I admit her articles were well written, but they most certainly were not well researched. On the cover of the Starweek TV Magazine that has the first article as the cover story it says: "Over the Moon -- Girls are crazy about Sailor Moon. Parents don't know whether to cheer or gag."

In the article; Louise complains about everything from the theme song to their weapons to even their personalities. How low will she go?! Louise complains about the line: "Winning love by daylight." She says,

"wait a minute: Winning love by daylight? What kind of mushball hero splits her time between chasing bad guys and chasing boys? ...Concerned mothers now are torn between cheering their daughters’ new TV heroine and gagging at the boy-crazy whiner she often seems."

Despite what Ms. Brown thinks, Sailor Moon doesn't chase boys and she is not boy crazy! She liked Motoki/ Andrew because he was always nice to her, (that's a good reason isn't it)? Later she fell for Tuxedo Mask and found out Andrew had a girlfriend. In the Japanese theme, the song is about Usagi’s hidden crush on Mamoru/ Darien. She repeatedly informs us that she enjoys his company, but is too naïve to show her true feelings. It's also called being shy.

She later learned Mamoru/ Darien was Tuxedo Mask and she, Mamoru, and the girls remembered their past life together shortly afterwards. They found out the girls had been Princesses (dub & manga) and that Mamoru was a prince from Earth (prince Endymion). Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion were engaged and deeply in love, but the Dark Kingdom (Negaverse in the dub) attacked the Earth and the Moon. The couple was captured (and killed) and Queen Serenity, to save them, sent them to be reincarnated in the future on Earth where she hoped they could live peacefully. The Senshi were revived by Luna and Artemis to foil the evil plans of the Dark Kingdom.

Oh, and Sailor Moon is not that wimpy. In the R movie she goes through a window to save ChibiUsa (Rini). And normally, this child is quite a brat to her. She ends up unconscious and is revived by ChibiUsa. Sailor Moon only loves Tuxedo Mask; she doesn't chase boys.

Something tells me that Louise is making most of this up...

Though they are essentially the same people, they are reincarnated. The "Shadow warrior" killed the royal couple. This leads to the true reason for Queen Serenity's great despair. The Senshi are Princesses of their respective planets (dub); and would have lived on them. In the Japanese version, the Senshi were just guardians of the moon princess. Sailor Venus was their leader.

The Negaverse (originally the Dark Kingdom) did not take over the Moon; Beryl destroyed the Moon kingdom in a fit of rage. They did not escape the Negaverse either. Princess Serenity and Price Endymion were killed. Queen Serenity sent the Dark Kingdom (Negaverse in the dub), the royal couple as well as the princess' court to the future. Luna and Artemis went too.

Louise’s thoughts on Tuxedo Mask:

"The shapely Sailor Scouts, as they're called, save the world from Nega-verse bad guys -- unless the bad guys are too strong, and then they need help from Sailor Moon's boyfriend, Tuxedo Mask, whose arrival is heralded by a glowing red rose. And herein lies the problem with the show. Not only do these girls still need boys to bail them out (with Sailor Moon gasping "My hero!"...), but as human teens, they bicker about boys, homework and hair more like girls in a 30-year-old Archie comic than the feisty females we might wish."

Wait a minute, "...heralded by a glowing red rose?" His roses do not glow! Since when does Sailor Moon gasp, "My hero!" besides (maybe) the first episode? I don't recall her saying that once! She either thanks him, or comments on his good looks. She likes him and she's shy (hard to believe as that may be).

Jupiter is the boy crazy one (dub); and she bickers about boys. Mercury is over involved in her studies (she had no friends before) and mostly starts anything to do with homework (overemphasized in the dub). And they don't complain about hair. Venus once said that she enjoys having shiny hair and Odango Atama, er, ah, um ... I mean, Sailor Moon; well, she's always getting teased about her signature hairstyle.

Suzanne Janak states:

"I have mixed feelings about the show. I've seen worse, and it's all in good fun. The way they come together as a team is good, and they're individuals, but I think what attracts the kids to the show is there's so much boy stuff. And there's not really that much else on TV for girls these days."

So much boy stuff? Yeah right! They hardly ever talk about boys unless they have to do with them. This barely even includes Tuxedo Mask! Why would the majority of the villains be females if there was so much boy stuff, huh? Honestly, where is all this excess "boy stuff" they're talking about anyway?

