Sailor Senshi Send-Up

"In the Name of the Moon, I will copy you!"^note Top: Usagi Tsukino, Bottom: Mina Loveberry

Sailor Moon is a manga series widely regarded as one of the defining Shoujo series of The '90s. Not only did it kickstart its own multimedia franchise, but it also codified several Magical Girl Warrior and Shoujo tropes^note Sailor Moon itself was heavily influenced in this by Cutie Honey, although it had the advantage of reaching much farther due to its crowd-friendlier nature. and thus largely remains in the public consciousness. As a result, there are quite a few characters that reference, homage, or parody its main cast, the Sailor Senshi, especially its protagonist, Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon.

The Sailor Senshi^note variously translated as "Sailor Warrior", "Sailor Guardian", or "Sailor Soldier"; the DIC translation used the term "Sailor Scout" are young, female Magical Girl Warriors themed after their respective celestial domains — there's (at least) one for every planet, plus Pluto and the Moon — who battle several cosmic foes. Common tip-offs that a character is based on the Sailor Moon cast include:

• A Sailor Fuku-like outfit, inspired by the girls' color-coded attire.
• A Transformation Sequence, sometimes with the character getting magically divested from her clothes and clad in her magical attire (how much of it is shown tend to vary).
• A space theme and/or a Stellar Name.
• A Non-Human Sidekick— often a cat, but other cute animals are common as well.
• Possessing magical powers, especially if they are a Magical Girl or Magical Girl Warrior.
• An In the Name of the Moon catchphrase, bonus points if they do the iconic pose◊ associated with it.
• Have a past involving royalty, reincarnation, space, or some combination thereof — Sailor Moon herself is Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom reincarnated into an Ordinary High-School Student.
• Evoking one of them in appearance and personality — for example, Sailor Venus's long blonde hair with a red bow, Sailor Jupiter's brunette bangs and ponytail, or Sailor Moon's Odango Hair paired with long twintails. The latter is also considered one of the codifiers of the Stock Shoujo Heroine in terms of personality, being a sweet and naive klutz who nevertheless comes into her own.

Sub-Trope of Fountain of Expies. Not to be confused with Sailor Earth, which is named for a common Sailor Moon fandom way of creating an Original Character. See also Stock Shoujo Heroine.

Note that this is specifically for characters themed around the Senshi — for other references to the franchise, go to ReferencedBy.Sailor Moon. For another commonly-parodied anime franchise, see Phonýmon.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Marucho's Bakugan Elfin of Bakugan. She visually evokes Usagi in appearance (she is blonde, wears a hairstyle resembling a frog head, but whose "eyes" correspond to Usagi's buns, and with long finlike appendages that correspond to Usagi's long pigtails). She has a long, magical girl-like Transformation Sequence, and strikes the In the Name of the Moon pose.
  Elfin: Sun, wind and rain combined! In the Name of the Moon! Behold Aquos/Ventus/Darkus (depending on her chosen attribute) Elfin!
• Bleach: Parodied with Charlotte Cuuhlhourne, a Drag Queen whose Resurrecion blatantly copies the Sailor Senshi's transformations.
• In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Neo-Sweden's Gundam — a giant Fembot with long blonde "hair" and a blue Sailor Fuku-like coloring — is pretty much Usagi/Sailor Moon herself in giant mecha form.
• The obscure hentai OVA Venus 5 was a blatant Sailor Moon parody.
• Yo Kai Watch has "Sailor Cuties", a space-themed magical girl series that is a cross between Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure. Hailey Anne is a major fan of the show, and her trying to get a rare figurine of the show is what kickstarts the plot of the third season.

