YMMV / Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Sailor Luna. She's the Ensemble Dark Horse for one side of the fan base for being the Senshi form of Luna the cat, but she's The Scrappy for the other side for her childish nature and felt her entire existence was made to pander to little kids, feeling her to be the Chibiusa of this adaptation. Ironically, the reverse might be true; Naoko Takeuchi described the premise of Luna turning into a small child was actually an early concept for the manga she ended up scrapping.
  • Luna and Artemis as plush cats. While it's sensible that teenage girls can bring along plushies compared to real cats, the aspect of having toys that talk and CGI scenes have been met with "demonic plush cat" derisions.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The warzone scene in Act 39.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Side characters with increased screentime tend to become quite popular with the fandom.
  • Naru: Despite being her usual "youma bait" role, she is very supportive of Usagi throughout the series. Being played by a Sera Myu alumna helped.
  • Ikuko: In the anime, she was more of an Education Mama who disciplines her children in a strict way that is normal in the Far East, but is a controversial source of Values Dissonance in the West. In PGSM, she's a more hip, trendy and klutzy mom who's basically Usagi's adult version.
  • Shingo: From an annoying younger sibling in the anime into a very snarky only sane man in the Tsukino household.
  • Motoki: He combines the best of Umino (who was funny but annoying) and anime/manga Motoki (who was likeable but didn't have much of a personality).
• Fan Nickname:
  • Mamoru is commonly called "Tuxedo Kamen Rider" by the fandom in a reference to both this show and Kamen Rider Hibiki (Jouji Shibue playing Ibuki in that show).
  • Dark Mercury is also called "Darkury" by fans. A lesser-used name for her civilian form is "Akumi", combining the word for "evil" (whose kanji may be read "aku") and Ami. Rumor has it this name was coined by the show's staff.
  • In an episode where Usagi went missing and Ami had to stand in for her not to get Ikuko-mama worried. Ami went so far as to replicate Usagi's hairstyle. And so fandom started calling her "Usami".
• Fanon: Minako's alias for Rei (Reiko Mars) is actually one of Rei's names in her past life, in an attempt to awaken her senshi powers as soon as possible. This implies that they were a Battle Couple in their previous lives, mirroring Haruka/Michiru's relationship and Rei/Minako's intimacy in the manga.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The Shitennou, because their uniforms in the manga and anime were rather drab. But especially Beryl and Mio in the special act.
• Ho Yay: And how! As opposed to the original anime/manga, Kunzite and Zoisite are at each other's throats in terms of their motives throughout the series. While Zoisite realizes early in the series that his true master is Endymion and continues to protect him from then on, Kunzite wishes to destroy Endymion and Princess Serenity alike for falling in love and leading to the destruction of their worlds. Needless to say, their conflicting motives cause sparks to fly, and Kunzite goes so far as to shove Zoisite into his piano with his sword to keep him down to make a point not to cross him. Although some of it could be Shipping Goggles due to them being a canon couple in the anime (where they were quite loving and respectful of one another).
  • Zoisite's extreme devotion to Mamoru - much more so than any of the other Shitennou, even after they all regain their memories - certain suggests something on the Ho Yay front.
  • There's also a little bit of Zoisite/Jadeite tension near the end of the series due to Jadeite staying loyal to Queen Beryl.
  • Les Yay: This is Sailor Moon after all, there is a lot of deep, deep girl-girl friendship. The subtext fans go crazy with this show. Even the cast jokes how in love Ami is with Usagi. Rei and Minako's love/hate rivalry/friendship also count. Lots of feelings there.
    • It even carries over the cast in real life post-PGSM, where all five girls remain in constant contact for impromptu gatherings or birthday celebrations. Considering the relationship of Mars & Venus in Classical Mythology, Keiko (Mars) and Ayaka (Venus) are very close to each other. Mew (Jupiter) and Chisaki (Mercury) are also close friends after the show.
    • Mio could even be read as a Yuri Femme Fatale.
• Growing the Beard: When attempting to introduce new people to the show, most fans find themselves insisting "It really does get better after the first five episodes!" Episode 6 is generally considered to be about the time when the show finds its groove and the overarching story starts to take off.
• Harsher in Hindsight: A terminally ill pop idol releases an album (with a song of self-eulogy) and dies shortly after. It's very hard not to compare it to David Bowie who died from cancer shortly after the release of ★.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The team-ups in the Reiko-Minako battle. For Minako's team (Minako, Usagi, Luna), their actresses post-PGSM had stints in the gravure idol genre.
