2.0. Questions About the Timeline and Continuity
2.01. Where does Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon take place?
2.02. When does Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon take place?
2.03. Over what period of time does Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon take place?
2.04. Why devise a timeline for Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon in the first place?
2.05. What's with the inclusion of the births and deaths of certain celebrities and historical figures in
        the timeline and not others?
2.06. What is considered part of official Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon continuity?
2.07. Are there any other implied dates in the series?
2.08. How much time did Minako Aino (Sailor Venus) spend in England?
2.09. Hey, you forgot Parallel Sailor Moon!
2.10. What about Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Another Story?

2.0. Questions About the Timeline and Continuity

2.01. Where does Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon take place?

Regardless of which incarnation of the show that you're watching, most of the series takes place in the city of Tokyo, Japan, specifically in the vicinity of the Azabu Juuban district of Minato-ku. As mentioned elsewhere, the tower prominently seen in the background in most episodes is the Tokyo Tower and not the Eiffel Tower. Though the myriad locations seen throughout the series are, for the most part, fictional, some of them aren't and those that are often have either eerily similar real world counterparts in the exact same location or are visually based off of an existing structure. See X-File 002: Reality Check, Please! for more information.

2.02. When does Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon take place?

The events in the series were, by all appearances, contemporary and thus took place at about the same time the anime was originally aired on television and the manga was originally published in Japan: the early to late 1990s. This is only valid for Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon and not for Codename: Sailor V, as stories belonging to the latter series were intermittently published long after the former ended.

2.03. Over what period of time does Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon take
         place?

The official answer is that the anime takes place over the course of approximately two years and the manga over the course of around four years. The unofficial answer is that this is a load of crock and that the events in both the anime and the manga occur over a time period of no less than four and a half years. This isn't arrogance talking, by the way. I have researched this matter to death and come to the conclusion that this is one instance where official sources are just wrong and that the anime continuity director is an idiot. If he (or she) weren't, then the girls (with the sole exception of Chibi Usa) wouldn't have stopped aging and played hookey for the entire fourth season of the show before entering Grade 10 as if nothing had happened or gone through Grade 8 twice, to name the three biggest screw-ups, continuity-wise. 

In order to illustrate my point, what follows are, as far as I can tell, a complete list of all the exact dates ever given during the course of the anime series. For the sake of simplicity, the years have been omitted. 

Exact Dates:
1. Start of Grade 8 (April): Before Episode 1.
2. May 23rd: Episode 11.
3. May 30th: Episode 12.
4. Summer vacation: Episode 20.
5. August 22nd (newspaper article): Sometime before Episode 27.
6. Winter season (snow): Episode 41.
7. Hanami (between last two weeks of March and first two weeks of April in Tokyo): Episode 51.
8. Summer vacation: Episode 67.
9. Christmas season: Episode 78.
10. Start of Grade 9 (April): After Episode 88 and before Episode 90.
11. June 30th (Usagi Tsukino's Birthday): Episodes 101 and 102.
12. Summer vacation: Episode 105.
13. Winter season (snow): Episode 122.
14. Summer vacation: Episode 144.
15. January 15th (Coming-of-Age Day): Episode 160.
16. February 14th (Valentine's Day): Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S Movie.
17. Start of Grade 10 (April): Around Episode 167.
18. June 15th: Episode 180.
19. Summer vacation: Episode 183.
20. Between September 1st and 3rd: Episode 184
21. September 30th: Episode 189.
22. Around October 19th: Episode 190.

Official sources would have us believe that Episodes 1 to 89 take place during the Grade 8 school semester, Episodes 90 to 166 during the Grade 9 school semester, and Episodes 167 to 200 during the Grade 10 school semester. Now, allow me to clarify exactly what this means in relative terms for Usagi and company:

I. Since they had two summer vacations while in Grades 8 and 9, summer comes no less than twice a year.
II. Winter also comes no less than twice a year.
III. Hanami (a period in spring during which cherry trees blossom) either occurs more than once a year or the entire battle with the Dark Kingdom lasted for just under two weeks since school starts in April. Though since we've previously established that summer and winter come twice a year, spring probably does, too.
IV. The Sailor Soldiers kicked Master Pharaoh 90's ass during their Christmas vacation and wasted the entire Dead Moon Circus before February 14th of the following year, while somehow still finding the time to study for their high school entrance exams. And you thought you had some rough semesters in junior high. 

Yeah. That all makes perfect sense, now doesn't it? 

As you can see, the official explanation just doesn't hold water.  And, unlike Ranma 1/2 or The Simpsons, where visual cues marking the passage of time are largely meaningless, time does pass in the Sailor Moon Universe in some fashion, something reflected not only by the fact that the main characters age and mature as the series progresses but also by seasonal changes which have important influences on either the plot or the activities of the villains. Kaolinite wouldn't have been able to target Usagi as easily as she did if it hadn't been the latter's birthday, for example, and, while not impossible, it's pretty hard to claim that certain episodes - such as those where the girls are seen either lounging by a pool in their swimsuits or out skiing in the mountains - could happen at any other time of year than summer or winter, respectively.

