"Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" (which means "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon") is an anime (Japanese Animation) that was made and aired in Japan in 1992 until 1997 by Kondasha and TOEI Animation. It is based on the Manga (Japanese Comic Book) "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" by Takeuchi Naoko. Before Naoko created "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon", she published her first comic ever, "Codename wa Sailor V", which involved the adventures of a female teenage superhero dressed in a school uniform named Sailor V. Naoko wanted expand the comic book more by putting in another main heroine and involving more characters. She made a deal with TOEI Animation to have them produce an animated series based on her new comic. And thus, she began to write "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon". This new comic involved Sailor V as being Sailor Venus, and introduced more Sailor Soldiers, including a mysterious masked man in a tuxedo who always saved the day. The comic was made into 18 volumes, or tankoubon, with a total of 52 acts and became one of the most popular manga in history.
The anime was made into 5 seasons, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon S, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S, and Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, Sailor Stars (in Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R, the "R" stands for "Return" or "Romance" because the season was divided into two parts. In S, the "S" stands for "Super", and "Super S" stands for "Super Senshi", which means "Super Soldiers") for a total of 200 episodes. Besides the 200 episodes, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon was also made into 3 movies (Sailor Moon R: The Movie, Sailor Moon S: The Movie, and Sailor Moon Super S: The Movie) and a Super S TV Special. It became one of the most popular anime in Japan ever. It is also considered to be one of the most popular anime today of ALL anime. Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon even had several musicals based upon it! It was translated into many different languages (such as English, German, French, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Russian, Greek, Polish, and Indonesian) and aired all over the world.
In the United States, it aired as "Sailor Moon" in 1995 from DIC Entertainment and the English Language Adaptaion. Though the anime in Japan seems to be for a more mature audience, it was produced mainly for young children in the US. Thus, the show had to be changed by editing out inappropriate material. "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, Sailor Stars" is the only season that has not yet been dubbed in English. All three of the movies are also currently available in the United States with English Subtitles and dubbed in English.
