Category Archives: Outer Senshi

Happy Birthday Haruka Tenoh!

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Filed under Blog, Haruka Tenoh
Happy Birthday Haruka! (courtesy of patisserie DeCo)

Happy Birthday Haruka! (courtesy of patisserie DeCo)

If you were a North American fan of Sailor Moon back in the mid- to late-90s (and even into the early 2000s), your exposure to the… well, let’s say “deeper” parts of the series was limited at best. Nudity? None of that. Death? Make them unconscious instead. Homosexuality? Let’s try “cousins.”

Then one day, you were taking a trip down the information super highway — known to some as “the internet” — when all of a sudden you read that there was much more to Sailor Moon than you had been led to believe. Eternal Sailor Moon flew around naked. The Sailor Senshi died. Oh, and what’s this? Some of the Sailors were lesbians??

I think I speak for many of us in my generation of Sailor Moon fandom when I say that the exposure to Haruka and Michiru’s relationship was an incredibly eye opening experience. For that reason alone, these two characters will always be incredibly important to me.

In honor of Haruka Tenoh’s birthday, I’d like to take the opportunity to highlight five interesting facts about the Senshi of the wind and her role in Sailor Moon. Happy Birthday, Haruka!

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Why Are Sailor Saturn and Sailor Pluto’s Roles Reversed?

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Filed under Articles, Hotaru Tomoe, In-Universe Lore, Real World, Setsuna Meioh
Just what's going on here, girls??

Just what’s going on here, girls??

Ms. Takeuchi’s near obsessive attention to detail is just one of the many things that make Sailor Moon such a great series. No matter how many times you watch or read through it, there’s always something new to discover.

And yet, despite her impressive ability to get even the tiniest details right on matters ranging from mythology to astronomy — and in a pre-Wikipedia world, no less!! — even Ms. Takeuchi messed up at some pretty crucial points.

… or did she?

Today we’re going to take a look at the ancient Moonie myth surrounding just what is going on with the Great Pluto and Saturn Mix-up. I hope you like Greco-Roman history, because things are about to get mythical!

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How Many Sailor Plutos Are There in Sailor Moon?

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Filed under Articles, In-Universe Lore, Setsuna Meioh
Won't the real Sailor Pluto please stand up?

Won’t the real Sailor Pluto please stand up?

While some may refer to Sailor Pluto as the Guardian of Time, I find myself typically referring to her by a very different name: the Soldier of Convenience.

It’s not that I don’t like her character — quite the opposite, in fact! — but more that it seems like so little thought was given to her background and motivations that she winds up just filling whatever plot hole the series is dealing with at the time.

As if that wasn’t confusing enough, we also need to contend with the fact that there are actually multiple Sailor Plutos within the Sailor Moon timeline!

… I mean, you knew that there were multiple Sailor Plutos, right?

Well, dear reader, it looks like we have an interesting conversation ahead of us. I hope you’ve had your coffee, because you’ll want to be awake for this!1

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Are the Outer Sailor Senshi More Powerful than the Inners?

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Filed under Articles, In-Universe Lore, Inner Senshi, Outer Senshi
Now girls, no need to fight...

Now girls, no need to fight…

As odd as it may sound, some of my favorite questions to answer on this blog are the ones that seem so obvious that they aren’t even worth asking. Take, for example, the fact that the Outer Senshi are much more powerful than their Inner counterparts. Done deal, right?

Well, kinda.

Taken in context of Sailor Moon, it’s a fair argument to make. Though, when you try to scratch below the surface, it quickly becomes apparent that there are never any specific references to back this up.

What do we mean by “more powerful”? Is this true throughout the entire series, or just when the Outers first appear? And how do the Sailor Soldiers stack up against each other, anyway?

Today we’re going to take a closer look at this issue and see if we can finally answer these questions once and for all!

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Does Every Object in Space Have a Sailor Senshi?

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Filed under Articles, In-Universe Lore, Inner Senshi, Outer Senshi, Starlights
Just how many Sailor Soldiers ARE there in the Solar System?

Just how many Sailor Soldiers ARE there in the Solar System?

If you’ve been involved with the Sailor Moon fandom as long as I have, I’m sure you’re quite familiar with all the absurd rumors that were running around in the early days, rampantly mixing original characters with the actual story, making it nearly impossible to tell what was real and what was fake.

Though Ms. Takeuchi never actually directly touches on the hows, whats, or whys involved in the connection between a human, their Sailor Crystal, and their respective celestial body, I think the information we can glean from the story tells us quite a bit.

Today we’ll be looking at just where that line in the sand is between what makes a Sailor Star Maker versus a Sailor Star Faker. For all you passionate Sailor Moon fans out there making your own custom characters, this one is going to be required reading!

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Why Does Hotaru Wear a Different Mugen Gakuen School Uniform?

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Filed under Articles, Death Busters, Hotaru Tomoe, In-Universe Lore
Don't be sad, Hotaru! You can wear whatever uniform you want!

Don’t be sad, Hotaru! You can wear whatever uniform you want!

It should probably come as no surprise that we often wind up discussing school uniforms in a blog devoted to uncovering the mysteries of Sailor Moon. The title itself, in fact, is even a direct reference to the naval-inspired “sailor fuku” uniforms worn to school by young women across Japan. If that’s not a tip off to the fact that these things are important, I don’t know what is.

But today we’re going to talk about something a little bit different, about one of those details that could easily get overlooked by the untrained eye. Which, of course, doesn’t apply to any of you, my incredibly observant readers!

We’ll be taking a look today at why Hotaru’s uniform, subtle though the difference may be, doesn’t match up with the ones worn by Haruka and Michiru. As an extra bonus, this also gives us an opportunity to take a deeper look into the mysterious school that is Mugen Gakuen. Grab a lunch box, because things are about to get educational!

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How Did Sailor Moon’s Producer Compare the Inner and Outer Senshi?

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Filed under Articles, Inner Senshi, Interview, Making Of, Outer Senshi
So Haruka, what's the difference between the Moon and Neptune?

So Haruka, what’s the difference between the Moon and Neptune?

As someone who’s fascinated by the nitty-gritty of how things work, the distinction between the Inner and Outer Senshi is a subject that I find incredibly interesting.

Though we’re given a (very) brief explanation within the series that the Inner team handles threats from within the Solar System and the Outers handle those from beyond, any other distinctions between the two groups are fairly vague and left up to fan conjecture.

Today we’ll be taking a look at how Iriya Azuma, producer of Sailor Moon S, approached these two teams and what he felt the distinction was between them. I hope you stick around, because this is actually pretty interesting!

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