There's a certain individual (who shall remain nameless here) who has told me that I can't take all the exact dates in the series at face value and has pretty much picked apart my timeline because he believes that it's inherantly wrong. Quite frankly, what he's doing is easy. Hell, I could do that myself and avoid the middleman altogether.  My challenge to him - and anyone else who wants to criticize my chronology - is, at the risk of sounding self-absorbed and egotistical, simply this: don't stop halfway. If you're so eager to prove me wrong, then come up with a better alternative that takes everything that I have into account. And if you succeed, then send me your revised timeline and I will gladly post it here for everyone to see.

Phew, I believe I've tooted my own horn enough for today. 

2.04. Why devise a timeline for Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon in the first
         place?

Call it a personal interest of mine. I'm a huge fan of time-travel movies such as the Back to the Future trilogy, video games like Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, and television series about parallel earths with alternate pasts and futures such as those seen in Sliders or the various Star Trek series that I decided it might be fun to do something that no one's ever tried before and come up with a coherant timeline for one of my favorite anime. Little did I suspect when I started just how difficult it would end up being. As I've said several times before here and elsewhere, I personally think that the show's continuity director should be shot. 

The timeline I've devised is far from perfect and there are several instances where I've had to try and come up with excuses to explain away serious plot holes and continuity errors while still trying to maintain its overall sense and integrity. The biggest reason for the problems I've had with the chronology is because I've tried to integrate all the exact dates mentioned, holidays celebrated, and seasonal changes observed throughout the entire series, and the show was never meant to withstand the level of scrutiny I've subjected it to. But I'm a major continuity buff and I doubt that fans will criticize me for it, though they may question my sanity. 

2.05. What's with the inclusion of the births and deaths of certain
         celebrities and historical figures in the timeline and not others?

At first, there doesn't seem to be any real pattern to the inviduals listed in my timeline: two swordsmen, three scientists, two composers, a poet, and two athletes. The only link between them is the fact that they are all people who are known to exist in both the real world and on Sailor Moon Earth and were mentioned at some point in the series by one of the characters. The individuals listed all have direct counterparts as opposed to certain others with approximate counterparts who've made appearances in the anime. This includes such people as the young animators Hiromi Matsuno and Kazuko Tadashita from Episode 21, for example, who are the alternate selves of Hiromi Matsushita and Kazuko Tadano, the former of whom was a key animator and the latter a character designer for the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon anime.

2.06. What is considered part of official Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon
         continuity?

Strangely enough, this is a highly complicated question for which there's no definitive answer. What does and doesn't count as part of official continuity surprisingly depends a lot on one's personal point of view, as you'll soon see. All I can do is give my own opinion, my reasons for having it, and then leave it up to you to make up your own mind. It also depends on whether or not you're referring to the anime or the manga, which are separate and independent entities.

If you're talking about the anime, almost all 200 episodes count as part of official continuity. The only one that doesn't is the clips show (Episode 89), as so many offhand comments and references are made by the Sailor Soldiers in it about things that they couldn't possibly know (such as who gets top billing in the show's credits) unless they were themselves aware that they were fictional characters, which is much the same reason why virtually all the pre and post-episode teasers are also non-canonical. The Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S Special and the theatrical short Ami-chan's First Love: A Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S Special, on the other hand, are part of official continuity. However, there seems to be general disagreement among fans as to whether or not the three movies are part of canon. There are, from what I've seen, two main reasons for this:

1. People seem to have major problems figuring out where the movies can be chronologically shoehorned into official continuity. And I can't really blame them for being confused because, from what I can tell, the movies take place sometime during the season which they're named after but we're never told exactly when this is. The best way to approach this daunting task is to carefully take note of what happens in each one and work your way backwards. What follows are my conclusions based on the evidence that can may be gleamed from watching each one of the movies carefully, and they're purposely friggin' long and detailed explanations, too, so that no one will write me any e-mails with follow-up questions asking how I reached them. 