Media critic Kealy Wilkinson, executive director of Canada's Alliance For Children And Television explains:

"Mothers across Canada have been phoning to say they're delighted about these new female protagonists. On the one hand, producers should be congratulated about an animated series about girl heroes, but it's too bad they haven't erased all the stereotypes. She's not nearly as empowering a girl super hero as we might expect."

Not empowering huh? Well then why is she always needed to save the day? If she wasn't that powerful, then why would they need her? She has nearly killed and killed herself (many times over) to save those she cares for most. So don't give me that. So what if she's not your typical, "perfect" super-heroine? Her personality is what makes her real. So she likes to read comics and play video games, she's not the greatest at school, sometimes she's lazy, she loves to eat, and she can be quite whiny -- but that's just one side of her personality. She's also brave, caring, trusting, loving, friendly, and believes there is goodness within everybody. When Makoto/ Lita transferred schools, students avoided her because of her reputation as a bully. But not Usagi. Usagi went right up to talk to her, seeing no reason to be afraid. People are spooked by Rei's ability to tell fortunes, some think that Minako/ Mina is a snob, and others think that Ami/ Amy is just trying to show off her genius. But Usagi never just followed the crowd, believing the rumours everyone else spread. She learned who these people were, as individuals. She befriended them - and not just because they have a shared mission as superheroes, but because she wanted to be friends with them.

So she's not the most graceful, or the most intelligent -- she's got the biggest heart of all of them, and she genuinely cares for each of them so much that she would sacrifice herself without a second thought to save them. That is heroic.

Nine year old Natalie Janak-Bailey says she likes the Senshi because:

"They're pretty and they have lots of power." Besides she also adds, "the show isn't violent. The villains just get turned into moondust."

Where on earth did they find her?!

Like that's a valid reason anyway. People I know who like Sailor Moon like it for a real reason:

• great animation
• good story line
• the characters are like real people:
  • they have feelings and they show them
  • they're not invincible, they can be hurt
• comedic value
• all-round well done!

The biggest problem that I see is the bad dubbing, mainly the fault of the company we all know as DiC. That's what warped the show into the pathetic "kids stuff" it is today, in North America. Many horrible mistakes were made; tons of cuts, and mutating the characters into things they weren't even supposed to come close to being!

The insanely boy crazy Jupiter, and over studious Mercury are the results of dub havoc. Yes, they get close to this in the originals, but the dub takes these characteristics way overboard! I mean, please ... what sane teenager would be ten chapters ahead in Math and worried about her grades?

They are very suggestive in the Japanese version, but that's not so bad. If they're just talking, you can't be offended by what you don't really understand, right?

Nothing fits together in the dub, everything has been chopped to shreds and jumbled together in a pathetic attempt. But it's just a kids show, so it doesn't matter right? Wrong. Originally, Sailor Moon started with a comic book series (manga) by the wonderful artist and writer, Naoko Takeuchi. It's rumoured that it was created at the beginning for young girls, about the age of eight. But they didn't catch on to it as she hoped, she instead attracted and older audience (of mostly girls) so she altered the series slightly, to make it more appropriate for the older age group. The television series was toned down somewhat, and some things were added just to take up time ... but the suggestive comments remained. In the end, the manga and anime series (originally) are suited for a mainly preteen and teenaged audience; I'd say about 12 and up.

It was never meant to be "just a kid's show." Besides, kids don't pick up on most suggestion that comes through even in Disney movies do they? Not to bad mouth Disney of course, they create and produce some great stuff. In fact, I for one am rather pleased with the job they have been doing translating some of Hayao Miyazaki's films. Curious about the Disney-Tokuma deal? E-mail me , or check out Nausicaä.net .

I used to enjoy watching Sailor Moon. But the dubs just keep degrading the show into a pathetic mass of animation. Natalie is wrong; the show is violent at times. If it's not violent, and really made for young kids, then why did the cut out huge chunks and even entire episodes rather than translating them? But the North American companies in charge of Sailor Moon dubbing don't want you to know certain things. But it's out there, all over the web. Visit Ken Arromdee's Sailor Moon FAQ for instance...

