Sailor Moon Anime vs Sailor Moon Manga.

BY 345rv55207K (1 Today)Published: July 3, 2014Personal

 VS

Sorry for the later review. Had to pay some rent yesterday and take care of business so there has been a delay in my Sailor Moon Week. To make up for this delay, i’m going to  do both a review of the Differences between Anime and Manga today and the prolouge of Sailor Moon vs DBZ today and start the frist two DBZ vs Sailor Moon Parts  within tomorrow and  the last 2 parts on Saturday.

To give you an idea  of which difference i find better, i put up this  refrence here.
M = Manga was better
A= Anime was better

Season  1/ Arc 1

1)Mamoru is in high school, contrary to being in college in the anime. M

2)Zoicite and Kunzite are not gay. Nephrite does not fall in love with Naru A

3)There’s no search for the nijizuishou- they don’t exist, and consequentally there aren’t the seven strongest youma reincarnated as humans. In other words, Urawa or Joe are not in the manga. Yuuichirou also does not exist. The Dark Kingdom is after the ginzuishou from the beginning.A
4)Rei is noticeably more mature and sophisticated in the manga; she and Usagi don’t have little squirmishes of sticking out their tongues at each other, though Usagi calls her mean once A

5)Tuxedo Kamen reveals to all of Tokyo that there is a powerful stone known as the ginzuishou in an attempt to gather information about where the ginzuishou is. M

6)Mamoru knows that Usagi is Sailormoon at the masquerade party after she drops her handkerchief with her name on it. He reveals his identity to her later on after carrying her home upon her fainting from using up her power to heal the people of Tokyo. Actually, Mamoru suspects Usagi is Sailormoon before that, having seen Usagi transform into a stewardess and repeatedly running into Usagi when she is busy talking to Luna.   M

7)When the Sailor Senshi travel to the moon, they find a stone sword in the ground which Venus immediately takes charge of. This sword is absent in the anime. M

8)Beryl and the four generals were reincarnated on Earth after Metallia was sealed away underground by Queen Serenity.

9)Princess Serenity committed suicide on the moon after Endymion was killed by Beryl.M

10)Queen Serenity did not use the full power of the ginzuishou because she was so distraught over the death of her daughter and the senshi. She left her “will” in the Moon Kingdom computer, and it was her will that the senshi met on the moon. 

11)The four generals are the protectors of Prince Endymion. After their deaths, their bodies melt into the four stones that they represent. Beryl gives evil Endymion the stones. The stones, which possess the souls of the four generals, play small roles in later tankubon. M

12)Tuxedo Kamen dies after saving Sailormoon from Kunzite’s blast; he is brought back to life with Metallia’s power, and he poses as Endou, Motoki’s best friend. He tries to get Usagi to reveal to him her secrets dealing with the Sailor Senshi and the ginzuishou.  M

13)Sailorvenus kills Beryl with the sword, so Metallia becomes the major enemy, rather than Beryl infused with Metallia being the enemy like in the anime.A

14)Sailormoon tries to kill Endymion with the sword, then attempts to commit suicide. After their “deaths”, Metallia absorbs them and the ginzuishou and starts to take over the Earth.  A

15)The Sailor Team dies trying to use their combined powers to reach Sailormoon. Sailormoon awakens within Metallia, and her tears cause the ginzuishou to blossom into a flower-shape. Using her power and that of her dead friends, she combines the ginzuishou and the Moon Stick to destroy Metallia by focusing all her energies on the mark on Metallia’s head, where Metallia’s heart is.  A

16)The Silver Millennium is reestablished by Sailormoon and the power of the ginzuishou. Usagi is the heir to the kingdom but chooses to go back to her life on Earth instead. A

17)The Sailor Senshi don’t lose their memories upon being brought back to life A

18)Sailormoon gets her power-up at the very end, right before the Black Moon arc in the manga begins  A

Overall Winner: Tie


The frist season and frist arc are both good in each of their own ways and none is really better than the other and whatever you think is better is all on the matter of opinion.The Anime version of the Berly Arc had better battles between the villains and heros and developed the villains better than the manga counterpartwhereas in the manga they were killed off too fast and too easilyhowever the plot elements in the manga and story development and pacing was overall far superior within the manga version,even having more interesting secenario’s like Mamamorubeing brainwashed to get serects out of Sailor Moon, the whole tokyo area being heled hostage and a fucking battle within outer space.more importantly Mamamoru was better wirtten in the manga and not a college student with a 14 year old and the wirters weren’t trying to downplay and make Mamamoru creepy in the manga as they did in the anime. Really i recommend both verisons of the same story because both are excellently done in their own way.

