YMMV / Codename: Sailor V

• Harsher in Hindsight: The manga's finale gives Minako's carefree disposition much more weight when you realize just how hard she had it fighting the forces of the Dark Kingdom for a year before the other Senshi awoke—and despite this, she never brings this up or holds it against them.
• Les Yay: Sakurada has a none too subtle crush on Sailor V.
• Nightmare Fuel: Petite Pandora smiling while dying, as she's unleashing toxic gas as it happens. *shudders*
  • Let's just say that death ain't pretty for most of the villains in this series, which is meant to be for kids.
  • Three words: Venus Sulphur Smoke. Yes, it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Sailor V summons a sulfuric acid cloud from Venus' atmosphere (she confirms it when Artemis accuses her of farting) and uses it on the Monster of the Week. Good thing there were innocents and she diluted it into just smelling horribly...
• Older Than They Think: A lot of readers unfamiliar with the timeline mistake Minako for an Usagi rip-off, not realizing that Minako was created a year before Sailor Moon; it's actually the other way around, as Usagi was based on Minako. Those familiar with both series will argue that while both silly Genki Girls, Minako is more likely to turn into a drama queen over a situation whereas Usagi will just squat down and cry. In general Minako is more action-oriented than Usagi, and these differences get played up in the Sailor Moon manga, where Minako plays The Lancer and The Captain to Usagi's hero.
• Sequel Displacement: Due to a very Late Export for You, the series was only known by the most dedicated Sailor Moon fans outside of Japan until 2011, when an official English translation was finally made available.
• Strangled by the Red String: We're supposed to feel heartbroken along with Venus when she kills Danburite as she tearfully questions, "Is it my fate to kill the man I love?". However, when one takes into account that Minako had only spent several days with him as Ace and had only been helped by him twice as Phantom Ace, her grief over having to kill someone she "loved" isn't taken seriously since in actuality, Minako is being overdramatic over an infatuation. While she had done so before in previous chapters, those were Played for Laughs while this one is supposed to be taken seriously. Not even during the era of the Silver Millennium were Venus and Adonis together since she never noticed him, having already been in a relationship with Kunzite.
• Values Dissonance:
  • When DeVleene sells highly addicting and incredibly fattening chocolates on Valentine's Day, Artemis tells Minako that he doesn't want to see a fat Sailor V. While seen as comedic in the early 90s, decades later, a line like that sounds rather cruel for a deuteragonist in a children's story, especially from a Nice Guy like Artemis.
  • More generally, the age gaps in the story would be looked upon more critically nowadays. Minako kisses a 15-16 year old when she's 13, and even kisses Wakagi once—a man who’s in his late 20s. Similarly, while it's never made explicit, many on this Wiki see Sakurada's comedic fangirling for the 13-year old Sailor V as attraction, especially since her crush on Ace is BECAUSE he reminds her of Sailor V. Luckily, Sakurada has more of a sisterly relationship with Minako after discovering Sailor V's identity, but it's a rather odd thing to leave ambiguous.
  • In chapter 2, when Artemis insults Minako for not being sufficiently girly, Minako snaps that he's a "fag cat". Yeah...
• Values Resonance: One chapter shows Minako being harassed by an obsessive Otaku who assumes she's a guy in drag because he can't accept the idea of a girl beating his high score in a video game, as well as how he acts completely inappropriate when she turns into Sailor V and overall thinks girls have no right to "invade" video arcades. This chapter is surprisingly still relevant today, especially given the surge in harassment against female gamers and fans during The New '10s for supposedly being "fake geek girls".

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