Codename: Sailor V

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Artist/Writer: Naoko Takeuchi

Published in: 1993-1997 (Japan), 2011 (America)

American Publisher: Random House/Kodansha USA

Genres: shoujo, magical girl

Premise: A lively 13-year-old girl is given the power to transform into a magical girl and fight crime

Volumes: 2

Availability: Easily available on sites like Amazon and RightStuf.

Manga Review (Volume 1)
Codename: Sailor V is both surprising and dull.

It's the precursor to Sailor Moon, as well as its inspiration. Apparently, Sailor V was picked up for an anime adaptation, at which point the anime studio sat down with V's manga-ka Naoko Takeuchi to re-work Sailor V for the anime adaptation. The result was Sailor Moon. Takeuchi then began working references to Moon into V.

V is very much not Sailor Moon. It's a traditional magical girl story containing only one 13-year-old magical girl, with a much lighter, goofier tone than Moon. It's fundamentally a sitcom. Indeed, the heroine spends most of her time fighting petty crime rather than a long-form antagonist. While life lessons are dispensed, most of the story focuses on comedic misunderstandings and the protagonist's silliness. There's almost no larger story arc.

The art works; neither crowded nor sparse, it stays out of the way. Takeuchi's characters do have a slightly elongated style common to shoujo.

Ed Sizemore pointed out that the artwork focuses on the clothing to an almost fetishistic level (not his words). While there is a lot of attention paid to this, it's no worse than in other shoujo works like Card Captor Sakura, and can be chalked up to many girls' almost fetishistic attention to fashion.

So, the manga has a problematic dual problem. If you come looking for Sailor Moon, you'll find instead a traditional magical girl comedy. If you prepare yourself for a magical girl story, you'll find a very traditional magical girl comedy, with little to recommend itself beyond that.