Season R/ Black Moon Arc
1)There are NO aliens like Ail and Ann. The alien arc was a filler for the anime so that the manga could get far enough ahead of it. A

2)The Ayakashi Sisters are not healed; they are all killed by Sailormoon.  A

3)Sailormoon’s rod is created by her and Tuxedo Kamen, not given to her by Queen Serenity A

4)Tuxedo Kamen gains an actual attack and power, “Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber”. M

5)Before they die, the Ayakashi Sisters manage to capture Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter, who are brought by Rubeus to Nemesis in the 30th century. Only Venus, Moon, Tuxedo Kamen travel with Chibi-usa into the future.  A

6)Chibi-Usa is actually 900 years old, and she carries the future ginzuishou around, so it’s not ‘hidden’ inside of her like the anime.  A

7)Rather than having too much power, as in the anime, Chibi-usa suffers from a lack of it in the manga.

8)Diana shows up in the Black Moon arc instead of in the Dream arc (SuperS) A

9)Safir doesn’t turn good; rather, he tries to kill Usagi, whom he feels is responsible for his brother’s change. He remains under the influence of Black Lady and Wiseman, and when called to kill Demando, Demando kills him instead. Esmeraude is killed by Tuxedo Kamen, and Rubeus is killed by Wiseman. Demando is killed by Sailormoon and Tuxedo Kamen; though Demando finally realizes Wiseman has been using him, he does not turn to good, as he seems to in the anime.  A

10)Black Lady captures and brainwashes Mamoru, whom she calls Endymion. Mamoru, under Black Lady’s command, attacks Sailormoon and gets her ginzuishou. M

11)Sailorpluto is shown more in the manga, and she actually plays a large role towards the end. She dies after using her forbidden power, the “Time Stop”, in order to prevent Prince Demando from bringing the two ginzuishou together. M

12)How Black Lady reverts to normal is different from the anime as well. After Pluto dies, Black Lady remembers how Pluto was her only friend when she was Chibi-usa. When Black Lady starts to cry, her black crystal earrings shatter, and her tears turn into the ginzuishou. She turns into Sailorchibimoon. Chibi-usa becomes a Sailor Senshi in the Black Moon arc rather than in the Infinity (S) arc. M

13)Sailormoon doesn’t turn into Neo-Queen Serenity, though she appears to take on Serenity’s characteristics or seems to speak for her. However, she does actually meet with Neo-Queen Serenity face-to-face.  M

14)Sailormoon gets her new power-up at the end of the Black Moon arc, from Neo-Queen Serenity. Neo-Queen Serenity also gives the other senshi power-ups.  M

15)Chibi-usa plans on returning to the future, but returns to the 20th century rather quickly, interrupting Usagi and Mamoru’s kiss with a letter from Neo-Queen Serenity saying she’s there to fulfill her training as a Sailor Senshi.  M

Overall Winner: Anime

The Anime in many ways is superior to the manga within this arc. The Makiju Arc alone was so well wirtten that it should’ve been within the canon Sailor Moon verse and actually did decent character development for the Senshi and Sailor Moon herself and foreshadowed and laid out the groundwork for the Mamamoru and Usgai pairing. The Ayasaki Sisters are far better presented within the anime verison than the manga verison and having them be the eqauilvent to each respective Senshi is much better than having them cubrstomped all by Sailor Moon herself like in the manga verison. The anime did far better characterization on the villains than the manga did, especially making Prince Diamnod and Spahrie likable whereas in the manga, they were completely unlikable and the former is a borderline rapist who actually nearly raped Sailor Moon herself even more so in the manga given he actually kissed her which i didn’t like at all.
However the manga  has several things over the anime verison. Mamamoru is actually more active within the plot and not just a side character who makes a quick save and more on par with the Senshi whereas the anime verison was slowly becoming less powerful than the Senshi he was protecting, hell he actually defeats Sailor Moon in a fight while under Black Lady’s control. Speaking of Black Lady, her subplot was even better done in the manga verison (and considering the anime did that pretty well, that’s saying something). Having Chibusa come together with Sestuna’s death was a powerful emtoinal moment and speaking of Sestuna, she has a much bigger role in the manga which makes the manga more epic than the anime and she stops the Universe from being destoryed at the cost of her life and the finale of this arc in the manga is even more epic as  it involes Sailor Moon killing a planet sized monster, that’s DBZ level awesome right there.

