The Sailor Moon manga series features a cast of characters created by Naoko Takeuchi. The series takes place in Tokyo, Japan, where the , a group of ten magical girls, are formed to fight against antagonists who aim to take over the Earth, the Solar System and the Milky Way. Each Guardian undergoes a transformation which grants her a uniform in her own theme colors and an elemental power. They are named after the planets of the Solar System, with the exception of Earth but including its moon. While many characters are humans who possess superhuman strength and magical abilities, the cast also includes anthropomorphic animals and extraterrestrial lifeforms.
The series follows the adventures of the titular protagonist, Sailor Moon, her lover Tuxedo Mask, her cat advisor Luna, and her guardians and friends: Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus. They are later joined by Chibiusa, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask's daughter from the future, and four more guardians: Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn. The series' antagonists include the Dark Kingdom, the Black Moon Clan, the Death Busters, the Dead Moon Circus and Shadow Galactica.
Takeuchi's initial concept for the series was Codename: Sailor V, in which Sailor V discovers her magical powers and protects the people of Earth. After the Codename: Sailor V manga was proposed for an anime adaptation, Takeuchi changed her concept to include ten superheroines who defend the galaxy. The manga's anime, live-action, musical and video game adaptations feature original characters the production staff created rather than Takeuchi.
Creation and conception Naoko Takeuchi initially wrote Codename: Sailor V, a one-shot manga that focused on Sailor Venus. When Toei Animation proposed it for an anime adaptation, Takeuchi changed the concept to include Sailor Venus as a part of a "sentai" (team of five) and created the characters of Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter.
The name "Sailor Senshi" is derived from sailor fuku, a type of Japanese school uniform that the main characters' fighting uniforms are based on, and the Japanese word senshi, which can mean "soldier", "warrior", "guardian", or "fighter". Takeuchi created the term by fusing English and Japanese words. DIC Entertainment/Cloverway's English adaptation of the anime changed it to "Sailor Scout" for most of its run. According to Takeuchi, only females can be Sailor Guardians. However, in the anime's fifth season, the Sailor Starlights are depicted as men transforming into women when changing from their normal forms into Sailor Guardians, rather than women disguising as men as they appear in the manga.
Takeuchi wanted to create a series about girls in outer space, and her editor, Fumio Osano, suggested that she add the "sailor suit" motif to their uniforms. Takeuchi settled on a more unified appearance in later stages of character design. Among the protagonist Sailor Guardians, Sailor Venus, during her time as Sailor V, has the only outfit that varies significantly from the others. Sailor Moon, regardless of form, always has a more elaborate costume than others, and has individual power-ups more frequently than other characters. Sailor Guardians originating from outside the Solar System have different and varying outfits, but the sailor collar serves as a unifying trait in their designs.
Most of the antagonists in the series have names related to metals, minerals and gemstones, including Queen Beryl, Queen Metaria, Four Kings of Heaven, the Black Moon Clan, Kaolinite, Witches 5, most members of the Dead Moon Circus, and the Sailor Animamates. Exceptions include Souichi Tomoe, members of the Amazoness Quartet, incarnations of Chaos sans Metaria, and members of Shadow Galactica barring the Sailor Animamates.
Main characters
Sailor Moon
is the titular protagonist of the series. She is a fourteen-year-old girl who is sometimes careless but has a great capacity for love, compassion and understanding. Usagi transforms into the heroine Sailor Moon, the Guardian of Love and Justice. At the beginning of the series, she is a self-described immature crybaby who resents fighting evil and wants nothing more than to be a normal girl. As the story progresses, she embraces the chance to use her power to protect those she cares about.
Tuxedo Mask
is a student who is older than Usagi. When he was young, he was in a car accident that killed his parents and lost his memories. He and Usagi share a special psychic connection, and he can sense when she is in danger. This inspires him to take on the guise of Tuxedo Mask and fight alongside the Sailor Guardians when needed. After an initially confrontational relationship, he and Usagi remember their past lives and fall in love again.
Sailor Mercury
is a fourteen-year-old bookworm in Usagi's class, who is quiet yet intelligent and rumored to have an IQ of 300. She can transform into Sailor Mercury, the Guardian of Water and Wisdom. Despite her shy exterior, she is passionate about learning and taking care of those around her and hopes to eventually become a doctor like her mother. She tends to be the practical one of the group and is secretly a fan of pop culture and romance novels, and becomes embarrassed when this is pointed out. She owns a handheld computer which can scan and detect virtually anything which she needs information about.
Sailor Mars
is an elegant fourteen-year-old miko (). Because of her work as a Shinto priestess, she has limited precognition and can dispel or nullify evil using special ofuda scrolls, even in her civilian form. She transforms into Sailor Mars, the Guardian of Fire and Passion. She is very serious and focused and easily annoyed by Usagi's laziness, but cares about her. In the anime adaptation, Rei is portrayed as boy-crazy and short-tempered, while in the manga and live-action series she is depicted as uninterested in romance and more self-controlled. She attends a private Catholic school separate from the other girls.
