Summer of Sailor Scouts • Manga Thoughts

Welcome to the Summer of Sailor Scouts! (Aka July!)

Earlier this year, Alexa of Alexa Loves Books, Cristina of Girl in the Pages, Kristin of Super Space Chick, Sierra of SDavReads, and I all discovered that we shared a mutual love and appreciation for Sailor Moon! After exchanging plenty of flailing tweets and constantly bringing up our love for this magical girl story, we felt it was only right to celebrate it, and that’s what’s happening this July! Every week will feature a brand new blog post per day from each of us, and we’re excited to be sharing the Sailor Moon love with all our readers!

Summer of Sailor Scouts comes to an end this week. I’ve been having a lot of fun talking about Sailor Moon and getting all nostalgic about it! I’ve found these awesome ladies (Alexa, Cristina, Kristin, & Sierra) who share my feelings on these fabulous ladies! It just gets me incredibly excited.

For our last week, each us will be talking about the Sailor Moon manga by Naoko Takeuchi. We’re each reading a different volume and talking about things that caught our attention. For me, I’m tackling volume three (which has the fabulous Mars cover), which covers five acts (#12-16), and kicks off with Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts dealing with a hypnotized Endymion and trying to defeat Queen Metallia. After that arc is finished, it introduces you to Chibiusa (aka Rini) and the Dark Moon kingdom.

• Because we’re reading just one volume (without reading the previous ones), we will miss things that were set up in the previous volumes, which is totally okay. We’ve watched the anime, so we’re very familiar with the story lines.

• Somehow, behind every villain in Sailor Moon is a shadowy figure pulling the strings. With Queen Beryl, it’s Queen Metallia. With Prince Demande and the other members of the Black Moon Kingdom, it’s Wiseman. I never knew about where Queen Metallia came from and how Queen Beryl had been alive for centuries (I think since the beginning of time which is super surprising to me).

• There’s a scene in this volume, where Sailor Moon questions whether she has the freedom to choose her own path because her only options seems to be to stab Endymion with the Holy Sword of Light. That stabbing scene totally gave me Buffy/Angel vibes, when Buffy had to “kill” Angel(us) to close the Hell vortex from opening fully. But then I got Romeo & Juliet vibes because Usagi stabs herself too (which makes sense—they are star-crossed lovers).

• I totally was annoyed that Usagi “killed” herself. Because she killed her beloved, she had to kill herself too? It’s so much weirdness I don’t understand. I wanted to shake her shoulders and go NEVER KILL YOURSELF FOR SOME DUDE EVEN IF HE’S THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE.

• In a flashback, Princess Serenity is trying to sneak off to see Prince Endymion, but Sailor Venus catches her. Princess Serenity says that Sailor Venus doesn’t understand how it feels to be in love because she had never been in love. And we see Sailor Venus thinking about Kunzite AND MY HEART, FRIENDS! I WANTED TO SQUEAL BECAUSE I AM SO INTO THAT.

• Things that got me emotional:
  • Seeing the Sailor Scouts work together. THAT IS TEAMWORK. THAT IS LOVE. THAT IS WHAT YOU’D WANT ON YOUR SIDE.
  • Luna feeling so down that she was unable to help Usagi. I WANT THAT CAT.
  • The spirits of Endymion’s guards helping Endymion. That was like when I got emotional about the Sailor Scouts putting their hands together with Princess Serenity to defeat the big bad. (I think that was during the Queen Metallia scene?) All I could think about was: OH GOD THOSE BABIES. THEY ARE HELPING HIM. THIS IS EVERYTHING TO ME.

• This is when the Dark Moon Kingdom makes their first appearance! I got soooo excited when I saw Koan and Prince Demande and the others. I was like YES MY FAVORITE GIVE ME MORE OF THESE PEOPLE.

• I totally forgot that Chibiusa’s real name is Usagi too. Now I understand why they call her Chibiusa. Ha.

• I remember when I was a kid, I wanted Luna and Chibiusa’s Luna Ball. They’re just so cool!

• Everybody’s outfit is just so darn awesome. Just—somebody give me these clothes. I’ll totally rock it too!

Don’t forget to check out the other Sailor Moon swag/merchandise posts:

• Monday | Alexa
• Tuesday | Kristin
• Wednesday | Cee
• Thursday | Cristina
• Friday | Sierra

And also, check out my other posts:

• the book tag!
• Sailor Moon Funko giveaway! (Only two days left!)
• Sailor Pluto Book Recommendations!
• Favorite Sailor Moon villain!
• Sailor Moon Swag (Then & Now)

Now go and get reading.

Have you read the Sailor Moon mangas? Do you own any? What’s your favorite story line?