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aka: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

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This page covers the 1990s anime. For the entire franchise, see Franchise.Sailor Moon and for the manga see Manga.Sailor Moon.

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"Moon Prism Power, Make UP!"
Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Sailor Moon is the first anime adaptation of Naoko Takeuchi's manga, Sailor Moon, produced by Toei Animation. It premiered on March 7, 1992 on TV Asahi, replacing Goldfish Warning! on the 7:00 PM Saturday time slot, and ended on February 8, 1997.

The life of ditzy school girl Usagi Tsukino takes a turn for the unexpected when she discovers that she is the Reincarnation of an ancient lunar warrior from the Moon Kingdom. With the aid of a feline mentor called Luna, Usagi must take up the mission of defending the Earth from the various evils that threaten it while searching for the reincarnation of the Moon Kingdom's princess.

Over the course of a year, Usagi grows into her role as the Magical Girl Sailor Moon and greatly matures as a result, gathering a team of four other reincarnated warriors and realizing her true potential as both a fighter and a growing young woman. The series itself mostly follows a Monster of the Week format, with subsequent series introducing progressively more powerful villains and matching power-ups, and greatly expanding the mythos behind Usagi's past life in the Moon Kingdom and her fated future in the utopian Crystal Tokyo. The series is generally broken down into the following story arcs (not counting filler): Dark Kingdom, Black Moon, Infinity (Death Busters), Dream (Dead Moon Circus), and Stars (Shadow Galactica). Both the anime and manga end on a high note as Usagi brings peace to Earth and the galaxy.

The anime was licensed by DiC Entertainment in 1995 for an English dub, which did poorly in syndication in the US but later found renewed popularity through reruns on cable TV, which led to additional episodes (through the end of the fourth season) being dubbed and broadcast through Cloverway, Toei's US branch, in 2000. By May 2014, Viz Media announced the release of a completely remastered, re-dubbed, uncut version of the original television series.

The enduring popularity of the anime eventually led to Sailor Moon Crystal, a more faithful manga adaptation, in 2014, with Kotono Mitsuishi once again reprising her role as Usagi/Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon received several Video Game Adaptation games between 1993 and 2004, including a fan project by Destiny Revival based on Final Fight and Double Dragon variants of Beat 'em Up games. The anime series also spawned five TV specials and three theatrical films. The films are non-serial movies.


The anime adaptation of Sailor Moon provides examples of:

