc (39 episodes)
In this season Chibiusa is the main character. Naturally Usagi and co are still important but we see many story elements through the eyes of Chibiusa.
In the first half of the season a mysterious entity called Pegasus (and yes, it's a white horse with wings) hides in Chibiusas dreams. The new enemies, called Dead Moon Circus, try to find Pegasus and with him the Golden Crystal. They claim that with his power they can overthrow Earth. But is this really their only goal?
To find Pegasus, they search after the Golden Dream Mirror because only the purest dream could be the home of Pegasus.
The Dead Moon Circus consists of their queen Nehelenia, her second in command Zirconia, the Amazon Trio with Fish's Eye, Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye and at least the Amazon Quartet CereCere, PallaPalla, JunJun and VesVes (or Cele Cele, Para Para, Jun Jun and Bere Bere in the Engl. Dub).
The manga arc is pretty dark with nightmarish pictures of death and destruction. The anime arc isn't like this. It is more like... a fairytale with many colorful scenes and filler episodes.
The English dub also changed again the gender of two characters. Fish's Eye is a man who dresses as a woman so naturally the dub made him into a woman. Zirconia is an ugly woman who does bad things. It seems as if this was too much for the dub so Zirconia got gender switched into an ugly man who does bad things. Yes, I also don't understand the US dub.
Super S is the last Sailor Moon season with an English dub.
Season 5 - Sailor Stars - The Stars Arc (34 episodes)
The first part of this season finish the story line with Queen Nehelenia and re-introduces the Outer Senshis. Their arrival shows that a new enemy already appeared on Earth and it seems to be a strong one if they will need the power of all Senshis.
After they defeated Nehelenia, Mamoru leaves Japan to study at Harvard. Heartbroken, Usagi tries to continue her normal life. At the same time almost all girls develop a crush on various member of a new popular boy band called Three Lights. It gets worse as the three members become students on Usagis high school and drive the girls crazy.
Along with them, the new enemy appears, Sailor Galaxia. The last fight begins and it means Sailor Senshi against Sailor Senshi.
Sailor Galaxia and her organization, Shadow Galactica, try to find true star steeds. With every new star, Galaxias power grows and soon Earth should be another planet in her realm. Her main reapers of Star Seeds are the Sailor Animamates which includes in the anime only Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Aluminum Seiren, Sailor Lead Crow (who has an implied relationship with the former) and Sailor Tin Nyanko.
The Senshis of Earth seems to get help in the form of the Sailor Star Lights, three new Sailor Senshis of another galaxy. But also these three seems to have another goal. Also, who is Chibichibi, who can transform into Sailor Chibichibi? Is she another daughter of Usagi and Mamoru?
Do Usagi and her friends have the ability to save the friends? Even if they see how one after one of their friends die?
The last season is full of death and destruction but thankfully also with many funny and cute scenes and a wonderful happy end.
The anime was finish before the manga end so there are many differences. Many characters didn't appear and even if the anime is dark the manga is worse. But the manga gives us also an explanation why so many enemies came to Earth and fight with Sailor Moon. Also I really love the epilogue with Usagis HEA.
The Specials
- "Make Up! Sailor Senshi" --> is a comical introduction of the early characters
- "Ami's First Love" --> is based on a manga short story and tells the story of Sailor Mercury who doesn't know how to react after she got a love letter. Naturally that isn't enough trouble so she becomes also the target for a new monster.
- "Supers Special: An Elegant Metamorphosis? Crybaby Usagi's Growth Diary" --> a flashback to the first three seasons
- "Supers Special: Haruka and Michiru, Again! The Ghostly Puppet Show" --> Neptune and Uranus are on a holiday. During this they meet a new enemy. Will this destroy their vacation?
- "Supers Special: Chibiusa's Adventure! The Dreaded Vampire Castle" --> a new girl appears in Chibiusa's class. At the same time children disappear, flowers die and... Vampires aren't real, right?
The Movies
- "Sailor Moon R - The movie (Promise of the Rose)" --> Fiore, an old friend from Mamoru returns and kidnaps him because he is the only human worth to be saved. After that he tries to get his revenge on the human world.
- "Sailor Moon S - The movie (Hearts in Ice)" --> based on a manga short story in which Luna falls in love with a human whose biggest wish has always been to be an astronaut. At the same time an enemy called Princess Snow Kaguya appears and tries to make Earth into her new ice world.
