sailormooncrystalfailures:

Well if you’re new to the fandom (welcome first of all! <3) let me explain you something.

Before Sailor Moon existed, Naoko Takeuchi was already busy with a magical girl manga called Codename Sailor V.

Yup, that’s our girl Sailor Venus, but she looks quite different doesn’t she?.

Well, this is because Codename Sailor V is the prequel story to Sailor Moon.

But, if Naoko didn’t even have Sailor Moon in mind, then how did this all happen?.

Well, it’s quite simple.

The Codename Sailor V manga was publised regularly in a japanese magazine and it became quite popular, it was then when Naoko was offered to turn this manga into an anime.

She agreed but she thought that there were a lot of things to be ‘polished’ (also, she was asked to expand the plot and include more characters) so she thought it would be a better idea to make another magical girl manga from scratch.

And that’s how Sailor Moon was created.

She kept lots of things from Codename Sailor V; like a cat sidekick, a blonde main character,a disguise pen, etc, and she even took some characters from it and brought them into the Sailor Moon universe (Artemis, Minako herself, Umino and even Ami (but she was a different character in CSV and Naoko only took her design).

So instead of ditching the Codename Sailor V story, Naoko made it a prequel to the Sailor Moon events.

That’s how we know Sailor Venus is the first one to awake as a senshi (Sailor V), so she’s the first one getting a transformation pen.

Artemis gave her this pen so that she could transform into Sailor V. It’s the same pen she later uses to transform into Sailor Venus (as you can see in Crystal).

This is why her transformation pen is different.

Later in the second arc, when all the senshi are given new transformation pens, they’re all the same (except for colour and planetary symbol).

If you love Sailor Moon, this manga is totally worth reading.

It’s kinda sad Codename Sailor V was never animated (there were some rumors back in the day about an OVA but it never happened), but at least we get to see a glimpse of her in Sailor Moon (both manga and anime).

And of course, we have Venus in Sailor Moon.

I always thought that Naoko gave Minako the leader role in Sailor Moon like some kind of homage since she was the main character of the manga that started it all (and thus if Naoko wouldn’t have made another magical girl manga from scratch, it would have been her show).

But let’s not be sad about it because if it hadn’t been for Codename Sailor V we would have never got Sailor Moon.

And Sailor Moon is amazing and we got Sailor V/Minako in it as well so everybody wins!.

Bonus!:

When Naoko started with the Sailor Moon manga, she abruptly stopped with the Codename Sailor V manga. It wasn’t until the Sailor Moon manga was finished when Naoko decided to pick the manga again and finish it.

Because of it, we got these easter eggs (should I call it like that?).

Usagi and Naru briefly appears in the Codename Sailor V manga.

And so does Ami

And Rei

And Makoto

THE FEELS