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    A–F 
  • Aborted Arc: The original DiC English dub added a storyline where Raye tries to have Serena thrown out of the Sailor Scouts (built from a one-episode plot where Rei simply objected to the idea of Usagi being ready for more responsibility given her established behavior). Since they didn't actually have any more footage to support this, the plot just suddenly drops, though it gets a call back in a later episode where Raye again does something horrible to Serena that didn't happen in the original Japanese version. It formally concludes with Raye apologizing to Serena for her lack of faith in episode 35 (31 of the dub).
  • AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Inverted in Viz's redub of episode 21, Protect the Children's Dreams! Friendship Through Anime. The translation goes for the correct pronunciation of ah-nee-may, rather than the ubiquitous an-nih-May.
  • Achilles in His Tent: The standard plot happens a little differently to demure Mercury, who starts as the only Guardian without offensive abilities, and is too nice to storm off. Instead, she's offered a chance to study abroad and further her goals of becoming a doctor, which will remove her from the Sailor Guardians. She's about to take it, but changes her mind at the last moment and returns in time to get her mid-season power upgrade (which finally makes her more action-geared) and rescue the rest of the team from a monster only weak to ice, and she returns to the fold.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Nephrite laughs when Naru asks if the Dark Kingdom gives its employees a few days off. She then joins him, admitting it sounds funny when you put it like that.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • The Four Spectre Sisters are members of the Black Moon Clan. In this version, they eventually have a Heel–Face Turn and get purified as humans by the Silver Crystal's power.
    • In the manga, Dr. Soichi Tomoe is a mad scientist and the accident that killed his wife and injured Hotaru was caused by his mad experiments. Here, the explosion is more of a freak accident and Tomoe allows himself to be possessed purely to save her life. He also does not survive the Infinity arc of the manga either; Hotaru ends up being raised by Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna. Setsuna takes baby Hotaru from her father at the beginning of Sailor Stars.
    • The Amazon Trio, to a point. They died quickly in the manga, but in the anime, they're turned into humans and given beautiful dreams by Pegasus after they sacrifice themselves.
  • Adaptational Jerkass:
    • Rather than being an Aloof Dark-Haired Girl and Celibate Hero, Rei Hino is a hot-tempered, boy crazy, Jerk with a Heart of Gold. The rivalry between her and Usagi is played up much more — and more so in the DiC/Cloverway English dub.
    • Mamoru Chiba is much snarkier and meaner to Usagi in the early original anime than the manga. In the manga he's just brutally honest while in the anime he would throw straight-up insults.
    • Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh are a lot more hateful than their manga counterparts. They consider the Inner Guardians too idealistic with the idea of the girls trying to save Hotaru and believe they have to kill her. When Hotaru is instead saved and resurrected, the two are so pissed off, they challenge Usagi to a battle where, if she loses, she must relinquish her role as Princess and Sailor Moon
  • Adaptational Mundanity: The manga had a number of fantastical incidents that didn't happen in the anime, such as all three cats taking human form along with both of Rei's crows, Usagi actually being offered a chance to revive the Moon Kingdom in the here and now, Usagi reviving the entire world and even traveling across the cosmos. The only thing the anime keeps is the time traveling storyline and Luna turning human is a non-canon movie event.
  • Adaptational Ugliness: Sailor Mars' grandfather is portrayed as tall and rather attractive in the manga, whereas in the anime, he's short and bald.
  • Adaptational Wimp: The Sailor Guardians, minus Usagi herself, as a whole are hit with the nerf bat really bad here. The girls are only able to reach Super Sailor status in the anime, unlike the manga where they all hit Eternal. The girls only get a handful of attacks to their names and can barely defeat enemies after a certain point. Worst of these is Tuxedo Mask, who loses any and all abilities except for the roses, and Sailor Chibi-Moon, who is made a Joke Character.
  • Adaptation Distillation: In-universe example- the Sailor V video game, as popular as it is, has her standing in one spot shooting snakes and bats with a laser pistol, and the poster for the game features what look like stereotypical Mafia members as the bad guys. It is clearly not based very well on the actual Sailor V's adventures.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Being pretty much four times as long as the manga, the anime has plenty of time to detail the characters outside of the main ones (supporting cast and villains) more.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
    • In S, the then-currently condescending Outer Guardians have an oddly polite conversation with Tuxedo Mask (despite him being one of the weakest guardians) and refer to him respectfully as Endymion, despite no other indications that they know much about the existing cast (barring Pluto). This was lifted almost directly from the manga, where the Outer Guardians are implied to already know who most of the guardians are/were but are avoiding working with them out of a sense of duty and penance rather than dislike and skepticism.
    • The anime never explains how Mamoru is able to keep Chibi-Usa alive at the end of S when her heart crystal is stolen. This is a plot point that is lifted directly from the manga, but by this point the story had already established that he has the power to pass on energy to another person and even heal wounds several times. The anime never establishes him as possessing such a power, but it acts as though he's been able to do this all along.
    • The anime directly adapts one of the manga's "Exam Battle" short stories, "Ami's First Love", (about Ami getting a love letter from a secret admirer and freaking out so much she breaks out in hives) as a short film to open the SuperS movie, without accounting for multiple continuity differences. The title itself either ignores or retcons Ami's first in-series relationship with Canon Foreigner Urawa Ryo, and Ami develops an allergy to love letters that contradicts that romance plotline, where she was mature about love letters and relationships. She's also given an attack she's previously used only in the manga. As the movies themselves are usually regarded as non-canon due to various continuity issues, this short is treated in a similar manner, but its use of source material makes such errors far more noticeable.
    • In the Sailor Stars season, many characters remark that Chibi-Chibi looks exactly like Usagi. Not just like her little sister, more like her daughter. Well, in the manga, this did make sense as Chibi-Chibi is actually Sailor Cosmos, which may be a future form of Sailor Moon herself, and thus the possibility of being the same person. In the anime, however, her origin is completely independent of Sailor Moon entirely and it's never explained why they look the same.
    • Why are the Amazoness Quartet named after large celestial bodies? Almost every other villain (including the Anima Mates in Stars) are named after gems, minerals, or metals; obviously, they were named after asteroids because they were meant to be Chibi-Usa's future Guardians the same way Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus are for her mother, but we never get that explanation in the anime. And despite them also saying that they'll see the others again, they never show up again for the rest of the series (unlike the manga).
  • Adapted Out:
    • The Amazon Quartet did not become the Asteroid/Sailor Quartet, nor did Chibi-Chibi become Sailor Cosmos, in the '90s anime; a number of non-Sailor manga characters do not appear in this version.
    • Several villains from the manga's Shadow Galactica are also nonexistent in Sailor StarS, namely Sailor Heavy Metal Papillion and the four corrupt non-Animamates (Lethe, Mnemosyne, Chi, and Phi).
    • Xenotime and Zeolite do not appear in SuperS
  • Adorably Precocious Child: Perle in the SuperS movie and Helios in the SuperS season, though both are probably quite a bit older.
  • Agony Beam: Various baddies have them; a notable use (though without an actual beam) is during R when Rubeus increases his ship's artificial gravity to 10 G and above to torture Sailor Moon. She stands up.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In Cloverway's English dub, Tellu begs the guardians to save her when her own giant plant attacks her. They don't.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Several of the villains had sympathetic deaths in this version. While Nephrite largely falls into Redemption Equals Death, Zoisite goes out in his lover's arms happy that he died "pretty" and Kunzite later laments upon his death that he'll join Zoisite. In the next arc, Esmeraude dies crying out for Demand. Skip ahead to Sailor Stars, and each of the Sailor Animamates has some kind of sorrowful passing - rammed home harder when the viewer learns in the climax of the arc that none of them were acting out of their own free will. However, it could also be assumed that they survived at the end of the series after all when everyone else Galaxia killed revives.
  • All Your Colors Combined: The Sailor Planet Attack and Sailor Teleport requires all the inner senshi to combine their powers. Usagi's initial transformation into Eternal Sailor Moon required all ten Guardians, including Saturn and Chibi Moon.
  • Alternate Continuity: The anime bares only a passing resemblance to the manga, which progresses as the series moves on. While most of the manga's cast appears, they frequently have completely different motivations, personalities, and backstories. This leads to each plot arc playing out completely differently in the anime compared to the manga, only occasionally sharing a story beat or two. This was by design, as the anime and manga were intended to be in production simultaneously and thus the writers only had access to story boards and concept art of the manga during series production.
  • Amusing Injuries: In episode 104, Usagi's feet fall asleep during a tea ceremony and Chibi-usa punches her in the foot to deliberately trigger Seiza Squirm. One word: ouch.
  • Anatomy of the Soul: Each season had at least one new item. The Death Busters transform the "pure hearts" of humans into crystals in the anime, in the manga human hosts are used to hold Daimons. In the anime, the Dark Moon Circus first try to search the "dream mirrors" of humans for Pegasus, then later try to search for one with a golden mirror. In Sailor Stars, Shadow Galactica rip the star seeds out of people as they search for special star seeds, and then turn their victims into phages.
  • And Knowing Is Half the Battle: "Sailor Says", from the original English dub of the first two seasons only.
  • Animation Bump: The animation started cheap in Classic, it got a little better in R. Then, Sailor Moon S and SuperS had a complete revamp, everything looked shiny and smooth, especially in stock footage. Finally, we reach Sailor Stars, where it makes it seem like the entire season was animated by a different company. Just as an example of how things improved, compared this to THIS. Much of the change in art style can be attributed to the fact that the series changed character designers three times after Sailor Moon R: Kazuko Tadano was replaced by Mari Tominaga (S), Ikuko Ito (SuperS), and Katsumi Tamegai (Sailor Stars).
  • Annoying Laugh: Esmeraude. The first time she laughs in front of the Sailor Soldiers they cover their ears in pain.
  • Anti-Hero: The Outers in S. They want to stop the Silence that threatens the world along with the Inners, but to do so, they need the three Talismen to awaken the Holy Grail. That means allowing Professor Tomoe's creatures steal Pure Hearts and if one of them did have one of the Talismen, then the person who had the Pure Heart would die as they were not going to give them back. Even worse is that the one to bring about the silence is Chibi-Usa's new friend Hotaru and they want to kill her. Of course, the Inners, especially Usagi and Chibi-Usa, refuse to allow this to happen. They are able to save the world and Hotaru by the skin of their teeth, but it cheeses off the Outers so badly they challenge Usagi to a fight.
  • Artifact of Doom: Anything possessed by one of Nephrite's monsters. Symptoms of exposure to the possessed item include supernatural talent, Jerkass behavior, and eventually, loss of energy.
  • Artistic License – Animal Care: The DIC dub episode "Grandpa's Follies" changes the daifuku (mochi pastries filled with sweet bean paste) on which Usagi and Luna are snacking to chocolate cupcakes. Not that unusual a move for an anime English dub, except that if they were really chocolate cupcakes, it would be bad news for Luna, as chocolate can be lethal to cats.
  • Artistic License – Chess: in episode 71, Ami and Berthier replay the real-life 1972 game between Spassky and Fischer. The match places Berthier in the role of Spassky and Ami in the role of Fischer. The Match portrayed is round 5 of 21, and appears to continue as normal up until the point at which Spassky should have resigned. After which an utterly rookie mistake is made by Berthier which is quickly countered by Ami. After the cutaway for the peanut gallery to cheer, the match has suddenly shifted over a dozen— at the minimum— moves into the future for a rather weak-looking checkmate due to the camera angle.
  • Artistic License – Space: Episode (177) has a "comet" which is supposedly only going to be visible for a few minutes since it's moving by so fast. Meteors move that fast; comets do not.
  • Ascended Extra: In the manga, the roles of most villains, minor characters, and minor supporting characters were extremely small and they were often killed off without much ado or quietly written aside. In the anime, their roles and characters were greatly expanded.
  • Ash Face: In an episode in SuperS, Sailor Mars gets her attack reflected back at her and winds up like this.
  • Attack Its Weak Point:
    • The monster Iguara in episode 5 has a huge white blinking spot at the base of its tail that is its only vulnerability.
    • The doll monster Jumeau in episode 18 is invulnerable and endlessly regenerates the segments of her arms and legs to use as projectiles until Ami uses her visor to determine that the youma's weakness is her left ankle (somehow).
  • Back for the Finale: Sailor Saturn was mostly absent for most of Stars after the Neherina Arc, but in episodes leading to the finale, she makes an unexpected appearance in saving the Sailor Guardians from Galaxia's attack.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: While arguably justified during the transformation sequences, on any of the rare occasions one of the girls was topless she had nipple-less breasts. Oddly subverted when Fish Eye took his top off in one episode.
  • Barely-Changed Dub Name: The original English dub mostly used completely new names; however, a few characters have barely edited names. "Ami Mizuno" became "Amy Anderson" (occasionally "Amy Mizuno"),note  Rei's name was changed to "Raye", and Minako became "Mina" (which was already a nickname of hers).
    • The Swedish dub mostly kept the original names with a few exceptions. Usagi Tsukino got the more Swedish sounding Annie Tsukino, Minako became the slightly less exotic Arianne, Kunzite was renamed Lord Kunta and for some reason queen Beryl became queen Morga, getting the name of the first youma of the anime.
  • "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Rei puts on a Large Ham act to try to convince the Starlights to join her study group, claiming that she formed the group to study for the high school entrance exams. When Minako mutters that Rei's school doesn't have entrance exams, Rei gives Minako's foot a painful stomp.
  • Berserk Button:
    • It was established in the 13th episode that anyone who makes sexist remarks within earshot of a Sailor Guardians is in for a world of hurt, as Jadeite learned the hard way when the then-Power Trio of the Sailor Guardians used Plane Fu on him for that offense.
    • Queen Nehellenia's berserk button is people giving her pity for her miserable, ugly life.
  • Big Budget Beef-Up: The animation quality takes a noticeable jump about midway through R and again for S onwards.
  • Big Eater: Usagi's not the only one, in the DiC dub anyway. In the episode "Cruise Blues," Amy admonishes Rei for having eaten seven pork chops at dinner.
  • Big "NO!":
    • Usagi during the climax of the final season after Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter throw themselves in front of Sailor Moon and the Starlights to protect them from Sailor Galaxia's attack. The attack removes their Star Seeds causing them to fade into orbs of light before vanishing altogether. She says it rather weakly at first then lets out a chilling scream of it. Turns into a Skyward Scream after she starts yelling.
    • Usagi lets another one out after the Disney Deaths of Sailors Uranus and Neptune at the start of episode 111 in the S season.
    • Naru lets out a few of them after Nephrite dies.
  • Bittersweet Ending: A staple of the seasons:
    • Season 1: Super Beryl is destroyed and the Guardians are revived but Luna and Artemis wipe everyone's memories so they can go back to their normal lives, meaning the girls have forgotten their friendship and Usagi and Mamoru have forgotten their love.
    • R:
      • Makai Tree arc: The eponymous tree is defeated and cleansed and Ail and An are redeemed, but Usagi, Mamoru, and their team had to say goodbye to normal livelihoods as they know that there will be threats lurking around.
      • Black Moon arc: Wiseman is destroyed once and for all but Chibiusa has to return to Crystal Tokyo, bidding her parents' past selves farewell. She returns partway in the next season, though.
    • S: Pharaoh 90 is destroyed, the Silencing is prevented and Professor Tomoe is free of the Death Busters but Chibiusa has to say goodbye to Hotaru, who has de-aged into a baby.