- "Sailor Moon SuperS - The movie (The Movie-Black Dream Hole)" --> this movie works outside the series continuity and tells the story of a demonic witch. Together with her dream fairies she kidnaps the children of the earth so that she can use the energy of their dreams to nurture her Black Dream Hole.
Sailor Moon is an ensemble anime/manga which means there are many characters. Alone the main cast has more than ten people in it. So to make it easy, I will only give you a short overview about the characters.
The (White) Moon/Earth family
Usagi 'Bunny/Usako' Tsukino - Sailor Moon Soldier of Love and Justice - Princess Serenity - Neo-Queen Serenity (Serena and Princess Serena in the Engl. dub)
Mamoru 'Mamo-chan' Chiba - Tuxedo Mask - Moonlight Knight (anime) - Prince Endymion - King Endymion (Darien and Prince Darien in the Engl. dub)
Chibiusa Tsukino - Black Lady - Sailor Chibi Moon - Princes Usagi 'Small Lady' Serenity (Rini and Sailor Mini Moon in the Engl. dub)
The princess of the moon falls in love with the prince of Earth. Earth and Moon are at war so their love is doomed from the beginning. Still they fight for each other and in the end they die for each other.
Thousand years into the future she and her prince are reborn. At first it is more a hate-relationship and they pull each other pigtails but soon it becomes more. Even as Mamoru loses his memory in S2 he can't stand the idea that his love is in danger. So his sub consciousness produces the Moonlight Knight. After he gets his memories back, they also get back together.
Thousand years in the future they have a daughter together. She will travel into the past to save her parents. Before she finds her way as the Senshi Sailor Chibimoon, the enemy of the Black Moon Clan brainwash her into Black Lady, a woman whose only goal is to destroy her mother and her friends.
Luna, Artemis and Diana
The first two are the advisors of Usagi (Luna) and Minako (Artemis). There were also advisors during the time of the Moon Kingdom and there will be also advisors in the future. In the manga they have the ability to change into humans. The anime only gives us Luna human form after Sailor Moon fulfilled this wish for her in the S movie. Diana is their daughter and Chibiusa's future advisor.
The Inner Senshis
Ami Mizuno - Sailor Mercury Soldier of Water and Wisdom (Amy in the Engl. dub)
Rei Hino - Sailor Mars Soldier of Fire and Passion (Ray in the Engl. dub)
Makoto Kino - Sailor Jupiter Soldier of Thunder and Strength (Lita in the Engl. dub)
Minako Aino - Sailor Venus Soldier of Metal and Beauty (Mina in the Engl. dub)
They're the bodyguards of the Moon Princess. In present time, they're Usagi's best friends and normal high school students.
The prequel manga Sailor V implied a relationship between Venus/Kunzite and we find out in Sailor Moon Act 3 that Jadeite finds Rei beautiful. Also Naoko Takeuchi draw a picture which showed that the Inner Senshi had maybe relationships with the bodyguards of Prince Endymion, who got brainwash into the Generals of the Dark Kingdom.
The Outer Senshis
Setsuna Meioh - Sailor Pluto Soldier of Time and Space (Trista in the Engl. dub)
Haruka Tenoh - Sailor Uranus Soldier of the Sky and Fury (Amara in the Engl. dub)
Michiru Kaioh - Sailor Neptune Soldier of the Ocean and Embrace (Michelle in the Engl. dub)
Hotaru Tomoe - Sailor Saturn Soldier of Death and Rebirth - Mistress 9
The Outer Senshis are in charge of defending the Solar System from external threats. Except Hotaru, they're all older than the Inner Senshis. Haruka and Michiru are together and Setsuna is something like a second mother for Chibiusa.
Hotaru got possessed by Mistress 9 before she awoke as a Sailor Senshi. She dies after the full use of her power so that she gets reborn after the end of S3.
Other Sailor Senshis
Sailor Star Lights
Kou Seiya - Sailor Star Fighter
Kou Taiki - Sailor Star Maker
Kou Yaten - Sailor Star Healer
These three Senshis have the ability to switch their genders. As Sailor Senshis there are female but in the human world they appear as male in order to hide their true identities. They search for their missing princess, who vanished after Galaxia destroyed their home planet.
The inner Senshis have crushes on them but it starts to make problems as Seiya falls in love with Usagi. The fandom often divides into Usagi/Mamoru shipper or Usagi/Seiya ones.
They're important characters in the anime even if they have only minor roles in the manga.