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R Movie
Known Facts:
I. It occurs sometime after the end of the first season but before the beginning of the third, so that means it happens between Episodes 46 and 90.
II. Sailor Moon has the Crystal Star and the Cutie Moon Rod in her possession, both of which she received from the spirit of Queen Serenity in Episode 51, so it happens between Episodes 51 and 90.
III. Chibi Usa is present, and since she arrived in Episode 60, it must happen between Episodes 60 and 90.
IV. Chibi Usa learned the Sailor Soldiers' identities in Episode 72 and since she knows them in the movie as well, it must happen between Episodes 74 and 90.
V. Mamoru broke up with Usagi in Episode 61 and the two of them only got back together in Episode 77, so it must happen between Episodes 77 and 90.
Comments:
Chibi Usa doesn't seem to know that Usagi is her mother in the movie, and her comment to Luna and Artemis that "Sailor Moon is like a mother to (the Sailor Soldiers)" may be an ironic hint at the upcoming revelation of her true parentage in Episode 83. Of course, there is also no real evidence that she doesn't know, either.
Conclusions:
I. Based on the above assumption that Chibi Usa doesn't known that Usagi and Mamoru are her parents, the events of the movie must occur somewhere between Episode 77 and 82, probably after Episode 78 (where it's Christmas). It may well happen sometime after Episode 79 but before Episode 80, as Sapphir is trying to get Esmeraude to find more Negative Points in the latter installment, suggesting that she might've been slacking off long enough for Fiore and Xenian to do something in the meantime. 
II. If you believe the aforementioned assumption to be false, another possibility is that the events in the movie happened sometime between the major events seen in Episode 88: after the defeat of the Death Phantom but before Chibi Usa returned to the 30th century. This would indicate that Chibi Usa spent a few more days in the 20th century before going home.
Additional Notes:
I. Ken Arromdee's Sailor Moon FAQ is incorrect in saying that the events in the movie occur in summer, as the girls are seen wearing their winter school uniforms, indicating that it happens somewhere between the months of October and June.
II. For those of you wondering why a botanical garden would still be open - with blossoming flowers, no less - just after Christmas, I would like to remind you that, while the trees are utterly devoid of foliage in Episode 78 (which happens during the yuletide season), they have suddenly regained all of it by the next installment (Just look at all the greenery in the Animal Kingdom in Episode 79! ). Also, Chibi Usa, Hotaru, and Usagi went with Mamoru to see his friend Kurebayashi at what appears to be the exact same botanical garden at around the same time of year in Episode 116. Maybe the Tokyo, Japan of Sailor Moon Earth just has some very mild winters or some extremely robust deciduous trees. 

