(Full disclosure: I saw seasons 1-3 of the anime subtitled. Stopped because even fans don't like it after that.)

This series has always been something of a sacred cow to quite a few people the world over. I'm left wondering why.

The problems with the series start with its protagonist. Fourteen year old Usagi Tsukino is supposedly a loser, an overeater with a waistline most girls would kill for and an underachiever that never gets anything more than comedic retribution as a result. One day, Usagi stumbles across a sentient alien cat that awakens her as a superhero and sets her off on a quest to (indirectly) save the world. From there, Usagi clutzes around as Sailor Moon, relying on a mixture of deus ex machina, sycophancy, and moronic villains (they aren't so much genre blind as they are genre comatose) to save the day.

But let's look at Usagi and her impact upon the target audience a little closer. To be blunt, Usagi is a failure at life. The show makes a big effort to communicate that. And yet, she gets phenomenal cosmic power (which she actively disdains for much of the early show), a cadre of adoring friends willing to die for her, a hot boyfriend destined to be forever loyal, and heir to the eventual throne of the world. All she did to earn this metaphorical lottery of good fortune was being literally born that way. That's right, little girls, Usagi is celebrated in spite of her incompetence because she was born into greatness. You're just out of luck.

Next to none of the other characters receive nearly as much screen time or supposed character development as Usagi. Outside of Mamoru and Ami (the former still just becoming a token boyfriend after season one), everyone else is made of the finest cardboard and only serve to interact with Usagi.

Then there's the rest of the show. Each season stretches an already low budget across an average of 40 episodes each. As a result, the production is low quality and feeds off itself endlessly. Lots of padding, lots of filler, lots of shortcuts, and just a cheap look and feel throughout. Fights are lethargic and anticlimactic, dialogue is ham-handed and unsubtle, and the story plods around to unsatisfying conclusions. All around, a show made of the worst excesses of childrens' escapist entertainment, with the implicit assumption they're not capable of intelligent thought.

After the major breakout success of Sailor Moon, a renewal for a second season (or "series", if you will) was inevitable. The result is Sailor Moon R.

Because of issues with the manga not quite being up to speed, the series starts with what the show does best: filler! The Makaiju Arc is a thirteen episode long anime exclusive and outside of serving as a gradual reintroduction to the concept and a way to drop some necessary power-ups, is almost without content. It has almost no bearing on the greater plot as a whole and can be safely skipped with a short summary.

Ail and An are two aliens that have been wandering through the depths of space on their giant tree. After taking residence in Tokyo and adopting some pretty poor disguises (but still better than the heroes), they start sending monsters out to gather energy while trying to blend in with the natives.

Now, if this seems unusually weak compared to the Dark Kingdom that once obliterated a whole planetary civilization, that's because it is. Still, the show tries to make a point that this is somehow a much more overwhelming threat and inspires the heroes to new levels of power. Everyone gets a new attack, Usagi gets a new transformation brooch with new stock footage and a new attack, and the team is stronger as a result.

Even in spite of (or, perhaps, because of) their total lack of believable threat, Ail and An are actually pretty sympathetic. Sure, they don't start out as very nice people, but unlike the perpetual stasis of Usagi's bad behaviors being glossed over with informed statements, they actually seem to grow from the experience. It's weird, I know, but the hollow filler arc with no greater implication on the story is the only one out of the first three seasons to have all that much depth. It's a shame they suffer from the same bi-polar syndrome that seems to affect all the characters, but it's not quite as suspension of disbelief breaking. One wonders how the rest of the show would have been if they just created new content instead of (loosely) following the manga.

Most of the mentioned problems in other reviews remain. The heroes don't evolve outside of their new powers and the show still uses a rigid, formulaic structure. The status quo is maintained for the next season to minimize changes between the two versions.

The first season (or, more accurately, series) of Sailor Moon, where it all begins. Watch as Usagi ascends into superheroics, gathers the team of destiny, and gets some vaguely shocking revelations about her true nature while fighting against the machinations of the Queen Beryl and her Dark Kingdom.

The first seven episodes before Usagi recruits any of the other senshi have kind of a cheesy charm to them. Maybe it's because Usagi's civilian life is actually plausible, with her just acting like an ordinary Japanese girl without the baggage she ends up gaining in later episodes. It actually even seems like her superhero identity is tertiary, what with having to be reminded by Luna to save anything. It makes her fangirling of Sailor V seem rather bizarre by comparison.

Right from the first episode, you will be introduced to the series' fondness for coincidence. Usagi is given hair clips that relay the distress of civilians, but they're quickly forgotten because Usagi apparently can't go to the mall without stumbling upon the Dark Kingdom's latest plot to drain civilians of energy. Indeed, there is almost no investigation required for the team because nearly everything comes to them.

The other recurring coincidence lies in Tuxedo Kamen. You will learn to expect that tossed rose somehow stopping everything so he can offer cryptic statements and a window of opportunity for Usagi to save the day. The series is shameless about it. In fact, it seems Usagi is incapable of really doing anything on her own. She either needs encouragement or a distraction before she can use her battle ending special attack. Perhaps she just can't remember to do it on her own?

Eventually, the highly foreshadowed backstory behind the events is explained in all of about one episode. Odds are pretty good you've had it spoiled already, but I still won't say anything. What I will say is that it uses a lot of pushbutton terms and arching themes involving destiny to hide the fact that it's ultimately pretty shallow. It also has the unfortunate effect of making the series less interesting. Proof that the mundane is often more interesting than the fantastic.

By the end, the series introduces way too many characters along with establishing a disdain for the mundane and an over-reliance on magic for everything. Make of it what you will.

When anime fans start talking about shows that began their interest in Japanese animation, many people point to the fact that their first experience with anime (whether they knew it or not at the time) is Sailor Moon. It's one of those anime shows that people fondly remember as the basis of "how to do anime right" for future shows of its kind. Even when comparing it with today's new trends, plots, characters and animation, it is easy to notice why Sailor Moon is fondly accepted into the hearts of anime fans around the world.

In my eyes, you could not have picked a better anime to become immersed into the anime world than with Sailor Moon. And a big reason for that is the intricate and well-developed plot, arguably the strongest feature Sailor Moon presents. At the surface, you can say that it's your typical "children rising up to save the world" theme. However, this magic girl anime show presented unbelievable twists to the plot that included five different main story arcs with amazing depth to each of them and somehow, it always able to weave itself flawlessly back to the central theme that encompassed Sailor Moon. To top it all of, when you watched Sailor Moon, it was able to emotionally draw you into the show with ease, where you undoubtedly had your favorite Sailor Soldier and actually cared about each and every character and what happened to them.

Because of its early 90's creation, the art obviously seems old-fashioned and not as crisp as what you watch nowadays. But if you really think about, each character was drawn well, each given different physical characteristics that separated each one from another and the backdrops used were well detailed to an extent. In all, it still holds up very well, even in today's times.

All in all, Sailor Moon is one of the shows that started the anime trend outside of Japan and they could not have picked a better show to showcase than the Sailor Moon franchise. With a great cast of characters, a lengthy, emotional series involving epic clashes between good vs. evil, a highly well-developed plot, and a real heart to it. Sailor Moon is a show that if any younger anime fans out there haven't seen, or if the older ones thought was too "mushy" you should give it another try. Who knows, you might just like it.