Tokyo. Teenage high school girl Usagi Tsukino leads a normal life and is crazy for the songs by the singer Minako Aino. One day, a talking puppet cat named Luna falls on her head and gives her the power to transform into Sailor Moon, a warrior who can fight against the evil forces of Queen Beryl. Usagi is quickly joined by Rei, Ami and Makoto and falls in love with Mamoru, who is in fact Tuxedo Mask. Even Minako joins them as Sailor Venus. In the end, Sailor Moon manages to save the world.
In '92, animated series "Sailor Moon" showed up and caused a sensation. In 2003, as some sort of a vague 10th anniversary, the live action series "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" was made, a nostalgic-dreamy homage to the original. Although the live action is weaker than the animated (the flaws are plot holes, the lack of spectacle, the mild intensity and the range of the story) it is—surprisingly—much better than it seems. In some other director's hands, it could have ended in a catastrophe, and the pilot episode didn't seem promising, but in Ryuta Tazaki's hand "PGSM" turned out to be a practically excellent show. Even though one needs to get use to bizarre costumes, TV special effects, campy touch and naive mood, the wild enthusiasm of the authors and their charm are incredible. Ami's transformation into evil Sailor Mercury, for instance, is somehow fantastic: actually, it's rather got „show-off" written all over it (when she stomps her boot into the water, and then those dark purple „wings" on her dress), but it's stylish. Or the Sailor Luna (a 10 year old girl form of Luna) transformation—it's hilarious and senseless: you see her shake her butt, then Luna shows up, then there are psychedelic colors in the background, the girl makes some moves as if she is licking her hands as a cat and—presto, she is a sailor senshi too. Rarely will you ever see more kitsch than you get to in that transformation scene, but the authors still did it without a blink of the eye, and you have to give them credit for such courage.The energetic Miyuu Sawai is absolutely fantastic as Usagi, and her casting was a stroke of genius. It's almost impossible not to like her. She is wonderful in many of the comical situations (when she has a huge fight with her mom a frightened Shingo is hiding under the table and eating his breakfast) and later proves to be equally effective in drama (her mourning all day long in bed after finding out Mamoru is already engaged). In episode 9, after the girls accused Tuxedo Mask of being the enemy, Usagi randomly takes the karaoke microphone, goes on stage and shouts: "I'm going to say it! I... love Tuxedo Mask!" Episode 31 also has a funny sequence when Makoto has to eat potatoes for training, but then coughs, so the girls panic and Usagi orders Ami: "Quick, transform into Sailor Mercury!" to give her water, but someone just gives Makoto a glass of water, instead. Act 27, featuring Luna in her first appearance as a girl who "tests" the senshi, is genius. "PGSM" is a sight to behold. In their mix between camp and art, the authors bravely turned the impossible things of the anime into reality (the costumes, youmas, flashing rays) and got away with it. This culminated in one gem of a fight with a youma on a rooftop, in episode 39, where Sailor Luna comes to full expression to attack Kunzite in various creative ways, from hoping around him to kissing her moon scepter and then swinging it with her arm, round and round, until it transforms—the only other fight sequence that comes close is a more serious one in episode 41. Some weaker episodes in the middle cause a minor slump, yet the screenwriter Yasuko Kobayashi is able to take the already known storyline and restructure it in such a way that all these plot points feel as fresh as if we are watching "Sailor Moon" for the first time.
Grade:+++
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