Okay, so I've recently gotten into Code name Sailor V, but while reading it I couldn't help but notice some similarities.

For one, I found that V's parents and Moon's parents look the same:



There's an Ami look-a-like [although the personalities somewhat differ]



And there's another Umino too. xD




So, are these merely coincidences, or did Naoko scrap these characters, edit their personality, and then use them for characters when she made Sailor Moon?

Whoa! Very similar... I don't know, but it seems like Naoko is recycling the characters. In her other man gas, doesn't she. Reuse the Sailor Moon concept also?

Or maybe it is a deep philosophical look into the role Mina will always play, the shadow of Usagi. Even in another life, it is always and forever in her shadow? Hehe, or I'm just BSing. I've always thought Sailor Venus was supposed to be the counterfeit princess in a Moon Princess assignation attempt

Ok, later on toward the end, you run into Usagi, Naru, Makoto, and the actual Ami. It's all very creepy, but exciting! ALSO, you learn more about the past life of Minako pre-Dark kingdom invasion, which is amazingg.

Spoiler:

I think it was because Sailor V came before Sailor Moon. Ikuko and Kenji, Usagi's parents, are named and based off Naoko Takeuchi's parents in real life. She must have used them before, albeit without naming them, in Codename: Sailor V.

As for Hikaru, the Ami lookalike, Takeuchi must have liked the character design and incorporated it into Ami herself. As for the Umino lookalike... well, that's actually pretty funny. Takeuchi seems extremely fond of that design, as there are Umino lookalikes everywhere in Sailor Moon, like Mercuius (is that how you spell it?) from Ami-chan's First Love and a classmate of Chibiusa's.

The characters are all definitely recycled. Even Usagi was technically originally just an Expy of Mina in a lot of ways, so it makes sense that it would've happened with other characters in Minako's life.

Also, Usa/Naru/Makochan/Ami aren't the only cameos <3 Motoki is a recurring character, Kunzite is a love interest in one chapter, and I think Rei shows up in one panel? And in one panel there's a couple faces in the crowd that people speculate to be Haruka and Michiru because they look like them and that chapter came out around the same time the Infinity Arc was being published. I absolutely love them, seeing familiar faces sprinkled around is part of what makes reading Sailor V so fun.

Great thread! Makes me want to go back and find all the cameos...

She made the cameos after Sailor Moon was already published I think it`s cute and funny and somewhat nostalgic

Damn, now I am all eager beaver for the magna!

It's definitely worth giving a try! <3 I read it on MissDream's site.

Even though this is supposed to go on my site update in a few weeks, I
couldn't resist putting it in this thread really early because I don't
think the clones and look-a-likes are pure coincidence.

Exhibit A, friends:



This is from Chapter 12 of Sailor V, page 12. On this page, Mina is explaining the plot of "Aurora Wedding" to Artemis (description included). Notice the ten girls in the background? They look pretty familiar, eh? ^___^

Omg i can't believe i never noticed that one! How did i miss Chibi-Usa's hair?? Or maybe i noticed and forgot. XD

OMGOMGOMGOMG. ILY ELLY! <3

Now the question is...who is the one sister who didn't get married, who is the star of Aurora Wedding, which senshi? From the picture that they give of the heroine, it doesn't look like any of our ten senshi to me...=\

With the Umino look-alike, or clone it could also be that he also attended the school Minako attended, and then transferred to Juuban Junior High. There isn't a lot of background information on his character so you never know, it could be a possibility.

Hana-ko wrote:

Okay, so I've recently gotten into Code name Sailor V, but while reading it I couldn't help but notice some similarities.

For one, I found that V's parents and Moon's parents look the same:



There's an Ami look-a-like [although the personalities somewhat differ]



And there's another Umino too. xD




So, are these merely coincidences, or did Naoko scrap these characters, edit their personality, and then use them for characters when she made Sailor Moon?

I actually started reading this and thought that Minako's friend was Ami. LOL
I really didn't pay much attention to Minako's mother LOL and I haven't gotten to the Umino look a like yet.
I really need to finish Sailor V.

They're similar because both Minako and Usagi are Takeuchi's MaruSues. And I say that respectfully- a Sue isn't always a bad thing, despite the baggage recent fandom has dumped on the term; most of the classic literature I've read has a Sue as a protag (Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes are based on the books' author and his med-school teacher, for instance.)

SM is a redo of Sailor V, in a more marketable, team-based form (which is what her bosses requested: a team series is better for marketing, they said)- but in the end, it's still a wish-fulfilment series by the authoress. She just swtiched her attention from Venus to Moon. I recall that "Ikuko-mama and Kenji-papa are Naoko's parents! " from notes in the first release of the manga, and Usagi's brother is also based on Naoko's; it's possible that other characters in both series are also based on people she actually knew.

And, again: Sues aren't a bad thing if they're done well. Most of the well-known classic characters, from Jim Hawkins to John Watson to most of H. G. Wells' protags are Sues. (As much as I love him, I'll concede that the absolute WORST for this is Jules Verne. If I read ONE MORE story of a tragic, sea-traveling, rich, long-lost-noble-blood, science-genius sailor fighting brave battles at sea... I'll scream. Nemo, Dick Sand, Professor Arronax, The Waif of the Cynthia + his crew of hangers-on; it just becomes too much. I feel like I know a little bit *too* much about what sort of life Verne wanted to lead... >_>; It's like walking in on someone...) I think that most of our "classics" wouldn't be so popular if the internet and fandom had existed back then... For that matter, I think that Sailor Moon- a classic shoujo manga- would not be so popular if people had shot it down as a Mary Sue series back when it came out. *SO*, when I say SM is a Sue series, I don't mean it in the usual "KILL IT WITH FIIIIIIIRE!" way that most people would say that.

I noticed the look alikes on the spot. It was fun seeing them before they actualy met. I didn't really expected to see the rest of them so I kinda freaked when I first saw each of them

I have also just begun reading Code Name Sailor V and couldn't help noticing similarities. I noticed this one that I didn't see a photo posted here yet.



Pluto? @_@

I would say the closest she looks to is Rei, ifyou ask me. but personality wise, i'm not sure who to compare her to.

Oh really? I The look itself struck me as a Pluto. I think the top panel is what made me think that. I haven't read past here I just had to post this first <3

Oh, not to me at all. Pluto is darker skinned, not as big eyes, more mature looking, and that woman is supposed to be an adult too. xD

May I add I never got that far in the manga? I know in the anime she is darker and such....

But I think my mind is broken to automatically think Pluto :3

Well i mean...you've at least seen pictures of manga Pluto? XD

Barely, but yes XD

<- she looks like this

I'll definitely be keeping a look out for the cameos and lookalikes as I read through it. The only one that really stuck out to me was the Umino's lookalike because of the glasses. I thought it was him at first until Minako explained his name was Amano.

Umino and Amano are punny together. Also Sorano.

So Naoko is probably doing it all on purpose

Is this thread dying? I don't like that........

Feel free to contribute to it, but i think most answers were covered which is why no one has posted in quite some time. ^^

I noticed that too!  But then Naoko based her characters on people in her real life, so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise even though it is.

I think it's more of an art style thing, to be entirely honest. Each artist has their own ways of drawing, so of course her works and characters would look similar. Heck, her book Miss Rain has the main protagonist literally looking like ami 100%.