Sailor Senshi
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The Sailor Senshi (セーラー戦士 sērā senshi, prob. from セーラー服 sērā-fuku, girls' uniform + 戦士 senshi, warrior/soldier) are the group of heroines from the metaseries Sailor Moon. They are known in the English translations as the Sailor Scouts or Sailor Soldiers.
In Japanese, senshi is a word meaning "soldier" or "warrior"; however, Sailor Moon is so well-known amongst English speaking anime fans that to them, absent other context, it invariably refers to the Sailor Senshi (despite the term's use in other anime such as Fushigi Yūgi). Contrariwise, usage of the terms "Scouts" or "Soldiers" (with or without "Sailor" prefixed) to denote the Senshi is comparatively rare. (The "Guardian" in the title of the live-action TV series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is also presumably a translation of Senshi, but this is otherwise unheard.)
The term "Sailor Senshi" in the Japanese anime and manga is used descriptively for all Sailors; the group from our solar system is officially called the "Sailor Team". Tuxedo Kamen (Tuxedo Mask) is also described as a senshi in the series, although according to creator Naoko Takeuchi a male cannot be a Sailor Senshi. A person with a Sailor Crystal is automatically a Sailor Senshi. The anime plays with this convention: the Sailor Starlights are male when in civilian form, but female after they have transformed into Sailor Senshi. Whether or not they are dual-gendered by nature is not revealed. They are always female in the manga, although disguised by male clothing in their civilian forms. In the manga, Tuxedo Mask also has powers similar to the other senshi; in both the anime and manga he has a true star seed of a senshi with his planetary domain being Earth.
Like almost all Japanese borrowings, senshi is both the singular and plural form.
Inner vs. Outer Senshi
The Inner Senshi (the original five person team) and Outer Senshi (introduced later) are two distinct subsets of the Sailor Senshi. Although in the story there is a distinct divide between the two groups, "Inner Senshi" and "Outer Senshi" are non-canonical, though popular, fan jargon (although see the section Japanese naming below).The Inner Senshi are Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus. Sailor Moon is sometimes listed among them, but technically their purpose is to serve as protectors of Princess Serenity. In the manga only, they were romantically matched with the four guardians of Prince Endymion during the Silver Millennium.
The Outer Senshi are Sailor Pluto, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, and Sailor Saturn. They protect the solar system from external threats. Sailor Pluto is introduced earliest, during the Nemesis arc; the remainder of the Outer Senshi are not introduced until the Death Busters arc, Sailor Saturn being introduced the last, as she was not one of the Senshi who defended the Silver Millennium; rather, her appearance heralds the end of the world. Her appearance alongside the other Outer Senshi in later arcs assosiates her with this group, however.
The senshi are referred to as the princesses of their respective planets in the manga and North American dub, but not in either the original language anime or the live action show.
Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Chibi-Moon, the Sailor Starlights, and other allied or Senshi-like characters are understood not to be included in either of these groups.
Japanese naming
There is a common misapprehension amongst American fans that, in the original Japanese, the term "Sailor Team" (either in Roman letters, or as katakana セーラーチーム sērā chīmu) is used to refer to the Inner Senshi. However, this term is not applied exclusively to the Inner Senshi; it often includes Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and/or Chibi-Moon.In the original manga, the terms yon shūgoshin no senshi (四守護神の戦士, lit. "four warriors of the guardian gods") and gaibu taiyōkei senshi (外部太陽系戦士, lit. "outer solar system warriors") are occasionally used to describe, respectively, the Inner Senshi (sans Moon) and the Outer Senshi. Use of these phrases is comparatively rare.
The musical adaptations use the similar phrase gaibu taiyōkei yon senshi ("outer solar system four warriors") for the Outer Senshi, but refer to the Inner Senshi as naibu taiyōkei yon senshi (内部太陽系四戦士, lit. "inner solar system four warriors") instead.
The terms 外部戦士 gaibu senshi and 内部戦士 naibu senshi are occasionally seen in use by Japanese fans, but these have nowhere near the frequency of use that the corresponding phrases "Outer Senshi" and "Inner Senshi" have in English.
Basis of the division
The storyline-implied division between 'Inner' and 'Outer' is not based on any mythological, astronomical, or astrological tradition. Modern astronomy divides the outer planets from the inner between Mars and Jupiter, which in our solar system is both the site of the asteroid belt and the point of division between the gas giants and the interior terrestrial planets. Contrariwise, modern astrology (both Western and Eastern) divides the planets between Saturn and Uranus: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were only recently discovered, and are not visible from Earth with the naked eye, while the other planets have been known since antiquity.Instead, the reason is more likely that a typical sentai team has five members, and the planets for the Inner Senshi were simply selected to fill that number. The Outer Senshi thus did not exist in the early run of the manga, and remained mostly separate from the Inner Senshi throughout.
Although there are many significant moments when they do not hold true, the stereotypes are generally that the Inner Senshi are warmer, more human and concerned with protecting and saving everyone in a conflict; the Outer Senshi are colder, more focused and less willing to work as a team. The Outers are also significantly more powerful, with Sailor Uranus being the physically strongest of the team and Sailor Saturn possessing the "ultimate" world-destroying attack, the act of bringing down the Silence Glaive. Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, and Saturn each battle with accessory weapons: the Talisman Mirror, Space Blaster Sword, Time Key, and Silence Glaive. Sailor Pluto is capable of stopping time, and Sailor Saturn's Silent Wall blocks attacks from even Sailor Galaxia (the most powerful Sailor in existence, in the anime series)--feats unmatched by the other Senshi. Notably, though, the Inner Senshi transformed into their Super forms under their own power while the Outer Senshi had to rely on the help of a crystal to transform into their Super forms. More significantly, it is often through the compassion of Sailor Moon and the Inners, rather than through force, that victories are achieved.