    • SuperS: Nehellenia is sealed away again but Helios has to return to Elysion and he won't see Chibiusa again for a long time.
    • Sailor Stars:
      • Nehellenia arc: The Guardians are able to give Nehellenia peace and redemption but they'll soon have to face the one who freed her to begin with. Also, Chibiusa and Diana had to return to Crystal Tokyo, seemingly forever.
      • Shadow Galactica arc: Chaos is defeated, Galaxia is purified and everyone is revived but Chibi Chibi leaves to reunite with Galaxia, the Starlights and Kakyuu head back to their home planet and Seiya accepts that Mamoru is Usagi's one true love.
  • The Blank: The makeup-themed Monster of the Week from episode 61 (Usagi-Mamoru breakup episode) accidentally erased her own face. She was trying to draw it back with eyebrow pencil when Sailor Moon zapped her.
  • Blatant Lies: The Bragging Theme Tune written exclusively for the original English dub states that she never runs from a fight. Most of the fights in the early seasons start with her legging it to have a little cry.
  • Book Ends: From the beginning of Episode 1 and the end of Episode 200, respectively.
    Usagi (ep. 1): "Hi. I'm Usagi Tsukino. I'm 14 years old and go to Juban Middle School. I'm a bit of a klutz, and sometimes get teased for being a little emotional."
    Usagi (ep. 200): "I'm Usagi Tsukino. I'm 16 years old and go to Juban High School. I'm a bit of a klutz, and get teased for being a crybaby. But the truth is, I'm the pretty guardian who fights for love and for justice. I am Sailor Moon."
  • Bowdlerise: The DiC English adaptation of the anime was heavily censored to remove the more sexualized aspects of the series, mostly the body lines during transformation sequences and anything that would be considered Values Dissonance to American audiences. Violence and death was also cut, with the most famous example being how the final episodes of the Dark Kingdom arc (the episodes where the Sailor Scouts go to the North Pole to find Queen Beryl's lair, only to end up getting killed off one by one, leaving Sailor Moon to battle her alone) were cut so severely that it was patchworked into one episode instead of two.
    • The Cloverway (Cartoon Network) episodes, for all their flaws (especially in the slang-riddled dialogue and poor choice in voice actresses), were more-or-less uncut, but, like DiC, some sexually suggestive scenes had to be cut or altered, such as Daimons having energy-sucking stars on their bare thighs, on their breasts, and in their cleavage or the infamous relationship change between Harukanote  and Michirunote  from "a lesbian couple where both girls are unrelated to each other" to "same-sex cousins who are low-key attracted to each other".
  • Bragging Theme Tune:
    • The DiC English dub has a different theme song that easily falls into this category of theme tunes.
    • The second German dubbed theme, "Kampfe Sailor Moon", talks about how invincible and powerful the Sailor Soldiers are.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall:
    • The final episode of R (89) had the Senshi looking forward to their third season and arguing over who should be the new main character by showing their best scenes from the previous two series (as well as dismissing each other's claims by showing each other's worst scenes). At one point, they even wonder if the viewers are getting bored by their chatter (!)
    • The Memorial specials included on the home video releases are basically the main characters commenting on how the season played out.
    • A DIC dub-only example: the Series One episode "So You Want to Be a Superstar" (aka "Usagi Learns! The Road to Stardom is Tough!") has Sailor Moon pause in her battle, turn to the viewer and say, "If you see Luna, tell her I could use her help right about now!" The dialogue in Japanese and in the Viz English dub also has Sailor Moon wondering where Luna is, but talking to herself, not to the viewer.
  • Broken Aesop: The (original English) dub-invented "Sailor Says" PSAs would have these from time to time.
    • In the episode where Molly gets her energy sucked by Neflyte, the Sailor Says segment says that Molly was being true to her heart when she told Neflyte how she felt about him and treats this as a good thing and an important lesson...even though it put her in a coma. Naturally Sailor Moon Abridged has fun with this.
      SMA Serena: When Molly told Neflyte what she felt, she was being true to her self! See what that got her? Stupid bitch should've kept her mouth shut.
    • The first season finale's Sailor Says had Serena tell the viewer never to give up, no matter how bad things seem, using herself as an example. Except Serena burst into tears and tried to give up every time another Sailor "was captured by the Negaverse".
    • During Sailor Moon R, Mamoru breaks up with Usagi and starts treating her coldly so she'll forget about him. Usagi is devastated and spends half the season trying to win him back. A few episodes later, Koan is also on the receiving end of this, being mistreated by Rubeus. While dealing with Usagi, Rei gives her the advice that loving someone is trusting them 100%, no matter how coldly they treat you, and urges her to not give up on Mamoru. Koan argues against that by saying if someone is treating you coldly, then you should dump them... and she's treated as being in the wrong for it. Later in the same episode, Rei straight-up tells Koan to her face that Rubeus doesn't really love her. Two girls going through a similar situation are given a different piece of advice by the same character, the only difference being that one of these girls' lover is a main character while the other is the villain.
    • A particular episode from SuperS features a small girl being viciously beaten up by her own mother for having the dream of wanting to be the greatest swordsman in Japan. Turns out that the mother was beating her up because she was trying to teach her to not be so single-minded. Ironically enough, being single-minded is described in S as having a pure heart, and even then, it doesn't excuse the mother beating the ever living lights out of her own daughter. The episode concludes with the mother promising to beat the child again off-screen while Usagi reminds the audience that the little girl will reach her dreams someday, because "she has a wonderful mother to support her".
  • Brother–Sister Incest: Ail and An in the second season have hints of this because they were created from the same being, a la Adam and Eve; surprisingly, this wasn't removed from the original English dub (though one episodenote  was edited to remove them kissing).
  • Brought Down to Normal: Oh, good grief. You cannot go through an entire season without at least one instance of the girls' transformation devices being stolen, damaged, destroyed or otherwise incapacitated. Unlike the manga or the later Sailor Moon Crystal, this is mostly done to play up the fanservice.
  • Busman's Holiday: Episodes 20 and 67, which feature the girls going on vacation and confronting, respectively, ghosts and dinosaurs. In both episodes, however, their powers are nearly useless - the ghost problem is actually resolved without them and in the dinosaur episode, their combined power is nothing against the forces of nature which they derive their powers from.
  • Call-Back: In the DIC dub it's mentioned in the "swimsuit contest" episode that Darien (Mamoru) is a former model. Although completely an invention of the DIC writers, it is referenced again in the episode in which Serena and Darien get to model for a portrait painter.
  • The Cameo: Shinnosuke from Crayon Shin-chan cameos in SuperS, albeit drawn in the art style of Sailor Moon. He traumatizes Chibi-Usa with his antics and "Elephant Dance" before being hauled away by his mother.
  • Camp: If there is one indicator, then it's the Super Sentai-like fights seen in every episode. This trope is also obvious in the first season, and even more obvious in the DiC dub.
  • Captain Obvious: "SHE'S F-F-F-F-FREEZING ME!"
  • Caretaker Reversal: In one episode of Sailor Moon R, when Minako plays nurse to her friends, but ends up sick herself by the end of the episode, when Usagi and Chibi-usa return the favor.
  • Car Fu:
    • Episode 13 features an instance of Plane Fu.
    • And let's not forget that impressive bit of Motorcycle Fu that Haruka and Michiru pull off in their debut.
  • Casting Gag:
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Not even death threats from their enemies can stop the goofy sitcom antics among the Sailors, and it's common for them to brush off attacks like they were just burns from a schoolyard bully.
  • Cats Are Snarkers: Luna and Artemis constantly rip on the antics of their charges throughout the series. The DIC dub often exaggerated this, particularly with Luna:
    Amy: Raye, did you cut class to go home to change?
    Raye: [in white T-shirt and pink overalls] No, it just so happens I took a change of clothes this morning. My uniform's in the bag.
    Luna: Yes, and I'm a purple cockatoo.
  • Chained Heat: Sailors Moon and Uranus in episode 98 of Sailor Moon S. This also starts to clue Usagi in to Uranus' identity as Uranus holds her the same way Haruka does earlier in the episode.
  • Character Catchphrase: In the DIC and CWI dubs, Sailor Moon's trademark catchphrase, "Tsuki ni kawatte oshioki yo!", was sometimes rendered faithfully as "In the name of/On behalf of the moon, I shall punish you!", and other times not so faithfully as, "On behalf of the moon, I will right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means you!" As for the other Sailor Guardians, their trademark catch phrases were virtually never rendered faithfully in the original dubs.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The crane game dolls Minako accidentally wins in Sailor Moon S episode 109. Trying to get rid of some, after Haruka and Michiru suggest a way she could show her pure heartnote  by helping people and maybe donate blood, she runs to do it...then runs back and puts a crane game doll in their hands as a thank-you present, leaving them bewildered on what to do with them.note  It ends up coming in handy when they use the dolls as projectiles at the Daimon Doorknobder to distract her and Eudial away from Sailor Moon and Minako's heart crystal. Then when Eudial gains the upper hand about to roast the entire Sailor team plus Uranus and Neptune with her Flame Buster weapon... a now re-hearted Minako tosses the remaining crane dolls at Eudial to stop her, right before transforming into Sailor Venus and destroying the weapon, causing Eudial to panic and flee the scene.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Season one had a fairly large supporting cast, including Usagi's parents and little brother, Rei's grandpa and his assistant Yūichirōnote , and various folks from their school. Almost all of them had vanished completely by season three, though a couple made a token appearance or two in later seasons (usually as monster attack victims), and the writers were nice enough to pair off Usagi's main two school chums before they vanished. Only Yūichirō stayed on because of his status as Rei's "love interest". When the final season came around, only Usagi's mother made an appearance.
  • Circle of Friendship: The Sailor Planet Attack.
  • Clark Kenting:
    • To ridiculous degrees. Even the villains get in on this action.
    • Minako is the one who manages to pull the intention of this off most successfully, though. Even though she was flanderized to an enormous degree, that only happens in her civilian form. As Sailor Venus, she's always a badass. At least it appears to be flanderization. But when one looks at the Codename Sailor V manga, it's very apparently her canon characterization.
    • Speaking of Minako, she actually manages to make money off this trope in the original anime. People looking to make merchandise based on Sailor V chose Minako as a model because they thought she bore an uncanny resemblance to Sailor V. Apparently no one thought that's because she is Sailor V.
  • Clip Show: Episode 89, which played out clips from the first two series, and also teased the third, with voiceovers from the main characters.
  • Clothing Damage: The anime was, at one point, quite keen on the idea on giving the girls (at least the main five) battle-ravaged costumes, especially during the final fight with Pharoah 90 in the S season. Sailor Moon (and to a much lesser extent Sailor Chibi Moon) would have moments with their brooches being damaged/destroyed, leaving them in nothing but the magical ribbons that made up their costumes.
  • Color-Coded Characters: Each of the Sailor Guardians.
  • Combination Attack:
    • The SNES RPG game has this but arguably it also happens in the anime too such as Mars firing a fireball with Jupiter casting lightning around it as one such example.
    • Mars gets a turn with everyone, and that's just in the first season. The most effective combinations, it would seem, are Fire Soul and either Moon Tiara Action or Crescent Beam.
  • Comedic Spanking: Chibi-Usa is on the receiving end of this from Usagi on multiple occasions. (She's usually earned it.)
  • Connected All Along: Usagi didn't even suspect that Motoki Furuhata and Mamoru Chiba knew each other until the episode where the three characters have a chance meeting.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • In the first season we find out that Minako lived in London for a while. A few seasons later she's shown as the one most fluent in English.
    • Season 4 finale provides one on epic scale. Nehellenia gloats that the Golden Crystal that could defeat her was powerless because humans stopped having good dreams... Cue all of that season's Victims Of The Week, targeted specifically because each of them had a good dream, recharging it.
  • Contrived Coincidence: While it's likely intentional that all of the Sailor Guardians were conveniently reborn in the same city in the same time period, it gets downright bizarre when every single mystical talisman or soul gem the bad guys need to acquire is there too.
    • To be fair, most of the villain targets in the anime are still directly related to the Senshi somehow: the Dark Kingdom wanted the Silver Crystal (which Usagi had), the Black Moon wanted to kill Chibi-Usa (who fled to 20th century Tokyo to find Sailor Moon) and destroy 20th century Tokyo (because the future Crystal Tokyo would then no longer exist), the Witches 5 were looking for the Talismans and the Holy Grail (that Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto had, the first two having been born in Tokyo), the Dead Moon Circus wants Pegasus (who is hiding in Chibi-Usa's dream), and Galaxia wants particular star seeds that are only in the Sailor Guardians (not that her idiot underlings know that, but it's arguable she was allowing them to try and fail for her own amusement). Most of the Contrived Coincidence comes from only two seasons: the fact that Professor Tomoe, the father of a reborn Senshi, manages to be the one to catch the main season's villain's attention, and the fact the Starlights just happen to pick Japan to search for their princess, before Galaxia shows herself.
    • Notably, in the manga, the villains targets are almost always the Senshi themselves or something directly related to them, subverting this trope.
    • Villains who have survived many episodes and battles always seem to conveniently get killed off very quickly if they ever find out the true identities of the Sailor Gaurdians.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: Both Mamoru and Makoto's parents are dead, long before the start of the series. In the manga it's used to handwave why they live alone, but in the anime any mention is quickly swept under the rug (Makoto's parents are never mentioned and Mamoru's parents are only mentioned in the R movie).
  • Crash-Into Hello: Subverted in one episode where Rei goes Wrong Genre Savvy and tries to deliberately engineer this to meet Mamoru. She ends up falling flat on her face and he steps on her head. It still works.
  • Creator In-Joke: Episode 21 of Season 1 largely takes place at an anime company known as Studio Dive, who are responsible for doing the Sailor V anime. Dive is based on Studio Live, one of the show's regular subcontractors during the first three seasons, and the animation team who worked on the episode. With the Victim of the Week being based on animation director and key animator Hiromi Matsushita.
  • Darker and Edgier: Happens at least once per season:
    • The first season started mostly lighthearted, with Monsters Of The Week being little to worry about. About halfway through it's shown that, yes, the Dark Kingdom can actually be deadly, with the two-part finale raising the stakes immensely.
    • Sailor Moon R starts with Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains Ail and An right before shifting into the much more darker and competent Black Moon clan.
    • Sailor Moon S starts very formulatic and filled with hearts and butterflies before going straight to soul-stealing, murder and apocalypse plotlines.
    • Sailor Moon SuperS is pretty much filled with childish plotlines the entire season, only to go back to the series' default dark themes by the very end of the season.
    • And Sailor Moon Stars is a Darker and Edgier season itself, going back and forth between the usual silliness of the series and themes of war and annihilation. The season's final episodes definitely take the cake.
  • Demonic Invaders: The DiC English dub tried to slam the Dark Kingdom, the Makaiju aliens, and the Black Moon Clan all into the same villainous organization, calling them the "Negaverse". What the Negaverse is never actually gets explained in the show itself, though it would appear to be an alternate dimension full of evil creatures invading Earth—and it's conceptually similar to Chaos, the heart of all evil whose existence is discovered in the final arc. This practice stopped when the dub's licensee switched from DiC to Cloverway/Pioneer, and was averted in Viz Media's English dub of the series, where they had all 3 villain groups from the first 3 seasons being all separate from each other, like in the original Japanese version. Naturally, Sailor Moon Abridged lampshades this twice:
    Serena: Wait, these Russian aliens are from the Negaverse?
    Artemis: Well, they're evil, so....