Comic Books

• Ghost Rider villain Skin-Bender is visually modeled after Sailor Venus.
• Making Friends has a Show Within a Show called "Solar Sisters" in which main character, Dany watches. She ends up inadvertently bringing the villain, Prince Neptune, to life via the magic sketchbook. Near the end of book, she makes the magic rings that allow the character from the show to transform so that she and her friends can combat Neptune later , allowing Dany and her friends to become said heroes from the series. This continues on in the sequel book where she uses the powers when trouble comes up.
• The Simpsons;
  • Mr. Sparkle: Destroy All Manga! had Mr Sparkle erasing a manga artist's work including a moose woman called Sailor Moose.
  • An Anime Among Us! had Ambiguously Gay Smithers in drag as a Sailor Moon parody called The Sugar Plum Fairy.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) has an alternate universe called the Luna Zone where Sally and Amy's counterparts dress like Sailor Scouts and there's a version of Knuckles who dresses like Tuxedo Mask.

Fan Works

• Oversaturated World has the "Sailor Orbital" installments, starring Sailors Orbital, Plasma, Meteor, Photon, and Comet. They are actively basing themselves off a Bland-Name Product version of Sailor Moon called Sailor Luna.

Film

• While the rest of the F.R.I.E.N.D.s in Jellyfish Eyes are generic cute monsters, Miss KO2 is based on a Sailor Moon inspired sculpture that director, Takashi Murakami made in 1996.

Literature

• Princess Cassie of Princesses of the Pizza Parlor. She's a princess with moon powers who fights for "love and justice and happiness and the future of the Moon Kingdom!". Her creator, Claire, is mentioned to like Japanese cartoons, making her a fairly obvious send-up.
• Wearing the Cape: Not much attention is drawn to it, but Japan's premiere female hero team appears to be based on Sailor Moon, with Sailor Fukus and Theme Naming, and they spend a significant amount of their time posing for the cameras. However, they are in fact extremely professional government superheroes who are rather high-ranked in the JSDF. An agent Hope speaks to also implies that this archetype is quite common in Japan, often complete with a Talking Animal sidekick. And of course the running joke of the book is that Hope and her friends have stumbled headfirst in a lot of Sailor Senshi and Magical Girl tropes, including the Talking Animal sidekick.
• The Lunar Chronicles has its origins in a Sailor Moon fanfic and it shows. The main character, Cinder, resembles Makoto Kino, but her backstory of being a long-lost moon princess is taken straight from Sailor Moon herself. Her evil aunt, Queen Levana, arguably borrows as much from Queen Beryl as she does Snow White's Wicked Stepmother. Techno-genius Cress also resembles a blonde Ami Mizuno.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The original director of the 1992 film, Fran Rubel Kuzui, was a fan of the anime and wanted Buffy to be an Usagi-like heroine. While never directly confirmed, there seems to be a strong influence of the series on the spin-off show.
  • As another blonde supergirl destined to save humanity, Buffy gets compared to Usagi quite a bit. As more charitable fans might note, Buffy actually resembles Minako as the tragic loner forced to lose her friends and is even destined, in some sense, to kill the man she loves, all thanks to her predestined duty.
  • Willow initially resembles Usagi's friend Naru before becoming more like Ami. Even before becoming a witch, Willow used her hacking skills to help Buffy, similar to Ami being a technopath. And thanks to the live-action Sailor Moon series, both Ami and Willow have taken turns as a Dark Magical Girl. There's also some irony in that both Naru and Ami are expies of the same character, Minako's friend Hikaru.
  • Cordelia, as the dark-haired token mean girl who gradually befriends the main group, usually gets compared to Rei Hino. Considering she's a character based on the original main character, representing Buffy's former life, and even gets to be the heroine of the spin-off, one could argue she has a lot in common with Usagi of all people.
  • Tara and Makoto are both friendless outcasts who go on to become the Team Mom of the group. As a witchy girl with an interest in the occult, a dead mother, and a bad relationship with her father, some fans compare her more to Rei.
  • Anya might have started out as a villain, but grows into a blonde comic relief that would make Minako Aino look subtle. And whether it's her motivation in destroying men or restoring her faith in humanity, she seems very concerned with The Power of Love.
  • Dawn gets compared to Chibiusa quite a bit. She even has a lot more in common with Chibi-Chibi, especially her anime portrayal, posing as the heroine's younger sister and really being an incorporeal being sent to help the heroine.
  • The decision to cast Luna with an English accent in the Dic dub has also brought up uncanny similarities with Giles...