TV writer and media analyst Jill Golick calls the add on Sailor Moon Says:

"cheesy. It would be better if they modeled those messages throughout the show, and not just in a do-good minute at the end."

I'll admit, the Sailor Moon Says segment is cheesy and pretty unnecessary, but just a cheesy do-good minute at the end? If you actually watch the show you would see they talk about pieces in the show and model the messages on parts of the show. Although they are cheesy and rather stupid, many shows do that. Whether the messages are modeled throughout or not. You could even look at Power Rangers for comparable cheesy add-ons. The purposes of the add on seems to be to remind people how easy it is to do good things, and depicts this with references to the show. I still think people should be smart enough to pick that stuff up on their own though, but since DiC got the English dialogue version of Sailor Moon slapped with a children's rating, they got stuck with that ridiculous obligation of US children's TV - to have an "educational" portion.

The TV show is no longer doing very well in North America. It was canceled in July (1996) on TBS. The show failed to catch on in the US like it did in Canada. Particularly because bad time slots failed to give it a chance. The last US station known to air the series was Cartoon Network. It continues to air in Canada, pretty much exclusively on YTV, about 3 times daily on weekdays.

No matter how much it is shown now, the once crazy Sailor Moon hype has died down to nothingness. There was too much of a gap between translating their original 65 and the newer 17, and even worse with the gap between that and the S season. Even the old Pokemon hype has died down (I expected as much). Now it seems like Beyblade and Yu-gi-oh are the favoured low-end animes. Better anime series don't often catch on with mainstream audiences here, so true anime fans have to search out the good stuff at conventions, video stores, as well as comics and specialty shops.

With 200 TV episodes, 3 movies, and some specials aired in Japan, they started running in 1992, based on the comic books Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon drawn by former pharmacist Naoko Takeuchi. The series has long since ended, but you don't have to look far to still find Sailor Moon fans.

Randall Zalken, president of Kaleidoscope Entertainment (the distributing factor in Canada for the dub). The English language version of the show was originally produced by DiC Entertainment (a US company), but translated in Toronto with Canadian actors. He explains:

"We're trying to think of creative ways to finance dubbing more episodes and we're still optimistic we'll have new episodes to roll out before the end of the calendar year." (’96)

Zalken defends Sailor Moon by explaining that her whining is human vulnerability that  creates not only a "sense of jeopardy that is necessary for drama, but lets kids know it's okay to be afraid."

Extra dubs weren't made in 1996, but there are so many things they could have done. I'm sure fans would have liked to at least try to help...

Zalken is right though, it is okay to be afraid and everyone is afraid at some time or another. Sailor Moon may whine, but if you think about it wouldn't you act the same way (at least sometimes)? Besides, she's only fourteen, most people don't even think about that! She's really the embodiment of an average girl who gets thrown into the superhero routine. But putting on a costume doesn't make you perfect, and she's certainly not afraid to let her true personality show. And in a crunch, she always comes through, giving it her all to save the day.

In 1996, more than 18,000 viewers on both sides of the US-Canadian border had signed the once popular cyber-petition called Save Our Sailors (SOS). SOS has since gone steadily downhill, earning themselves the reputation of an extremely unreliable source, and have come to be the thorn in the side of real Sailor Moon fans.

Still, the Internet offers thousands of great sites designed by Sailor Moon fans (and, unfortunately, a lot of them not so great).

In the end, Sailor Moon is one of Ms. Takeuchi's most popular and well-loved series. It continues to have a fairly steady fan base; which, although not near the original ecstatic amount, is still more than a lot of series can say for themselves.

The most recently released dubs were distributed by Cloverwei, which has done an astoundingly better job at making the English dubs than DiC (admittedly, it wasn't too hard to step up though). They've released pretty much the entire S and SuperS seasons. Whether the Sailor Stars season will eventually be dubbed by them with the current format is hard to tell, but probably unlikely due to problems they may encounter in regards to characters and nudity (the latter mainly due to the final episode, #200).

It has also been announced that A.D. Vision Films will be releasing the Sailor Moon series uncut, in subtitled format, on DVD. At last, the battle has been won, and Sailor Moon will finally be released in all its original glory. Something sure to make many Sailor Moon fans quite happy.