The Early Days of Sailor Moon

The fact merch was produced is interesting. The change from Sailor V to Sailor Moon was clearly a very last minute decision.

I’m glad being sloppy and rushed had been part of this series’ tradition since day 1!

That's always been an essential, even core, element in the franchise's meta story, lol

During its initial serialized run, the chapters of the manga were not properly titled. (That is, there was no "Act 1: Usagi - SAILOR MOON," etc.) But they did have captions/taglines on the "title pages," some of which work quite well as de facto titles, others...not so much. Anyway, I decided to try translating the ones from the Dark Kingdom arc for posterity. Here they are, along with their release dates:

#1. Usagi Tsukino Battles for Justice (12/28/91)
#2. Chest-Thumping Super Pretty Girl Action!! (2/3/92)
#3. Moon Prism Power Make Up: Transform into a Pretty Soldier!! (3/3/92)
#4. The Gorgeous Super Heroine of Love and Justice Will Radically Knock You Out!! (4/3/92)
#5. The Love of a Pretty Soldier is Fleeting (5/2/92)
#6. The Four Soldiers Have Finally Arrived! Now to Find the Princess and the Silver Crystal!! (6/3/92)
#7. Midsummer Refreshment: Top Speed Ultra Popular Sailor Suit Action! (7/3/92)
#8. Sailor V's Arrival: The Climax Finally Draws Near (8/3/92)
#9. Now, A New Truth Will Be Revealed!? (9/3/92)
#10. What Did Usagi and Her Friends See on the Moon...!? (10/3/92)
#11. The Pretty Soldiers Wish You a Merry Christmas (11/2/92)
#12. N/A [The "title page" for this chapter was the splash page for the character popularity poll] (12/1/92)
#13. Usagi and Mamoru's Fate is......? (12/29/92)
#14. The First Arc Ends with Overwhelming Excitement!! Then, the Second Arc Starts! (2/3/93)

I was thinking, but if Hollywood ever dares to do a Live Action Sailor Moon movie, the Armored Usagi!Sailor V design would actually be a great template (especially with the more realistic looking odango).

Another brief interview with Naoko in the "Manga Newspaper" section of the July 1992 issue of Nakayoshi:

LINK

TOP:
Jupiter: Flower Hurricane makes a storm
Mars: Uses fire freely
Moon: A new killer move is likely to appear!
Mercury: Uses mist freely

BOTTOM:

ついに4人めの戦士が誕生！ここで必殺ワザのおさらいよっ!
Finally, the Fourth Soldier Was Born! Here's a Review of Their Deadly Skills!

Interviewer:
ますます好調のセーラームーン，みんな読んでくれているよね。
セーラージユピターも登場して，目がはなせない展開だけど，4人の必殺ワザと特徴はおぼえてくれたかな？
今回のまんが新聞セーラームーン情報で，しつかり頭に入れてねつ。
それでは，武内先生，お願いします.
More and more people are reading "Sailor Moon" now. Sailor Jupiter has just appeared, an expansion that cannot be overlooked, but do you remember the Four Soldier's deathblows and characteristics? In this installment of Manga Newspaper, we'll fill your head with Sailor Moon information. So then, Miss Takeuchi, if you please.

Naoko Takeuchi:
4入の特徴，おばえてくれたかしら？
あと，わたしが気にいっていろのはね，まこちゃんのバラのピアスと，レイちゃんのハイヒール（笑），それから，あみちゃんのつうしんき。
これは，ひっじょーに気にいってるの．
Did you mention the characteristics of the four girls?
Well, my favorite things are Mako's rose earrings, Rei's high heels (haha), and Ami's communicator. I like those very much.

今後のみどころは，やっぱりうさぎちゃんがいかに成長するか，ということかな。
うさぎちゃんにもまだまだ必殺ワザがありそうだし，みのがさないようにね。
もちろん，タキシード仮面との恋も，ね。
The highlight of the future will be seeing how Usagi grows. Usagi still has some more special moves to come, so don't miss them. And, of course, her romance with Tuxedo Mask, too.


I wonder if the "special moves to come" for Usagi just meant Moon Healing Escalation (which debuted, albeit unnamed, in this issue), or if Naoko was planning to give Usagi a few more attacks before the Dark Kingdom arc wrapped up?

Sorry for the double post, but can anyone translate the text and identify the pink-haired girl in this picture? I don't recognize her from any of Naoko's work, but the picture was drawn for Naoko and was originally used as a giveaway item thing in the April 1992 issue of Nakayoshi, then later was included in the Infinity art book. Is she a character from another series or something? I'm so puzzled

Never mind: It's Wapiko from Goldfish Warning. It was part of a series of illustrations where manga artists drew characters from other manga series. Mystery solved.

