Sailor Moon wasn't the first magical girl series I had seen, since Magic Knight Rayearth aired first on my country.
That being said, I loved both series, and both series were pretty different from each other, despite what some uninformed naysayers from Youtube might claim.
Many people tend to dismiss this series, often claiming the whole magical girl genre was "silly cutesy fluff for babies" until the vastly overrated Madoka series was created.
There were darker magical girl series before Madoka (Like the aftermentioned Magic Knight Rayearth) but there is a lot of sexism toward female lead anime, with plenty sexist men claiming the only reason anyone would watch them was because the "fanservice" (Case in point, the extremely ignorant, annoying and poorly researched review by the Nostalgia Critic)
Sailor Moon itself, despite all the cutesy moments and silliness, had plenty of dark and dramatic moments. At moments it could be just as dark (if not darker) than stuff like Dragon Ball.
Then again, some people is just familiar with the atrocious dub made by DIC, which is extremely cheesy and censored a lot of stuff (Adding also some mandatory "educational" segments at the end)
So glad my country aired a faithful, uncensored dub with good voice acting, and that allowed to fully appreciated this series.
The first season is without doubt the best, with a great characterization, many memorable moments, a fun characterization, and a very beautiful, emotional conclusion. Those episodes made the world fell in love with Sailor Moon, and were the best point of the series.
The alien filler arc was fun too, and added a lot of the good elements from the first season.
Trouble starts with the R season, which starts feeling a bit repetitive, adds an unnecessary breakup arc between Mamoru and Usagi (Apparently because one of the writers didn't like Mamoru) gave a very unlikeable characterization to Chibi Usa and removed some of the best moments from the original manga. (On its favor, the anime at least removed some umcomfortable subplot aboout Chibiusa having a rather creepy "crush" on his father from the original comic)
The S season is often considered the best one, but personally I found to be quite uneven, mostly due the fact it couldn't decide if it wanted to be dark and serious or just silly, with Sailor Uranus and Neptune often talking how "dangerous" and "terrible" the villains were, while in reality very few of them were genuinely threatening.
It also started the trend of the Sailors spending more time fighting each other than the villains, with Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune being given a very unlikeable, almost villanous characterization, often looking for conflict without any reason. (And sadly, this becames worse in the Stars season)
The Super S season was pretty good in my opinion, and a huge improvement over the R and S episodes. People often dismiss it for being "too silly" without giving a chance, but it feels more balanced on its tone, had plenty of fun moments, made Chibi Usa more likeable, and give more screen time to the five original sailors, which were starting to have a more reduced role.
It was pretty enjoyable from beginning to end. Pretty underrated in my opinion, having a better balance between the lighthearted and dark stuff.
Stars, the final season, started pretty well with a six episode mini arc featuring the villain from Super S, which actually made me think the series was going to take a darker route, but instead of that, it turned out to be very formulaic, repeating and exacerbating the worst elements from the Sailor Moon S episodes (Pathetic villains, the sailors spending more time fighting each other than the enemies, an underwhelming final battle)
There were a couple of decent moments, but I consider Stars to be the worst Sailor Moon season, with Toei going full Dragon Ball GT for what should have been the climatic part of the series.
With all its highs and lows, I still love this series nonetheless. It did a pretty good job turning the sailors into very likeable, fun characters, had a great soundtrack and artwork. It success was pretty well deserved, and its iconic status is undeniable to this very day, no matter what the haters might claim.
Long live Sailor Moon! The most beloved magical girl from all time!
That being said, I loved both series, and both series were pretty different from each other, despite what some uninformed naysayers from Youtube might claim.
Many people tend to dismiss this series, often claiming the whole magical girl genre was "silly cutesy fluff for babies" until the vastly overrated Madoka series was created.
There were darker magical girl series before Madoka (Like the aftermentioned Magic Knight Rayearth) but there is a lot of sexism toward female lead anime, with plenty sexist men claiming the only reason anyone would watch them was because the "fanservice" (Case in point, the extremely ignorant, annoying and poorly researched review by the Nostalgia Critic)
Sailor Moon itself, despite all the cutesy moments and silliness, had plenty of dark and dramatic moments. At moments it could be just as dark (if not darker) than stuff like Dragon Ball.
Then again, some people is just familiar with the atrocious dub made by DIC, which is extremely cheesy and censored a lot of stuff (Adding also some mandatory "educational" segments at the end)
So glad my country aired a faithful, uncensored dub with good voice acting, and that allowed to fully appreciated this series.
The first season is without doubt the best, with a great characterization, many memorable moments, a fun characterization, and a very beautiful, emotional conclusion. Those episodes made the world fell in love with Sailor Moon, and were the best point of the series.
The alien filler arc was fun too, and added a lot of the good elements from the first season.
Trouble starts with the R season, which starts feeling a bit repetitive, adds an unnecessary breakup arc between Mamoru and Usagi (Apparently because one of the writers didn't like Mamoru) gave a very unlikeable characterization to Chibi Usa and removed some of the best moments from the original manga. (On its favor, the anime at least removed some umcomfortable subplot aboout Chibiusa having a rather creepy "crush" on his father from the original comic)
The S season is often considered the best one, but personally I found to be quite uneven, mostly due the fact it couldn't decide if it wanted to be dark and serious or just silly, with Sailor Uranus and Neptune often talking how "dangerous" and "terrible" the villains were, while in reality very few of them were genuinely threatening.
It also started the trend of the Sailors spending more time fighting each other than the villains, with Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune being given a very unlikeable, almost villanous characterization, often looking for conflict without any reason. (And sadly, this becames worse in the Stars season)
The Super S season was pretty good in my opinion, and a huge improvement over the R and S episodes. People often dismiss it for being "too silly" without giving a chance, but it feels more balanced on its tone, had plenty of fun moments, made Chibi Usa more likeable, and give more screen time to the five original sailors, which were starting to have a more reduced role.
It was pretty enjoyable from beginning to end. Pretty underrated in my opinion, having a better balance between the lighthearted and dark stuff.
Stars, the final season, started pretty well with a six episode mini arc featuring the villain from Super S, which actually made me think the series was going to take a darker route, but instead of that, it turned out to be very formulaic, repeating and exacerbating the worst elements from the Sailor Moon S episodes (Pathetic villains, the sailors spending more time fighting each other than the enemies, an underwhelming final battle)
There were a couple of decent moments, but I consider Stars to be the worst Sailor Moon season, with Toei going full Dragon Ball GT for what should have been the climatic part of the series.
With all its highs and lows, I still love this series nonetheless. It did a pretty good job turning the sailors into very likeable, fun characters, had a great soundtrack and artwork. It success was pretty well deserved, and its iconic status is undeniable to this very day, no matter what the haters might claim.
Long live Sailor Moon! The most beloved magical girl from all time!