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon S Movie
Known facts:
I. It occurs sometime after the end of the second season but before the beginning of the fourth, so that means it happens between Episodes 89 and 128.
II. Sailor Moon has the Cosmic Heart Compact and the Spiral Heart Moon Rod in her possession, both of which she received in Episode 91, so it happens between Episodes 91 and 128.
III. Chibi Usa (Sailor Chibi Moon) is present. Since she only returned from the future in Episode 102, it must happen between Episodes 102 and 128.
IV. Sailor Moon has the Holy Grail in her possession and can transform into Super Sailor Moon. Moreover, Setsuna Meiou (Sailor Pluto) is present. This mean that it happens between Episodes 112 and 128.
V. Super Sailor Moon can perform her "Rainbow Moon Heart Ache", which she learned in Episode 113, so it happens between Episoded 113 and 128.
VI. The Holy Grail was used in the movie but was destroyed during the final between the Sailor Soldiers and the Death Busters, so it happens between Episodes 113 and 123.
Comments:
I. Hotaru Tomoe doesn't appear at all in the movie. Since she vanished from her home in Episode 120, was later abducted by Kaolinite in Episode 121 and spirited away by Professor Souichi Tomoe while sleeping on her throne as the Messiah of Silence in Episode 122, the events in the movie most likely occur somewhere between Episodes 122 and 123.
II. The Inner Soldiers and Outer Soldiers were at odds with each other for most of the third season but gained some kind of understanding and uneasy respect for one another after Sailor Mercury helped save both Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune from Viluy in Episode 122. Since everyone seems to get along rather well in the movie, it's possible that the cameraderie seen there is a natural result of these events.
III. The surviving Death Busters may have decided to lie low for a little while after the Sailor Soldiers infiltrated their headquarters at the Infinity Academy, which would explain their absence in the movie.
IV. Episode 122 is the only installment of the entire third season where we see it snowing and there's a heck of a lot of snowfall in the movie, suggesting that the two may occur at around the same time.
Conclusion:
Based on the aforementioned assumptions, the events of the movie most likely occur between Episodes 122 and 123. It's possible that a few events such as Kakeru Ohzora finding Princess Snow Kaguya's crystal and Luna's disappearance might have occured just before Episode 122, as both Luna are Artemis do not appear at all there (Maybe he was out looking for her off-camera while Viluy was entertaining us. ). By contrast, Himeko Nayotake's return to Japan at the end of the movie may have happened after the events chronicled in Episodes 123 through 125.
Additional Note:
This is the only one of the three movies whose events may occur intermittently between several episodes of the series rather than just between two specific episodes.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S Movie
Known Facts:
I. It occurs sometime after the end of the third season but before the beginning of the fifth, so that means it happens between Episodes 127 and 167.
II. Sailor Moon has the Crisis Moon Compact and Kaleido Moon Scope and Sailor Chibi Moon the Chibi Moon Compact and Crystal Carillon in their respective possessions. They only permanently acquired these magical items from Pegasus in Episode 130, so it happens between Episodes 130 and 167.
III. The Sailor Soldiers have all powered up and become Super Sailor Soldiers, an ability they gained from Pegasus in Episode 143, so it happens between Episodes 143 and 167.
IV. All of the Sailor Soldiers know how to employ their Super Sailor Soldier Attacks. Super Sailor Mercury learned "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody" in Episode 151, Super Sailor Mars learned "Mars Flame Sniper" in 152, and Super Sailor Jupiter and Super Sailor Venus learned "Jupiter Coconut Cyclone" and "Venus Love And Beauty Shock", respectively, in Episode 153, so it happens between Episodes 153 and 167.
V. The girls are seen baking cookies for Valentine's Day in the movie, indicating that the events chronicled in it must occur on or around February 14th. Since Episode 160 - which shows the celebration of Coming-of- Age Day - takes place around January 15th, it must happen between Episodes 160 and 167.
Suggestions:
I. Pegasus does not appear in the movie at all, even though it is always required that he be summoned before Super Sailor Moon can perform her "Moon Gorgeous Meditation". Assuming that the joint "Moon Gorgeous Meditation" she does with Super Sailor Chibi Moon doesn't adhere to some kind of different rules, one can speculate that Pegasus may have already returned to Elysion and that the movie thus occurs sometime after the Sailor Soldiers' battle with the Dead Moon Circus ended in Episode 166.
II. Sailor Chibi Moon doesn't seem to have any problem whatsoever in displaying affection for the young Three O'Clock Fairy Perle even though she found it extremely awkward when Robert showed an interest in her while she still liked Pegasus in Episode 143. Her behavior could be interpreted as a further indication that he's no longer present and she can therefore feel comfortable displaying an interest in other boys her age. Of course, if this is true, then it would also mean that the two of them parted ways as nothing more than friends.
III. Given Queen Nehellenia's notorious impatience, it seems highly doubtful that she would have waited more than a month before mounting her final strike on Earth in an attempt to locate and retrieve the Golden Crystal, so the probability is great that she did so shortly after January 15th and well before Feburary 14th.
Conclusion:
Based on the above assumptions that Pegasus' seeming absence in the movie is due to the fact that he had already returned to Elysion and that Queen Nehellenia's impatience would have prompted her to act almost immediately, the events of the movie probably occur sometime after the defeat of the Dead Moon Circus and Queen Nehellenia's imprisonment in the mirror dimension in Episode 166 but before she was freed by Sailor Galaxia and sent her Mirror Palais Dollies on a rampage in Episode 167.
Notes:
I. Ken Arromdee points out in his Sailor Moon FAQ that the Outer Soldiers all use their Super Sailor Soldier attacks in the movie before they acquire the Super Sailor Soldier transformations from Hotaru's awakening as Sailor Saturn in Episode 167 that they would theoretically require in order to be able to do them in the first place and claims that this may well be an indication that the movie occurs outside of official continuity. While he seems to make a valid point, the truth is that, upon careful examination of the evidence at hand, I've found absolutely no indication that Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune didn't already possess or know how to use those attacks before they powered up or that their becoming Super Sailor Soldiers was even a requirement for them to be able to learn and employ them. Sailor Neptune's "Submarine Reflection", for example, is a magical attack with her Deep Aqua Mirror used to expose hidden truths (such as revealing that Poupelin, Banane, and Orange's weak points were their flutes) and she employed a similar tactic with her Talisman to distinguish the true Daimon Germatoid from his duplicates in Episode 124 so that Sailor Uranus could attack and destroy the real one. Perhaps that trick was simply a primitive version of her "Submarine Reflection", we have no way of knowing. In either case, the evidence remains inconclusive and automatically seeking to decanonize the movie as a result of it is being a bit severe.
II. What isn't trivial is a second observation made by Ken Arromdee that's extremely difficult to reconcile: the presence of Sailor Pluto. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune thought she died after saving their bacon from an exploding helicopter with her time-stopping ability in Episode 124 and seemingly sensed her presence when she later psychically tipped them off to use their Talismans in order to defeat the Daimon Germatoid, but, as far as they both knew, she was gone forever. Only Chibi Usa later discovered that Sailor Pluto was trapped in some kind of discorporeal limbo as a result of having used her forbidden attack (Episode 126), but never had the opportunity to relay this information to Haruka and Michiru as far as we know, something which seems to be borne out considering that their reactions when Pluto appears to haul their asses out of the fire yet again from the onslaught of Queen Nehellenia's Mirror Palais Dollies in Episode 167 are ones of complete shock. The problem is that all the available evidence indicates that the third movie - in which the three Outer Soldiers appear together to this time haul the Inner Soldiers' collective asses out of the fire - happens before this episode and that Uranus and Neptune were reunited with Pluto off-camera at some indeterminate point. There is, admittedly, no satisfactory way of explaining Haruka and Michiru's joint surprise other than assuming that Sailor Pluto seemingly died again in another incident between the end of the third movie and the beginning of the fifth season while Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were present but which the viewers didn't get to see, that their memories of their reunion were erased with the Garnet Orb following their battle with Queen Badiane for some unknown reason, or some similarily convoluted and utterly lame-ass.  Of course, it's also possible that Haruka and Michiru just have a flair for the dramatic and indulged in some serious overacting when Sailor Pluto appeared so as not to diminish her entrance at the most dramatically convenient moment possible. 
III. This is the only one of the three movies that appears to chronologically occur after the season for which it was named was already over.

