Sailor Senshi - Critical Attention

Critical Attention

Sailor Moon is described largely in terms of its characters—a sustained, 18-volume narrative about a group of young heroines who are simultaneously heroic and introspective, active and emotional, dutiful and ambitious. The combination proved extremely successful, and Sailor Moon became internationally popular in both manga and anime formats.

The function of the Sailor Senshi themselves has been analyzed by critics, often in terms of feminist theory. Susan J. Napier describes the Sailor Senshi as "powerful, yet childlike," suggesting that this is because Sailor Moon is aimed towards an audience of young girls. She states that the Sailor Senshi readily accept their powers and destinies and do not agonize over them, which can be read as an expression of power and success. The Senshi have also been described as merging male and female traits, being both desirable and powerful. As sexualized teen heroines, they are significantly different from the sexless representation of 1980s teen heroines such as Nausicaä. Anne Allison notes that the use of the sailor fuku as a costume makes it easy for girls to identify with the Senshi, but also for older males to see the Senshi as sex symbols.

Mary Grigsby considers that the Sailor Senshi blend ancient characteristics and symbols of femininity with modern ideas, reminding the audience of a pre-modern time when females were equal to males, but other critics draw parallels with the modern character type of the aggressive cyborg woman, pointing out that the Senshi are augmented by their magical equipment.

Kazuko Minomiya has described the daily lives of the girls within the series as risoukyou, or "utopic". They are shown as enjoying many leisure activities such as shopping, visiting amusement parks, and hanging out at the Crown Arcade. According to Allison, Minomiya points out that the depiction of life is harder and more serious for male superheroes. The characters "double" as ordinary girls and as "celestially-empowered superheroes". The "highly stylized" transformation that the Senshi go through has been said to "symbolically separate" the negative aspects of the characters (laziness, for example) and the positive aspects of the superheroine, and gives each girl her unique uniform and "a set of individual powers". Some commentators have read the transformation of the Sailor Senshi as symbolic of puberty, as cosmetics appear on the Senshi and their uniforms highlight cleavages, slim waists, and long legs, which "outright force the pun on heavenly bodies".

Differences in character between the Senshi mirror differences in their hairstyles, fashion, and magical items, which has translated well into doll lines. Sales of the Sailor Senshi fashion dolls overtook those of Licca-chan in the 1990s. Mattel attributed this to the "fashion-action" blend of the Sailor Moon storyline; doll accessories included both fashion items and the Senshi's weapons.

Much of the Senshi's strength stems from their reliance and friendship with other girls rather than from men.

Unlike the female Power Rangers, who as the series go on become more unisex in both costume and poses, the Sailor Senshi's costumes become frillier and more "feminine".

Jason Thompson sees the Sailor Moon anime as reinvigorating the magical girl genre by adding dynamic heroines and action-oriented plots. After its success, many similar titles immediately followed, including Magic Knight Rayearth, Wedding Peach, Nurse Angel Ririka and Revolutionary Girl Utena.