I can't say that Usagi never abandons her duty, but she differently prioritizes her love for Mamoru up to a point.)Īnd the drawings, of course, are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. (I also think this is a really interesting parallel to Sailor Moon's story. Now you'll never have to choose between love and duty.' Goddamn, Takeuchi! And when we get a surprise bit of plot payoff, where she's finally discovered that she's a sailor senshi and she has to kill her own true love he delivers this crushing line that makes me love her all the more: 'It's better this way. But the real thing that keeps me loving Codename Sailor V is Sailor V herself. They reference everything from the Communist Manifesto to the ASPCA, and they're so crazy that they work. The same applies to Mina's insane, meandering pre-battle speeches. Mina's transformation pen is an obvious ploy to allow Takeuchi to draw ridiculous outfits (that last a page at most), but it's done so gleefully that it's a joy to read. With so many deus ex machinas and nonsensical plot contrivances how is this manga not a total train wreck? Because it's so much fun, of course!

This is an absolute must have for all Sailor Moon and shoujo fans. I was a bit sorry to see it end, but it wouldn't have fared well if there were more volumes to the series. You can tell that Takeuchi had a better idea of how the story was going to end, so as a result the characters were better defined and the stories were faster paced. (And of course the artwork is spectacular.)Īs far as storyline goes, I found that volume 2 had a tighter plot. It's a pretty fun experience, to be honest. It's really neat to see manga like this, where you not only get to see the creator play around with character designs but to also develop their art and storytelling styles as well. (This series ended about the same time as the Sailor Moon manga did, so all of this was drawn way after the Dark Kingdom arc ended.) In this volume we can see where she had fun fleshing out the world from the first Sailor Moon arc. In the first volume she played around with character designs that would later appear in Sailor Moon. It's such a great look into the thought processes of Takeuchi. I have to say, I've really enjoyed the Sailor V manga.

Sailor v volume 1