コードネームはセーラーV

CODENAME WA SAILOR V

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
3
RELEASE
July 3, 1997
CHAPTERS
15

DESCRIPTION

Like Sailor Moon, Minako Aino is a normal 13-year-old schoolgirl until a fateful day when a white cat introduces himself to her and tells her she has the power to transform into the hero, Sailor V. Using a magic pen to transform, Sailor V fights the evil agents of the Dark Agency as she strives to protect the earth.

(Source: Kodansha USA)

Note: In 2004, the series was re-released in two shinsouban editions. The last chapter of the original print was split in two, hence it having 16 chapters. The chapter count follows the tankoubon release.

CAST

Minako Aino
Artemis
Saijou Ace
Usagi Tsukino
Rei Hino
Makoto Kino
Ami Mizuno
Naru Oosaka
Motoki Furuhata
Hikaru

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO CODENAME WA SAILOR V

Cover Art for Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

MANGA DramaBishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

REVIEWS

infinitely
72/100
Code Name Sailor V is a short, cute, introduction to the leader of the Sailor Senshi
Code Name: Sailor V

Series experience: I watched the original Sailor Moon anime

Short review: Code Name Sailor V is a fun prequel to the Sailor Moon series, where we get to know Minako (Sailor V) better as her fun self before meeting the other Senshi. The manga is quite similar to Sailor Moon - it's almost a prototype, but it's still an enjoyable read.

Full review:

Warning: review contains spoilers

Sailor V is a short Sailor Moon prequel series, and from the get-go we are introduced to Minako Aino as a ditzy, loud, boy-crazy, and funny heroine. The beginning almost mirrors Usagi's first becoming Sailor Moon as well. Personality-wise they are almost the same, and there are even parallels to Naru-chan and Umino characters. Minako has a crush on Motoki-san too!

Putting all that aside though, Code Name: Sailor V has a separate cast that I would have liked to see in the anime as well. We get some cute origin stories like how Minako decides to always wear a red ribbon in her hair, and how she met Artemis. The monster of the week concept is still alive in this series, but some of the side stories are pretty interesting - one of them is the doomed love story of Sailor Venus and Kunzite in the form of a high school short romance with "Saitou-kun."

One of the important characters is Phantom Ace - he plays something similar to the Tuxedo Mask we know and love, a vigilante hero of sorts, except he is actually Sailor V's enemy. This leads to Sailor V remembering her past as the leader of the Sailor Senshi and why she has the powers and the transformation wand, among other things. All of this is crammed into a short 15 chapters, which makes it a bit bittersweet as we are still getting to know her when the story moves on to the Sailor Moon we know and it becomes mostly an Usagi-Mamoru show.

There's not much that can be done, but I was quite sad to see that Sailor Venus was eternally doomed in terms of romance. It's quite ironic that way, but it also makes her a better fit as the leader of the Senshi.

(Just a quick note, anything of the Sailor Moon series has "old-style" art so it could be a turn off to some readers.)

Overall, it was a quick and enjoyable read, and it's a nice backstory for Minako that touches on both a lot of comedy and a lot of tragedy. Still, I wish we saw more of Minako as a main character instead of just a path to Usagi, and that her story wasn't so crammed this way.

Plot 7/10
Art 7/10
Characters 7.5/10

Overall personal enjoyment 7.5/10

Top 3 fave characters

Minako-this is really centered on her so if you dislike her maybe skip this. Minako here is light-hearted, really quite funny, and adorably klutzy
Saitou-kun- yes it's just one chapter but I really am digging for Senshi x Shitennou crumbs ? the whole doomed love thing is just so sad too
Phantom Ace- I wish we saw more of him (even though he turns out to be a nobody) he was a pretty clever villain

