Yaaay! I love this cover. Venus is so cute. xD

This is a really pretty one, isn't it?

Is this group open to join?

Yes! We are reading Volume 5 and will open discussion of the acts read on the 16th. After that, we'll decide on a day for the live chat discussion. ^^ I'll add you to the group now.

woohoo thanks!!! i could re-read my sailor moon manga forever 

Hey guys, its the 17th which means discussions are open! We'll have a poll up soon for the live discussions.

Oh gosh, I haven't even touched my SM manga since the first one with the discussion. I've been too busy with work and reading other things!

SO I'm all caught up! YAY!   This has some of my favorite parts of this arc in it: namely when Moon busts out Mercury, Mars and Jupiter out. I always liked seeing Usagi's strength in this scene. To me it always felt it was her own strength with NQS reaching out to help her.

I also like how its both Tux and Moon that take out Demand. BUH BYE DEMAND.

OH and another thing, in the Mixx version, they at first call her Black Lady in one volume but then they switch to Wicked Lady in the next volume. I found that amusing. lol

I wonder if that's just a translation error or, someone got their translations mixed up with the anime/other manga?

I think it was an error in trying to follow with the Dic Dub and someone forgot and actually translated it properly the first time but the next time they noticed and changed it to match. The manga tries to keep names from the Dic Dub up to the R season. Since the manga was released before the S and SuperS seasons were in the US, after that they used the Japanese names for new characters IIRC. So they still used Bunny, Lita, Raye and Darien but Haruka, Michiru and co kept their names.

Bunny is just so weird lol I like Serena better if we had to have an English name.

I never had an issue with Bunny cause it is the translation of Usagi. ALSO, in the first chapter, she says her name is Serena but everyone calls her "Bunny". So technically she's still Serena but they NEVER EVER call her that ever.


ALSO EVERYONE POLL IS UP FOR THE LIVE CHAT DATES! You can pick from the times below:

Voted!

Voted

And I don't like when the names are changed from the original, so I read from Miss Dream usually. It's not always the best ever, but it avoids me the Bunny/Serena thing. Not that it's wrong to like any of them. Just that I don't xD

It finishes one of the arc that has my favorite characters in it, so I'm a bit sad, but it was a good second read. I'm meh about some parts that were thankfully developed more in both the original anime and Crystal but it wasn't bad per se. I'll try to get my brains together to have something more to discuss during the live-chat.

*eyes EK cause EK uses Diamond and EK knows thats a Dic Dub only even though we had this discussion the other day I'm going to pick on EK anyway*

Though going through this arc again, you can really tell this is a newbie work. As smart as Naoko is with her use of puns and language and mythology and all that... There is just WAY TOO MUCH exposition and NOT ENOUGH character growth. :/

It makes me wonder how her contract worked...maybe she had to tell the story in so many chapters for these first couple of arcs since they were coming out pretty much simultaneously with the anime.

I really enjoyed volume 5. 
In the first arc there isn't a ton of character development. But feel as though the first arc was just an introduction. The second arc shows more of the girls' personality traits and their friendship grows. 
In comparison, the anime had lots of character development, not only because it had so many episodes but also because sailormoon classic took place over an entire year and sailormoon R was that same year repeated. Since the manga didn't have the girls lose their memories after the Dark Kingdom arc, it's likely that the first two arcs were each about half a year. 
Some of the short stories take place during the first two arcs for additional character development   

Hmm... but maybe I'm just biased because I love this manga so much

Just a reminder that the SM manga club live chat for Vol. 5 will begin shortly in the GC Official Skype chat!

oops i just realized i forgot to ask how to be added to that

Hey there just send me a message on skype and I'll add you! My skype name is brit-chan ^^

okay! mine is ellez-bellz

Sorry! I missed the chat! I'll post my thoughts on the book here!

The black moon arc wraps up in this volume. Chibiusa, confused and hurt, becomes Black lady. The only thing that particularly bothered me about that is why did she go after Mamoru? She never considered him a lover or anything, just looked up to him because he reminded her of her dad. I will never agree with what naoko did, making chibiusa hang all over mamoru. (At least other villains that did that were around his age and, more importantly, NOT related to him.) I mean, I guess we can chalk it up to her being corrupt with power??? I donno man. It'll always make me uncomfortable.

One of the more impressionable scenes in the black moon arc, however, was Usagi being able to get away from Diamond and being able to transform, and find the others. With a mere touch of her hand, she BREAKS THE DAMN FLOOR AND THE SENSHI POP UP LIKE A BADASS. I always loved that. Though was it Neo Queen Serenity who was able to help give Sailor Moon a jump start, or was that her own power?

