I wish they had a rating written somewhere. Wiki has a rating but I need a cross-reference if I use wiki because Wiki-sites can all be changed by people like me and you guys :/

Every-time I search for the series rating I get websites talking about how it's rating 8 out of 10 stars and some sites saying 3 out of 10 stars and that's not the rating I'm looking for u.u

I still feel like Sailor Moon was aimed towards teen girls rather then little kids. Toys don't really matter when discussing the series rating because Jason and Freddy Kruger are horror films that are rated R and yet have kid toys.

America seems to be lenient depending solely on the parents. I'd let my kids watch Sailor Moon because I watched it when I was a kid, but I only found out about the series because of my teenage brother who was a hardcore anime/gamer guy^^

My brother would babysit me and my sister and make us watch horror movies lol. Today more-so than ever, kids don't care about ratings. My exes little bro was playing Call of Duty when he was like 8 and 9 despite the rating.

When I started the topic, I started it when someone claimed the Sailor Moon manga was childish and meant for little kids and I don't see that. I can see clearly kids love the series, but I don't see that just because kids love the series that it makes the series childish.

When it comes to Japanese culture, I suppose they are more tolerant or it could be the same as when my grandparents would be watching shows like CSI and Law and Order:SVU and I was a kid and they've watching it in the living room and I'd sit down and just watch it too and they wouldn't tell me to leave because I was too young to watch, it just didn't really matter.

When I was a kid I watched True Lies which is a rated R movie when it appeared in TV with my grandparents. I just kinda sat down and watched it since it was on the TV in the living room and I was bored. Despite being EXTREMELY uncomfortable when the sexy scenes happened lmfao, we all just kinda had one of those awkward silences and waited for that part to be over. I dunno maybe I was the only one who felt awkward but I was 10 so that's not surprise lol I loved the movie though and I liked watch shows like CSI and stuff despite being a kid.

This is why I say even though MLP is intended and made with kids being the target audience, adults enjoy it. This is like many series that the target audience is for teens and adults and end up being popular with kids. Sailor Moon seems to have been made with Teens being the target audience and ended up becoming popular with kids like many other series.

If it weren't for the kids enjoying it so much most likely the series wouldn't have hit the world-wide popularity is was anyway so it's good that it reached so many different age groups.

This is also a series that was intended for the target audience for girls but became very popular among guys. I even found out about it because of my brother(he was gay but that's beside the point, I know straight guys like the series too) so it reached outside of it's target audience.

My point isn't to say kids shouldn't watch it, my point is that is transcended it's target age audience, it's targeted gender audience and that despite how many claim it is a childish series with no plot, it wasn't very childish and it was a very depth enriched story

It's still the other way around; a kid show that captured an older audience ^^ so yes, it transcended its target audience, even gender. However, I've never heard of Sailor Moon being call "childish with no plot" when the plot is obvious. Hmm. Interesting.

It happened with a Youtube user who was saying it was a childish show with no plot so I made this thread in hopes of disproving this theory that it's a kids show that has no adults themes because it does have adult themes and when I told her about the death and sexual themes she said it didn't despite saying she read the manga and watched the anime :/

Sailor Moon was among the first anime series to breakthrough into the mainstream in a high level of popularity in North America during the 1990's...and continues to do so in the 2010's. The cartoon was picked up well among boys, as it had action and some fighting, and the characters are "rough-and-ready" to take on anything, perhaps the show teaches the important lesson not to stereotype girls, and feminists might find Sailor Moon to serve as comparably good role models for girls to become confident and independent of themselves. All the senshi are strong, powerful and heroic in what they do to defeat the forces of evil to save the universe.

I have to say boys in the most part like girls and a cartoon show feature girls will make them want to watch it. Another cartoon 'Totally Spies' was a hit among boys beyond it's alleged target audience. They are 3 part-time spies attend high school (later seasons in college) whom also kick...ends to save the day and the world. It comes to show boys will watch any cartoons with action-packed material regardless of the characters' gender.

Oh I loved that show, totally spies. I loved Martin Mystery, I didn't read the novels or comics on Martin Mystery but I saw the show Martin Mystery that was creating by the same team the created Totally Spies^^

I've seen so many different views on Sailor Moon, unfortunately there are still some people who dislike the series and only have bad things to say about it. I know people are entitled to their own opinions but it bothers me when they say things didn't happen that actually did happen :/

Spoiler:

I believe that Sailor Moon was targeted at girls at age about 12-15. IMO, they would not make heroines 14-16 years old, if kids were targeted. Secondly, villains in Sailor Moon are often developed and sympathetic, whereas in children's fiction they are usually painted black. There is also quite an emphasis on romance, not often found in kids' series.

The manga's target audience was definitely teenage girls. Naoko has even stated this herself.

The anime and live action were probably intended to include a younger age group as well. A larger target audience brings in more money. The beauty of a series like Sailor Moon is that it has lessons and morals that can be understood my young children but it also contains darker themes that are comprehended from an older audience. It appeals to a wide target audience.

I'll admit, I got lazy and didn't read though the whole thread, so someone might have noted this already, but here is my 2 cents.

I think, in Japan, Sailor Moon's main demographic for the anime was intended to be tweens or 10-14 year olds. Why? Well, because of the age of the senshi themselves really.

As for the manga, you have to bear in mind manga publishers can get away with more questionable material because its printed and censorship doesn't have to be as strict. They can imply something without actually showing it, or it goes by so quickly in a panel or two and the viewer doesn't linger on it. So in this case, its okay for kids of the same age range to read that. In TV animation, you have stricter censorship rules to abide by, and unlike manga where its easy to gloss over the more questionable material where its implied, but not really shown in great detail, in animation its rather difficult to NOT show such things in detail. So they would have to tone things down. This is why the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic series can get away with darker material when the main TV series can't. For an anime, look at Fairy Tail and compare it to the manga.

As for the SM anime itself, I think it effected Japan's younger children much like how The Simpsons did in the US. The Simpsons is an animated show for teens and adults, but it became such a big hit among kids during the 90s that there where Simpsons branded products made just for them. So while Sailor Moon was intended for tweens, it came such a hit with even younger children that Toei immediately jumped on it and started marketing it to them too. In fact, they must've gotten go greedy with all of the money they where drawing in from the younger crowd, they decided to make SuperS directed more towards them. Which explains the dramatic shift in tone between the first 3 seasons and SuperS (and the fact they shifted that tone back with Stars when they lost their older viewers).

TL;DR version
Target age of the anime, 10-14 (tweens)
Reason 1) The senshi's ages, 13-15
Reason 2) SuperS sudden shift in tone is much different from seasons before it, to appeal to children much younger than that age.