Other Characters
Because of all these characters, it's no surprise that you can ship everyone with everyone. There are some big pairings like Usagi/Mamoru, Usagi/Seiya, Inner Senshis/Shitennou, Rei/Minako or Michiru/Haruka but basically you can find for every pairing fic or art.
General![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sailormoonfans - general informationa_moon_kingdom - Icons, fanfiction, news and moresailormoonland - an interactive team communitymoonie_icons - an icon community
Pairing/Characterusagiandmamoru - Usagi/Mamorushitennou - a community with focus on the four Generals of the Dark Kingdomshitennou_ai - a community for the relationship between the Inner Scouts and the Generals of the Dark Kingdomsailormoon_yuri - almost dead but many great stories, no surprise that f/f is really popular in this fandom, right?
Fanfictionsailorfics - was really active in the years 2010/11
I hope I could give you a short overview over this amazing show/manga, and have awoken your interest. Take a look into it! It's totally worth it. :)
I'm Lilly and this month I'll drive the anime/manga van. English isn't my mother tongue but I hope it isn't too bad. :)
So let's start the van and hopefully I can persuade you to give my favorite manga/anime a chance.
Fandom Overview for "Sailor Moon"
In the name of the moon I will punish you!
In the name of the moon I will punish you!
This is one of the catchphrases of one of the most popular animes/mangas in the world. In the year 1991 Kodansha published the first chapter of a shojo manga called 'Sailor Moon' written by Naoko Takeuchi. This was not only the start of an overwhelming franchise but also the beginning of the Magical Girl boom.
18 manga volumes (12 in the reprint), an anime with 200 episodes (and soon there will be a new one!), a live-action TV series with 49 episodes and two specials, 29 musicals, more than 20 videogames and many merchandise articles later the story of Sailor Moon and her friends still has a huge fan base.
But what is so special about it?
Maybe this (really long) overview will help to answer this question.
In Sailor Moon we follow the adventures of Usagi Tsukino whose life drastically changes after she meets a talking cat called Luna. After this meeting, she learns that she's a magical warrior who not only has the duty to save and protect the Earth but she also needs to find the Moon princess. A thousands year ago the Dark Kingdom destroyed the Moon Kingdom. Severely injured, the Queen of the Moon sent her dead daughter and her guardians, advisors and her true love into the future so that they'd be reborn and have another chance to be happy.
Now, it's Usagis duty to find these reborn people and to give them their happy ending.
Her adventure spans into five major arcs.
Season 1 - Sailor Moon (Classic) - The Dark Kingdom Arc (46 episodes)
The fourteen years old Usagi meets Luna and learns that her destiny is to save the planet. Thankfully, she meets the mysterious Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus who help her to fight against the Dark Kingdom. This Kingdom includes various monsters and their main evil source Metallica, their Queen Beryl and their four generals (the Shitennou), called Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite (Jedite, Nephlite, Zoycite and Malachite in the Engl. dub).
In the end it becomes clear that history repeats itself. Usagi and her friends die, but they will be reborn without their memories.
This plot is heavy with alterations adapted into the live-action series. The dub gets many hateful comments because Zoisite got changed into a woman. Why? Surprise! Yes, he and Kunzite are in love, so naturally one of them need to be a woman
An Original Poster from Italy with the Inner Senshis and Queen Beryl with her four Generals.
From left to right: Jadeite, Nephrite, Beryl, Kunzite, Zoisite
Sailor Mars, Jupiter, Moon, Venus, Mercury
(x)
Season 2 - Sailor Moon R - The Black Moon Arc (43 episodes)
S2 starts with a filler plot which many people hate and some people love. The first 13 episodes tell us the story of the Doom Tree/Makaiju which gives the two aliens (An/En and Eiru/Ali or Natsumi/Anne and Seijuro Ginga/Alan Granger in their human forms) life energy. But the tree seems to die so they decide to settle on Earth and to use monsters called Cardians to steal the life energy of humans. Sailor Moon and the other Senshis need to leave their normal lives to fight again.
In the end Sailor Moon can heal the tree and the two aliens leave the planet.
After that Usagi seems to finally have found the peaceful life she wants, but a mysterious girl appears in Usagis family and everyone seems to think Chibiusa is her cousin?! Soon, it becomes clear that Chibiusa isn't a normal girl but what is her connection with the Black Moon family?
In the end only a trip into the future seems to bring all answers.
Because of the filler episodes in the beginning and the unnecessary break-up subplot between Usagi and her boyfriend Mamoru many people have problems with this season.
Season 3 - Sailor Moon S - The Mugen/Infinity Arc (38 episodes)
The S stands for Super and this season definitely deserves this title.