Whew. I think I'm done explaining myself now. 

2. The second major reason why people seem to have trouble with the idea that the three movies could be considered part of official continuity is because they're under the mistaken impression that they occur over a long period of time when, in fact, they rarely encompass a timespan greater than that of your garden-variety episode. The events chronicled in both the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R and Super S Movies unfold over the course of about three days. A conservative estimate would be that the S Movie takes place over two to three weeks, but since certain things in it could happen before or in-between several episodes even though the bulk of it takes place between Episodes 122 and 123, it's not too much of stretch.

Last but not least, we come to an all-but-forgotten theatrical short called Make Up! Sailor Soldiers, which was released together with the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R Movie in theaters. It's basically a 20 or so minute long clips show in the tradition of Episode 89 and the first third of the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S Special, where Usagi reminisces a bit about the backgrounds of each of the four Inner Soldiers, Tuxedo Mask, and the time of the Silver Millennium in Chibi Usa's company after the two of them overhear two girls at a neighboring table in the cafe they're sitting in discussing which one of the Sailor Soldiers is the best. It's highly debatable whether or not this episode counts as part of official continuity, the biggest reasons being less that the two aforementioned girls know about the existences of Luna and Artemis and more that their entire debate was originally sparked by a promotional poster for the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R Movie hanging on the wall!  Still, if you regard the former detail as a fluke and the latter as something thrown in by the animators as a mischievous plug and not a shameless attempt to break the fourth wall, then, what the hell, sure it counts as part of anime canon. 

So, basically, the short answer is that most of the animated material - 199 episodes (Episode 89 discounted), 3 movies, one special, and two theatrical shorts - count as part of official Sailor Moon anime continuity. Since the movies have no bearing on the main plot, however, they can be disregarded, if one so desires.

If you're talking about the manga, then the contents of all 18 volumes of Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon are part of official continuity, as are the 3 volumes of the prequel series Codename: Sailor V. (Well, at least in theory. If there's anything more messed up than the anime continuity, it's Sailor V continuity. ) It's worth mentioning in passing, however, that one of Naoko Takeuchi's earlier works, The Cherry Project, a touching little series that chronicles a young high school girl named Chieri Asuka's pursuit of her dream to become a figure skater and find true love, might also be considered part of the Sailor Moon Manga Universe. It doesn't contain any of the magical girl elements in the other two series per se (Chieri's "photographic reflexes" stretch credibility a bit, but seem to be rooted in the real world) and has no real connection to them...except for one very familiar face: a young teacher named Haruna Sakurada, who later goes on to become Usagi's homeroom teacher at Juuban Junior High School! According to Haruna's official personal profile which appears in one of the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Nakayoshi anime albums, she has at least one unnamed sister, and her younger sister Furuya Sakurada does indeed appear in a The Cherry Project side story at the end of third volume. Whether or not you consider this sufficient evidence to merit its inclusion as manga canon is up to you. 

So, basically, the short answer once again is that Sailor Moon manga continuity is comprised of the content of at least 21 and at most 24 volumes of manga: all 18 volumes of Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, all 3 volumes of Codename: Sailor V (in some form, at least), and, depending on your personal point of view, all 3 volumes of The Cherry Project.

2.07. Are there any other implied dates in the series?

Well, the only other indication of the passage of time that I make extensive use is a Japanese custom known as koromo-gae, which translates into English roughly as "a change of clothing at the turn of the seasons". It refers to two days in the year, one on which all uniform-wearing individuals, such as students, public transport personnel, and policemen all switch from winter to summer clothes and the other where they do the opposite, irrespective of the weather. The change from winter to summer uniforms normally takes place on June 1st and the reverse on October 1st of each year. For female students, this means switching from long to short- sleeved shirts and from longer to shorter pleated skirts, something which is relatively easy to spot given that our heroines go to junior and senior high school.