  • Mamoru is often seen several times with a motorcycle, foreshadowing his aforementioned role as Ibuki in Kamen Rider Hibiki. Several of the show's cast would later appear in Kamen Rider roles as seen on the Trivia tab.
  • When it first started any criticism of the show (especially those comparing it unfavorably to the anime) would be met with the rejoinder "at least it's more faithful to the manga". Sailor Moon Crystal came out a decade later as an anime adaptation billed as more faithful to the manga.
  • The choice to change Luna and Artemis from real cats into plushies was not universally praised. The rediscovered Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon pilot episode used a real cat for their live-action sequences and it was apparently a nightmare to work with.
• Memetic Molester: Kunzite has a penchant of capturing the senshi as his own minions:
  • He was almost successful in turning Usagi into a full-fledged youma, while she's dressed in a gown and lying on some sort of altar.
  • There's the Dark Mercury arc where he used Ami's loneliness and brainwashed her to be evil. She turned out to be much The Star Scream as he is. After his spell is broken, Kunzite plays cat-and-mouse on Usagi and Ami in an enchanted forest using a chessboard.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Narm:
  • It's hard to take some of the otherwise dramatic scenes seriously when the reaction shots include a stuffed cat with a glittery tear-shaped sticker affixed to his cheek.
  • The end of Episode 24 is either the most awesome dramatic scene to date, or really stretching the Suspension of Disbelief because of the way the actors are attempting to portray serious injuries (limping badly and grabbing one arm, respectively). It might have worked better if they hadn't dragged out the same limping run for like two whole minutes.
  • The flashback of Kunzite screaming as the corpses of the Shitennou lay around him.
  • Anything involving Mamoru's anguished or angry face.
  • A youma pushes Mamoru off a balcony in Act 15. The way it was shot looked like Mamoru turned into a prop body double who fell onto the concrete with a sickening splat, making the scene unintentionally hilarious.
  • When it seems the production team has finally learned how to make good special effects, comes the Special Act and gives us "Sailor Planet Attack", which is... a real turn down from "Moonlight Attractive Attack", to put it lightly.
  • The episodes constantly replaying the little argument between Ami and Naru can get like this. When it keeps happening, viewers are instead left rolling their eyes.
  • Any scene involving Nefukichi involves a boatload of hamminess, overreaction, and Narm. But due to the nature of his Fish out of Water plot this is very likely an intended audience reaction.
• Special Effect Failure: At the start (after episode one, of course), the effects (particularly in the transformation sequences) were awful. The team refined their craft over the course of the show's run, though.
• Stoic Woobie: Minako, so very much. She first discovers she's a Sailor Guardian and at some point she also has a terminal illness. In between this she has to pretend to be the Moon Princess, act as a leader to the other guardians and keep her career as a pop star going. Not that you'd know; she never complains.
• Strangled by the Red String: Usagi and Mamoru in the Special Act. Must Usagi act so immature?
• Tear Jerker: Anytime a character dies. Except for Manipulative Bitch Mio, which is ironic since she's a clone of Beryl, and Beryl DOES get a sad send-off.
  • Special mention must go to Minako, who doesn't even die in battle. No matter what you thought of her character in this series and despite the Narm of Artemis' shot mentioned above, there's no denying it's devastatingly sad.
  • Also, Zoisite.
• Unexpected Character: Ami's mother and Rei's father. In the manga, each only appeared once long after the end of the Dark Kingdom arc, making their appearances in this series a little unexpected.
• Unintentional Period Piece: This gives a Setting Update to the 90s-set anime and manga... so now it looks straight out of the 2000s instead. Cell phones are now incorporated into the Sailor Guardians' gadgets; then-cutting edge flip phones that can take pictures that none of the girls already have. The internet is barely mentioned and Minako's double life as an Idol Singer and Sailor Venus would be harder to pull off in the days of widespread internet and social media. Plus her songs are J-pop straight out of the period.
• Vindicated by History: Over the years, PGSM has become better regarded and recommended by the fandom.
• The Woobie: Nephrite. All of the other Senshi count as well, especially Sailor Moon in the latter half of the series.
• Woolseyism: In one episode, Usagi serves as a decoy for Minako and afterwards describes herself as a “higemusha” (moustache warrior) instead of the correct “kagemusha” (shadow warrior). TV-Nihon’s sub of the series on DVD translates the gaff as “beard double” instead of “body double”, preserving the joke.

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