So. I finally bought Codename: Sailor V 1 & 2 at Barnes & Nobel at the mall (yay!). Needless to say, I devoured them (figuratively...) as soon as I could, and have re-read them multiple times.

While I was reading it, I noticed that it seemed to be a faster pace than the main series. Which isn't particularly surprising, but I'm not sure if it's just the flow of how I read it...
Anyway, I would have loved to see it slowed down a little, teensy bit more. A couple of sequences left me a bit confused about what just happened/how/why it happened.

Is it just me, or...?

Codename: Sailor V to me feels more like an action/comedy manga with a hint of romance, compared to Sailor Moon which is more of an epic romance with action in it. What do you think?

Both Sailor V and Sailor Moon are very fast paced, especially compared to the anime. So if its your first time reading the manga and have seen the anime, it may seem weird to you.

Keep in mind, that when they were originally being released, people were waiting a month in between chapters since they were being released in a monthly magazine. Then when it gets compiled together, it seems faster. I always had a tendency to read my manga fast. To the point where I would get confused too. I slowed myself down with these releases of SM because i already knew of the faster pacing and wanted to be able to enjoy them.

Also, Sailor V was slowly being released over the time period that Sailor Moon was released and it is shorter. If i remember correctly, it took 3 years for all of Sailor Moon to be released so it took that amount of time for Sailor V as well. So i think when it gets put together in the graphic novel format is goes by very fast.

Basically the same thing happens when they make a series out of a movie. In the movies there are a lot of details that just aren't there, but it still makes sense. As for the series, they add many details that are fun to see but not really necessary to the story, example, friends going shopping together and talking about everything and nothing and laughing with each other. But of course, all this adds personality somehow and that's what is fun about series. You get attached to the characters more because you see them even in stupid or fun situations they wouldn't find necessary putting in a movie.

I absolutely adore the manga and it's fast pace, chaotic nature to it. It is very speedy compared to the Sailor Moon anime, but I like that. I think some of the chapters would of been dull if they dwelled on them too long. The only complaint I have towards it is that maybe it could of slowed down to take time to flesh out some of Minako's friends? But I guess it was always on the move like V herself. XD

It has a fast pace? I just got vol 1 the other day, but I have gotten far into the series because of scanlations. I stopped reading because I wanted to read the official translation. But to me Sailor V has always been at a slower pace than the Sailor Moon manga. For example in vol. 1 Minako becomes Sailor V then in vol. 2 we see Minako in the Crown playing video games. Vol 2 was about her training through video games (which is odd isnt? XD), but she didn't take down any bad guys. In Sailor Moon Manga in Act 1 Usagi becomes Sailor Moon then Act 2 Ami becomes in Sailor Mercury and then in Act 3 Rei becomes Sailor Mars. Finally in Act 4 we get a break from finding the inner soldiers.

I think it was supposed to be more of action piece than a romance, although there were hints of a budding romance between Ace and V.  I, too agree, that Codename: Sailor V could have slowed down a bit.

To me, Codename: Sailor V felt a lot more episodic than Sailor Moon. Each chapter of V is a self contained story (with a few exceptions near the end). Every act of SM is interconnected, so the pacing feels more... Connected, I guess? I didn't think V is especially slow or fast, really.

Codename: Sailor V reminded me of the 90s anime of Sailor Moon in this style. I remember a reviewer once said that while it is still good, it felt like it was an early sketch of Sailor Moon. I'd say that was very accurate. While Sailor V is still great, I think I prefer the episodic texture in tv shows than I would in manga and comics.

I think for me the biggest pacing issue was the handling of Natsuna and Wakagi.  For the first ten issues of the manga one or the other of these characters appeared almost all the time.  Natsuna had her big crush on Sailor V, while Wakagi absolutely hated her for taking justice into her own hands making the police look bad.

Then in chapter 10 you have what is practically a cliffhanger when Natsuna sees Minako transform learning her identity....and then the two characters disappear not to be even mentioned for the next four issues.  Now I read Sailor V in its compiled volumes...I can't even imagine how annoying this would have been for those reading at the time of publication given the massive wait in-between issues here for a cliffhanger to just be completely ignored for that long.

In chapter 15 Minako casually mentions that Natsuna has been calling her trying to get her to join the police, and she later meets with Natsuna and Wakagi at the airport and he now not only knows her identity but is apparently fine with her now too?   The whole thing just made me double check to make sure I hadn't accidentally skipped an issue or some pages somewhere where Natsuna first contacted Minako about her secret and we got Wakagi's reaction and change of heart?

Oh! That is something I picked up on my last read through of Sailor V! It was like she was planning up something but then suddenly decided she needed to conclude the Sailor V story and wrote them out. Maybe its possible at that point since the first season of the original anime made up its own Sailor V backstory (and iirc, the Sailor V manga took a much longer time to come out so by this point i think the anime was in its 5th season or so) she decided to leave it more open ended??

I always thought that the speed was because of the greater emphasis on humour and the episodic MotD style plots as well.

As for the handling of Natsuna and Wakagi...

Brit-chan wrote:

Maybe its possible at that point since the first season of the original anime made up its own Sailor V backstory (and iirc, the Sailor V manga took a much longer time to come out so by this point i think the anime was in its 5th season or so) she decided to leave it more open ended??

Wow that's something I hadn't considered! Crazy how much the logistical production issues have shaped the in-universe realities!! I’ve just started to appreciate that in recent years…

Takeuchi often ran into problems with deadlines, and she initially only made Sailor V as a one-shot deal. When she turned to Sailor Moon and serialized it, fans were begging for more of Sailor V. I believe her contract put more emphasis on Moon, so as a result V took longer to complete, comparitively. Also remember that, setting aside how long each physically took to be written, Sailor V's story takes one year in-story, whereas Sailor Moon spans multiple years, seeing them graduate into high school and everything. So some of that "pacing" is a bit illusional.

I believe the reason that certain in-story explanations are not addressed has to do with the fact that Takeuchi had to prioritize more focus on Sailor Moon, which was the bigger breadwinner here (series, movies, musicals, merchandise, live series, etc.). Like it or not she had to make sacrifices. :/

Having finished the series finally, I feel that the pacing towards the conclusion seemed a bit quick. But I think that the series, as it's mainly about Minako, may have been meant to go slower with the monster-of-the-day kind of format that was mentioned previously already in this thread, until the focus went to Sailor Moon, which probably meant that Sailor V had to end. I think that if Sailor V continued on it may have been more like the Sailor Moon anime in that regard, as there wouldn't be the other Senshi to introduce and the story would have been able to proceed slower in its pacing.