The following is a list of all the incidences of koromo-gae which take place in Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. With a single exception, this changeover can be narrowed down to having occured between two episodes:

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon
June 1st: Between Episodes 13 and 14.
October 1st: Between Episodes 27 and 28.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R
June 1st: Between Episodes 59 and 60.
October 1st: Between Episodes 71 and 72.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon S
June 1st: Between Episodes 97 and 98.
October 1st: Between Episodes 109 and 110.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Super S
June 1st: Between Episodes 139 and 142.
October 1st: Between Episodes 147 and 148.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Sailor Stars
June 1st: Between Episodes 178 and 179.
October 1st: Between Episodes 186 and 187.

I feel it necessary to mention here that I used koromo-gae to approximate the chronological placement of episodes and adhered to the implied dates only if they weren't blatently contradicted by more reliable information. For example, according to the above list, Episode 187 should take place after October 1st, but Rei gives Usagi a ticket to attend a Three Lights radio interview taking place on September 30th in Episode 189, which doesn't make sense. In this particular case, the latter date is considered to be the "correct" one since it's directly stated instead of indirectly implied like the former.

Other contradictions only become apparent upon closer inspection. The latter half of Episode 12, for example, occurs on May 30, 1992 based on the date appearing on the Romantic Cruise tickets Rei won at the lottery. If we assume that Queen Beryl passed judgement on Jadeite by the next day, that she issued her ultimatum to him, and that he subsequently appeared in the night sky over Tokyo, Japan on Sunday, May 31st (as seen in Episode 13), in order to challenge them to a final confrontation the following evening, that means that the rest of that episode takes place during all of June 1st and the wee morning hours of June 2nd judging by the 1:05 A.M. time displayed on the clock in Haneda Airport. Even though Usagi, Ami, and their classmates should be wearing their summer uniforms while these events are transpiring, however, they're clearly seen wearing their winter ones and only make the switch sometime between that episode and the subsequent one. A possible explanation would be that, for some reason, koromo-gae occured a day or two later that year at Juuban Junior High School. In the real world, a shift such as this, even by a single day is highly unlikely, but not impossible.

I realize that it's unlikely anyone not reading this would even have noticed the aforementioned point in the first place, but the main purpose of this section of FAQ You! is to demonstrate my methodology and give insight on how I think. As you can plainly see, results indicate that I am completely insane. 

2.08. How much time did Minako Aino (Sailor Venus) spend in England?

Unfortunately, we're never really told, so our only option is to use what little information we have, make a few plausible assumptions, then use that to make an educated guess:

1. We know that Minako was still operating out of Tokyo when the series started since Naru Osaka mentions that Sailor V foiled an attempted bank robbery the day before the events of the first episode, all of which most likely takes place shortly after the beginning of the school year in April.

2. In Episode 42, Sailor Venus tells Sailor Moon, Luna, and Artemis that she'd received a tip about a youma having been spotted in London, England "half a year ago". Assuming that the Sailor Soldiers' battle with the Dark Kingdom reached its climax in January, this would chronologically place it in late July or early August of the previous year.

3. Sailor Venus first encountered her four teammates in Episode 33, though Artemis communicated to Luna via the Sailor V Game in Episode 32 that the day on which the Sailor Soldiers would be reunited was quickly approaching. This would seem to imply that Minako had either already returned to Japan by that time or that she was en route. Since the Dark Kingdom hatched a new scheme roughly once a week in the first season and October 1st falls somewhere between Episodes 27 and 28 (see Question 2.07), these events transpired sometime in early November.

Taking the aforementioned information into account, we're left with a window of around four months, starting in late July and ending in early November. This would be the upper time limit for Minako's foreign odyssey and the most we can gleam from episode-specific information. However, for those who wish to engage in sheer speculation, here's my own personal opinion on this, starting with a few things we know about Minako Aino:

I. I think everyone reading this knows about Minako's propensity for falling in love quickly and hard. I suspect that this was the case with Alan, so it probably didn't take her all that long to notice him.

II. It's also no surprise that Minako is a terrible student and frequently does about as well as Usagi on exams.

III. Minako said that she flew to England, so her trip was presumably financed by her parents. While we never found out long she was intending to stay there or what the "official" excuse was she gave to her folks in order to convince them to let her go (I'll say this, though, it must have been a damn good one! ), based on the fact that she apparently quit her school's volleyball team in spite of her passion for the sport according to what Tsutomu Asai said in Episode 100, I suspect she was intending to stay there for the long haul.