Podcasts

• Kakos Industries: Episode 9, "Kawaii", features a Humongous Mecha melee as part of the Celebration of Technology. Among the robots included is the "Giant-Ass Schoolgirl That's Kawaii as Fuck, Yo", created by the company Giant-Ass Robots to Kick in Your Face, and which is described as looking "a lot like a gigantic Japanese schoolgirl wearing what [Corin] can only imagine is a somewhat smaller than regulation uniform." It goes up against a robot tentacle monster, the "Ocotobot Plus Two", and ultimately wins the battle by undergoing a transformation sequence that replaces the initial uniform with a new one and summons a "Giant-Ass Sword of Sorrows".

Tabletop Games

• The Magical Girl faction from the Big in Japan set of Smash Up features several Magical Girl Tropes. In particular, it has expies of Sailor Moon (Lunar Captain, a young blonde woman in Sailor Fuku with a moon motif) and Tuxedo Mask (Fancy Suit Lad, a young darkhaired man wearing...you know) and two magical cats.

Toys

• Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls is Inspired by… Sailor Moon. The series stars Anthropomorphic Personifications of celestial beings. Milky Way is the equivalent of fifteen years old and is a plucky, adventurous blonde girl. The story of the toy-line revolves around Milky Way assembling a team of planet-based Magical Girls to combat a Sealed Evil in a Can, the Black Hole, that she accidentally released.

Video Games

• Platinum the Trinity from BlazBlue is a very blatant pastiche of Usagi Tsukino, complete with the sailor outfit, odango/twintail haistyle, and a Moon-themed Stellar Name (Luna). Unlike Usagi, Platinum's an obnoxious jerkass and basically flanderizes Usagi's worst aspects.
• Hitomi from Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass is based on an in-universe anime character watched by the protagonist's Basement-Dweller uncle. She's also known as Pretty Soldier Luna and comes from the moon.
• In League of Legends, the Star Guardian skins are a blatant send-up to Sailor Moon, with their frilly magical girl designs, cosmic-based powers, Transformation Sequence recall animation, and how the champions are Ordinary High School Students when off the clock. Lux in particular has the line, "In the name of Demacia, I will punish you!" even without the skin.
• The Power Instinct series has Kurara/Clara Hananokouji, a Magical Girl that received magical powers from a wand given to her by a wizard, and with that she participates in the Gouketsuji tournament. Apart of the traits based on Sailor Moon, her voice was made noneless by Usagi Tsukino herself. Also, her daughter Popura inherits the wand for the Distant Finale title, Groove on Fight.
• Floating Girl Miyuki from Super Knockoff VS is Sakura Kinomoto with elements of Sailor Moon and a dash of Cirno.

Visual Novels

• Life After Magic is about a group of retired Magical Girls called the Sentinels Of Justice. Most of whom have space-themed names like Sentinel Starlight and Sentinel Sol. The protagonist even has a Mentor Mascot cat similar to Sailor Moon's Luna.
• Long Live the Queen mixes the genres of magical girls and medieval fantasy, but many of the characters are clearly direct parallels of Sailor Moon characters (Julianna as Sailor Uranus, Selene as Neptune, Charlotte as Saturn, and Princess Elodie herself as Chibi-Usa/Mini-Moon). Princess Elodie also gets a Sailor Moon style transformation sequence when she first unlocks her magical Lumen abilities.

Webcomics

• Princess Halesia from Harpy Gee is a Magical Girl with an outfit resembling a Sailor Fuku.
• Lovely Celestial Angel Amelia from Henchgirl fits the bill. She has a transformation that resembles that of the Sailor Senshi, she has a four-legged sidekick, and wields magic through a magic wand and artifacts.
• Melissa Hellrune from Magick Chicks ends up forced into this role over the course of the series due to a magic wand that falls into her possession, giving her a Sailor-Style outfit and a unwanted cat pet in the process. Something she's not happy with since she's a witch. Later in the story, we find out one of her mothers likewise was turned into a this as well, with her other mother being a Queen Beryl expy. Yes her parents were mortal enemies. And let's not even get into how Mel was even conceived.
• Sonichu has Sailor Megtune, a Sailor Soldier who watches over the City of CWCVille alongside her trusty sidekick. She's a Senshi in appearance, personality, and backstory, being the secret superpowered identity of an ordinary girl.
  Megan: "In the name of all the hearts, we shall punish you!"

