Sailor Moon 1

After many, many years, fans can rejoice! Moon has made her come back! All the way from Japan to the US in an OFFICIAL Kodansha Comics English translation re-release! Upon receiving the first Sailor Moon volume the immediate thing one will notice is that the cover (front and back) have been updated to a cleaner look that matches the feel of the "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" live action series. Author Naoko Takeuchi has given the fans a real treat with new art that has a softer cleaner feel than the original cover. Also of note, the FIRST 3 PAGES of the manga treats the reader to FULL COLOR glossy images. The fourth page is in black and white per the original manga again but with glossy paper. After that the pages are in their original black and white images on regular paper. These volumes are considerably larger in size than their "Chixx Mixx" pocket manga predecessors (the Chixx Mixx mangas are approx 4.5" Wide by 6 3/4" Tall) standing at 5" Wide by 7 1/2". This makes the artwork much easier on the eyes, as well as being easier to read the fonts. As an additional note: Kodansha Comics has kept the manga "reversed" meaning that the book is read in the traditional Japanese manner, starting at the back of the book and reading from the right hand side panels to the left hand side panels. (This is the opposite of English style books, and thus of course opposite from the Chixx Mixx version of the manga as well.) Also: Translation Notes are included in the back of the book for explanations on Japanese culture, customs, and commonly used phrases and words. Three other important things to note for the truly obsessed fans: 1. Usagi keeps her name and has not been changed to "Bunny" or "Serena."Likewise, the other characters keep their original names (as compared to Chixx Mixx, where names were changed to Americanized versions.) 2. This release includes a "preview" of the next manga Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol 2 - using the ORIGINAL ART AND KANJI (Japanese characters) of the ORIGINAL manga. 3. This release has more chapters/Acts than it's Chixx Mixx predecessor did. It includes Acts 1 thru 6. (Chixx Mixx only included Acts 1 thru 4.) Now, the downside... Unfortunately, for all of these great things that Kodansha has done for the Sailor Moon/Sailor V fandom, there are a few obvious grammatical errors that should have been caught in the editing process. (Thus the 4 stars instead of 5 on my "Meets Expectations" rating.) All in all, I'm extremely pleased with my purchase and will (budget permitting) be continuing to get the entire series (to replace my ten year old copies provided by Chixx Mixx). I would say that for all the Sailor Moon fans, this is a definite "Get them while you can because we ALL know how quickly Sailor Moon tends to get pushed aside in favor of things like Bleach, Pokemon, and Card Captors."

It was exactly what my daughter wanted!