IV. In Japan, summer vacation starts around July 20th and lasts for about six weeks until the end of August.

Considering that Minako wasn't left back a year, that she returned to Japan sooner than expected, and how poor in school she is, what I suspect happened was that, after midterms were over in late July and summer vacation started up, she left for London, and came back around two months later in mid to late September, two to three weeks into the second semester of Grade 8. This would have made it difficult, but not impossible, for her to have caught up with the necessary schoolwork in order to not flunk out. It was probably very hard on her given her study habits, but considering how utterly traumatized she evidently was by what had happened - the most obvious indication of this being how quiet, reserved, and generally un-Minako-like her behavior and personality were during the first season compared to later ones - she may put forth more of an effort than usual to try and get her mind off things. At the very least, her newfound English skills helped lighten the load. Of course, as mentioned previously, this is all 100% guesswork on my part.

So, the short answer is that Minako Aino could've spent as much as four months abroad, though I personally think that two months is a more realistic estimate.

2.09. Hey, you forgot Parallel Sailor Moon!

Okay, well, first of all, this is a FAQ and that certainly wasn't formulated in the form of a question, so be glad this isn't Jeopardy!  And second of all, I was getting to that. 

For those who've never heard of it, Parallel Sailor Moon is an 18-page short story that appeared in the back of the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Materials Collection (Bishoujo Senshi Seeraamuun Setteishiryoushuu), one of the more sought-after artbooks due its rich content of never-before-seen information, which includes original character sketches and profiles of all of the main and supporting cast members and villains accompanied by detailed liner notes and personal information, unpublished artwork, and much, much more. 

The story takes place in July 1999, an undisclosed number of years after the end of the series. Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minako have all gotten married in the interim - And kept their maiden names to boot! - and now meet once a week for a tea party they've dubbed their "Sailor Muscles Meeting".  Their lives appear to be a mixed bag. Minako's evolved into something of a party girl, complete with a tattoo and an appetite for beer, who's enjoying all the perks of show business due to the fact that her husband is the assistant director of an unnamed comedy show at the local television studio. Surprisingly, Ami, whom one would have thought had it made in the shade, has seemingly fallen somewhat short of her dream as she's only working part-time in a clinic and she and her significant other are, in her own words, "poor working doctors" who seem to be in a minor struggle to make ends meet. Makoto has recently realized her longtime ambition of opening her very own shop and runs it together with her husband of seven years. Even though her business seems to be off to a rocky start with a huge deficit, she's happy as a clam nonetheless. Rei remains a Shinto priestess and has found the perfect match in a Shinto priest, though she seems somewhat disgruntled that the two of them are lacking in the way of free time together due to his teaching job. We don't quite know what either Usagi or her sweetheart Mamoru are doing, though we do discover that Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna run a cooking class together and that Chibi Usa (having returned from the 30th century yet again) and Hotaru are attending Grade 9 together and have become some serious intellects.

When human cloning in the future goes too far...

Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Makoto Kino, and Minako Aino also now all have daughters in the seven to eight-year- old range...named Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Mako Kino, and Mina Aino, appropriately enough.  Not only do the girls have the same first names (more or less) as their mothers, they're also all dead ringers for them physically, right down to their friggin' hairstyles.  Just about the only things they didn't inherit from their respective mommas were pleasant dispositions as these four girls happen to be the most obnoxious kids on the whole damn planet, with some serious chips on their shoulders and absolutely zero respect for anything or anyone, including their parents. The favorite pasttimes of these Sailor Brats include hanging out together and conceiving of new ways to ditch, pick on, or otherwise torture the poor fifth member of their group: Usagi and Mamoru's second daughter and Chibi Usa's little sister, Kousagi Tsukino.

The next generation of dumpling heads...

As luck would have it, Kousagi seems to have inherited all of her mother's dominant genes for negative traits, as she somehow manages to out-Usagi even Usagi, which is going some. She's essentially as dumb as a post with a bottomless pit for a stomach, but seems to have inherited all the good-naturedness that her four contemporaries didn't and takes their merciless abuse in stride, though, in her heart, she wishes simply to be accepted and no longer bullied...even if she never seems to let on just how much their treatment hurts her. As fate would have it, Kousagi gets her chance to earn her peers' respect after she one day encounters a talking pink kitten with a crescent moon on its forehead who tells her that only by transforming into Parallel Sailor Moon can she hope to save the Earth from the latest extraterrestrial menace endangering its existence: a malicious group of evil alien bunnies that combine to form a giant, all-consuming rabbit head.... 

Now, if this all sounds just a little ridiculous to you...don't be surprised. Parallel Sailor Moon is a kakioroshi manga, with the word "kakioroshi" loosely translating from the Japanese as "just because", according to one source.  In other words, Naoko Takeuchi probably didn't intend for it to be taken seriously when she wrote it and neither should you. And it shows: the short story seems to be more of a parody of her beloved magical girl series than anything else, containing numerous ironies and even a few breakings of the fourth wall. Also, it wreaks absolute havoc with continuity by violating several well-established rules of the Sailor Moon Universe.