Then the final battle with nemesis. Pluto gives her life to stop the two crystals from touching by breaking the final taboo and dies, her death jogging chibiusa's memories and having her awaken as a sailor senshi. This was the part of the entire arc that moved me the most when I first read it. I hadn't seen Sailor Moon R at the time, so had no idea it was coming. We were in a car repair shop for hours, so I ended up reading the entire ending of the black moon arc (tokyopop edition book 7) multiple times over; It blew me away that much. This also ended up being the battle that my little sister liked the most, as she kept stealing my tokyopop book 7 afterward. We were both young, 10 and 7 respectively so we read it together that day, and I think she has that copy even now in her apartment in Cleveland along with her other manga. I'll never forget how the both of us sat there, jaw agape, when chibiusa addressed pluto-who was by then deceased.

Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask are then thrown into space to be destroyed by death phantom and Neo Queen Serenity wakes up. It's the first look we get at her, and wow, did naoko draw her and present her like a goddess. Now is the timeline of sailor moon linear or more of a multiverse timeline? Did Neo Queen Serenity send Chibimoon there, knowing she was needed in the battle and already knew of their victory because she herself had gone through it ages ago?

Great ending to a great arc, though it would have been nice to know a bit more about sapphire and his resentment to wiseman and the relationship with his brother. (The anime and musicals covered that, however, so I can't be too picky.)

Cosmos-Hime wrote:

Sorry! I missed the chat! I'll post my thoughts on the book here!

The black moon arc wraps up in this volume. Chibiusa, confused and hurt, becomes Black lady. The only thing that particularly bothered me about that is why did she go after Mamoru? She never considered him a lover or anything, just looked up to him because he reminded her of her dad. I will never agree with what naoko did, making chibiusa hang all over mamoru. (At least other villains that did that were around his age and, more importantly, NOT related to him.) I mean, I guess we can chalk it up to her being corrupt with power??? I donno man. It'll always make me uncomfortable.

In response to this, YES I agree it is so so so so creepy. But I think there's a point behind it.

My theory is that Death Phantom turned Chibiusa into the opposite of what she was. He changed her from cute and innocent to evil and erotic. Therefore, her previous feelings of love and admiration for him turned into lust and obsession. 

Another reason that Black Lady may have latched onto Mamoru was because I think that Death Phantom brainwashed her in a particular way in order to sabotage Sailor Moon. So instead of just taking Chibiusa away, Death Phantom also took Mamoru away from her for the purpose of weakening her. In other words, Death Phantom used the two of them as pawns against Sailor Moon.

^^^ That makes total sense. I could totally see him doing that, considering the grudge he had against the silver crystal and all. (Still creepy though.)

Chibi Usaki I think nails it on the head. Thats how I always felt it was. The corruption turned her love/admiration into lust/obsession. It also was a way to attempt to weaken and cripple Sailor Moon even more.

I just hate that poor Mamo gets brainwashed two arcs in a row now. ._. Thankfully i don't think it happens again until Stars.

I do think it was made to be uncomfortable.

Mamoru and Chibiusa do not have the same relationship she has with her father. Mamoru is dotting while Usagi is scolding. She ended up seeing Mamoru as her protector instead of siding directly with her future mother.

Child do develop crushes on cousins or brothers, or cousins or sisters (I'm talking here about healthy crushes that become 'looking up to' when the brains understand that family and romance don't mix up), and Mamoru acts more like an older brother here than a father considering she already has a father (yes King Endymion and Mamoru are the same, but we know she doesn't see them totally like she does her parents because she is more obedient with the King than she is with Mamoru).

Wiseman twisted everything she was. The emotion of any child doubting their parents love (a lot have that phase without reasons, others have all the reasons in the world but in this case, both Endymion and Serenity love their daughter) turned into complete rejection which then led to rebellion. Love was changed into obsession (or lust / erotism as said above), childish resentment changed into adult hatred. Even though Small Lady is technically adult she was still behaving like a child and being treated as such. which means growing up so fast didn't make her learn what is acceptable, what is not and what to do with the change in her emotions (plus she was also changed into a big queen villain who should want the destruction of everything while living under Wiseman control and we know Wiseman can destroy a whole clan without too much efforts so the fact that Black Lady became as she was is not surprising).

As she thought all was her fault for some time but also that she wasn't necessarily as loved as she actually was, the love she wanted and craved as a child became: when you want love, you have to take it. Hence why it ended up on Mamoru. She might also have wished for the relationship she saw between her parents or between Mamoru and Usagi, which was made worse by her transformation.

I think it's about time I stop rambling.

I'm still here! Signing up again!

Also, wouldn't it make more sense to read sailor V after we're done with book 12, instead of cutting off mid-way through the series to introduce another series? That's just my take on it.

I'll sign up this time.

Edit: Nov and Dec will be really busy months for me, so I won't be able to participate those two months for the next volumes after volume 6.

Checking in~

signing in

I think due to my life being busy, I have not been able to participate in this club. I am sad to say this, but can I be out of this club until I can be active and participate again.