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Even the most hardcore Sailor Moon fan still might have a lot to learn about the series. The series is filled with various Easter Eggs, from in-jokes about the animation process to shout-outs to various pop culture icons.
Some jokes were lost in translation, and quite a few dropped when the series was dubbed overseas. On the other hand, new jokes sometimes got added during the dubbing process. Because of this, plenty of classic episodes of the ’90s show that fans think they know by heart could yield completely different insights upon a rewatch.
10 The Animators Themselves Appear In One Episode
In the episode “Protect the Children’s Dreams! Friendship Linked by Anime,” Usagi, Ami, and Rei are investigating an animation studio working on a Sailor V anime. Many of the animators who appear in the story are based on the show’s real crewmembers, such as Kazuko and Hiromi, based on Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita.
Ayako Kurata, Junichi Satō, Takuya Igarashi, Kunihiko Ikuhara, Yasue Itasaka & Takao Yoshizawa also get shout-outs in the episode. The episode did take a few liberties, however. The real Hiromi is a man and he and the real Kazuko are husband and wife.
9 The Animation Team Also Referenced Their Previous Work
Many of the animation team’s previous works also occasionally pop up in the series. During the infamous scene with Rei’s pink overalls, a pink fish appears on Rei’s bag. This was a shout-out to the anime series, Goldfish Warning!, which shared a few staff members with Sailor Moon, like Junichi Sato and Takanori Arisawa. Toys based on the characters also show up throughout the first season.
A similar joke is made with the anime-exclusive Moonlight Knight. He’s based on an old tokusatsu hero called Moonlight Mask, whose theatrical films were produced by Toei.
8 Chibiusa Might Be An Homage To Previous Magical Girls
As Sailor Moon was one of the first magical girl anime to air in the West, a lot of the references it made to previous shojo series often got lost on Western fans. For instance, it’s been noted that Chibiusa could be seen as a parody of Minky Momo, who is also a pink-haired princess that hypnotized a family into thinking she lives with them while trying to save her world.
Of course, unlike Momo, Chibiusa actually is related to her host family, just not in the way they think. But she still wouldn’t be the first daughter in anime to go back in time to live with her school-aged mother. A previous example of that plotline would be Mama Is a Fourth Grader.
7 Mako’s Ponytail Is A Reference To Mermaid Princess
Some classic anime fans have suspected that Mako is partially based on a previous magical girl of the same name, Mako, the heroine of Mahō no Mako-chan. While Mako the Mermaid has loose, red hair in her original form, as a human, her hair turns brown and she normally wears it in a ponytail.
Also, Makoto Kino has been known to wear similar outfits to the one the earlier anime heroine wears, including both a green and white version and a yellow and green version.
6 There’s A Reason Why Most Of The Monsters Are Female
Fans might have noted that many of the monsters are, more often than not, female. Most of the exceptions were human men under a spell. In fact, some English translations took note of this and translated “Youma,” the recurring monsters of the first series, into “witches.”
Some fans have noted that this trend has its origins in Cutey Honey. The titular Cutey Honey also exclusively fought female monsters with few exceptions.
5 Diana Was Named After A Deleted Character
A running joke in the series is that the talking cats are named after various Greco-Roman moon goddesses: Artemis, Luna, and Diana. However, Diana’s name was also from a character who didn’t survive the planning stages.
According to the Materials Collection, Usagi was meant to encounter a fairy named Diana while on the moon. The character appeared to follow the Senshi back to Earth and was a nuisance to Luna. In the final series, her role was usurped by Queen Serenity. The Sailor Power Guardians also serve a similar role.
4 One Episode Is Filled With Gone With The Wind Shout-Outs
Before reuniting with Artemis, Luna had a romantic encounter with a tomcat in “Loved and Chased! Luna’s Worst Day Ever,” an episode filled with shout-outs to Gone With The Wind. The tomcat in question is named Rhett Butler, the little girl who owns him has Ohara for a last name, and is even dressed like Scarlett O’Hara. In addition, Rei makes a comment about Yuuichirou being “gone with the wind.” According to supplementary material, the main cat that bullies Luna in the episode was even named “Ashley,” sharing a name with Rhett Butler’s rival.
This was sometimes lost in foreign dubs. In one English dub, Rhett Butler became “Hercules.” Allegedly, he was called “James Bond” in the Polish dub.
3 Rei Has A Thing For Michael Jackson
In the episode “Chibi-Usa’s Little Rhapsody of Love,” Usagi manages to distract Rei by telling her someone named Michael is nearby, causing her to go hysterical and scream when she realizes he’s not there.
This mysterious Michael was meant to be Michael Jackson, who Michie Tomizawa, Rei’s voice actress, was known to be a fan of. Some foreign dubs went for the direct approach and had Usagi outright say, “Michael Jackson” or “MJ.”
2 Sailor Mercury Makes A RoboCop Reference
Sailor Mercury is able to access powerful, magic technology, like her visor and her mini supercomputer. In the episode they are introduced, “Usagi’s Misfortune! Watch Out for the Rushing Clocks,” the screen shows RoboCop’s three prime directives: “Serve the public trust… Protect the innocent… Uphold the law.” On the screen, however, “innocent” appears to be misspelled as “innolent.”
These are the prime directives programmed into Officer Murphy in RoboCop. Ironically enough, one early idea was to have Sailor Mercury be a cyborg.
1 There Are A Few References To The ’90s Toyline
When the Outer Senshi were introduced, an interesting quirk appeared in their transformation sequences: lipstick magically appears on them. There’s a reason for this: toys based on their wands that were released at the time came with lipstick. In addition, fans have theorized that the reason the Inner Senshi’s nails change color during the transformation sequences, despite them all wearing gloves, might have also been because of the toys that came with nail gloss.
Sometimes, the toyline had a direct effect on the anime. The Sailor Starlights, for example, were originally intended to have short hair until Naoko Takeuchi was told it would be easier to make dolls of them if they had longer hair.
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