Amazon.com
This 4½-hour video set is an excellent introduction to the Sailor Moon series. Serena (Sailor Moon) and the other Sailor Scouts live as ordinary schoolgirls, apparently unaware of their magical powers. We learn that after their last battle with the Negaforce, they've been shocked into amnesia. When evil threatens, they must re-awaken to their powers and responsibilities in order to save the world. As Sailor Venus exclaims, "I feel the strong urge to do something other than run around in circles!" The architects of this new threat are the attractive, green-skinned Allen and Anne. This cool couple is bent on consuming the life force of Earth's teenagers to fuel their jaded passions. With a plethora of minions, ranging from a rather racy minotaur to multitentacled monsters, this dissolute duo is consistently thwarted by the Sailor Scouts. The plot is simplistic; it is the world Sailor Moon inhabits that makes this series so charming and popular with kids (mostly girls) age 6 and up. It is a place where girls take the forefront and the guys are second bananas. You would expect Serena, as the leader of the Scouts, to be a strong and tough-minded commander, not a boy-crazy ditz; however, she's lazy, crazy, and somewhat superficial. But the other Scouts are ultimately subordinate to her because she has the most important quality for the fight against evil--a kind and generous heart. In the end, it is not strategy or power that preserves this corny world, but love. --Clarke Fletcher