    Alan: Queen Beryl was right about Earth?
    Anne: Who the [bleep] is Queen Beryl?
  • Demoted to Satellite Love Interest: While Umino was never a major character, after he got together with Naru, his only role was being her boyfriend.
  • Denser and Wackier: The anime's sense of humor is a good deal wackier than the manga's, largely due to the amount of Filler episodes. Many of the sillier episodes were directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, who later became known for directing anime series that combine dark and shocking content with an offbeat sense of humor. While the manga wasn't without its lighthearted moments, their overall tone was more down-to-earth in comparison to the anime's more over-the-top slapstick.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: The third season was called Sailor Moon S, standing for "Super". The fourth season was Sailor Moon SuperS. Especially once it was revealed SuperS stood for "Super-Super."
  • Detention Episode: Both Usagi/Serena and Natsumi/Ann get detention from Ms. Haruna in episode 57, "After-School Trouble: Usagi Is a Target" aka "Detention Doldrums" (DIC title). Haruna gives them extra English lessons to do for punishment (or in the DIC dub, an essay to write about "why school is important to me"), but Natsumi takes the opportunity to try to Murder the Hypotenuse and steal Usagi's energy.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: "Moonlight Densetsu" showed up a lot in the original Japanese show. Several characters are shown singing it on their own. The locket that Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion share in the first series also plays an instrumental version of the song. The original English dub uses the theme tune in instrumental in a few different places from the Japanese version, but also includes a few of the same cameos. It also has to cut a few of the spoken cameos since the English lyrics explicitly reference the plot of the show, while the Japanese lyrics simply talk about a miraculous romance.
  • Diet Episode: Usagi tries to go on a diet but fails in an early episode that involves the villains taking energy from girls who are obsessed with getting thin. Notably, this is not done for an Aesop in the Japanese script - it's mined for pure comedy at the need for women to stay skinny. In America, they had to make a "Sailor Moon Says" about how eating disorders and crash diets are a bad thing.
  • Distress Ball: In Episode 62, the entire team except for Sailor Mercury are completely helpless against a perfectly ordinary Monster of the Week so that Sailor Mercury can realize that she's needed and come save the team. The usual sexist implications aren't present; instead, it's to deliver the Aesop that Ami should stay with the Sailor Guardians instead of leaving to fulfill her dream.
  • Do Not Adjust Your Set: Galaxia does this right before the final battle against her in Sailor Stars. This is fitting because her base is the Ginga TV station, which her minions claim they work for when they use their disguises.
  • Downer Ending: The Nephrite arc from the Dark Kingdom Saga. Despite saving Naru, Nephrite is mortally wounded by Zoisite's youma defending her from one of their attacks. Though Sailor Moon, Mercury and Mars arrive to defeat the youma, they can only tearfully watch as Nephrite dies and turns to dust in Naru's arms, as she scream sobs over him.
  • Draft Dodging: Sailor Uranus's backstory amounts to this. To wit: a young, masculine individual receives a message that obligates participating in a battle, and that masculine individual tries to flee for reasons of self-preservation.
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap: Most of the problems of the latter half of Sailor Moon S (worrying if Mistress 9 could be killed without killing her host Hotaru; worrying if Pharaoh 90 could be beaten without the Holy Grail and SuperSailor Moon) would not have happened if anyone thought to use the Silver Crystal which had the capabilities to solve those problems and at no cost of Usagi's life.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The anime isn't much better than the manga:
    • Princess Kakyuu gets about 2 episodes worth of screen time before she gets killed. She gets better after the final battle due to Sailor Moon.
    • In Sailor Moon S, Mimete teleports herself into cyberspace, makes a big intro, and announces that being in the computer increases her power tenfold. Just as you're expecting an epic battle, Tellu walks in and pulls the plug, effectively 'deleting' Mimete.
      • The final three members of the Witches 5 all go out like this - Tellu gets killed fighting with her own plant the very next episode, Viluy gets essentially eaten alive by her own nano-machines in her ONLY episode, and Cyprine and Ptilol kill themselves in their only fight with the Senshi by being tricked into shooting each other. In comparison, Eudial and Mimete had several episode arcs to themselves before meeting their untimely deaths.
  • Drunk on Milk: The Cloverway Sailor Moon S episode "Everything's Coming Up Rosey" (aka "Usagi's Dance is the Waltz") changes Usagi's being drunk on wine to Serena being "hyper" from having too much "juice." The scene is otherwise surprisingly unaltered, and it is fairly obvious it isn't "juice" that Serena drank.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: On top of just plain inconsistent dubbing, some incredibly unique plot inconsistencies popped up in the original English dubbing:
    • How did Kaorinite know that Uranus and Neptune were cousins?
    • Under brainwashing, Mamoru starts referring to himself by his 'original' name Endymion and no longer recognizes the former. This quirk is kept in the original English dub...except that in THAT version, he has the same name in the present and the past and acts as if he doesn't recognize being called "Darien" despite going by "Prince Darien." The hilarious result of this plot hole led to this example being the original Trope Namer.
    • A ridiculous amount of plot inconsistencies spring up in the final episodes of the Dark Kingdom arc because of both the dropping of episode 42 and the final episodes heavy editing to obscure the fact the senshi are (temporarily) killed. They are:
      • An entire episode featuring Minako's backstory was dropped, during which the Senshi discovered the entrance to the Dark Kingdom. In the dub there's a throwaway comment that Central Control gave them the location (despite it being revealed a few episodes earlier that Central Control was actually Artemis).
      • Sailor Mercury's death featured her destroying the DD Girls' power source, stopping them from using their illusions. This scene isn't in the dub and the Doom and Gloom Girls inexplicably stop using the illusions that helped them take out Jupiter and Mercury.
      • Sailor Mars is the last to die, killing the final two DD Girls. However, the dub changes all the deaths to the girls simply being held prisoner in the Negaverse. Mars being held prisoner makes no sense as she destroyed the DD Girls, so there was no one to kidnap her.
    • The DiC dub revealed that Serena was Princess Serenity right off the bat via series-opening flashback, which completely changes the first arc's central mystery. Serena having the same name in said past life still raises questions as to why the few characters who remembered the Silver Millennium didn't make the connection, though.
  • Dub Name Change:
    • Needless to say, almost every single foreign-language dub localized the main characters names to names deemed more accessible to the local market. Sometimes this would extend to characters that already had non-human names as well. Different dubs also changed the name of the team, especially if "Sailor Soldiers" (the original English name Toei would use) was perceived as too "violent" for a show aimed at little girls. Attack names changed frequently as well. Trying to list every single change in every single dub would be beyond the scope of this wiki, but Wiki Moon covers extensive lists of name changes for as many of the dubs as possible.
    • Until Viz Media took over, the English versions changed at least one of the characters' names. Notably Hotaru was the only Sailor Guardian whose name did not change at all in the Original English dub (Though they pronounced her last name differently, the spelling remained the same.)
    • DIC's original sales pitch for the series, which can be seen here, gave the inner Sailor Guardians a different set of dub names than would be ultimately used: Usagi's name was to be changed to Victoria, Ami's to Blue, Rei's to Dana, Mako's to Sala(sp?), and Minako's to Carrie.
    • Interestingly, the name "Molly" was used for different characters in the original English and French dubs. In the DIC English dub, Usagi's friend Naru is renamed Molly; in French, Molly is the civilian name of Sailor Mercury (Ami). Also in French, Usagi is Bunny, Rei is Raya, Makoto is Marcy, and Minako is Mathilde.
    • Also, the original Spanish-language dub for Mexico keeps the DIC US/Canada dub names for the characters (Serena, Amy, Raye, etc.) but is otherwise more faithfully adapted, with the original music and everything, including Spanish redubs of the Japanese themes. The Mexican dub even kept Haruka and Michiru's relationship intact.
    • In the DIC dub, not only the Sailor Guardians' names but the names of their attacks were changed, even though the attack names were (for the most part) already in English in the Japanese original. For example, Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Action is Moon Tiara Magic; Sailor Mercury's Shabon (Bubble) Spray became "Mercury Bubbles Blast"; and so on. Most odd was referring to Mars' Akuryo Taisan (Evil Spirits, Be Exorcised) tactic as "Mars Fireballs Charge" although it had nothing to do with fireballs at all and when it was something she did every day as a shrine maiden, not one of her "Sailor Scout" powers. In addition, the DIC dub was notoriously inconsistent regarding the attack names which often varied from episode to episode, but were rarely called by their original Japanese/Engrish names. Cloverway, at least, was more consistent with both the attack names and the naming scheme established by DiC (ex. "World Shaking" becoming "Uranus World Shaking").
  • Dub Personality Change:
    • Haruka and Michiru are affected with this in the Cloverway English dub. In the original, they are civil and polite with the other Senshi (when in civilian mode, that is); Cloverway's dub, all the "cousin" subtext aside, made them spout off unnecessarily snide remarks from time to time, mainly at Serena's expense.
    • In the English dub, Rei's personality was exaggerated so that she bickers with Usagi even more and isn't nearly as friendly with her (or the others) as she is in the original. A couple of plotlines were also changed to make Raye extremely antagonistic to Serena to the point where she tries to get her thrown out of the Sailor Scouts in favor of herself leading, refuses to join a fight just because Serena is there, and later steals the Silver Crystal from her and plans to watch her get tortured to death rather than help her. Needless to say, plots like this made Raye a much more unlikeable character for people that only knew the dub.
    • The original English dub focused more on Makoto's tomboyish side than her feminine side. This lessened her Tomboy Angst as a result.
  • Dub Text:
    • Sailors Uranus and Neptune, though the Cloverway dub was infamous for how inconsistent it was on the subject.
    • Also, the meme of how TALENTED Jupiter is.
    • Non-sexual variant: in Nehelenia's flashback at the end of SuperS, one of her court members mentions her "wonderful stories", implying that Nehelenia was not just beautiful (what she was solely praised for in the original), but a charismatic storyteller. That same flashback also suggested that her court was so mindlessly devoted to their Queen that they allowed her to devour their dreams, putting an even darker spin on the whole thing.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: Rei's reaction to her grandfather's pranks on Yuichiro in episode 30, and also when Usagi also finds said pranks hilarious.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In Jupiter's debut episode, she throws her own earrings at Zoisite as if they were just a random object to toss as a distraction. Later on it's made a point that the earrings had belonged to her mother which is why she always wore them.
    • In Episode 2, Umino flips up Ms. Haruna's skirt, the closest the show ever came to Fanservice.
    • In Episode 20 and Episode 40, the Sailor Guardians fight monsters that were not affiliated with the villains.
  • Easily Forgiven: The anime tends to be much more sympathetic to villains if they've been obviously manipulated or repented (or re-written that way in the case of guys like Professor Tomoe). Nehellenia is probably the most glaring case - the viewer is supposed to find her worthy of forgiveness and healing because she claims to be lonely - but the entire reason she's lonely is because she murdered all of her subjects and swallowed their souls to stay eternally youthful.
  • Epileptic Flashing Lights: Though much tamer than most anime, such as Toei's other hit series Dragon Ball Z, were prior to the infamous Electric Soldier Porygon incident, the show does still feature some flickering that might catch some off guard:
    • In SuperS, Sailor Moon's main attack has some pretty animation to it, though it could still catch some who aren't ready for it.
    • That same attack, though, provides a rare instance of a pure red/white strobe effect as the monster-of-the-day is saying its dying speech. Depending on the angle and depth the camera is at during the death, the effect can be seen throughout most of the screen. It's the most intense of any of the scenes, and might be the only real edit that Viz does to the otherwise uncut subs that they are releasing on Hulu Plus, as the sequence is near Porygon level speed and brightness. The sequence seemed to be slowed down a fraction when it was dubbed. Trust us, SuperS might've been the least friendly to photosensitive people from the MOTD death scenes alone.
    • In-Universe, when Ami is introduced, she complains that whenever she uses a disc that the disguised MOTD gives the students of her cram school class to study with, she gets headaches. The computer screen shows, when she uses it, a very feint blue flicker. The monster proceeds to shove Ami's face right into the screen during this sequence (for those worried about anyone actually getting a seizure from this scene, don't worry: it's not intense in any way). Ironically, this is also the scene in which Luna sees the Mercury symbol on Ami's head.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: In episode 143, Fish's Eye targets a boy from Chibiusa's school, much to the disgust of Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye.
  • Evil Plan: Galaxia awakening Nehellenia to ensure that Sailor Saturn appeared again.
  • Evolving Credits: The first two series switch to a different opening partway through to reflect new plot developments and changes in cast. The other series just make slight modifications to the existing openings (SuperS and Stars have two variations each, while S has three). This YouTube Channel has all of the openings from the first four series.
  • Evolving Music: The first four series all use "Moonlight Densetsu" ("Moonlight Legend") as the opening theme, but Classic and R use a version by DALI, while S and SuperS use a cover by Moon Lips. Stars used a different song entirely, "Sailor Star Song".
  • Eyelid Pull Taunt: Usagi is often on the receiving end of this, often from Chibi-Usa, Rei, or Shingo. In a later episode, Chibi-Usa even does it with both eyes, when Usagi is upset that Chibi-Usa and Shingo ate all the lemon pie.
  • Failsafe Failure: Rubeus's ship is powered by a black crystal, which keeps it afloat. Sure enough, when Chibi-usa removes said crystal, the ship is eventually destroyed.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: A villainous example for the first half of the Chibi-usa arc of R, the Monster of the Week formula is applied to the scheme that there are literally dozens of nexus points in the city where if the villains can infect one, just one, with enough negative energy then it will be impossible for Crystal Tokyo to exist. Obviously, they fail every attempt to take even a single point, since it would mean an auto-win for them.
  • Failures on Ice: Perennially-clumsy Usagi struggles quite a bit in episode 39, which sees Kunzite staging a plot at an ice skating rink. She catches on in a hurry when it comes time to actually do battle, however (implied to be a case of tapping into past life skills, as Princess Serenity was said to be very good at skating).
  • Fairy Tale Motifs: The first part of the fifth season is very predictable if you're familiar with Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen".
  • Fake Nationality: In the DiC/Cloverway dubs, Toronto-born Mary Long voices Molly (Naru) in a Brooklyn accent.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Viluy was devoured alive by her own nanites, screaming in agony the whole time.
  • Fatal Family Photo: In Sailor Stars, when Mamoru is on a flight to America, he looks back at the photo of him with Usagi and Chibi-Usa before Galaxia attacks and kills him. He is revived at the final episode, however.
  • Fate Worse than Death/And I Must Scream: Jadeite from the first season - after getting run over by a plane, he's trapped in "eternal sleep" inside a giant crystal. Mimette from the third season is technically alive inside the computer system, but with no way of ever getting out.
  • Festival Episode:
    • An episode of R takes place during the academy's culture festival.
    • Another one in the S season, Chibi Moon's debut episode.
    • And yet another one in SuperS, episode 146.
  • Fighting Down Memory Lane: In Sailor Moon R, Wiseman and Sailor Moon call on Chibi-Usa's memories during her corruption and redemption.
  • Fighting Fingerprint: In episode 100, Sailor Venus battles the Monster of the Week in a one-on-one game of volleyball — the ball is an energy sphere protecting the Pure Heart Crystal extracted from the monster's victim. In the climax of the fight, Venus makes a diving save that the half-conscious victim recognizes as the exact move that Venus performed earlier in her civilian identity.
  • Fighting Game: No fewer than four based on the anime were released between 1994 and 1996. One of them, the Super Famicom game Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jougai Rantou!? Shuyaku Soudatsusen, has become a cult favorite among the fighting-game community nearly a quarter-century after its release, despite having never been released outside Japan.
  • Filler:
    • Probably the biggest complaint of the anime is the copious filler used to pad out the plot points.
    • SuperS is the biggest offender and can even be considered a filler season as the number of episodes dedicated to the plot or characterization of the main characters falls under single digits.
  • Filler Arc: Two major ones:
    • The Makaiju arc in Sailor Moon R is most noticeable for being a completely original concept created for the unexpectedly popular show getting renewed, but needing the original manga to get further ahead in order to adapt more material. Notably, the baddies are a pair instead of a team; they are not connected to the show's original mythos; they lack a unique MacGuffin-mission like most enemies, and they are eventually (and perhaps even initially) outclassed by the senshi who get strong attacks which never come up again. The DiC dub added some Dub Text where Al says "Queen Beryl was right - this planet has energy". Not for nothing was this arc nicknamed "the most expensive fanfic ever made."
    • The Nehelenia arc. Still canon, but strange in resolving the fourth season's plot threads (Chibi-Usa's departure, the return of the Outers and the show's darker style) but appearing in the fifth season, whose official arc it has nothing to do with. This one is do to the fact that SuperS was cancelled in Japan before the Nehelenia arc officially finished in the manga. Stars started off by picking up where SuperS had left off and quickly rushed to a conclusion to wrap up that arc.
  • Filling the Silence: Both DiC and Cloverway did this frequently, ever so often ruining the dramatic tension built up for those moments.
  • Finger-Snap Lighter: Sailor Mars.
  • Fire-Breathing Diner: The Makaiju arc (and thus anime-only) episode "A New Transformation: Usagi's Power-Up", when Usagi spreads extra-spicy mustard on a sandwich during the class picnic and offers it to an unsuspecting Rei as revenge for Rei's insulting Usagi's rice balls. After Rei comments on how such generosity is unlike Usagi and takes a bite of the sandwich, she screams "FIRE!" while breathing fire, and then adds, more softly, "Soul," as she drops to the ground. The DIC dub cut this scene.
    • Rei again in the fan-favorite "Nurse Venus" episode, after eating a spoonful of Minako's porridge, which is either (depending on whether you're watching the DIC dub or the original) too salty or too spicy. Which brings us to the next trope...
  • Flanderization:
    • Minako, who in the anime goes from being more mature and experienced despite her occasional ditziness, to being arguably worse than Usagi in terms of ditziness by the last season.
    • There's also Makoto's issues with falling for guys (and, in Haruka's case, one girl) who remind her of her old boyfriend (senpai in the Japanese version). One of which is a dog.
    • Ami's extreme study habits become a running gag starting in R, though they'd already been used for humor in the first series as well.
  • Flight of Romance: When Chibi-Usa goes flying in the dream world with Helios.
  • Food Shove Gag: Ami does this to Luna in episode 91, when Luna starts to voice objections to adopting the kittens that the Senshi have found.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In one early episode, Motoki notes that Luna has been coming and going from Crown Arcade for a while. A few episodes later, it gets revealed that she has a base set up there, which she was visiting in order to access.
    • While R isn't exactly subtle about its spoilers, one episode has Chibi-Usa walking hand in hand with Mamoru and Usagi, stating that it feels right somehow. More tellingly, when Rei replaces Usagi, Chibi-Usa notes that it doesn't feel right... Indeed, that's because they're her parents in the future.
    • In SuperS season, Fish Eye's fear of cats, him exclaiming to the Lemures' real-life seal not to eat him in the fashion episodenote , and the Cloverway dub of the ballet episodenote  where Rini says that Fish Eye's dancing gives a cold vibe like a fish all make sense when it's revealed his true form is a fish.
    • At the beginning of Stars, all of Usagi's pictures with Mamoru include Chibi-Usa. After the Nehellenia arc is over, Chibi-Usa is absent from her pictures with Mamoru. That's because Mamoru died in the very first episode of the Galaxia arc, meaning Chibi-Usa was Ret-Gone ever since.
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: Sailor Moon S could also be called Sailor Moon FP. Much of the conflict wouldn't have occurred if the Senshi simply remembered the skills and devices they have that would've been useful in a number of situations.
    • In the fifth episode, Protect the Pure Heart! A Three-Way Battle, Ami uses her mini supercomputer to track Unazuki's Pure Heart Crystal after it had been stolen from her. Ami doesn't use her supercomputer again after this episode, in spite of how useful it could have been in tracking the Talismans.
    • In one episode, Rei divines using the Sacred Fire to try to uncover the answer behind her strange premonitions. Why she couldn't have done this to find out more about the Talismans is never stated.
    • After Chibi-Usa's Pure Heart Crystal is stolen by a possessed Hotaru, the evil entity controlling her was revealed to be Mistress 9, not Sailor Saturn, and the other Senshi realize that Hotaru had been possessed by a Daimon the whole time. It would have been logical for Sailor Moon to use the Silver Crystal to free Hotaru from Mistress 9's possession, as she had used it in the previous seasons to return the carriers of the Rainbow Crystals to their human forms, freed Mamoru from Metallia's control, purge the evil from the Spectre Sisters and turn them into normal humans, and purged the evil from Black Lady and turned her back into Chibi-Usa. Purging evil from a person or place has been a power of Sailor Moon's since the beginning and it's a power that doesn't drain her of her energy, so it would stand to reason that this would be able to save the world and defeat the enemy without sacrificing Hotaru. Instead, the Silver Crystal isn't even mentioned as a possible option in defeating the Death Busters or saving Hotaru, with its last mention being the second episode of the season where Usagi worried it had lost its power after her transformation came undone. It was revitalized by her and Mamoru's love and allowed her to transform again after her brooch became the Cosmic Heart Compact, but it's never mentioned for the healing powers it is known for, resulting in a lasting dilemma over whether Hotaru can be saved or not.
      • Even more frustrating, after Sailor Saturn awakens, she rejects Sailor Moon's assistance because without the Holy Grail, she couldn't become Super Sailor Moon which she claims would've been useful to her. This, again, ignores the Silver Crystal which was stated to have the capacity to destroy an entire planet (the same capability as Saturn's power) or heal it, and was much more powerful than the Holy Grail.
  • Free-Range Children: The Inners are able to go all over town at all hours of the day and night and go on beach trips, camping trips and ski trips without supervision despite being middle school/high school age. However, it should be pointed out that Usagi, Ami and Rei are the only ones with guardians (Usagi's parents, Ami's mother and Rei's grandfather), whereas Makoto's parents are dead, Minako's parents are never mentioned (though Codename: Sailor V revealed that they do exist), Mamoru's parents are also dead, Haruka and Michiru's parents are never mentioned either (but in the manga, Uranus says they have patrons), Setsuna is the only adult, and Hotaru, the youngest one, is more or less adopted by her fellow Outers.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In DiC dub episode 61, in which Chibi-Usa steals the Silver Crystal, the dub changed Usagi's reason for being angry at Chibi-Usa at the beginning of the episode, but if you pause just as the sheets are pulled off, you can see the REAL reason Usagi was upset.
  • Freudian Slip: In the Makaiju arc, Ann is prone to these when she's low on energy. When Usagi asks where Ann's lunch is, Ann replies that she doesn't need food, just energy, followed by an Oh, Crap! reaction. Luckily Usagi just assumes Ann means she's going to bum food off everyone else.
  • From Dress to Dressing: When taking a rest whilst fleeing from Zoisite in a park, Naru patches up Nephrite's arm with a strip of cloth she rips from her pajamas. After Nephrite's death she keeps the cloth which was all that was left when he faded away. Eventually she gives it to Umino to show she's moved on, and is now interested in Umino.
  • Full Moon Silhouette: An occasional lead-in to the In the Name of the Moon speeches.
  • Fusion Dance: Queen Beryl and the Negaforce/Queen Metallia do this for the final battle.