While it’s still a close call, the anime delivers a bit more than the manga verison with this arc.
S Season/ Infinty Arc

1) Uranus and Neptune are not after the heart crystals, though they are searching for the third Talisman. A

2)Haruka and Michiru are hostile to the Sailor Team even in the beginning, except for Haruka with Usagi and Michiru with Mamoru. Usagi is very jealous of Michiru, and Mamoru is jealous of Haruka. However, Usagi’s jealousy is unfounded, whereas Mamoru actually has a reason. A

3)Neptune and Uranus accepted Sailormoon as the Princess right off, not having to make her prove she’s the Messiah or anything like at the end of S A

4)The daimon are different, and they all look like the one in the S episode that talks about Haruka and Michiru’s pasts (SMS 106). A

5)The Witches 5 have one shot deals, and their plots are somewhat different.A

6)The three Talismans call Saturn to awaken, rather than forming the Holy Grail in the anime, though they also do that in the manga. The Holy Grail in the manga is a combination of the powers of Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune.  M

7)Hotaru is darker than her anime form, being a sort of cyborg. That is, she is part machine and part human, thanks to the experimenting her father did on her. Tomoe, by the way, was attempting to create a race of superhuman cyborgs, beginning with Hotaru, but during his experiments, he did something wrong with her. M

8)Professor Tomoe is killed, and he doesn’t come back. Supersailormoon kills him after he turns into a daimon. M

9)The ending is much more dramatic, with Saturn doing her “Death Reborn Revolution” and then Pluto sealing her away with “Dark Dome Close”.M

10)The Senshi get their Super forms in S too, and the second Holy Grail gives Chibimoon her power-up.  M

11)Master Pharaoh 90 is actually a large threat, and you see him clearly in his true form too, unlike the anime, where he’s more of a pinwheel type of a thing with tentacles. A

12)Pluto remains until the very end of the Infinity arc, not disappearing or anything M

13)Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus leave to raise Hotaru, the baby.M
Overall Winner: Manga

Yeah, this arc was no doubt the best arc in Sailor Moon. After all this is the arc that defined  Sailor Mon for what it is and where we saw the most character development and growth for the Senshi and the balls move to put secular,  gay Christians as superheros on par with the Senshi and fight for the cause of saving the world form the literal apocalypse .

As you noticed by the pattern within this list, it’s no surprise that the anime does the characterization better than the manga verison. While i likeed the manga  verisons of Haruka and Michiru alot, i say the anime verisons were even better and you actually see more of their characters developed, especially with the near death of the Senshis for the tailsmans in ep 109-110. To no surprise, the minor villains like Witches 5 and Professor Tomoe are far better characterized to the point of being likable beings who are possessed or misguided.

However the manga still wins in the end because the plot and subplots are better done than the anime version. Horatu being a cyborg puts  a bit more interesting thoughts in mind and her father thinking of creating anrdiod beings is a interesting twists that could be explored more. Once again the action is not suprisnlgy even more intense in the manga than the anime version and that’s inspite the anime implying that Sailor Moon destoryed an entire galaxy saving Horatu from her own attack. In the manga, the Tau Nebula was pounded the crap out of and then sealed by  Sailor Pluto and the Senshi are much more active in the final battle. Also on a sidenote, the manga kept Horatu’s dad dead which makes it better than the cop out the anime went with and made it seem like the Outer Senshi abducted Horatu from her father.

Still there are some other things the anime did better than the manga .  While Pharhoh 90 is menacing as a monster like being , he’s even more terrfying as a galatic sized monster near the size of our milky way, after all you can’t begin to comprehended how monstrously powerful he is when he drawfs anything else in the Universe in sheer size alone.Overall while again a close call, the manga verison is better overall and darker for a arc that’s meant to be darker and less lighthearted.

Super S Season / Dream Arc

1)The biggest difference is that the Amazoness Quartet are Sailor Senshi, and they aren’t in the anime. After they are sealed in balls by Zirconia, Saturn takes the balls and presents them to Neo-Queen Serenity, and she frees them. They then are revealed to be the Sailor Quartet, and then they leave with the promise to Chibi-usa that they will be there to guard her in the future. In the anime, the Quartet becomes normal girls. M

2)Artemis and Diana get their human forms, but not in the anime. M

3)Phobos and Deimos get their human forms as well. M

4)Fisheye isn’t gay. A

5)Mamoru coughs up black blood, as does Usagi later on, due to the black curse. M

6)The Outer Senshi come back in manga 14, rather than being dumped from the anime. M

7)Hotaru lives with Haruka, Setsuna, and Michiru (who have promise rings), and then she grows up pretty quickly. M

8)Hotaru’s memories are regained, and she gives the Outer Senshi their powerups- their heart crystals. They all say “Planet Crystal Power, Make-Up.” M

