Enter Sailor Venus

[nevermore999]

Time for Minako to make the scene! I have to warn you guys, Minako is a badass 100% of the time in the manga. I mean, I love her in the anime too (okay, let's make this clear: I love EVERY CHARACTER in ALL continuities. Even Chibiusa), but in the manga she is simply too awesome to handle. This will be abundantly clear in a couple of chapters, but for now, let's be content with her sparkling introduction.

When we last left our epic saga, A MYSTERIOUS ORANGESKIRTED LADY had saved Usagi from being stabbed/sparkled to death by Suprise!Zoicite and totally vaporized him like Sailor Senshi doooo.





Even Queen Beryl is scared shitless by Minako (she actually has a REALLY good reason to be scared, but we'll get to that later) and her GIRLISH GIGGLING.






The Moon Princess's name is Sailor Venus! That makes sense (Okay, so she isn't calling herself Sailor Venus here, but if you read the Sailor V manga, she DID declare herself "Sailor Venus" in public a few times. But maybe no one ever caught that! I'm assuming I'm not spoiling anyone with this SPOILER ALERT SAILOR MOON IS ACTUALLY THE PRINCESS OF THE MOON SHE IS ALSO THE MAIN CHARACTER DID YOU KNOW THAT? stuff)



I always thought it was cool that they learned to fight through video games! Wish they'd made that clearer/kept that in the anime.

So Mina's all "hurry up and remember your past lives and awaken as soldiers!"



They go to the control room and Mina is all "what's the haps, Luna?" and then they all go home. Usagi wakes up early after dreaming this guy named Endymion is running away from her about to DIE. WHAT could this mean?

Usagi tries to tell her Dad she's Sailor Moon, he does not believe! She could have transformed in front of him, but why bother if he's gonna be like that?





Sailor Moon does some struggling through the first arc about which of her many identities is real, which I always found interesting. It's not until the fifth arc we see her share her eventual conclusion about it.

Usagi runs into Mamoru reading as usual, and they make eyes at each other until Luna gets bored and wanders off. She runs into Artemis, who is all "HURRY UP AND REMEMBER" and Luna's like "what, I have to do that too?"



DUNDUNDUN.



I think this page must be where they got Rei and Usagi constantly arguing. I really like the last panel for showing everyone's personalities. Usagi is all "OMG DRAMATIC TEARS", Mako is torn between exasperated and comforting, Rei is like "SO MUCH BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU", Mina finds this all hilarious, and Ami is embarrassed to be around these people.

Makoto immediately senses the electricity in the city getting jacked up.



Anddd wow. Those people are dead.



But maybe they're okay now? Thanks for your unnatural powers, Sailor Moon! You are like the Black Hand, only cuter and saner!



WEIRDEST WINK EVER.



Their first kiss where both parties are concious!

How much do I love this page, let me count the ways? I totally dig Sailor Moon basically saying "Honey, I'll handle this, please get out of the way so you don't get hurt while I'm kicking ass, I worry about you, kay?" The gender role reversal is lovely. And it clearly takes great effort for her to do it, but she needs to do her job. And then the way she just GOES for that kiss. She knows he digs her, she wants to see him off, so why not? And his suprised little face! This is a huge leap for Usagi, she shows a level of confidence she never has before, and it just goes to show how many levels in badass she's taken already.



See, even Mamoru's like "OMG SHE'S SUCH A BADASS NOW." The way he clutches his mouth daintily and blushes cracks me up. OWNED, Mamo-chan!



This is probably why you should have told her who the princess actually is. Kunzite sends a slashy thing flying at Sailor Moon while she's busy getting the others out of the way, and Tuxedo Kamen is like "HEY! I've figured out how I can be useful now! HUMAN SHIELD ACTIVATE!"



Well, that sucks.

WILL TUXEDO MASK SURVIVE? WILL THE DARK KINGDOM TRIUMPH? WILL SAILOR MOON FIGURE OUT WHO THE MOON PRINCESS REALLY IS?

Well, you guys already know the answers, but this is manga, so they will be answered in surprising, different and altogether cool and pretty ways! STAY TUNED.



 

Comments

[k_red]

I seriously love these posts that you do. I read them when I was younger and this is super-awesome deja vu. Quick aside, Mamo-chan is hot.

[nevermore999]

Thanks, glad you enjoy. And yes, he is smokin'.

[silverzeo]

"Are you the MOON princess, Sailor VENUS?"
"I don't know, Sailor MOON." :P

[bluefall]

Yeah, I get how Usagi might roll with that, but you'd think Ami or Rei might be suspicious. XD

[omnipotent]

Ami or Rei might be suspicious

ikr? Especially Ami IMO since she is supposed to be the analytical one.

[nevermore999]

Well, they might have thought Mina would beat them up if they questioned. "She just vaporized that guy! I'll believe everything she says!" :P

But even Usagi was a little suspicious. "It seems like a lie!"