Other: Toshio Wakagi and Natsuna Sakurada

Thank you for reading!
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Juliko25
53/100
Codename Sailor V may have set the stage for Sailor Moon, but it doesn't have much else to offer than that.
Before there was Sailor Moon, there was Sailor V. In 1991, mangaka Naoko Takeuchi, at the time popular for her figure-skating manga The Cherry Project, was offered the chance to do a one-shot story about anything she wanted. Being a fan of both magical girl and tokusatsu shows, she created Codename: Sailor V, intended to be a humorous one-off in which a girl has powers due to her connection to Venus, both the planet and the goddess, and fights a bunch of bad guys. Toei took notice of it and contacted Takeuchi in hopes of expanding it into an anime, though one with more characters and in the style of a Super Sentai show. Eventually that series became Sailor Moon. Codename: Sailor V is basically proto-Sailor Moon, only focusing on one girl, Minako Aino, and is a more comedic villain-of-the-week style story. Honestly, I don't see much point in explaining the plot, as it's literally what I just described. Minako has a problem, Artemis gets mad at her for her antics, a villain of the week appears causing trouble, Minako turns into Sailor V and saves the day, rinse and repeat.

It's easy to see the character tropes, designs, and plots that would get reused for Sailor Moon later on. Yes, by designs, I mean character designs. Hikaru is just Naru if she had Ami's hairstyle, Amano is literally just Umino but rich, and Phantom Ace is ground zero for Tuxedo Mask. Though why does that police chief lady who looks like Rei have the exact same name as Usagi's teacher? Minako herself is literally just Usagi but more athletic, which is funny because people think Minako a rip-off of Usagi when it's actually the other way around. Granted, that becomes muddied by the fact that the final two chapters tie more into Sailor Moon and inform Minako's backstory before she joins the other Sailor Guardians in the series proper. Not that Minako's backstory does much to make her a more rounded character because Codename: Sailor V isn't interested in deep characterization, or exploring any other characters for that matter. Yeah, I'm just gonna rip this band-aid off, none of the characters here are particularly interesting or memorable. They're just a bunch of one-note archetypes, especially the villains, who are just there to be one-off villains of the week and that's it. Many of them are just templates that Takeuchi would use for characters in Sailor Moon, and because of this, they don't change or develop at all, resulting in them all being as bland as white rice. Oh, and some of the villains are VERY unflattering racial stereotypes. Need I say more?

This could also be the result of Codename: Sailor V's overall format. Originally intended as a one-shot, it got expanded into three volumes...and I think it probably should have either stayed a one-shot, or cut down on chapters, because a lot of them are just reusing the same formula I mentioned above. The narrative just consists of Minako getting into episodic fights with the villain of the week and solving a problem with the power of Deus Ex Machinas she pulls out of her ass and that's it. Other than the last two chapters, every single chapter follows this exact plot. There isn't much of an overarching story, and what little story it has is woefully predictable, even by the standards of the nineties, so as a result, the manga drags on for longer than is necessary. Even the plot progression can come off as super clunky at some points, often with very little in the way of transition, making it seem like two things happen back to back with no proper lead-up to them. You could skip a bunch of chapters and lose absolutely nothing in the process. Granted, Takeuchi learned from this and made Sailor Moon's story much more substantial and engaging, though whether she succeeded is a point of debate to this day.

As for the artwork, it's...okay. Takeuchi makes no secret of the fact that she loves her long-legged women, though there's a significant amount of anatomical issues. Minako is said to be 13, but when she's in Sailor V form, she's often drawn in a way that makes her look much older than her stated age. Overusage of screentones makes it hard to actually see what's happening at various points, and the paneling and backgrounds can get very cluttered most of the time. Furthermore, all its attempts at humor range from falling flat on their face to relying on outdated jokes that would absolutely not fly today, one of which the English translation smartly got rid of. You know the one. That said, while I admittedly didn't enjoy Codename: Sailor V, it can't be denied that its existence paved the way for Sailor Moon, so fans of the series owe Sailor V that much. It's not the best story in the world, but we wouldn't have Sailor Moon if Codename: Sailor V didn't set down the pavement for it. I still wouldn't recommend reading it though, especially if you want a more serious story and don't want to deal with unfunny episodic villain-of-the-week plots.
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