    G–L 
  • Gassy Gastronomy: Usagi gorges herself on sweet potatoes. The others warn her that they can cause gas if she has too many of them, but she ignores this until she indeed ends up loudly cutting it. The DiC dub, however, removes the farting sound effect, though it keeps the animation of Usagi fanning her face while blushing.
  • Genre Blind: Present especially in the first season, where Usagi and her friends never seem to suspect any monster activity when weird things happen, despite them having been in such situations in every preceding episode.
  • Genre Savvy: Poor Naru gets attacked so many times, by season two she's actually wary when she gets invited to an audition. And rightfully so, because she got attacked AGAIN. The very first episode of R even had the cats wondering why she was always a victim.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Amazoness Quartet in the anime, which removed everything about them being the Sailor Quartet. They were portrayed as just randomly living in the Amazon until they stumbled upon Nehelenia's mirror and she recruited them by convincing them how awful it would be to grow up.
  • Glacial Apocalypse: The 1990s anime has one of these to explain how Crystal Tokyo of the 30th Century was formed with Usagi becoming Neo-Queen Serenity and ruler of Earth. As it was an addition to the anime and not part of Crystal Tokyo's backstory in the original manga, little is known exactly about the event. The only tidbits are that sometime in the 20th/21th century Earth ended up in a new ice age, and humanity was sent into a deep slumber. It's only centuries later that Usagi, with the power of the Silver Crystal, was able to restore Earth and awaken the populace.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Rei/Sailor Mars is just as heroic, loyal and self-sacrificing as she is condescending, short-tempered and cocky. Haruka/Sailor Uranus (and to a lesser extent, Michiru/Sailor Neptune) are somewhere between this and Well Intentioned Extremists. They're willing (though remorseful) to sacrifice innocent lives to find the talisman that could save the world, and they resort to giving Usagi a "Reason You Suck" Speech after the final battle of Sailor Moon S.
  • Grand Finale: The end of Sailor Stars and the anime as a whole. Chaos is defeated, Galaxia is purified and leaves to return all the star seeds she had stolen, the Sailor Guardians, Mamoru, Chibi Chibi and Kakyuu are revived, Chibi Chibi goes to rejoin Galaxia, the Starlights and Kakyuu return to their home planet and Mamoru assures Usagi that he loves her.
  • Gratuitous Princess: The Nine Sailor Guardians are all the Princesses of their respective planets, even though the Solar System is gathered under the two kingdoms of the Earth and Moon Kingdoms, and the other planets' princesses' jobs are to guard the Moon Kingdom Princess.
  • Gut Punch:
    • Nephrite's untimely demise, in Naru's arms no less. If Jadeite's eternal sleep wasn't enough of a hint as to how dangerous the Dark Kingdom is, this moment sealed it in heartbreaking fashion.
    • The guardians get taken out one by one in the second last episode of the Dark Kingdom arc, leaving Sailor Moon alone to take on Beryl. It doesn't last thanks to a Reset Button, but you know the ante's been upped at that point.
  • Happy Ending:
    • The Makai Tree arc: Ail and An leave to raise the Makai Tree sapling with their love and the Moonlight Knight rejoins Mamoru, whivh gives him his memories back.
    • R: Death Phantom is destroyed, Crystal Tokyo is saved and Chibiusa reunites with her parents and the future Guardians.
  • The Hedge of Thorns: Usagi had to go through one of these during Queen Nehellenia's arc in Sailor Stars in order to reach the evil queen's castle.
  • The Hero Dies: A subverted example occurs at the end of the Dark Kingdom arc. The Inner Guardians get electrocuted by the DD girls to buy Usagi time to fight Beryl. Then, after defeating Beryl, the exertion kills Usagi, but all of the Guardians are revived thanks to the latter's dying wish.
  • The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: Inverted. In most arcs, the Big Bad is female and is the only major villain to get directly killed off by the Senshi. The others mostly turn good or kill each other off.
  • Heroic RRoD: At the end of the Dark Kingdom arc, Usagi uses up her powers to kill Beryl for good, but at the cost of her own life.
  • Hide Your Gays: Many different adaptations of the original show, though sometimes with different contrivances. Notably, Zoisite and Kunzite's relationship has occasionally been re-scripted as platonic, familial, or just heterosexual with Zoisite voiced by and presented as a woman.
  • Hide Your Lesbians:
    • Haruka and Michiru in many international dubs. For one example, the original English dub converted them to cousins, Amara and Michelle (which doesn't seem that bad, until you learn that some of the lesbian interactions between them slipped by, thus shattering the illusion that there's nothing edited). For another, the French dub had Haruka (now "Frederique") merely disguising herself as a man in her civilian identity while Michiru (now Mylène) was helping by pretending to be "his" girlfriend. This one actually went as far as casting a male actor to voice Frederique in her civilian identity.
    • The Sailor Starlights in the Italian dub are a cross between this trope and She's a Man in Japan. To get around the fact that they're women who physically turn into men in their civilian forms (thus making them either lesbians or male-to-female transsexuals), the Italian dub simply declares the male forms two separate groups of people and the transformations are merely the boys summoning their identical twin sisters.
    • The anime itself changed the Starlights from Sweet Polly Olivers to Gender Benders, making their romances with the main characters somewhat more heterosexual seeming.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: A number of villains do themselves in this way:
    • Most notable would be Mimete (killed by a machine built by Eudial, whom she had killed), Tellu (killed by her own plant), Viluy (killed by her own nanites), and Cyprine/Ptilol (killed by shooting each other) of the Witches 5.
    • While technically it was Sailor Mars that altered the course of the planes that ran over Jadeite (though that didn't kill him), it was his own magic that caused them to start moving on their own. She simply made HIM the new target.
  • Holding Your Shoulder Means Injury: Sailor Venus does this in one episode, even though there was no hint of her being hit in the shoulder.
  • Hope Spot: The last three episodes are practically made of this trope. To wit: Usagi's dream/hallucination that everything is okay, Uranus and Neptune revealing that they didn't actually turn their coats, the Starlights' last stand, Usagi attempting to purify Galaxia, the Starlights' second last stand, Usagi transforming into Princess Serenity, ChibiChibi's awakening as the Light of Hope, the Light of Hope's transformation into the Sword of Sealing... Galaxia proceeds to relentlessly stomp on each one.
  • Hypnosis-Proof Dogs: When Chibi-Usa first appears she tries to hypnotize Usagi's entire family. At first this even affects Luna (who is a cat, albeit sentient), but she quickly breaks out of the trance and then bites Usagi to snap her out of it as well.
  • Hypocrite: Tiger's Eye is disgusted at Fish's Eye for targeting a young boy, even though in a previous episode, he had targeted a young girl.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Many Sailor Says segments, when you consider that Serena's the one doing them.
  • I Can't Do This by Myself: During the second episode of the Makaiju arc, Usagi is the only member of her team that had her memories restored and thus the only member of the Sailor Guardians with the ability to fight. Memories of watching her friends die one by one to fight for her leads her to try and fight the Cardian that episode entirely alone - even at the cost of possibly never having her friends back again. Luna ultimately disobeys her wishes when she sees Sailor Moon clearly outmatched by the Cardian and returns the rest of the team's memories so they can help her.
  • Idiosyncratic Wipes: The DiC-produced episodes added CGI scene wipes. Cloverway used these too, but only on the versions shown on TV.
  • Idiot Ball: Where there are many examples, here is a glaring one from the third season.
    • When Hotaru is revealed to be Sailor Saturn, the Outer Guardians intend to kill her, even more so after she was revealed to have been taken over by Mistress 9, but Sailor Moon and the Inner Guardians vehemently refuse to allow this, believing there has to be another way... except no one actually suggests another way to save Hotaru, they just keep saying "There has to be another way!" without coming up with any alternatives. What makes this an Idiot Ball is that the Silver Crystal would've been capable of killing Mistress 9 and saving Hotaru as Sailor Moon had used it to perform similar actions in the past with no cost of her energy, but no one even mentions it as an option. Not even Setsuna/Sailor Pluto, who is quite familiar with the capabilities of the Silver Crystal due to her knowledge of Crystal Tokyo and her relationship with Chibi-Usa and Neo-Queen Serenity, so throughout the entire dilemma of whether or not Hotaru could be saved, the obvious solution, the Silver Crystal, is bafflingly forgotten.
    • From the same season as the above example, in the first episode of the season, Rei/Raye/Mars has a talk with Usagi/Serena/Moon about what her plans for the future are and to keep happy because that's her best quality. All well and good except for this: they already know what their future is. The previous season established what their future is. Yes, it's a far off future, but it will happen, so why are you asking her that when you know she becomes the Queen of Earth?
  • Idiots Cannot Catch Colds: Referenced by Luna to Artemis, he was of course not pleased. This trope is zigzagged though as Usagi does get sick, Minako does not. Inverted at the end of the episode where Minako and Artemis get sick, prompting Luna to congratulate Artemis on not being dumb. Again, he's not pleased.
  • Ignored Enemy: In one episode of Sailor Stars most of the main cast ends up at Usagi's (small) house and so does the Monster of the Week. When Sailor Star Maker attempts to attack him the other Senshi grab her to stop the attack from ruining the house, the other two Starlights try to pull them away, and an argument results. Said Monster of the Week is forgotten and even attempts to get Star Fighter's attention, getting punched for his trouble.
  • Image Song:
    • Most of the main characters have several, even Mamoru. Beryl and Galaxia also got image songs. And not shockingly, several of the songs made it into the show to sell the albums.
    • This was true in the United States as well, where two soundtrack CDs were released in conjunction with DIC's English dubs of the first series and Sailor Moon R. Although the original Japanese insert/image songs were (like the rest of the musical score) replaced with new ones for the DIC dub, the second CD (Sailor Moon and the Scouts: Lunarock), released while the series was having its second wind on Cartoon Network, did include two Japanese songs, "Moonlight Densetsu" and "Ai no Senshi."
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: Inverted in Sailor Stars where people are explicitly warm to the touch when they die. Lines that reference it are Tear Jerker material for fans. For example...
    Sailor Uranus: You're warm, Michiru
  • Impersonating an Officer:
    • The debut episode for Sailor Mars includes a heroic example. When Usagi finds out that the disappearing buses had been hijacked by Dark Kingdom agents, she boards one...dressed as a flight attendant. She still attempts to use it to claim authority anyway, though it's clearly played for laughs.
    • Jadeite deploys police officers to attack the Senshi at the airport in his final episode. The girls are initially afraid to hurt them until Sailor Mercury discovers they're actually clay replicas of humans.
  • In a Single Bound: Tuxedo Mask is fond of this. From time to time, even the main characters will do this as well, making you wonder why they worry about things like motorcycles.
  • Informed Loner: It's repeated several times that the four Inner Senshi were all friendless for various reasons before meeting Usagi. In the anime that doesn't seem to hold much water considering how many Canon Foreigner childhood friends of the Senshi were created for filler episodes or to be Victims Of The Week.
  • In the Name of the Moon: Don't you recognize that this is the Trope Namer? In the name of the moon, I will punish you!
  • Intimate Hair Brushing: One of the first bonding moments between Minako and Usagi is when she starts brushing her hair after Mamoru is captured by the Dark Kingdom.
  • Ironic Echo: After Nephrite is fatally wounded protecting Naru in episode 24, Zoisite tells him he should be happy to die with the one he loved. Fast-forward to episode 35 and Zoisite is dying with the one he loved, Kunzite.
  • Irony: During the S season, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are looking for people with certain Pure Hearts that possess the Talismans, knowing that whoever has them will die when they are taken. It turns out that Uranus and Neptune possess two of the Talismans. Neptune performs a Heroic Sacrifice to remove her Talisman and Uranus, distraught by her sacrifice, removes her own Talisman and gives them both to Usagi to protect.
    • A meta-example: Uranus and Neptune were against working with Usagi because they felt she was too idealistic and couldn't make sacrifices, while manga!Usagi was far more of a pragmatic soldier than her 90's anime counterpart.
  • Is That Cute Kid Yours?: Chibi-Usa, who is Usagi's kid (but posing as a cousin), and Chibi-Chibi, who isn't.
  • It Has Only Just Begun: Episode 111. (Ep 21 of Sailor Moon S)
  • Just Eat Gilligan: The Dark Kingdom's plans to gather energy don't require constantly attacking the one city on earth that has a team of super heroes defending it. They could have easily succeeded at their mission by just picking anywhere else on Earth and going after them. Subverted in the manga where the Dark Kingdom explicitly had operations all over the northern hemisphere and Queen Beryl stated that Japan was the only place they hadn't looked for the MacGuffin yet, which is fair enough, but in some respects that's even more confusing—why is the guy in charge of North America or the Middle East wasting time getting killed in Tokyo? Similarly, Ail and An should have packed up and moved if they just needed to snack on living creatures to survive - the Sailor Soldiers are only in one place, but then again they had learned how to teleport at the end of the first season so they could've followed them if needed.
  • Karmic Death: This is the fate of most of the villains who don't do a Heel–Face Turn. When you look at it, aside from final antagonists (Queen Beryl, Queen Metaria, Wiseman, and Pharaoh 90), the only major villains to be directly killed by a Sailor Guardian are Kunzite (and even he in a Hoist by His Own Petard scenario), Esmeraude (who'd turned into a dragon), and Germatoid. The other major villains to die are killed by other villains.
  • Karmic Jackpot: Usagi refuses to compromise on her idealism and attempting to save everyone as long as there is a chance. Case in point, even though she got the What the Hell, Hero? treatment for giving the Grail to Mistress Nine, and refusing to off her because she did not want to kill Hotaru, she managed to make a staunch ally out of a warrior reputed as the warrior of ruin. Then it turns out her purity and her faith in this belief was so strong she could actually channel it in a pure heart crystal, strong enough to overpower the Grail she had given away, proving she had by herself the power to defeat evil, and saving Sailor Saturn from her Heroic Sacrifice, thus bringing out the absolute best result.
  • Kids Are Cruel: Occasionally when it involves Ami and Makoto. Particularly when the other students make fun of the former for being studious and the latter for having a bad reputation as a fighter and getting kicked out of school for it. It's worse in the DIC dub, where the gossip about Amy in her debut episode gets downright vicious.
  • Kids Hate Vegetables:
    • Usagi is a young teenager, but to emphasize how immature she is, she is shown to detest carrots. This is ironic, as her name sounds like the Japanese word for "rabbit".
    • Chibiusa inherited Usagi's hatred of carrots.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: Wiseman. Interestingly enough he isn't cut off until the Dark Crystal is destroyed, while he seems to be destroyed before, which hints at his "true form" being the shadowy spirit witnessed during the battle residing inside the Dark Crystal.
  • Klingon Promotion: An acceptable tactic within the Witches Five Four Three. Mimete gets a promotion by killing her boss, Eudial. Later, Mimete is likewise "killed" by Tellu.
  • Kneel Before Zod: Demande tries to make Usagi pledge to him inside the Malefic Black Crystal towards the end of R.
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    • While it's true that the series contained many ridiculous elements, it never shied away from self-parody. Examples include episode 104, which pokes fun at Chibi Moon's theatrics, and episode 184, where the senshi are forced to fight in the Tsukinos' kitchen and Sailor Moon keeps knocking things over with her wings. Sailor Iron Mouse also repeatedly points out how boring it is to listen to the same speech over and over again. In another episode (at least in a dub!) Sailor Moon asks "Is it just me or are these bad guys getting goofier?"
    • Fish's Eye once stopped a battle to ask if Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon were embarrassed with constantly jumping and kicking in such short skirts.
    • The very first episode of Sailor Moon R', when Luna and Artemis stumble on Naru being attacked by Vampile? "Her again''?!"
    • Let's not forget, the very first episode of Sailor Moon SuperS has a gigantic circus tent showing up out of nowhere in the middle of the city and nobody notices. The next scene shows a bunch of Monsters Of The Week bragging about it.
  • Language Barrier: The DIC and CWI dubs typically rewrote any instances of Japanese vs. English language conflicts to English vs. French language conflicts. Which makes sense considering that the original dubs were made in Canada, where English and French are both official languages and students study both in school.
    Usagi (Episode 108 Japanese): [excitedly] Mamo-chan to patei! ... [apprehensively] Demo eigo. (A party with Mamo-chan! ... But in English.)
    Serena (Episode 101 Cloverway): [excitedly] A romantic evening with Darien! ... [apprehensively] But speaking French.
    • The Viz Media version of that episode replaces the language conflict with Usagi's struggles to speak "very proper English".
    • In the first episode of Sailor Moon R, in the original Japanese, it's mentioned that Natsumi (An) can speak English, but, after initially pronouncing the word "Yes" fluently, speaks gibberish when asked to speak more English. In Viz's English dub, the language is changed from English to Spanish, and in the DIC English dub, Anne is asked to speak French.
  • Large Ham: Usagi/Serena as the Wicked Queen in the "Snow White" episode of Sailor Moon R, especially in DIC's English dub. DIC dub Shingo even gets in a jab at her.
    Sammy: Hey, the ham belongs in the fridge!
  • Left Hanging:
    • A number of countries never finished dubbing the show, creating this effect at the stopping point.
    • DiC did this twice in their stewardship of the license. The first happened when they stopped dubbing at the 65 episode syndication limit, which cut off the storyline just as Rini learned the Scouts' true identities and right before the end of the Rubeus arc. After Irwin Toys' success selling Sailor Moon toys in Canada, they fronted the money to dub the rest of Sailor Moon R which added 17 more episodes....which only ran in Canada on YTV. It would be another year that these aired in the rest of North America, when Toonami picked up the show's airings and ran them as "lost episodes." Due to the show's success, Cloverway dubbed S and SuperS specifically for Toonami, leaving a short gap between R and S. However, after the end of SuperS, Toei pulled the show's license worldwide, which cut the show off after SuperS and thus left the hanging Nehellenia plot thread from SuperS unresolved. It would not get licensed again in America until 2014, when Viz Media announced its acquisition of it at the Anime Central convention. Not only is Viz re-releasing all four seasons (with all new English dubs), but also, they licensed the final season, Sailor Stars.
  • Leitmotif: Most the cast has some piece of unique music, all of which are listed on the page corresponding to the trope. Most notably, Sailor Moon had a unique piece of music for every transformation and attack, the most out of any individual character.
  • Lethal Chef: If the looks of the rice balls Usagi brings for lunch in Episode 51 are any indication, Usagi counts. Also subverted in episode 66, as the curry Usagi makes for Chibi-Usa's class party looks supremely unappetizing but ends up tasting delicious.
  • Lettered Sequel: Goes with R and S.
  • Lighter and Softer: Much of the Nightmare Fuel from the manga is cut down, more jokes are added, and the antagonists are a lot less evil.
  • Lip Lock:
    • This happens in almost every sentence spoken in the Viz dub, where the dub writers tried so hard to make the script as close to the Japanese original as possible (and match up the lip flaps to boot), that oftentimes, natural sounding & flowing English dialogue is thrown out the window.
    • Averted with the DIC dub, which has the opposite problem. The DIC dub additionally suffers from this trope in a literal sense, particularly during the Irwin Toy-funded run of the dub (the last 17 episodes of the R season), where oddly-placed dialogue pauses were (uncommon but) present due to how the lip flaps were timed. This was noticeably less of an issue in the initial 65-episode syndication run of the DIC dub, as the Irwin Toy-funded episodes were rushed out of the door by Optimum (in order to air on Cartoon Network as “the lost episodes”).
  • Localized Name in a Non-Localized Setting: The first English dub used this. While the setting was still set in Japan,note  most characters had their names changed to be more Western. Like Serena (Usagi), Darien (Mamoru), and Molly (Naru). So were places, such as changing the school's name from Juban to "Crossroads Junior High." This was zigzagged later on, as Cloverway kept the DiC names but opted not to change Hotaru's name, or the names of a number of minor characters, at all.
    • The dub was more inconsistent with surnames, though it was eventually established that the original Japanese family names for the Sailor Senshi also applied to the Sailor Scouts. (Rei's family name was mentioned as Hino even in the DiC dub. On the other hand, while Cloverway called Ami "Amy Mizuno," DiC called her "Amy Anderson." Darien's (Mamoru's) last name was also given as Shields.)
    • Even more apparent in the Latin American Spanish dub, which retained the U.S. character names (Serena, Darien, Amy, etc.) but kept the original music and was far less censored/rewritten than its DiC counterpart.
  • Locker Mail: At the end of Episode 178, a whole cascade of love letters fall out of Yaren-kun's shoe locker.
  • Loser Protagonist: The title character, when she is not being magical, and even sometimes when she is, is a poor student, a klutz, and a crybaby.
  • Lost in Translation:
    • "Meatball head" doesn't quite convey the meaning of "odango atama," a way to refer to someone with "a bun hairstyle resembling the shape of Japanese rice flour dumplings" as a "bun head."
    • Despite the name "bun head" used in the Viz Dub, it doesn't have quite the feel as "dumpling head".
    • Changing Usagi to Serena loses the reference to the myth of the rabbit in the moon, though it may have been a Shout-Out to the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene. Yet, changing Endymion to Darien loses the Classical Mythology reference to the myth of Endymion and Selene.
    • Except for Sailor Saturn, the Sailor Guardians have rhyming surnames, though this isn't evident with the dub names.
  • Love Redeems:
    • Nephrite started out using Naru, but gradually developed feelings for her and ultimately died saving her.
    • Subverted with Kunzite and Zoisite. Despite being in love, they never even considered a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Loves My Alter Ego:
    • In S, Makoto considers Uranus and Neptune a threat equal to the Daimons. She's also seriously crushing on Haruka.
    • Usagi despises Mamoru early in the series but thinks Tuxedo Mask is totally dreamy (before she's aware that they are one and the same). When Rei suggests that Mamo looks a lot like Tuxedo Mask, Usagi angrily shoots her down.
    • Non-romantic variation: Shingo looks down on Usagi, but idolizes Sailor Moon.
  • Luminescent Blush: Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, upon learning Chibi-Usa is their Kid from the Future.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: The iconic opening theme of the 90's English dub describes a character braver and more headstrong than Serena really is (in most situations, anyway). It's a running joke in the fandom to point out scenes where her actions contradict the opening theme, especially "Never running from a real fight."