9)Hotaru can play the violin in the manga. However, when she does, she creates visions of things, such as Chibi-usa crying over a dead Pegasus. M

10)The Sailor Senshi get the ability to transform into their Super forms, generally from their guardians. Rei, Minako, and the Outer Senshi are exceptions. Rei gets her Super power-up from the human Phobos and Deimos; Minako gets it from the human Artemis; and Hotaru gives it to her parents. M

11)Mamoru has the Golden Crystal inside of him, rather than it being the horn of Elios. M

12)Towards the end of tankubon 15, the senshi also receive their SailorStar forms and Princess forms. M

13)Sailormoon gains her final form as Eternal Sailormoon. M

14)Neherenia is not a sweet little child who only wants a friend; she’s really evil, having placed a dark curse on Serenity at birth and wanting to rule the moon and Earth, and Eternal Sailormoon destroys her with the help of all the senshi. M

15)Chibimoon revives Elios up after her silver crystal is transformed into the Pink Moon Crystal.  M


Overall Winner: Manga by a landsilde

Do i even need to explain why the anime loses  ? I already explained in my Super S review why the anime fails epically compared to the manga regarding this arc. The only thing the anime has over this arc was the development given to the Amazon Tiro, that’s about it. The Manga does pretty much everything else better than the anime. For one, the monster of the day fourmala doesn’t exist in the arc to make the arc feel tedious, two the manga actually develops Aterims and Luna as characters and even reveal to be human beings with some powers of their own as well as Diana.

Also the Outer Senshi are in this arc and more development is given to them ,especially towards their relationship and them raising a child which i heavily praised within my LGBT equality review within Sailor Moon recently which gives Haruka and Michru more development than their anime counterpart which only implies they’re raising Horatu but never shown on screen

Most importantly, thjere wasn’t a bullshit anti climax with Nehereniaand a pointless filler arc that extends into Stars. Neherenia while lacking the sympathetic triarts of the manga verison actually is revealed to have a much bigger role in the story as she cursed the Senshi to become weaker and lose against Beryl’s  forces in the past, the battle and the way Neherenia was defeated was also better done within the manga than in the anime so no contest who wins here.



Sailor Stars Season/ Stars Arc

1)There is no Neherenia in this season of the manga; this was finished in the Dream arc of the manga. M

2)The Outer Senshi are main characters, at least until tankubon 17, rather than occassional appearances in the anime. M

3)Haruka and Michiru do go to the Juuban High School with the Sailor Team. Haruka has to wear a dress, though sometimes she wears the male uniform. Hotaru goes to the same school as Chibi-usa but is in a different class. M

4)A whole bunch of Animamates from the anime appear, but there are new ones too, like Mnemosyne, Lethe, and Heavy Metal Papillon. There’s also Phi and Chi, non-Animamates. M

5)Kakyuu is a Sailor Senshi too. M

6)The Sailor Quartet return with SailorStarChibimoon, unlike the anime, where she was dropped and the Sailor Quartet never existed to begin with. M

7)The Sailor Senshi are killed off rather quickly. All the main ones except for Chibichibi and Moon die by the end of tankubon 16. A

8)Unlike the anime, Neptune and Uranus get cheap death scenes. They’re not even shown being killed, rather only little flashes that are vague. The Sailor Team gets better ones (Mercury and Jupiter first, then Mars and Venus, then Pluto and Hotaru, and finally Uranus and Neptune, though it’s unclear who dies first- Uranus or Neptune). A

9)The SailorStarlights do die in the manga at the end of tankubon 17. A

10)Chibimoon vanishes because Mamoru is killed by Galaxia later on. Fortunately, she is shown later on as a small figure, telling Usagi how she’ll be waiting for her in the future. M

11)ChibiChibi can actually talk like a normal person later on in the manga. M

12)The rest of the Sailor Senshi become evil, attacking Sailormoon, and she kills them. A

13)Tuxedo Kamen is killed, but later he’s alive again, brainwashed by Galaxia. He’s then killed again by Galaxia, being pushed off a cliff.  A

14)It’s discovered that Chaos is from the Cauldron, a place where all stars are formed, including all the Sailor Senshi, so in a way, Sailormoon is ‘related’ to all the enemies she killed previously. The enemies were, Chaos tells her, forms of herself who wanted Sailormoon’s power from her ginzuishou. M

15)It’s explained that there are really an unlimited amount of Sailor Senshi in the universe. M

16)The kitties become human under Tin Nyanko’s influence, but she blasts them, and they turn into cats unable to speak. They’re eventually killed by SailorLethe. A