Web Original

• Sailor Nothing is a Deconstructive Parody of the Sailor Moon series and Magical Girl works as a whole. Himei, or "Sailor Salvation" as she's known, Jumped at the Call to become a Magical Girl Warrior several years ago as an elementary student, but quickly found out that being a Magical Girl is closer to being a Child Soldier than a Kid Hero. She's a world-weary and depressed teenager, with no one to talk to about her troubles due to The Masquerade. Himei wants desperately to stop being Sailor Salvation but she can't stop the urge to help others.

Western Animation

• According to the character designer, Adventure Time's genderbent version of Finn, Fionna, is inspired by Usagi. Nods to the character include wearing a rabbit hat and a dress that evokes one of Usagi's. One of the alt-covers◊ for the comic book tie in definitely ran with this.
• Megas XLR: The Ultra-Cadets from "Ultra Chicks" are blatant versions of the Sailor Scouts, since they look like young women in sailor outfits and have Stellar Theme Naming (Galaxia, Comet, Pulsar, and Nova). Only difference is that they turn into giant robots when they transform.
• Mina Loveberry of Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a pretty blatant Sailor Moon send-up. She shares Usagi's odango/twintail hairstyle, has magical powers, her bunny earrings refer to Usagi's name (usagi is Japanese for "rabbit"), she has a rounded bow at her collar similar to the Senshi's outfit, and her name is a shortened version of Minako's/Sailor Venus's name. Unlike Usagi, she's completely insane and is a huge Fantastic Racist towards the monsters she's fought against for centuries.
• Winx Club is heavily derivative of the Sailor Senshi in its seven girl line-up:
  • Bloom/Usagi: Long-lost princesses with Innocent Blue Eyes from a magical world sent to Earth by relative who sacrificed their life to save them. Both girls also have the strongest powers but were also the most inexperienced with their powers and battles until they Took a Level in Badass. Bloom also has a sort of Forbidden Romance with a prince from another kingdom much like Usagi had in her past life with Prince Endymion. Possibly lampshaded in the fifth season where her bonded Selkie is named "Serena."
  • Stella/Minako: Blonde Genki Girl princess in orange costume with light-based powers who become the protagonist's Best Friend. Furthering the reference, they are even the first magical girls introduced in the series.
  • Tecna/Ami: Princess with technology powers with short hair of an unnatural color. Tecna also had trouble with her feelings for Timmy, much like Ami being Allergic to Love.
  • Flora/Makoto: Both are the Team Mom, have brown hair and green eyes, have a strong connection to plants and nature, and even a pink and green aesthetic. World of Winx even makes her a chef out of nowhere.
  • Musa/Rei: Dead mother, bad relationship with father. The sardonic one with a flair for red and purple. Both girls also long, flowing (Musa initially had short Girlish Pigtails but later grew her hair out in season 3), raven-colored hair and pale skin, with the eyes matching the blue/purple shine of their hair. The '90s anime also famously made Rei a singer.
  • Aisha could be a combination of all the Outer Senshi: being an independent and sporty Tomboy Princess like Haruka, having water-based powers and green, turquoise and blue Color Motifs and like Michiru, being the one with the darkest skin and initially having a lonely life prior to meeting the other girls like Setsuna, and being the Sixth Ranger like Hotaru. She also initially isolated herself from the group in their earlier interactions, much like the Outer Senshi (particularly Haruka and Michiru) being Ineffectual Loners.
  • Roxy/Chibiusa: The pink-haired Tagalong Kid who turns out to be the princess of Earth and reunites with her long-lost mother. She's even close to the main character.

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