The antagonists of this S3 are called the Death Busters, which is led by the possessed Prof. Souichi Tomoe and the Witches 5. Their goal is to collect heart crystal of people with a pure heart so that they can use their energy to reactivate Mistress 9. With her help, they try to relocate their master Pharaoh 90 on the Earth.
New Senshis called Sailor Uranus, Neptune and later Pluto who are prepare to sacrifice everything and everyone in their mission to destroy the enemies are other problems for Sailor Moon and her wish for peace. Also, there is still the question who is Sailor Saturn? Is she really the bringer of death for Earth?
The dub version of this season gets a lot of hate because the lesbian relationship between Uranus and Neptune got changed into the one of cousins. (I really don't want to know what the people of the dub do with their cousins if this is a normal family connection for them. Also look here to see why it is almost impossible that these two are cousins.)
Season 4 - Sailor Moon SuperS - The Yume/Dream Arc (39 episodes)
In this season Chibiusa is the main character. Naturally Usagi and co are still important but we see many story elements through the eyes of Chibiusa.
In the first half of the season a mysterious entity called Pegasus (and yes, it's a white horse with wings) hides in Chibiusas dreams. The new enemies, called Dead Moon Circus, try to find Pegasus and with him the Golden Crystal. They claim that with his power they can overthrow Earth. But is this really their only goal?
To find Pegasus, they search after the Golden Dream Mirror because only the purest dream could be the home of Pegasus.
The Dead Moon Circus consists of their queen Nehelenia, her second in command Zirconia, the Amazon Trio with Fish's Eye, Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye and at least the Amazon Quartet CereCere, PallaPalla, JunJun and VesVes (or Cele Cele, Para Para, Jun Jun and Bere Bere in the Engl. Dub).
The manga arc is pretty dark with nightmarish pictures of death and destruction. The anime arc isn't like this. It is more like... a fairytale with many colorful scenes and filler episodes.
The English dub also changed again the gender of two characters. Fish's Eye is a man who dresses as a woman so naturally the dub made him into a woman. Zirconia is an ugly woman who does bad things. It seems as if this was too much for the dub so Zirconia got gender switched into an ugly man who does bad things. Yes, I also don't understand the US dub.
Super S is the last Sailor Moon season with an English dub.
Season 5 - Sailor Stars - The Stars Arc (34 episodes)
The first part of this season finish the story line with Queen Nehelenia and re-introduces the Outer Senshis. Their arrival shows that a new enemy already appeared on Earth and it seems to be a strong one if they will need the power of all Senshis.
After they defeated Nehelenia, Mamoru leaves Japan to study at Harvard. Heartbroken, Usagi tries to continue her normal life. At the same time almost all girls develop a crush on various member of a new popular boy band called Three Lights. It gets worse as the three members become students on Usagis high school and drive the girls crazy.
Along with them, the new enemy appears, Sailor Galaxia. The last fight begins and it means Sailor Senshi against Sailor Senshi.
Sailor Galaxia and her organization, Shadow Galactica, try to find true star steeds. With every new star, Galaxias power grows and soon Earth should be another planet in her realm. Her main reapers of Star Seeds are the Sailor Animamates which includes in the anime only Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Aluminum Seiren, Sailor Lead Crow (who has an implied relationship with the former) and Sailor Tin Nyanko.
The Senshis of Earth seems to get help in the form of the Sailor Star Lights, three new Sailor Senshis of another galaxy. But also these three seems to have another goal. Also, who is Chibichibi, who can transform into Sailor Chibichibi? Is she another daughter of Usagi and Mamoru?
Do Usagi and her friends have the ability to save the friends? Even if they see how one after one of their friends die?
The last season is full of death and destruction but thankfully also with many funny and cute scenes and a wonderful happy end.
The anime was finish before the manga end so there are many differences. Many characters didn't appear and even if the anime is dark the manga is worse. But the manga gives us also an explanation why so many enemies came to Earth and fight with Sailor Moon. Also I really love the epilogue with Usagis HEA.
The Specials
- "Make Up! Sailor Senshi" --> is a comical introduction of the early characters
- "Ami's First Love" --> is based on a manga short story and tells the story of Sailor Mercury who doesn't know how to react after she got a love letter. Naturally that isn't enough trouble so she becomes also the target for a new monster.