17)Galaxia dies. A

18)ChibiChibi is really another senshi, SailorCosmos. In the future, she was running away from Chaos, so she traveled to the past disgusied as Chibichibi in order to reverse her “mistake” of not destroying the Cauldron. M

19)At the end of the manga, Usagi and Mamoru get married, though the date of the marriage isn’t specified. It can’t be too far in the future, I’m guessing, seeing how Hotaru remains a young child in the wedding pictures. M

• What happens to the Starlights and Kakyuu isn’t shown, nor the cats. It’s assumed that they’re revived though.A

Winner:Anime

This one is really hard to put into context on which i though was better because both version do their own versions pretty well however i have to give it to the anime version here.

For one, i was disappointment greatly on how fast each Senshi was killed off with barely any of them having last stands, the only one who had a grand last stand was Rei and even she died quickly, the worst deaths being the deaths of the Outer Senshi who died offscreen despite being the resident badasses of the seires. The anime did the deaths of the Senshi far better than the manga version for each Senshi was able to save the Starlights and Sailor Moon’s lives at the cost of their own in the hands of Galaxia and at least had one final word with Sailor Moon before dying, as for the Outer Senshi, well they went down swinging and even got a decent hit on Galaxia herself in the anime version before dying themsleves and proving how true to the cause they are in protecting the world by sarafcing theirt comrades Pluto and Sautrn in a attempt to defeat Galaxia cacthing her offguard.

Another thing the anime did better was the characterization of the Sailor Starlights, especially Seyia and her relationship and bond with Usgai. While the manga did touch up on elements like this, it wasn’t  as developed as the anime verison, then again the anime’s Slice of Life aspects could also been the reasonit developed better from the manga. Also Seyia who was already quite badass in the manga is even more badass in the anime.  Seyia and the Starlights are able to go toe to toe with the big bad  and survive( Ablet heavily injured and unable to defeat Galaxia) despite Galaxia being more than powerful enough to easily level an entire Galaxy and most importantly, i think the backstory of the Sailor Wars and Galaxia being the ultimate solider is a better backstory overall and  actually compliments her immense power better than the manga version which had her die qucikly.

Does that mean the manga sucks  ? Fuck no !Having Chibiusa involved within the end, that’s a major missed opportunity on the anime’s part. Granted one can argue how Chibiusa was even alive in the manga version considering Mamaoru was killed off and that shouldn’t  allow her to exist but we’re talking about a series that has established Alternative Universes and timelines not to mention the power of the Silver Crystal is established to have reality warping abilites on a Galatic level . I really would’ve liked  to see her and the Amazoness Quarter in the final fight for that would’ve completed Chibiusa’s character arc of wanting to be a actual Senshi, which was abruptly ended in the Super S anime given the plot of Peagues didn’t complete her transformation into a real Senshi. Another thing done better was the darker tone of the manga, while the anime still maintained the dark tone towards the end,the Slice of Life aspects of the anime and Monster of the Day Formula held back the darker aspects of the Stars manga until the last 5 chapters.

The Senshi having Eternal forms is another While Sailor Moon have it  the other Senshi didn’t  , though it should be dually noted that the manga Senshi put up more of a fight since they had Eternal forms with Mars matching Lead Crow in power( Whereas the whole Inner Senshi in Super forms were outmatched  by Sailor Lead Crow alone )Granted some battles in the manga were still one sided even with Eternal forms( Mostly  the Outer Senshi who were curbstomped by Galaxia herself and Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter were killed while offgaurd by Sailor Aluminmum Seiren) but the anime could’ve fixed that like they did with the Starlights having an extended role more. The anime should’ve also put more of Shadow Galatcia in the anime, several members, including Sailor Chi and Phi (who defeated the Starlights in the manga). Another thing done better was the Light of Hope being Sailor Moon, though one can aruge having Galaxia as the Light of Hope would’ve been better but that’s my personal opinion of the matter.Also it was a real missed opportunity to have Seyia kiss Usgai in the anime, which would’ve especially worked with the more developed character of Seyia in the anime version.


Overall Winner: Tie


Both versions are pretty good and hold up well as stories today in their own way. While the manga had better battles, better pacing and better action as well as better world building and more developed plots, the anime had better characterization, better character development and  had more fleshed out characters than the manga version. For example, while Rei is pretty awesome in the manga, i largely prefer her anime counterpart than her manga self.

Overall both versions are good and while i know the new Cyrstal reboot would follow the manga, i would like to see some of the stuff that made the original 90’s anime a stand alone anime series.