The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Fourteen.

Just movin’ right along with the next one-vote receiver in the Final ’90s Countdown:

Sailor Moon (Tokyopop, 1998-2001)

Now the heading here, indicating Sailor Moon‘s Tokyopop run starting in 1998, may be a tiny bit misleading. This series is, I believe, the first ongoing U.S. series featuring the property, but the series, created by Naoko Takeuchi, was originally serialized in the Japanese magazine Nakayoshi starting in 1991.

Sailor Moon was an immense hit, appearing in many publications around the world, not to mention multiple animated adaptations. Sailor Moon was a real kick in the pants to the “magical girl” genre, which had preexisted the series by decades, and inspired many other creative works that followed.

The premise of the series is fairly straightforward, in that a young student discovers she is, in fact, the reincarnation of the magically-powered Sailor Moon, and is soon joined by other similarly powered beings (Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter…well, you get the idea). All these Sailors then spend their time protecting their fellow man, saving the world, all that jazz.

I remember the initial Sailor Moon comics doing quite well for us at the shop at the time, and subsequent releases of various Sailor Moon books and other products found a ready audience as well.

I’m not going to try to listen every single permutation of Sailor Moon books here, but I can note that there was a ten volume series of Sailor Moon Eternal Edition which appears to reprint the entire original serialized story. Those are still available for order.

Keep in mind here, I’m no expert on Sailor Moon or manga in general. I had to look up a lot of what I wrote up there. But I do know that Sailor Moon is a perennial favorite and a popular seller, and is one of those classics that should always be in print and available.