    M–T 
  • Malicious Misnaming: Usagi/Serena's nickname "Odango-atama" was redubbed as "Meatball Head" in the DIC English dub and, somewhat closer to the original, as "Bunhead" in the Viz dub. Early on, someone calling Usagi/Serena this is a Berserk Button for her, but by the time Chibi-Usa/Rini appears, she regards it as a term of endearment - at least coming from Mamoru/Darien.
  • Man Bites Man: In episode 107 of S, Chibi-Usa's friend's pure heart crystal is taken by Eudial, but since Chibi-Usa cannot transform into Sailor Chibi Moon in public she resorts to charging at Eudial and biting her arm, causing Eudial to release the heart crystal.
  • Marilyn Maneuver:
    • Haruna Sakurada/Patricia Haruna in Japanese/Viz episode 2 (omitted in the DiC dub). Umino magically lifts up her skirt from the back and while she's pulls down the front, the back is raised and her pink panties with a smiley face on the rear are seen.
    • Episode 61 of Sailor Moon R (the one where Darien breaks up with Serena) has a gust of wind blow Berthier's skirt up over her head.
  • Minion with an F in Evil:
    • Poor Doorknobder. Despite her fearsome appearance, all she was really good for was locking things up. Other than that, she was a coward with little to no combat skill. And Sailor Moon did not even seem to be aiming for her with her finishing move. She was aiming for Eudial, but Eudial reflected it away and it hit Doorknobder and destroyed her.
    • Togetoge too. As she pointed out, she never even got a chance to do anything before Sailor Moon destroyed her, with CereCere trying to force her target's dream mirror down her throat. Sailor Moon seemed to be aiming for CereCere (or both) in this scene as well.
  • Missed Meal Aesop: Episode 4, titled "Learn How to Be Skinny from Usagi" (or "Slim City" in the DiC dub), has Usagi worried that she's gaining weight, so she goes on a diet by skipping meals. The villains, meanwhile, start an "exercise program" that really involves draining energy from women who want to lose weight. Usagi falls victim to this herself and even faints at one point, leaving one of her friends to tell her she needs to eat more. The original English dub took this further and added a "Sailor Moon Says" segment warning viewers against skipping meals like Usagi.
    • Even without "Sailor Says," the DiC dub is much more Anvilicious with this message than the original or the Viz dub, which both tend to play it more for laughs. In the original, Luna only gets Usagi to fight the youma by reminding her that fighting burns calories and will help her lose more weight. DiC understandably changed that line, likely because they felt it might encourage eating disorders.
  • Mistaken for Related: * During the S Arc, Mamoru tells a disguised Mimete that he's having lunch with his family (Usagi and Chibiusa). While Mimete assumes that the two girls are his sisters and tells him as much, Mamoru clarifies that they're his future wife (Usagi) and child (Chibiusa).
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In R, the Spectre Sisters stay loyal to Rubeus until he decides they're no longer needed. After that, they are purified and become the Sailor Guardians' allies.
  • Modesty Towel:
    • Used in various episodes with bath scenes, including the Hot Springs Episode of the first season. Shingo is embarrassed about wearing one, and when Usagi teases him about it, he retaliates by stealing hers and leaving Usagi naked.
    • Used in one episode of Sailor Moon Stars. When Seiya is hanging out at Usagi's house while her parents are out (it's completely innocent, don't look at us like that...), Chibi-Chibi spills cake all over him, so he uses her shower to clean himself up while his clothes are being washed. Meanwhile, the other girls show up... just in time for him to come out of the shower in what appears to be the tiniest towel on the face of the earth, asking where his clothes are. Then Chibi-Chibi complains that he's using her towel and proceeds to do her best to get it away from him. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Monogender Monsters:
    • The vast majority are female or non-human in the first four seasons. Fan theories ranged from originally being a shoutout to Cutey Honey or an avoidance of wanting to show male monsters attacking girls. This is strangely averted to some extent in the fifth season, possibly because certain star seeds can technically be carried by either sex.
    • Played with a few times. Quirky Miniboss Squad Members Jun Jun (a tomboy) and Fisheye (an effeminate gay man) use male monsters.
  • Monster of the Aesop: Some really, really bizarre youma came about depending on the episode's theme, including such things as an elephant vacuum cleaner, "Cinderella", race cars, and even a syringe... Though the most bizarre example would have to be the Stars season's Sailor Guts, a football player transformed into a beefy, pink-skinned guy in a sailor suit about three sizes too small for him. Who throws giant, caustic globs of sweat as his attack. Ew. Of special mention is Professor Tomoe, who engineered his Aesop-monsters on purpose after a while.
  • Monster of the Week: Roughly three-quarters of the episodes feature one. Most of the episodes that didn't were plot episodes.
  • Mood Whiplash: As the SailorMoonSays channel demonstrates, this particular adaptation is very much prone to this. Often, dramatic, serious moments will be interrupted by goofy sitcom shenanigans or vice versa.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Taken literally in Sailor Moon R episode 57, when Ali and An attempt to get rid of their romantic rivals permanently, An by stealing Usagi's energy and Ali by ordering a Cardian to zap Mamoru's energy. Not so in the DIC script, as dub Anne and Alan's motives for zapping Serena's and Darien's energy have no romantic - or murderous - overtones; Anne wants Serena's energy out of desperation because she's wiped out, and Alan's motive is to get energy for Anne.
  • Must Have Lots of Free Time: In the fourth season, Chibi-usa needs Usagi to cast any kind of powerful magic. This Wonder Twin Powers requirement and the age difference between the two of them end up putting Usagi in a position where she has to be regularly available to participate in Chibi-usa's adventures. As well as tons of Contrived Coincidences.
  • Named by the Dub: Two minor characters who were friends of Usagi, a Fat and Skinny duo of girls, went unnamed in the original Japanese version. The DiC English dub names them Lorraine (fat friend) and Brandy (skinny, freckled friend).
  • Never Found the Body: Pluto's death in the anime at the end of Sailor Moon S. She appears to die in a helicopter explosion after breaking a taboo and stopping time to save her comrades. She is absent for the rest of the finale as the apparent price of using this power. However, she is hinted to be alive at the end of S and makes a full return at the end of Sailor Stars, though why she survived is not explained in the anime.
  • Never Say "Die":
    • The original English dub is pretty inconsistent on this. The deaths of the heroes at the end of the first series is presented as them being "captured by the Negaverse". Yes, even Darien, who got stabbed again (the dub only kind of cut this) and is said to be "resting." However, it did not dance around Neflyte's rather brutal on-screen death (clearly showing him impaled and bleeding out and even allowing Molly to use the word "die"), and it clearly showed both Zoycite and Malachite outright dying on camera. Beryl is explicitly stated to only be banished ("blasted back to the Negaverse")...though that dub is later very inconsistent about whether she died (Alan and Ann claim Beryl sent them, but Artemis later claims Beryl was "completely destroyed", still playing into this trope.) In the episode that introduces Amy's love interest Greg (Ryo Urawa), although Greg tells Sailor Mercury that he wants her to "destroy" him once he changes into a monster, he also tells Zoicite that he'd rather die than serve the Negaverse and uses the word "die" twice. Tuxedo Mask's first death is censored slightly for gore, but it's still clear that he died of impalement in Sailor Moon's arms (likely because by the end of the episode, it's obvious he's alive again.) Also, all the people who died in the Black Moon's attack on Crystal Tokyo are said to be placed under a "sleeping spell" in the dub. However, all of the members of the Black Moon Clan that do die on camera are still allowed to be shown dying. So basically, the loose rule seems to be - if you're evil, it's okay to show you dying, even if you were in the process of redeeming yourself. If you're a good guy, expect your death to get written out.
    • The Swedish dub averts this to the point of naming the second to last episode of the first season "Sailor Moon and Death".
    • The German version removes any references to death in dialogue. For example, in season 3, it was said that if the owner of the pure heart crystal went too long without it, they would not be the same as before. Also, at one point, Usagi tells Rei that "she can't sleep" instead of die.
  • Non-Serial Movie: All of them.
  • Noodle Incident: We never find out just how badly Minako messes up Ami's apartment when she tries to care for her while she's sick.
  • The Nosebleed: A rare female example with Minako.
  • No-Sell:
    • The fight against Sailor Galaxia in Season 5 of the anime is full of this.
    • In the second season, Ail and An likewise effortlessly dodged, countered or simply weren't affected by everything thrown at them by the Sailors and the Moonlight Knight.
  • Not a Date: Rei with a one-shot female character, Maya Touno.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: At the conclusion of the series, Chaos calls Sailor Moon a hypocrite, as Usagi claimed she wanted to end violence while simultaneously wielding Sailor Galaxia's sword. Sailor Moon, on the other hand, disagrees.
  • Nuns Are Mikos: In Sailor Stars, with Sister Angela/Akane the musical director. Being a nun is treated as just another job... in fact, it's something like a Secret Identity (it helps if you only wear your wimple and veil some of the time).
  • Obsolete Mentor: Luna was the one who gave Usagi the means to become Sailor Moon, told her about the history of the Silver Millennium, gave her gadgets (Usagi's first transformation brooch, the disguise pen, Ami's supercomputer, etc.), instructed her how to use her powers and abilities and who the reincarnated Sailor Guardians were. Over time, as Usagi became a more seasoned fighter and no longer needed to be nagged into action and her team grew, Luna really had nothing more to offer.
  • Ocular Gushers: Usagi. Many, many times.
  • Oddly Named Sequel: R, S, SuperS, then Sailor Stars. The single letters were in place for a word pertaining to the theme of that season. Sailor Moon Romance (focus on romance between Usagi and Mamoru, though some people claim that the "R" stands for "Returns," as the first half centers on Usagi returning to her duties as Sailor Moon), Sailor Moon Super (for Super Sailor Moon's premier), Sailor Moon SuperS(as in "supers," or the plural form of "super" because the entire team gained Super forms), and Sailor Stars was named for the introduction of the Sailor Starlights.
  • Older Than They Look: Special mention goes to Nanako in SuperS. Despite being quite tiny she's the same age as Rei and the others.
  • One True Sequence: The Rainbow Crystals
  • Opening Scroll: The first 10 episodes of the DIC English dub opened with the following text in its opening sequence: "From a far away place and time Earth's greatest adventure is about to begin".
  • Orcus on His Throne:
    • Compared to the manga version, villains are extremely reluctant to engage the Sailor Guardians and generally do stuff personally, due to copious Monster of the Week Filler.
    • Justified in SuperS; Nehelenia would like nothing more than to go down there and slap the Senshi into oblivion all on her own. But she's trapped in the mirror dimension until the last few episodes of the season, so all she can do is deliver orders to her underlings on Earth.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise:
    • Let's be honest... most of the Sailor Soldiers look exactly like their real selves.
    • In the "Grandpa's Follies" episode, when Usagi uses the Moon Power pen to transform into a fortuneteller, Rei sees through the disguise right away, although the DIC English dialogue lets Raye have a little fun with Serena before she lets Serena know she wasn't fooled.
  • The Paragon Always Rebels: Sailor Galaxia.
  • Parent Service:
    • Minako herself seems to be the biggest provider of Parent Service out of the Senshi. One episode has Rei's head floating up her skirt (while she calls her a pervert - the DiC dub kept this in despite having Mina yell at Raye, "Do you mind?!"), and there's also another episode where Usagi calls all the Senshi and Minako is inexplicably wearing just a Modesty Towel. One episode opened with a panning shot of her in the middle of changing her clothes.
    • Several of the villains Stripperific outfits...on the other hand, aside from the monsters, all of them were designed by a woman who was really just enamored of drawing women in sexy outfits. The monsters tended to get more and more extreme with each series, especially the Daimons who had to reveal a star on their bodies in order to collect Heart Crystals. A few of them were censored in the original English dub due to stars in rather intimate locations.
    • One of the animators, Masahiro Ando, tended to be so enamored of blatant panty/leotard shots that you can usually spot at least one in each of the episodes he worked on. In particular, an infamous shot of Sailor Mars dropping an ofuda from above...with the camera essentially up her skirt (though it's actually her leotard, but still). Most of these were cut from the original English dub, but a few snuck through anyway.
  • Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Most notably EVERY time Haruka and Michiru show up, as it's accompanied by a very distinctive chorus.
  • Pinky Swear: Used a few times in the series by main characters and minor characters.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Mamoru could have resolved the entire break-up arc without dumping Usagi simply by telling her the truth, thus not only not treating her like crap for no apparent reason, but also giving Usagi the ability to protect herself.
  • The Power of Glass: Two Monsters of the Week, Cenicienta and Derella, were two humanoid enemies with glassy appearances that use glass-based spells and attacks.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation:
    • The 90s anime added much more characterization and character development to some of the villains who were a bit more one dimensional in the manga. It also honored Takeuchi's original vision of killing off the Sailor Guardians at the end of the first arc, which she wasn't allowed to do in her manga.
    • Taken to great lengths in promotional material. Consider having to adapt and translate stuff from the later half of a series many hadn't officially seen yet, and making it mesh with earlier stuff already adapted a different way (certain names, certain premises). It's pretty telling that most of the merchandise for different adaptations tends to be less censored and changed compared to the more mainstream show.
  • Press-Ganged:
    • In the first season, this is how Yumemi Yumeno finds her models for her paintings. She grabs Usagi and Mamoru (almost literally) and begs them to be her models.
    • Similarly, in the "Queen Rei" "Culture Festival" episode of R, Ali and Ann get pressed into service as models for the fashion show segment of the program.
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Mina flashes Rei a pair of these when waiting for her to try the porridge she made her.
  • Pyrrhic Victory:
    • At the end of Season 1, Usagi defeats Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom once and for all, but at the cost of her fellow Sailor Guardians' lives, as well as her own. Although her mental wish to go back to a normal life resurrects them, it comes at the cost of their memories of being friends being wiped clean. Not even Luna or Artemis bother to restore their memories until two months later when the events of R happen. If the events of R didn't happen, Usagi's friends would've probably spent the rest of their lives leading rather depressing, friendless lives, as shown in flashbacks when Fiore was ranting at the Sailor Guardians in the R movie. (Averted in the DIC dub, which unconvincingly claims the "Sailor Scouts" were "captured" by the "Negaverse" and even has them converse with "Serena" during the final battle.)
    • Luna didn't want to restore their memories unless she had no other choice. And they were all beginning to meet and befriend each other once again anyway, so even if there were never any more threats to the Earth and thus no reason for them to ever be reawakened, they would've all still ended up together in time. Usagi in particular had already (re-)befriended Ami, Makoto and Mamoru before she got her memories back.
  • Rain Aura: Played for Drama when Usagi's love interest walks away from her with his umbrella, poignantly averting Together Umbrella.
  • Readings Are Off the Scale: According to Viz dub Umino, Ami's IQ is over 9000.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • In R, Petz gives a brief one to Calaveras when she uses Dark Thunder in retaliation for the latter's mockery.
    • At the end of S, Haruka and Michiru make it clear to Usagi they're disappointed in her thanks to her Wide-Eyed Idealism nearly causing the end of the world.
    • At the conclusion of their duel in Sailor Stars, Chaos tries breaking Usagi's will by calling her no different to it, saying she claims to be above fighting but that she is a guardian proves she loves battle. Unfortunately for Chaos, Usagi rebuffs this with a Shut Up, Hannibal!.
  • Recursive Canon: Sailor Venus sometimes reads her own Sailor V comic. In fact it appears to be a favorite comic of Usagi and Rei as well, and the anime includes references to Sailor V anime and video games.
  • Redemption Earns Life:
    • Canon Foreigners Ail and An, along with the Spectre Sisters, Professor Tomoe, Queen Nehellenia (when she reappears in Sailor Stars) and Sailor Galaxia, all redeem themselves without even dying.
    • Played with, especially in SuperS when HawksEye is killed by one of PallaPalla's henchmen, and TigersEye and FishEye sacrifice themselves to save Usagi. As a result, Pegasus brings all three back to life and gives them dream mirrors; they then depart to dwell in the dream world of Elysian forever. Also, the Amazones Quartet do a Heel–Face Turn and survive like they did in the manga, though without becoming Sailor Guardians like they did there.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Nephrite, Saphir, Demande and the Amazon Trio's redemptions come at the cost of their own lives.
  • Red String of Fate: In one episode of SMR Makaiju arc; also mentioned in episode 69.
  • Reduced to Dust: Any Youma hit by Moon Tiara Action is bound to disintegrate into nothing. It didn't happen to some Youma, however- one was shattered to pieces after being hit instead.
  • Relationship Reset Button: The first season ends with everyone losing their memories of everything relating to the Moon Kingdom and their time as heroes and as friends, including Mamoru and Usagi forgetting their relationship with each other in both the present and the past (though they meet again in a Call-Back to the first episode when Usagi hits him with a crumpled up test paper). In the second series, Usagi is the first person to get her memory back, but it's not until the second episode that the rest of the girls get theirs back - and it's not until the end of the Makaiju Arc that Mamoru gets his own back. The entire arc deals with Usagi's attempts to get him to remember her again.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Chibiusa says Diana is her best friend, yet never mentioned her at all in R or S.
  • Removing the Rival: In episode 192, Sailor Tin Nyanko ties up and gags Sailor Lead Crow backstage so that she can take her place as the judge at the idol competition Minako is entering.
