Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon - Television Tropes & Idioms

Originally broadcast in Japan between October 2003 and October 2004, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon was a long-awaited program with a built-in instant fanbase. In its forty-nine episodes (plus a special and several "shorts"), it essentially retold the "Dark Kingdom" arc which made up the first season of the anime and the first three volumes of the manga. Initially, it resembled the manga, but then it spun off into an entirely new version with radically different plot and characterization.

An extensive talent search assembled an attractive cast who ended up being hampered slightly by the lower-end production values and their own lack of experience. Most of their youma foes were simply rubber-suit monsters; although the first episode had an impressive digital creature, we never saw that level of sophistication again, at least not in the youma. (Fortunately for all involved, both the cast and the special effects team improve rapidly as the series matures.)

At times the show seemed confused as to whether it wanted to be a live action drama or a cartoon comedy, with goofy sound effects accompanying over-enthusiastic gestures during sequences that are obviously supposed to be funny. These moments were a strange counterpoint to an otherwise serious, almost sombre, plot that revealed far darker secrets about the fall of the Moon Kingdom than any previous version of Sailor Moon ever held. And there are moments when the villains — often little more than ranting cardboard cutouts in the anime — turn into real, sympathetic people.

Despite its somewhat schizophrenic approach to the source material, PGSM is a fun watch, full of eye candy and a surprisingly deep plot. It is available in the U.S. in fansubs, but given the low likelihood that it will have any kind of mass appeal with American audiences it is not likely to be licensed any time soon.

And if you just can't let go of the series, there's always the stage musicals.

This show provides examples of:

Adaptation Decay or Adaptation Distillation: More stuff from the manga makes it in here than in the anime, yet it never moves beyond the first arc and some characters like Minako are very differently written. Thus, Your Mileage May Vary.
Alternate Continuity
Bilingual Bonus: "C'est la vie!" Besides meaning "that's life" in French, it sounds like "Sailor V" as it's pronounced in Japanese ("sera vii").
- The pun is even more amplified since the line says "This warm feeling is c'est la vie".
- One of Ami's image songs was called "Mi Amor" which means "my love" in Spanish.
Bird Run: Sailor V combines this with Roofhopping.
Big Bra To Fill: Sailor Jupiter, by far the bustiest soldier in the anime, is downright flat-chested here.
Blessed With Suck: Later in the series, Sailor Moon's combined wrath and the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou are actually giving more power to Queen Metallia.
Break The Cutie: Ami
By The Power Of Greyskull
Celebrity Lie (Variant: Mio claims on Usagi's behalf that Usagi knows Idol Singer Minako as part of a plot to isolate and humiliate her.)
Conspicuous CG: At the start, the CG (particularly in the transformation sequences) was awful. The CG team refined their craft over the course of the show's run, though.
- The youma from the first episode is CG. The only other CG youma would appear in the Special Act that concluded the series.
Dance Battler: At the start of the show's run, the battles resembled choreographed ballet more than spontaneous fighting. The fans call it Ballet Fu.
Dark Magical Girl: Dark Sailor Mercury.
Deconstruction: Of the original source material, arguably.
The Dragon: In a change from other continuities, Mamoru becomes the Dragon after absorbing Queen Metallia within his body and becomes corrupted by it. He is a lot more powerful than the brainwashed Endymion from the anime and manga.
The End Of The World As We Know It: And you'd be surprised who's responsible for it.
Enemy Within: Princess Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon's Superpowered Love Makes You Evil Side.
Enigmatic Minion: Zoisite; Kunzite to a lesser extent.
Executive Meddling: Wonder why the ending feels a little rushed? The series was supposed to go a full 52 episodes plus the specials. The ratings led the network to chop the episode order down to 49 episodes late in production.
Expy: Luna's human form has a functional role noticeably similar to ChibiUsa's character, even though Luna still has her original anime voice and personality, which has always traditionally been depicted as an adult.
- Not true. She's only presented as an adult in the English dub (where she's given a very British nanny-esque voice) The manga's creator described her as being one year younger than Usagi when in human form. She's just more mature.
Fan Nickname: Mamoru is commonly called "Tuxedo Kamen Rider" by the fandom in a reference to both this show and Kamen Rider Hibiki; see Hey Its That Guy below.
- Dark Mercury is also called "Darkury" by fans. A lesser used name for her civillan form is "Akumi" combining the word for Dark and Ami. Rumor has it this name was coined by the show's staff.
Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Luna is often in the form of a stuffed cat.
Hair Colors: In civilian form, the girls have hair colors in the normal "real" range, from black to a dark auburn. When they undergo their Transformation Sequence, their clothes and hair both change to what their anime and manga counterparts have always had, though Minako and Usagi have a realistic blond color instead of the yellow used in the stage shows.
Hey, It's That Guy!: Most of the male cast appeared in several toku roles before and after PGSM, most notably Shibue Jyoji (Chiba Mamoru/Tuxedo Kamen) as Ibuki in Kamen Rider Hibiki. Kikawada Masaaya dominates them all though, going from the owner of the karaoke place and Makoto's love interest straight to Hongo Takeshi in the Kamen Rider remake movies Kamen Rider The First and Kamen Rider The Next.
- Two female examples: Queen Beryl is also Hone-Onna, and Kuroki Mio was a different, male Rei's deceased girlfriend.
- There's also Naru's actress, who while not a Toku star, is known to many Sailor Moon fans for portraying Sailor Mercury in the Sera Myu.
- And a more Hey Its That Voice but Luna's normal form is voiced by her Original VA from the anime, Keiko Han.
- Speaking of Kamen Rider, Sailor Luna's actress went on to play Wataru's friend-slash-surrogate mother Shizuka in Kiva.
Ill Girl: Minako.
Impossibly Cool Clothes: Subverted by reality; while the girls look okay, Tuxedo Kamen looks incredibly dorky.
In The Name Of The Moon: Considering it's a spin off the Trope Namer...
Local Hangout: Karaoke Crown; a replacement for the Anime/Manga's Crown Game Center, as arcades have fallen in popularity in japan and have been replaced by Karaoke places.
Magical Girl
Male Gaze: Just as much as the anime, of course, but with this being live-action, it's a whole different story.
Master Of Disguise: The Soldiers' cellphones, which replace the Transformation Pen from the manga/anime, again due to being updated for current times.
Meganekko: Ami starts as one. To this troper's disappointment, she loses the glasses later on.
Merchandise Driven: Everything even looks like plastic toys, too.
More Than Mind Control: Dark Sailor Mercury.
The Musical: Yep, got its own musical stage show with the same cast, Kirari Super Live!
Narm: It's hard to take some of the otherwise dramatic scenes seriously when the reaction shots include a stuffed cat with a glittery tear-shaped sticker affixed to his cheek.
Non Human Sidekick: Luna and Artemis.
Not Quite Dead: Nephrite and later on in the series Minako.
- More glaring with Mio, as she was seen being destroyed by the possessed Endymion near the end of the series. Justified with Minako since Usagi resurrects everyone on Earth after its destruction.
Odango
Panty Shot: The Soldiers' skirts were specifically designed to flip up as much as humanly possible.
Paper Fan Of Doom: Used by Sailor Luna. She also produces one that is apparently made of gold, or is at least gold plated in a later episode.
People In Rubber Suits: Though sometimes swapped out with CG instead.
Pragmatic Villainy: Queen Beryl doesn't kill off her servants when they fail her. Oh, there's punishment, but why get rid of a loyal servant?
Precision F Strike: Makoto Kino says "Fuck you" to a youma in her debut episode.
- What, in English?
Prop Recycling: One set of Mooks is togged out in long robes and hoods over some very familiar masks. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fans will recognize them as the Putty Patrollers. Super Sentai fans will remember them as the Golom Hei.
Real Time: Not in individual episodes per se, but the series' internal calendar corresponded to the broadcast calendar, in that the action all occurs between October 2003 and October 2004, and any calendar dates seen corresponded to the day or week that particular episode was broadcast, most notably the New Year's episode.
Re Tool: Big and small changes from the anime and manga all over the board, including being updated to fit in with current tech and fads, rather then those of the early 90s.
- On the other hand, it surprisingly kept a lot of elements from the manga that aren't seen in the anime.
Roofhopping: Several instances, including Sailor V combining it with the Bird Run.
She Fu
Squeaky Eyes: Very disconcerting in a live show...
Story Arc
Superpowered Evil Side: Mamoru after sealing Queen Metallia's power within his body.
Talking Is A Free Action: Ami invokes her first transformation into Sailor Mercury during a 20-foot-fall — and she does it by reciting a trigger phrase that takes about three or four times longer to say than she should have taken to reach the ground.
Tear Jerker: Minako celebrates her birthday with her friends She's been dead all along. They were reading a note she left behind. God that was cruel.
Time Skip: The Special Act takes place 4 years after the final battle.
Toku
Transformation Sequence: Both straight and subverted; the latter done with a tongue-in-cheek "dressing" sequence for Tuxedo Kamen in one of the supplemental shorts.
Uncanny Valley Girl: Kuroki Mio.
The Woobie: Nephrite.
Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Princess Sailor Moon. She actually succeeds.
Wrong Genre Savvy: The show pretty much runs on this, from the characters naively assuming they know what they're doing, to the audience making the same assumption.