By the end of Sailor Moon S, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, the more antagonistic members of the Outer quartet, have demonstrated a respect for the Inners and for Sailor Moon. In the anime, the Outers appear as a complete group only in the very beginning of the final series, when Sailor Saturn is revived, and very end, when Sailor Galaxia invades Earth. For the last, mortal battle against Galaxia, all four of them separate from the Inner Senshi to face the enemy: Michiru (Sailor Neptune) famously asks Haruka (Uranus), "Is it alright to leave without saying goodbye to her (Usagi)?" to which the response is, "You're acting like we're not going to see them again."
Other Sailor Soldiers
The manga also features a variety of other senshi such as the Sailor Quartet, often referred to in English fandom as the "Asteroid Senshi." These senshi are Sailor Chibi-Moon's guardians, just like the Inner Senshi are Sailor Moon's guardians. In the manga, Sailor Phobos and Sailor Deimos appear as Sailor Mars's crows (incidentally, the two are actual moons of Mars and in the last arc are said to come from the planet Coronis, which has been destroyed by Sailor Lead Crow). Another lesser-known senshi is Usagi's other daughter, Kousagi, also known as "Sailor Parallel Moon", who [appeared] in a small non-canon manga in one of Takeuchi's "Materials Collection" publications. One of the more humorous "senshi" created in the manga is Tuxedo Fatty Mask, originally Tubby Kamen (who appears in TOKYOPOP's Chix Comix Sailor Moon StarS number 2, pg 162).In the Sailor Stars arc, particularly the manga, it was revealed that Sailor Senshi number possibly in the thousands across the galaxy: there are innumerable sailors for every star, planet, and celestial body that possesses the "starseed." This crystal is the energy of a planet and the core of a Sailor's power. The most prominent of these "alien" Sailors were the Sailor Starlights, a trio of senshi which arrived from the destroyed planet of Kinmoku in search of their own princess. Although there are a number of differences between the manga and anime versions on these characters, both versions drew an intentional comparison with the Silver Millennium plotline: the three Starlights (Sailor Star Healer, Sailor Star Maker, and Sailor Star Fighter) are the guardians of their princess Kinmoku, of the Red Ceres Kingdom. In the manga, Kinmoku, like Princess Serenity, is a Sailor Senshi herself (Sailor Kakyuu).
The Sailor Stars arc was concerned with the Sailor Wars, an epic struggle between the Sailor Senshi across the galaxy. In the manga, all of Sailor Moon's battles against enemies such as Queen Metallia, Wiseman, Master Pharaoh 90, etc. were portrayed as a small part of this galactic war. The main antagonist is Sailor Galaxia, once the most powerful Sailor Senshi in the galaxy, who has been possessed by the force of Chaos. Galaxia ironically possesses one of the mightiest starseeds in the universe but was from a tiny, backwater planet; she was corrupted by Chaos (the accounts differ between the anime and manga versions) and went on a galactic rampage seizing starseeds from countless Sailor Senshi that she either killed or converted. Under her command are numerous warriors who in the anime are former Sailor Senshi turned evil (and in the manga are ordinary fighters who betrayed and killed the Sailors of their planets in hopes of gaining a starseed and becoming true Sailors). Sailor Iron Mouse (who killed Sailor Chuu, in the manga); Sailor Aluminum Siren (killed Sailor Mermaid); Sailor Lead Crow (killed Sailor Coronis); and Sailor Tin Nyanko (killed Sailor Mau) are presented in the anime as the Anima-Mates. In the anime, Princess Kakyuu specifically states that the Anima-Mates were former senshi corrupted by Galaxia, meaning they did not kill and acquire senshi powers as in the manga.
The last of these is Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon, who destroyed Sailor Cocoon (referenced in the materials collection) but she was not given an appearance in the anime. As Sailor Anima-Mates, these Sailor Senshi get their power from Galaxia's bracelets, which allow them to live on without a starseed. They each have a unique attack, some several, which by implication was patterned after the attack of the original, "good" Sailor (i.e. Sailor Aluminum Siren attacks with Galactica Tsunami, which was likely originally Mermaid Tsunami).
In the manga, the Sailor Senshi of our solar system, except for Sailor Moon, were killed, ether by a Animamate or Galaxia, reduced to their star-seed self, resurrected with the bracelets around their hands and converted to Galaxia's side in the final battle and have the prefixes to their attacks replaced by "Galactica". This made for something of a traumatic battle for Sailor Moon, who in the process of the fight, had her wings ripped off her.
The manga also introduces other evil Sailors under Galaxia's army, including Sailor Phi, Sailor Chi, Sailor Lethe, and Sailor Mnemosyne. For its part, both the manga and anime demonstrate that while Sailor Galaxia may be the strongest Sailor Senshi in battle, Sailor Moon possesses an enduring power of love that is both unmatched and ultimately wins the galactic struggle. In the manga, Sailor Galaxia even states that Sailor Moon is the galaxy's strongest soldier and possesses the strongest Sailor Crystal, the Mystical Silver Crystal.
Another less-known senshi is from the SeraMyu musicals, named Sailor Astarte.
In addition to the many Sailor Senshi that are mentioned in the various stories, the idea of a Sailor Senshi has expanded into a fan based hobby in which fans of the series create their own original Sailor Senshi with their own unique design and often in-depth character profile. These characters are often the basis for fanfiction stories and are also often used in role playing games (RPGs). The characters range widely in their appearance and relevance to the original story. They are commonly referred to as "otaku senshi."
External links
- [Debunking Common Misconceptions] DIES GAUDII's description of the term "Sailor Team"
- ["Inner Senshi and Outer Senshi"] DIES GAUDII's description of the original terms
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