[bluefall]

I particularly love how she thinks that to herself, then proceeds to completely trust and embrace Mina anyway and go out of her way to defend her as the Moon Princess regardless. Usagi :D

[sethgray]

Actually, I think it makes perfect sense. This is SailorV-chan. A celebrity, a superhero. The one's who's been fighting the forces of darkness for, what, a year?, before the others even know what Sailor Senshi were.

I think it's a logical conclusion for the others to reach that the rightful owner of the Silver Crystal is the girl who's been kicking ass and taking names already.

Plus, each and every one of them hero-worships her--rightfully, might I add. If this larger than life figure tells you she's The Motherfucking Princess, you're gonna believe her.

And I think the "it feels like a lie" comment can be taken in a "that was too easy" kind of way. They've been searching for her all this time, and she shows up out of the blue to hack some guy to pieces.

[alcyone]

Minako! Mamo-chan! I love the anime to bits (I grew up with it), but the manga will always be so much more made of awesome it's ridiculous.

[omnipotent]

Ahh! Thank you so much for posting this! I have always loved the manga art of Sailor Moon.

The kiss scene is priceless! Mamoru's face! Ha ha! I like this emboldened Sailor Moon. She should surprise!kiss Mamoru more often XD

I've always loved Minako. She's amazing. I think she wasn't as kickass in the anime because Rei took over as the more kickass senshi, apparently, and they downplayed Minako's badassery so as to not have her overshadow Rei or Mako, I guess.

♥

[nezchan]

It's a damn shame how the english version of the anime cut out EVERY EPISODE THAT GAVE MINA CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! I really liked the "Pappilon" episode too.

Oh, and I don't think that's a wink. It's sorta the opposite, he closed both eyes from the strain of catching her, then opens one to see if she's okay.

[nevermore999]

Ah, you might be right!

[supergirl]

This is making me want to rewatch the anime SO BAD.

[shanejayell]

Yay!

Too bad the Sailor V series never got released here....

[nevermore999]

I'll be posting it soon enough!

[shadowpsykie]

but i thought Nephlite and zoicite were like... together....

[shadowpsykie]

i mean Malachite and Zoicite, bad me!

[cricharddavies]

That's one of the downsides of the manga as compared to the anime. The manga gives the main characters lots of characterization, but tells its story at a very rapid pace, and so doesn't allow for any real characterization of the villains or supporting cast beyond "we're evil and we want to kill you"

[nevermore999]

In general that true, though I feel Beryl got more characterization than in the anime (it's coming in later chapters) since we learned her backstory and all that we didn't in the anime- and while Kunzite didn't have his relationship with Zoicite or as much screentime, we did see some interesting regrets. But yeah, Beryl's really the only exception to the "villains are more characterized in the anime" rule.

[nevermore999]

Also, we do know what personalities they got in the anime were informed by Naoko, even if she didn't get it through in the manga, you see in her "extras collection" that she wrote all their personality traits down for the anime people (for instance, she put "Zoicite is a dirty fighter, vain, childish, Kunzite is the oldest, most refined and mature etc)

[nevermore999]

Kunzite and Zoicite you mean? Nah, not in the manga, they're more like family.

[lissa_quon]

lovely scans I haven't read this in ages.

Though I never did understand why they did the whole "oh Sailor V is the princess" thing. It didn't accomplish much really. Was it just the manga-ka's way of slowing down the the reveal?

[nevermore999]

Apparently it was a strategy Artemis and V were using to confuse the enemy. It makes sense, you wouldn't want the bad guy to know who the princess they need to target is. And they wanted Usagi to remember on her own. Unfortunately, it backfired spectacularly.

[arilou_skiff]

I have a soft spot for the art, it's so very expressive and I love the... sketchy panels?

A few of them are a bit busy for my tastes, but in general it's lovely (for what it is, wouldn't use this art-style for Berserk :p)

[icon_uk]

I, personally, find it very distracting, and the random zipatone backgrounds don't help.

[blunderbuss]

Yeah, this is exactly why I never got into this manga as a kid - it's just all over the damn place with busy backgrounds, far too many panels, bad page composition ... plus their hands. Their hands just freak me out. :|

[rebecky-mo.livejournal.com]

I do kinda wish they kept Minako as a bit more badass/leader-y in the anime, as she was like that for awhile in the first season (sneaking into suspected Dark Kingdom hideouts and whatnot), but it kinda disappeared after taking down Beryl.

BUT, I think it kinda works that once Anime!Minako found people like her who fought for the world (and it wasn't just up to her anymore), she'd kinda wind down a little bit and enjoy life again.

I really like the last panel for showing everyone's personalities. Usagi is all "OMG DRAMATIC TEARS", Mako is torn between exasperated and comforting, Rei is like "SO MUCH BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU", Mina finds this all hilarious, and Ami is embarrassed to be around these people.

This x1000. It's all so perfect.

[lavode]

Wonderful! I'm looking forward to the revelation of the Moon Princess, it's so cool.