Interesting. That makes another link between the Goldfish Warning and Sailor Moon. Junichi Sato directed the anime adaptations of both of them. Actually, a lot of the crew working on GW transferred to SM once that ended.

Have never imagined Wapiko would have that image style - my kudos to Takeuchi!

Yeah, & there're actual references to Goldfish in the anime too, which started airing immediately after the end of the former in the same time slot.

From the May 1992 issue of Nakayoshi, another brief "Manga Newspaper" interview:

LINK

Just as COOL as the Main Characters!! Pay Attention to the "Four Cardinal Guardians"!!

極東支部長 Far East Branch Commander
ジェダイト Jadeite
性格は冷酷. Ruthless personality
七ーラーマーズによって，たおされた。 He was defeated by Sailor Mars.

北米支部長 North American Branch Commander
ネフライト Nephrite
感情的で激しい性格。 Emotional and intense personality
セーラームーンを苦しめそうだ。Sailor Moon seems to bother him.

欧州支部長 European Branch Commander
ソイサイト Zoisite
四天王のなかでは年齢が若い。 Youngest of the Four Cardinal Guardians.
しつこい攻撃がとくいなようだ。 Persistent attacks are his style.

?
四天王最後の1入。 The last of the Four Cardinal Guardians appears.
正体はまだ不明……。 His identity is still unknown...

Interviewer:
"Sailor Moon" is really popular now. Everyone's reading it without hesitation! "Sailor Mars" recently appeared, but the cool "Four Cardinal Guardians" who serve under Queen Beryl are pretty great, too! So, this month's issue, we're paying attention to the "Four Cardinal Guardians!" Jadeite has disappeared, but I'm still looking forward to seeing what the final member is like. Miss Takeuchi, please do your best.

Naoko:
This is Naoko Takeuchi. As soon as I came up with the pretty soldiers, I wanted their enemies to be handsome boys. (Their voices in the anime are also super-powerful; I love it.) Zoisite was born out of Jadeite's handsome figure. But, I also love the mysterious fourth member, too.


Interesting to learn that Zoisite's design was influenced by Jadeite's (which isn't surprising). (Side note: I feel like if that JP Wikipedia claim of Naoko's stating in an issue of Nakayoshi that Jadeite's design was originally intended for Mamoru were true, it would have been stated here, so it's probably a bogus claim after all.) I also like how each of the 4GC (or Generals or Heavenly Kings or whatever you want to call them) is associated with a playing card suit; I think it would have been cool if that had been incorporated into the series' imagery/motifs somehow.

I do agree it is interesting MementoNepenthe for each of the Shitennou to be associated with a Card Suite. It is also makes me think of Sailor V where Phantom Ace who is of course Danburite and Adonis is associated with the Ace Card and he was said to be a servant of Kunzite. However now that I think of it, it would probably have made more sense for him to be Jadeite's subordinate as the Dark Agency was mainly located in Japan all though it did have a branch in Hawaii and Japan is in the Far East which is under Jadeite the Eastern King. However it would have been interesting if the Shitennou had been given subordinates based off the card deck. I mean we have Phantom Ace who represents the Ace in the card deck. Maybe we could have someone who could be the Joker, Jack etc. In fact interesting enough Jadeite was called Jack in the Italian dub of Sailor Moon even though in reality he would be the King of Diamonds. Maybe there could even be 4 Queens just like there are 4 Kings and where as the 4 Kings are Prince Endymion's counterparts to the Inner Senshi maybe the 4 Queens could be his counterparts to the Outers. Also the 4 Kings pretty much had dominion over regions in the Northern Hemisphere like for instance Jadeite being the Far Eastern King, Nephrite being the North American King, Zoisite being the European King and Kunzite being the Middle Eastern King. Maybe the 4 Queens could rule the Southern Hemisphere like South America, Africa, Antartica and Australia.

In the "Fantastic Trump" playing card set that was one of the manga's furoku items, they were all Jacks instead of Kings, and Jadeite's suite was Heart and Zoisite's was Diamond, so I wouldn't go so far as to say Naoko had any set ideas about associating them with playing cards per se. We can see playing cards being featured in even the earliest artwork for Sailor V, so it was probably just a visual motif she liked but that didn't have any story relevance (yet).

But it would have been cool if she had made them the Four Kings of their associated suits, maybe with there being Four Knaves to represent the Southern Hemisphere (I feel like Naoko would have kept Endymion's team all-male the way she kept Serenity's all-female). Or they could still be Kings, but based on the Latin/Tarot suit system (Coins/Pentacles, Cups, Batons/Wands, Swords) or the Swiss-German suit system (Roses, Bells, Acorns, Shields).