Sailor Jupiter
is a fourteen-year-old girl who is a student in Usagi's class. She excels at hand-to-hand combat and is rumored to have been expelled from her previous school for fighting. She is unusually tall and strong for a Japanese schoolgirl, and transforms into Sailor Jupiter, the Guardian of Thunder and Courage. Because her parents died in a plane crash years ago, she lives alone and takes care of herself. She cultivates her physical strength and domestic interests, including housekeeping, cooking and gardening. Her dream is to marry a young handsome man and to own a flower-and-cake shop.
Sailor Venus
is a fourteen-year-old girl who first appears as the titular main protagonist of Codename: Sailor V. She has a companion cat called Artemis, who works alongside Luna in guiding the Sailor Guardians. Minako transforms into Sailor Venus, the Guardian of Love and Beauty, and leads Sailor Moon's Four Inner Guardians while acting as her bodyguard and decoy because of their similar appearances. She dreams of becoming a famous singer and idol and attends auditions whenever she can. In contrast, in the live-action series, she is a successful J-pop singer whom Usagi, Ami and Makoto are fans of and has poor health due to her anemia, causing her to choose to isolate herself from the other Guardians.
Sailor Chibi Moon
is the future daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion in the 30th century. She later trains with Sailor Moon to become a Sailor Guardian in her own right, and learns to transform into Sailor Chibi Moon (known as "Sailor Mini Moon" in the English series). At times, she has an adversarial relationship with her mother, but as the series progresses they develop a deep bond, with her wanting to grow up to become like her.
Sailor Pluto
is a mysterious woman who initially appears as Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Space-Time and Change. She has the duty of guarding the Space-Time Door against unauthorized travelers, but later appears on Earth living as a college student. She has a distant personality and can be very stern, but can also be friendly and helps the Sailor Guardians when she can. After her long vigil guarding the Space-Time Door, she carries a deep sense of loneliness, although she is close friends with Chibiusa, who calls her by her nickname "Puu". Her talisman, the Garnet Orb, aids her power to attack and temporarily stop time.
Sailor Uranus
is a good-natured tomboyish girl who is a year older than most of the other Sailor Guardians. She transforms into Sailor Uranus, the Guardian of the Sky and Flight. Before becoming a Sailor Guardian, she aspired to become a race car driver, and has excellent driving skills. She tends to dress and, in the anime, speak like a man, with other characters often mistaking her for a man. When fighting the enemy, she distrusts outside help and prefers to work solely with her partner and girlfriend, Sailor Neptune, and later Pluto and Saturn. Her talisman, the Space Sword, aids her fighting.
Sailor Neptune
is an elegant and talented violinist and painter. Similar to her partner and lover, Haruka Tenoh, she hails from a wealthy family, though they are not mentioned in the series. She transforms into Sailor Neptune, the Guardian of the Ocean and Embrace. She worked alone for some time before finding her partner, Sailor Uranus. Neptune ultimately gave up her dreams and devoted herself to her duty as a Sailor Guardian, which she is willing to make sacrifices for. Her talisman, the Deep Aqua Mirror, aids her intuition and reveals cloaked evil.
Sailor Saturn
is a sweet and lonely young girl, whose health was compromised following a laboratory accident in her youth. After overcoming the darkness that surrounded her family, she transforms into Sailor Saturn, the Guardian of Silence, Destruction and Rebirth. She is often pensive, and as a human has the power to heal others. She wields the Silence Glaive, which gives her the power to generate barriers and destroy a planet. When she uses that power, she kills herself, but Sailor Moon later revives her and she comes to live with Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna as an adopted family.
Antagonists Dark Kingdom
The are the first set of antagonists the Sailor Guardians encounter, who appear in the first arc of the manga and its adaptions. Established by Queen Beryl, its members mostly consist of brainwashed reincarnations of residents from the Golden Kingdom of Earth who aim to gather human energy and find the Silver Crystal to reawaken Queen Metaria, who was responsible for the destruction of the Silver Millennium of the Moon and the Golden Kingdom.
Hell Tree aliens The are a group who only appear in the anime, serving as the main antagonists of the first thirteen episodes of Sailor Moon R. Ail and An are two aliens who wandered space for many years before reaching Earth, where they collect energy to revive the Hell Tree so that it can give them energy to survive. Unlike other antagonists of the series, their mission was primarily that of survival, rather than conquest or destruction. The DIC dub had Ail and An making a mentioning in their first appearance of having met Queen Beryl at some point in their life.
Ail and An and are humanoid aliens who pose, respectively, as and , siblings who transfer to Usagi's school and live in the Jūban Odyssey apartments. While trying to blend in, Ail acts as An's brother and develops a crush on Usagi and tries to win her over, much to An's dismay. Despite this, he constantly denies these feelings to her, knowing her tendency to have fits of jealous rage. An later develops a crush on Mamoru and tries to win him over, much to Ail and Usagi's dismay. Ail and An are the only two of their kind.