I watched Sailor Moon as a wee lass. I loved the show, I loved being able to own the VHSs of the anime, and I also checked out the manga from my local library as a youth. Of COURSE I wanted to revisit this series as an adult.

Separate from my memories, I have to say, this story is very trope-y. I cannot say someone going into this without the nostalgia and context would love it quite as much as I did.

HOWEVER, part of the reason it can seem cliche, is that it's the blueprint for a genre. It's an OG, and I do think it might get flak for, say, having a fourteen year old protagonist who is clumsy, ditzy, cries and is just a sweet, if shallow young lady or for focusing on the romance and having power ups, even though this is par for the course. This is a convention of the genre. It's like, if you're gonna be annoyed that your ice cream cake is made of ice cream, maybe pick up another cake that you DO enjoy instead. Because this is straight up, magical girl manga.

Personally, nostalgia aside, I think this genre is fantastic even it's most earnest and "playing it straight" version. It served me well as a growing girl, and makes me smile as an adult.

Also, can we please be louder about pan/bi+ Usagi? Can we? Let's talk.

Overall it was a great, but surreal reading experience. For example, I remember the show so well that the first three chapters of the manga are like deja vu. Episode one is verbatim from the manga. I was also shocked to see that while the anime has filers with only Sailor Moon defeating bad guys, and only gradually adding to the team (Mercury, Mars, etc) the manga introduces them one after another. The scouts quickly form, I wasn't quite a fan of that.

The reveals and romance between Usagi and Mamoru are also quite different. But I find myself enjoying the way that played out in the manga more, even if it leans harder on the "insta love because reincarnation".

I am going to reread the whole series as soon as I can get my hands on all the volumes from my library.