- "Supers Special: An Elegant Metamorphosis? Crybaby Usagi's Growth Diary" --> a flashback to the first three seasons
- "Supers Special: Haruka and Michiru, Again! The Ghostly Puppet Show" --> Neptune and Uranus are on a holiday. During this they meet a new enemy. Will this destroy their vacation?
- "Supers Special: Chibiusa's Adventure! The Dreaded Vampire Castle" --> a new girl appears in Chibiusa's class. At the same time children disappear, flowers die and... Vampires aren't real, right?
The Movies
- "Sailor Moon R - The movie (Promise of the Rose)" --> Fiore, an old friend from Mamoru returns and kidnaps him because he is the only human worth to be saved. After that he tries to get his revenge on the human world.
- "Sailor Moon S - The movie (Hearts in Ice)" --> based on a manga short story in which Luna falls in love with a human whose biggest wish has always been to be an astronaut. At the same time an enemy called Princess Snow Kaguya appears and tries to make Earth into her new ice world.
- "Sailor Moon SuperS - The movie (The Movie-Black Dream Hole)" --> this movie works outside the series continuity and tells the story of a demonic witch. Together with her dream fairies she kidnaps the children of the earth so that she can use the energy of their dreams to nurture her Black Dream Hole.
The Characters
Sailor Moon is an ensemble anime/manga which means there are many characters. Alone the main cast has more than ten people in it. So to make it easy, I will only give you a short overview about the characters.
The (White) Moon/Earth family
Usagi 'Bunny/Usako' Tsukino - Sailor Moon Soldier of Love and Justice - Princess Serenity - Neo-Queen Serenity (Serena and Princess Serena in the Engl. dub)
Mamoru 'Mamo-chan' Chiba - Tuxedo Mask - Moonlight Knight (anime) - Prince Endymion - King Endymion (Darien and Prince Darien in the Engl. dub)
Chibiusa Tsukino - Black Lady - Sailor Chibi Moon - Princes Usagi 'Small Lady' Serenity (Rini and Sailor Mini Moon in the Engl. dub)
The princess of the moon falls in love with the prince of Earth. Earth and Moon are at war so their love is doomed from the beginning. Still they fight for each other and in the end they die for each other.
Thousand years into the future she and her prince are reborn. At first it is more a hate-relationship and they pull each other pigtails but soon it becomes more. Even as Mamoru loses his memory in S2 he can't stand the idea that his love is in danger. So his sub consciousness produces the Moonlight Knight. After he gets his memories back, they also get back together.
Thousand years in the future they have a daughter together. She will travel into the past to save her parents. Before she finds her way as the Senshi Sailor Chibimoon, the enemy of the Black Moon Clan brainwash her into Black Lady, a woman whose only goal is to destroy her mother and her friends.
Luna, Artemis and Diana
The first two are the advisors of Usagi (Luna) and Minako (Artemis). There were also advisors during the time of the Moon Kingdom and there will be also advisors in the future. In the manga they have the ability to change into humans. The anime only gives us Luna human form after Sailor Moon fulfilled this wish for her in the S movie. Diana is their daughter and Chibiusa's future advisor.
The Inner Senshis
Ami Mizuno - Sailor Mercury Soldier of Water and Wisdom (Amy in the Engl. dub)
Rei Hino - Sailor Mars Soldier of Fire and Passion (Ray in the Engl. dub)
Makoto Kino - Sailor Jupiter Soldier of Thunder and Strength (Lita in the Engl. dub)
Minako Aino - Sailor Venus Soldier of Metal and Beauty (Mina in the Engl. dub)
They're the bodyguards of the Moon Princess. In present time, they're Usagi's best friends and normal high school students.
The prequel manga Sailor V implied a relationship between Venus/Kunzite and we find out in Sailor Moon Act 3 that Jadeite finds Rei beautiful. Also Naoko Takeuchi draw a picture which showed that the Inner Senshi had maybe relationships with the bodyguards of Prince Endymion, who got brainwash into the Generals of the Dark Kingdom.
The Outer Senshis
Setsuna Meioh - Sailor Pluto Soldier of Time and Space (Trista in the Engl. dub)
Haruka Tenoh - Sailor Uranus Soldier of the Sky and Fury (Amara in the Engl. dub)
Michiru Kaioh - Sailor Neptune Soldier of the Ocean and Embrace (Michelle in the Engl. dub)
Hotaru Tomoe - Sailor Saturn Soldier of Death and Rebirth - Mistress 9
The Outer Senshis are in charge of defending the Solar System from external threats. Except Hotaru, they're all older than the Inner Senshis. Haruka and Michiru are together and Setsuna is something like a second mother for Chibiusa.