  • Rescue Equipment Attack: During the R season, one of the Cardians attacks the virtual reality theatre where Usagi and her brother are currently playing. When Shingo's life is threatened, their father blasts the monster with a fire extinguisher.
  • Sailor Fuku:
    • Most of the characters are Japanese school girls, and they all wear sailor fuku as their school uniforms.
    • The uniforms of all the Sailor Guardians are clearly inspired by the Sailor Fuku; while the uniforms worn by Sailor Galaxia and the other Guardians introduced in the fifth season are all very different from each other, they all at least have a sailor collar.
  • Satellite Character:
    • By the end of R, the manga storylines that had given Mamoru a more independent role were rewritten in the anime to feature characters the anime staff admitted they had an easier time writing for. Kunihiko Ikuhara later admitted he had trouble writing for him and joked about trying to kill him off permanently, but Ikuhara also gave Mamoru a more independent role in Sailor Moon R: The Movie. He was also more fascinated with lesbians and hence Mamoru fell way into the background when Haruka and Michiru were finally introduced. He never recovered if his next show is any indication.
    • Michiru to Haruka. She never appears on her own, unlike Haruka, who tended to get character focus on her own with Michiru being her foil. Haruka's also the only one of the pair to have her backstory elaborated on, as the episode depicting their eventual teaming is told from her perspective. While Michiru has aspects of this in the manga, the entire Outer Senshi team tended to be depicted more as a group of people than individual characters.
  • Satellite Family Member: Usagi's dad was the only one of the Tsukino family to not get any focus episodes and he was the first of the family to stop appearing.
  • Say My Name: Ail can only yell An's name after the latter takes the Makai Tree's attack meant for him in R.
  • Scenery Censor: When Sailor Moon defeats Galaxia, the star seeds begins to hover around. Fully nude she begins to talk to Galaxia, who is now freed from the chaos. Just a little star seed hovers directly before her genitals.
  • Schrödinger's Cast:
    • Many characters differ from manga to anime, but the ones in the Death Busters villain group are probably the most notable.
    • Also, several characters who were killed off like the mooks they were in the manga are instead redeemed in the anime. This made for a bit of a problem in the Stars anime when Hotaru was reintroduced to the plot - in the manga, Tomoe was dead and Hotaru had been adopted by the Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna. In the anime, he was given a new lease on life and chance to raise her himself. This led to a very awkward scene where Setsuna simply comes and picks up Hotaru from her father and he's never shown in the series again.
  • Sculpted Physique: The monsters' aesthetics.
  • Sealed with a Kiss: Episode 200 sends off the entire anime with Usagi and Mamoru kissing while silhouetted against the backdrop of a full moon.
  • She's a Man in Japan: DIC dub Zoicite might as well be the Trope Namer. Likewise Cloverway dub Fish Eye.
  • Ship Tease: Has its own page.
  • Shōjo Demographic: One of the most famous examples.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns:
    • How do you know that things are about to get real? When the Quirky Miniboss Squad is gone, as are all those silly monsters they summon.
    • Especially true in S - Once Mimete is removed from the picture, you know it's going to start picking up.
    • Almost literal in SuperS - given that the enemy is a Circus of Fear.
    • In Sailor Stars, when the Guardians head to Ginga TV to face Sailor Galaxia, Luna and Artemis stay behind at Hikawa Shrine.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Nehellenia has tossed Chibi-Usa off the bit of the Dead Moon Circus floating up to the New Moon, she starts saying how Usagi's lost what she loves most, and has lost her happy future, and that maybe now she can understand how Nehellenia actually feels. What does Usagi do? She jumps off the platform after Chibi-Usa, but not before telling Nehellenia she won't give up to her. (In the Cloverway English dub, Serena says "I still pity you.note ")
  • Sick Episode: In the R episode "Venus: Minako's Nurse Mayhem", Minako's efforts to take care of her fellow Sailor Guardians leave a lot to be desired.
  • Signature Device: The transformation wands, which are used to activate a Sailor Guardian's Transformation Sequence, and indicate who they are.
  • Signature Sound Effect: Each planetary Senshi has one that's usually heard at the end of her Transformation Sequence.
  • Significant Wardrobe Shift: When Minako introduces herself as Sailor Venus, she discards her Sailor V mask.
  • Single Serving Friend: In one episode, Makoto has a friend, Shinozaki, who is presented as almost closer to her than a lover (he's shown comforting her after she's abandoned by her boyfriend in a flashback). Makoto even volunteers to be a blood donor when he's injured. After he leaves the hospital he never appears again.
  • Sixth Ranger: Initially, Venus, though she's less distant than the usual examples. Then the Outers, later the Starlights.
  • Sky Face: At the end of the first season, Usagi sees her friends' faces in the sky after they're killed.
  • Solemn Ending Theme: The Japanese version of S has one; the Cartoon Network replaced it with an instrumental version of the opening credit theme for its US airing.
  • Song Parody: Chibi-Usa/Rini's "I Love Tuxedo Mask" song in the DIC dub Sailor Moon R episode "Trouble Comes Thundering Down" is sung to the tune of "This Old Man."
  • Space Whale: Michiru did a painting of one.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: A good part of the villains were redeemed by Sailor Moon's Incorruptible Pure Pureness while they'd meet an usually gruesome demise in the manga.
    • In R, it was the Spectre Sisters.
    • In S, Dr. Souichi Tomoe. Mimete also technically survives, but she never reforms and is sealed away forever after Tellu literally pulls the plug on the machine she used to power herself up with.
    • In SuperS, the Amazon Trio.
    • And in Stars, Nehelennia (who was the Big Bad of SuperS, but whose storyline wouldn't be resolved until Stars) and Sailor Galaxia.
  • Speaking Like Totally Teen: The DIC and Cloverway English dubs were rife with quite a few characters speaking with SoCal accents. For example, "Wicked cool" was a frequently-used exclamation in the DIC episodes, as were "buggin'" and "the bomb" in the Cloverway episodes. The Viz dub has a few instances of it as well, but not nearly as much.
  • Spoiler Opening: Multiple examples:
    • The first season had several openings. The first opening clearly shows Sailors Mercury and Mars well before their official introductions. This opening was actually used until Sailor Jupiter joined, which at least helped hide Jupiter's identity...though her introductory episode spoiled it in the title. The second opening for the series debuted two episodes later, and clearly shows both Sailor Venus (not Sailor V) and Sailor Moon becoming Princess Serenity a full 7 and 8 episodes early (respectively).
    • The original English dub opening is even worse. Showing the identities of the entire team, Sailor Moon as the Princess, and the final battle in the opening that was used since day 1.
      • Although the original English dub mentions to subvert this in R since they continue to use the same opening for the first two seasons and the opening only takes scenes from the first season, it manages to not reveal season 2 plot points like Serena being Rini's mom "Neo-Queen Serenity" the R villains, etc.
    • Later seasons were generally better about this...but Sailor Moon R still included King Endymion as part of the opening well before even Chibi-Usa appeared (let alone the start of the Crystal Tokyo plotline). However, the ambiguous nature of the character in the opening doesn't give nearly as much away.
    • Sailor Moon S averted this cleanly and had three openings, which were all reworks of the original opening for the series that were simply updated as new characters joined and left the cast and new plot points were uncovered. Unfortunately, due to issues with Toei not giving them all of the openings, the original Pioneer/Geneon R1 DVD release had to use the third and final opening on every episode, thus spoiling every plot point right out the gate if you only watched the subbed DVD release.
    • The Italian openings routinely blew major plot points by using mainly footage from the show itself. The S opening in particular used every single grand revelation from the finale, including Hotaru becoming Mistress 9, Sailor Moon transforming into Super Sailor Moon for the final time, and Sailor Moon returning with baby Hotaru in her arms. Yea, Italian viewers didn't really get much in the way of mystery.
  • Spoiler Title:
    • Many titles, including Episode 25 as named directly above. The various dubs sometimes downplayed or averted this where the original Japanese played it straight. For example, Episode 10, which introduced Sailor Mars, was called "Cursed Buses! Fire Senshi Mars Appears" in the original, but "An Uncharmed Life" in the original English dub and "The Temple of Lovers" in both German and Dutch.
    • Probably the most blatant spoiler was Episode 45: "The Sailor Senshi Die! The Tragic Final Battle". The Swedish dub solved this by giving it the rather omnious title "Sailor Moon and Death".
    • Another pretty blatant example would be Episode 86: "Saphir Dies! Wiseman's Trap", in which Saphir spends a majority of the episode insuring Petz that he'll be back after warning his brother, Prince Dimande about Wiseman. Guess how that turns out?
  • Spectacular Spinning: Almost all of Sailor Moon's transformations and attacks feature at least one spin, as does Sailor Mars' henshin sequence. Also Jupiter Oak Evolution and Mercury's Shine Aqua Illusion. The monster pair that showed up in the episode with the animation studio would even chant "Spin and spin and spin!" when they attacked the Senshi.
  • Stealth Cigarette Commercial:
    • Watch closely in episode 126 during the sequence of Haruka and Michiru's flashbacks of the events on S that they participate, specifically the image where a worm-like creature appears to attack Haruka. The logo on the back of Haruka's race suit is basically Marlboro's logo, except that the triangle is changed into a half-circle and the word Marlboro is replaced with "V Team".
    • The actual episode where this gets shown (episode 106) is even more blatant with it, as on Haruka flashbacks before becoming a Senshi, her race suit clearly uses the same general design of most real-life Marlboro race suits. And unlike 126 where the Marlboro logo's triangle is changed into a half-circle, in this case it stays the same, with only the name in the logo changed to her name.
  • Stock Footage: The Sailor Guardians' transformation, attack, and heroic introduction sequences are frequently recycled for each season.
  • Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: Parodied. Usagi finds a tack in her shoe... She put it there herself for the drama of it all.
  • Superdickery: In episode 43, Usagi and the rest of the Sailor Guardians apparently have a big falling-out, with them attacking her and refusing to help her fight a monster, and the "episode preview" speaks of Usagi striking out on her own as revenge for Rei's abrasive behavior. It's an act; actually, Usagi came up with a plan for everyone to pretend they were fighting each other so that once Usagi "left" them, the Dark Kingdom would offer to bring Usagi to their side so Usagi could find out where Tuxedo Mask is. The plan almost works and Usagi is about to "join" the Dark Kingdom, until the youma Bonbon spots the other Sailor Guardians hiding in the bushes, which causes Kunzite to figure out that Usagi and the other Guardians are still on the same side.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • Minako has the most experience of the Senshi but she is still a teenager and later seasons showed her as The Ditz. Season one reveals that when Artemis awakened her, she was living in London and working with a cop named Katerina. They also both fell in love with the same guy, Alan, who was Katerina's age. After Sailor V nearly died in an explosion, she saw Alan comforting a grieving Katerina, who believed they lost her. Minako tearfully decided to let them go and faked her death so that they would be happy together and she could rip the Band-Aid off with her hopes about starting a relationship with Alan. Even without Kunzite brainwashing Katerina, she has an appropriate reaction to finding out a Kid Hero was alive after all this time: what happened with Alan was not important as the fact that she thought Minako was dead so it's partly a What the Hell, Hero? and Anger Born of Worry. She expressly says that Minako's life was more important to her than any relationship drama. In fact, Minako herself realizes that her actions were foolish and convinces a murderous Usagi to heal Katerina after Kunzite turns her into a youma. After that happens, Minako and Katerina apologize to each other; Katerina for treating Minako like a child and not a friend, and Minako for hurting her badly.
    • Usagi, Ami, and Makoto attempt to confront a villain in a narrow alleyway. However, there isn't enough space for all of them to fit, and they end up tripping over each other while trying to strike their signature poses.
  • Suspicion Aesop: In season 3, Uranus and Neptune's strange behavior and refusal to explain themselves lead most of the senshi to regard them as enemies. Usagi is the only one who doesn't think so, and she's ultimately proven right, as Uranus and Neptune prove to be allies and eventually become part of the normal senshi group.
  • Taken for Granite: Jadeite's encased in crystal in the first season. A similar fate almost happens to Rei as well when she was bitten by a snake that promptly turned to stone afterwards, but it might have just been an illusion. Another monster encased women in wax, trapping Ami and Makoto.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Sailor Moon and Chibi-Usa avert this rather hilariously - The Monster of the Week is arguing with her master rather than attacking them... so they both destroy her mid-argument.
  • Tap on the Head: If there are any innocent bystanders around during a monster attack before the Sailor Guardians have transformed, chances are they'll either be hit once by the monster and be knocked out, or they'll simply faint, allowing the girls to transform without worry.
    • Lampshaded once by Sailor Moon Abridged when one of the monster victims didn't immediately pass out from being hit by a monster, leading Sailor Mars to angrily scream at him to just stay unconscious already so she could transform.
  • Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: The third season centers around the conflict between the main Sailor Guardians and the newly arrived team of Outer Sailors. The villainous Death Busters are searching for talismans that will allow them to summon the Holy Grail, and these talismans can only be found in the souls of pure-hearted individuals, killing them in the process. The Outer Sailors are committed to acquiring the Grail before the villains at any cost, so they purposefully allow potential talisman holders to be attacked to see if they contain the Grail's catalysts, risking the victims' lives. Usagi's team believes the villains can be defeated without any lives lost, and fight to protect those targeted by the monsters and the Outer Sailors.
  • The Teapot Pose: The boyish Sailor Uranus finishes her Stock Footage Transformation Sequence with a variant of this — one arm's bent at her side, while the other is straight and lowered.
  • Technicolor Death: In the series, each type of Monster of the Week has a different one:
    • Youma (the ones that weren't transformed humans that is) simply turn to dust (or ash if Sailor Mars helped).
    • Cardians explode into light and shadow, then the card reappears and turns black.
    • Droids freeze into statues of blue sand, which then crumble from the feet up.
    • Daimons turn back into their object of origin, then the egg reappears and breaks.
    • Lemures are trapped in a mirror, which then shatters into oblivion. All that's left of them is a shadow, which then disappears.
    • Phages have their monster form vanish in a spray of flower petals, and the human form reappear.
  • Temporary Love Interest: Many one-shot characters.
  • That's All, Folks!: At the end of the final episode, Usagi/Sailor Moon says "The end!", followed by the Inner Guardians saying "See ya!"
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Both the first and final seasons summon their respective theme songs for the climax of the story arcs.
  • Theme Naming: The Sailor Guardians' family names (except for Hotaru / Saturn) all reference their respective planets and/or powers: Usagi Tsukino (Moon), Ami Mizuno (Water), Rei Hino (Fire), Makoto Kino (Wood), Minako Aino (Love), Haruka Tenoh (Sky), Michiru Kaioh (Ocean), Setsuna Meioh (Darkness).
  • Theme Tune Roll Call: The original English dub, which blows the identities of the main cast from the first episode.
  • Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change: The dub attempted to pass rice balls off as 'jelly donuts', on top of the many other things they attempted to make the show seem like it was set in America. The Sailor Fuku dresses the main characters wore to school non-with-standing.
  • This Is a Drill:
    • Black Lady (Chibi-Usa's superpowered evil form) wields an umbrella which she turns into an arm-mounted drill.
    • In SuperS, PallaPalla's servant Garigari has a drill on her tail which she tries to use on Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon, prompting them to use the scream attack last witnessed in the first episode of the first season.
  • Toast of Tardiness: Since Usagi is constantly Late for School, she runs out of the house with a piece of toast in her mouth more than once. In one episode, her father leaves the house with toast in his mouth while running to work.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: As many fans have noted, Raye is much more of a jerkass to Serena in the original English dub than Rei is to Usagi. Where Rei was telling Usagi to be less of an immature crybaby, Raye was often insulting Serena for no other reason than to be nasty. Not that Rei didn't do this in the original Japanese, but the DiC dub makes it worse. The "Cruise Blues" episode, for example, has Raye suggesting to Amy that they take a picture with two cute guys just so they can show it to Serena and make her jealous; in the original scene, Rei suggests that they try to snag boys on the ship who have just broken up with their girlfriends.
    • Some of the other characters (even Ami) got in on this as well in the DIC dub.
  • Totally Radical: A lot of the original English dub's lines. In DiC's it's often "Wicked!", "Major!" or "Boss" (with Serena, naturally, being the worst offender), and Cloverway's was even worse with this. "The bomb" and "trippin'" were common.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: While the series' use of this trope has been mocked by pretty much everyone who's ever had anything to say about it, it's worth noting that the main characters rarely ever transform in front of their enemies in order to keep their identities secret. Despite the length of the Transformation Sequences, it's also implied that the transformations themselves actually happen instantly; the transformation sequences are really just eye candy for the viewers.
  • Transformation Sequence:
    • All the main cast. Tuxedo Mask once did a very impressive transformation while riding a motorcycle. He also got a "standard" sequence that was only shown twice in the anime.
    • Saturn is an aversion, since she's never shown transforming on screen in any of the 200 anime episodes. The only sequence she has comes from a video game for Sega Saturn.
  • Tree Vessel: The Makaiju [Doom Tree in the original American dub] - after its planet was destroyed the Makaiju uprooted itself and traveled through space, sheltering some of the planet's denizens in its roots.
  • Two-Timer Date: Minako in SuperS. Ironically, her boyfriends were really TigersEye and HawksEye competing over her dream mirror.