Like you said, Danburite logically should have been under Jadeite's command, but she probably either forgot about Jadeite's being the Far East commander, or she purposely ignored that detail because she wanted to create a sort of Danburite/Venus/Kunzite love triangle. Having all their subordinates be based on playing cards would have been cool, but we did get the Cardians in the anime, so at least that idea was kind of utilized in Sailor Moon

Come to think of it, that Moon Goddess Beauty Girl knock-off toy looks kind of like Usagi!Sailor V...

Regarding Sailor V!Usagi, I came across a very interesting page in the Materials Collection translated by Miss Dream:
Even though it’s an early storyboard for Sailor Moon’s Transformation done by Naoko, right next to Sailor Moon’s finishing Pose, Moon announces herself as “Codename Sailor V, I am the pretty sailor suited soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon.”

Now take a look at this page from the Codename: Sailor V manga:

Not only is Moon announcing herself the same way as Sailor V (with the exception of calling herself Sailor Moon instead of Sailor Venus) it’s clear Naoko even lifted the final pose from Sailor V as well. This leads me to believe that this storyboard was created while the Sailor Moon series was still entitled Pretty Soldier Sailor V.

Perhaps in Pretty Soldier Sailor V, Usagi would still have transformed into a character named Sailor Moon, but she would also use the Codename of Sailor V. This is similar to how Minako refers to herself as both Sailor V and Sailor Venus. Perhaps the same would have applied for Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. Venus could then easily exist as a separate character as well. Maybe Naoko was going to retcon the meaning behind the letter V to stand for the Roman numeral V?

Of course, Usagi could still have been a retooled Minako/Sailor Venus at one point before becoming her own character since she’s shown with Artemis. But it’s still fascinating to see the incremental development of the whole series from Sailor V to Sailor Moon.

I would love to see the original Japanese version of this page, since the accuracy of Miss Dream’s translations have been sketchy. But it seems to line up with everything we know about the prototype concepts.

I'd like to see the Japanese page as well since it's not on SailorMusic.net (even though the rest of the Materials Collection seems to be up). Since this page doesn't show up on MissDream's gallery page and I hadn't downloaded their scanlation before, I'd never seen this. Great find. This just seems to further my theory that "Sailor V" was going to be like a superhero brand (so to speak) used as the moniker by various girls a la Batman Incorporated.

Yeah, while I don’t doubt the translation’s accuracy, I’d love for further proof (it would be a stretch for them to get something like this wrong... but it’s alsk Miss Dream ).

This whole thread is honestly a fascinating discovery because if Pretty Soldier Sailor V was the name that stuck I’m curious if the show continued, would Chibi Moon and the Outers also use the codename? What about all of the senshi outside of the Solar System? Would they use a different codename? Would the manga focus a little more on the other senshi being that Pretty Soldier Sailor V might refer to the entire cast rather than just a single character?

Of course, it’s easy to see why they dropped the Sailor V moniker considering, at a certain point, the senshi looked less and less like V and it was probably cleaner to just call it Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (and it also has a better ring to it). It’s still fun to think about the what-ifs though.

If they'd stuck with "Pretty Soldier Sailor V" I feel like the Outers would either also use the "V" name, or they'd be like a rival team using a separate codename. I also feel like we wouldn't have gotten Chibi Moon or any extrasolar Sailors. Certainly the "Codename: Sailor V" manga wouldn't have continued.

I'd kind of like a side story now where Minako trains a group of new superheroines to operate as "Sailor Vs." Maybe they could act as a sort of magical girl police force in Crystal Tokyo, or they could protect the planet when the rest of the Sailors are off fighting enemies in space.

Haha, so the "Sailor Vs" would be like the National Guards / army of the Interior Ministry / paramilitary police in charge of internal & public security, whereas the other Senshi would be like the full-fledged military dealing w/ external threats & national defense. lol

This reminds me that the incredibly bright Brazilian SMR dub, based on the mexican dub, translated "Sailor Scouts" as "Sailor Moons". Everyone was a "Sailor Moon" just like everyone would be a "Sailor V" in this concept.

There's a CrunchyRoll anime that deals with Magical Girls working as Special OPs. It's brutal.

This isn't as "early" as the other things we've discussed so far, but I just remembered that early sketch of Haruka and Michiru that Naoko included in the tankoban

LINK

From the date (11/93), we know that Naoko was working on the Infinity arc at least three months in advance, and at that early stage apparently hadn't come up with the idea of Mugen Academy, given she originally planned for Haruka to attend Juuban High (it is mentioned in the manga that Haruka used to attend Juuban High, so the idea wasn't entirely abandoned at least) and Michiru to attend an "S. S. Private Girls School." I wonder what that school would have been like...

^ Nice to see a cool feminine look of Haruka.