Hotaru got possessed by Mistress 9 before she awoke as a Sailor Senshi. She dies after the full use of her power so that she gets reborn after the end of S3.
Other Sailor Senshis
Sailor Star Lights
Kou Seiya - Sailor Star Fighter
Kou Taiki - Sailor Star Maker
Kou Yaten - Sailor Star Healer
These three Senshis have the ability to switch their genders. As Sailor Senshis there are female but in the human world they appear as male in order to hide their true identities. They search for their missing princess, who vanished after Galaxia destroyed their home planet.
The inner Senshis have crushes on them but it starts to make problems as Seiya falls in love with Usagi. The fandom often divides into Usagi/Mamoru shipper or Usagi/Seiya ones.
They're important characters in the anime even if they have only minor roles in the manga.
Chibichibi - Sailor Chibichibi - Sailor Cosmos (the later one only in the manga, Sailor Chibichibi Moon in the anime)
(x)
A sweet little girl who looks similar to Chibiusa. This character has different backgrounds in the anime and manga.
In the anime, she is the missing Star Seed of Sailor Galaxia. In the manga, she is Sailor Cosmos, an ultimately-powerful Senshi from the future, who disappeared into the past to forget the horror of the future. There are various theories about who Sailor Cosmos is in reality.
Other Characters
There is a long, really long list with other characters.
To see more information about the antagonists look here.
You can find more about the (human) families and friends of the Senshis here.
The Fandom
Because of all these characters, it's no surprise that you can ship everyone with everyone. There are some big pairings like Usagi/Mamoru, Usagi/Seiya, Inner Senshis/Shitennou, Rei/Minako or Michiru/Haruka but basically you can find for every pairing fic or art.
Sailor Moon was sadly never a huge LJ fandom. The show came up in the time of forums and fan homepages. There are some LJ communities but there are mostly inactive today. Through the re-release of the manga and the new anime which will show winter 2013 the fandom got a new wave of fans and these are mostly active on tumblr. But there are still various other homepages which are important for the fandom.
I would recommend to look through this list and this one to find many amazing homepages, forums and tumblr blogs. Here are also some doujinshi recs.
From me you also get some recs for the (LJ) side of fandom.
General
sailormoonfans - general informationa_moon_kingdom - Icons, fanfiction, news and moresailormoonland - an interactive team communitymoonie_icons - an icon communityPairing/Character
usagiandmamoru - Usagi/Mamorushitennou - a community with focus on the four Generals of the Dark Kingdomshitennou_ai - a community for the relationship between the Inner Scouts and the Generals of the Dark Kingdomsailormoon_yuri - almost dead but many great stories, no surprise that f/f is really popular in this fandom, right?Fuck Yeah, Shitennou & Senshi - a blog dedicated to the Inner Guardian Senshi and the Shitennou
shitennouland - a blog with focus on the Shitennou
shitennouland - a blog with focus on the Shitennou
Fanfiction
sailorfics - was really active in the years 2010/11I hope I could give you a short overview over this amazing show/manga, and have awoken your interest. Take a look into it! It's totally worth it. :)
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I hope you will enjoy my recs. Can I ask if you have a SM OTP? Maybe then I can say if I have recs with them. :)
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Hopefully some other people will also rec some SM stories after me...
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Note that the 12 rec limit applies only to our full-time fandoms; it does not apply to Monthly Featured Fandoms, or to December's Small Fandom Month.
Though 12 is already a lot of work (I've done crack van before too). But just in case :)
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I haven't read any of the manga and I've only seen the anime to the end of season 4, but I'd heard a bit about Season 5 and some of the objections to the gender-switching and erasure of relationships in the anime, and some of the differences between the manga and the anime. Your overview did a great job of clearing up my confusion!
I'm looking forward to checking out the new anime series later this year.
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For example the old boss of the anime didn't like Mamoru and gave him almost no real character (development or power elements) in the anime. Also instead to really show the beauty of UsaMamo he pushed the Usagi/Rei relationship. Hopefully this will not be the case in the new anime.
Also maybe the new manga reprint is worth a look. I heard it doesn't have the problem that everything is Americanized like it was the case with the old manga.
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I'm on the Usagi/Seiya side, but I'll be checking out your genfic recs for sure :)
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I try to post half Usagi/Mamoru and half gen or other pairings (Haruka/Michiru, Inner Senshis/Generals...). Maybe you will find some other pairings you like. I hope you will find something you like. :D