    U–Y 
  • Unexplained Recovery:
    • At the end of Sailor Moon S, Pluto appears to die as the price for stopping time to save her teammates. Though the viewer does have reason to believe that she survives by the end of the arc, this is left up in the air. However, in the SuperS movie, she appears alive and well as if nothing happened and nobody reacts to this. The movies are pretty much non-canon for a reason, but such an obvious gaffe is still noticeable.
    • This happens again to a smaller extent as the anime technically never reveals what happened to her between her apparent death and her return to the regular cast in Sailor Stars, though in that season, people do at least react in shock that she survived.
  • Unusual Euphemism: In one episode, the Sailor Guardians are debating who should have the lead role in a play. In the Japanese version, Makoto says she should have it because she has the largest breasts. The original English dub changes to "the most talent," but did not alter any of the breast-related visuals, making it painfully obvious what she was really talking about. This lead to fans sometimes playfully referring to breasts as 'talent.'
  • Verbal Tic: Many monsters-of-the-week have a verbal tic based on their name. Especially played with in R, with most of the droids.
  • Victim of the Week:
    • The Rainbow Crystal carriers. And Naru. Before the Rainbow Crystal carriers Nephrite would target a specific person for their energy in contrast to Jadeite's "As many people as possible" Why yes Naru was a victim.
    • In S, SuperS, and Sailor Stars, people are targeted almost every episode for their Heart Crystal, Dream Mirror, or Star Seed, respectively, some of which are characters we already know, and in all three cases include the Sailor Guardians. Mamoru, strangely enough, doesn't get this for the first time until FishEye targets him in SuperS. When Galaxia targets him for his Star Seed in Sailor Stars, it proves fatal.
    • Naru gets this so hard, the fandom invented a phrase, specifically for her - youma/monster bait.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: Happens to Usagi, Mamoru and the Inner Sailor Guardians at the end of Season 1. They would not have this undone for two months until the events of the second season, R.
  • Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Sailor Iron Mouse of the Sailor Animamates wasn't a very serious villain, but when she failed, she was (rightly) terrified of how her boss would react.
  • Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The villains frequently exit their battles via teleportation.
  • Villain Song: Queen Beryl and Galaxia (the former was not sung by her voice actress but nevertheless is still Beryl's song). Virtually every villain that appears in the Seramyus has either a solo or at the very least a group song as well.
  • Visual Pun: A few of the Phage in "Sailor Stars" are this, most obviously Sailor Chef, the chef who is made entirely of metal and Sailor Officer, the clearly robotic-looking policeman.
  • Vocal Evolution: Amy's first voice actress had a high-pitched voice in the first few DiC episodes.
  • Weapon Stomp: In the Sailor Stars season of Sailor Moon, Sailor Star Fighter falls holding the Sailor Star Yell while fighting Sailor Galaxia. When she attempts to raise it, Galaxia stomps on her hand, breaking the Sailor Star Yell with it.
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: Prince Demande keeps making remarks about how beautiful Sailor Moon's eyes are.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • In SuperS, the Amazon Trio are resurrected by Pegasus who then takes them to Elysion with him. They're never seen again after that.
    • The Amazoness Quartet are last seen watching the Sailors say goodbye to Helios and are never seen again.
    • Ryo Urawa had a crush on Ami and she seemed to reciprocate as she went on a date with him and said they should do it again. After Season 1, he's never seen or heard from again.
    • In the first episode of Sailor Stars, Setsuna comes to Professor Tomoe and tells him she needs to borrow baby Hotaru and he's never seen again. Did the Outers ever return her? How did they explain why Hotaru was no longer a baby?
    • When the DD Girls volunteered to fight the Sailor Guardians after Kunzite's death, there were still plenty of monsters in the shadows behind them. What happened to them all after Super Beryl was defeated?
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?:
    • Unlike its deadly manga counterpart, Sailor Chibi Moon's "Pink Sugar Heart Attack" is a nuisance at best and often doesn't work at all in the anime. Played for Laughs. Justified because she's a Guardian In Training and doesn't come into real power until SuperS. Except for that one time she uses it against Tellu.
    • "Moon Princess Halation" is also weaker in comparison to the manga, on the anime, it's able to destroy droids and weaken enemies. On the manga, one blow is enough to vaporize almost anything instantly, so much that a double blow is all that is needed to destroy Death Phantom.
  • What Song Was This Again?:
    • The Optimum dub features a "Moonlight Densetsu" cover with rewritten lyrics, called "(The One Named) Sailor Moon".
    • While the first two seasons completely replaced the BGM and thus had their own original insert songs, the third and fourth season used the Japanese music and thus insert songs would be covers of the Japanese original with rewritten lyrics. Ai No Senshi became "Tear our Hearts in Two" "Watashi-tatchi ni naritakute" becomes "Love is in our hearts" and Sailor Team no Theme becomes "Let's Fight".note  On rare occasions, however, insert songs would be left in.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: At the end of S, Haruka and Michiru point out to Usagi that her Wide-Eyed Idealism causes a lot of trouble for many people, including her fellow Guardians.
  • Who Would Want to Watch Us?: At the start of episode 21 of the first season, when Usagi sees on TV that a Sailor V anime is being made, she gripes that she wishes someone would make an anime about her too. Luna then thinks, "I wonder who would like to see that."
  • The Worf Effect: Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus got this more than the others. They joined later on in the series (Mercury and Mars debuted within the first ten episodes) and were initially portrayed as more powerful with more offensive attacks. Then whenever they wanted to demonstrate how badass the villain was, Jupiter would be the first to be taken out (she is indeed the first to be killed in the season 1 finale). Venus was able to take out Zoicite and destroy Kunzite's forcefield in her debut episode singlehandedly. A mere two episodes later and she is suddenly no match for him.
  • World-Healing Wave: The ending of the first season of the first ending, in which Moon releases the full power of her Silver Crystal and both defeats Metallia/Beryl, reverses the damage done by the Dark Kingdom and revives the dead Senshi, Mamoru/Endymion and herself as her last wish on the Crystal, albeit without memories. (For a while). It's also implied that Crystal Tokyo is heralded in when Neo Queen Serenity ascends and pulls one of these for the entire planet after some global freeze/disaster.
  • World of Technicolor Hair: Like the original manga, characters have hair in all kinds of colors that no one ever seems to consider unusual.

"I'm Usagi Tsukino. I'm 16 years old, and go to Juban High School. I'm a bit of a klutz and get teased for being a crybaby. But the truth is, I'm the Pretty Guardian who fights for love and for justice. I am Sailor Moon."

Alternative Title(s): Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon

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Jupiter's Talent

Makoto angers her friends by bragging her bigger chest makes her the most qualified to play the lead role in a play.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (24 votes)

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