Basically, Parallel Sailor Moon is true to its name in that all indications are that it takes place in a parallel universe to mainstream continuity, something which fans of the series have unanimously recognized and consider it an amusing little read and nothing more. Though, as a onetime friend of mine once pointed out to me, perhaps Naoko intended for the manga to be an allegory and show her readers that life can have some unexpected twists in store, sort of like the old German adage, "Erstens kommt es anders und zweitens als man denkt." ("It happens differently the first time and like you thought it would the second time.") While each of the Sailor Soldiers' lives could hardly be described as a hellish existence, upon closer inspection, one can't help but feel that either they haven't all quite ended up where one expected them to or that the realization of their individual dreams aren't all they've cracked up to be (especially in the cases of Ami and Makoto). Maybe the fact that the future we see is not the ideal one we anticipated it being (Crystal Tokyo) but nevertheless not a bad place to live is meant to be symbolic: even if tomorrow doesn't have in store for us what we believed it would, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be as terrible as you think. There's always the day after tomorrow.  After all, Chibi Usa is still around, so maybe there's hope for Crystal Tokyo yet. 

2.10. What about Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Another Story?

The video game box cover for Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Another Story

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Another Story was a video game for the Super Famicom (the Japanese version of the Super NES) that was released by Angel way back in 1995, during the twilight years of the 16-bit gaming era. As opposed to the numerous fighting and puzzle games bearing the name of the series, this one was a role-playing game (RPG), with the basic plot revolving around a group of six time-traveling villains collectively known as the Oppositio Soldiers (And their little pet Kishal, too! ). Granted powers equal to those of the Sailor Soldiers by their mysterious leader, Shaman Apsu, they seek to change the past, present, and future to suit their own personal needs, and, to this end, create numerous distortions in the space-time continuum, ranging from the age of the Silver Millennium all the way to the 30th century utopian city of Crystal Tokyo. Their temporal tinkering results in the resurrection of several of the monsters and villains previously defeated by the Sailor Soldiers, whom our heroines must now battle again while trying to stop their evil counterparts.

            
The Oppositio Soldiers (from left to right): Oppositio Sin, Oppositio Nabu, Oppositio Nergal,
Oppositio Marduk, Oppositio Ishtar, Anshar, and Shaman Apsu

While never officially released outside of Japan, it was translated by Bishoujo Senshi Translations - a group of dedicated anime fans whose entire raison d'être was to attain this singular goal  - and made available to the online gaming community on September 10, 1999 in the form of an IPS patch that would replace the in- game Japanese text with English text when combined with the original untranslated game using a special program. Both unpatched and patched versions of the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Another Story ROM, which is about 4 MB in size, can be downloaded from various places all over the Internet. Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to provide any links here (and I don't know any working ones, so don't even e-mail me to ask) because possession of the game in this form is about as legal as owning a fansub of a commercially-released anime or making copies of your favorite movies or shows for your friends using two VCRs. 

Even though Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Another Story is visually reminiscent of the Final Fantasy series, the game, to be overly critical for a moment, has absolutely none of the latter's depth and is almost frighteningly linear and simplistic, though this isn't really all that big a surprise considering that it's squarely (pun intended ) aimed at a target audience comprised of younger, novice RPG players. Still, in spite of its shortcomings, it's arguably the most well-loved of all the video games based on the series in the Sailor Moon fan community. And even I have to admit that I enjoyed playing it...even if both of the endings did suck rocks. 

To get back to the original question after that lengthy departure, the answer is no, the game does not count as part of official continuity. The Sailor Moon Universe that Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Another Story takes place in is some bizarre, hybrid mish-mash of the anime and manga universes that exists apart from both. At first glance, it appears to be part of anime continuity, as it uses several of the monsters and characters that were exclusive to the former series, and would seem to take place somewhere between the third and fourth seasons of the show. Upon closer inspection, however, several discrepancies arise throughout the course of the game that quickly refute this belief. Some of the major ones include the following:

1. It is revealed during the course of the game that not only did Professor Souchi Tomoe die in battle with the Sailor Soldiers, but he was also possessed by the Daimon Germatoid the entire time and is very briefly reunited with his daughter Hotaru (as Sailor Saturn) in one of the more touching moments in the RPG before succumbing to oblivion once more. However, this is completely inconsistent with both versions of the series. While he was indeed possessed by the Daimon Germatoid in the anime, he was eventually freed from the monster's control and ended up surviving his battle with Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. In the manga, he physically turned into the Daimon Germatoid and ended up being killed by Super Sailor Moon. There is no variant of continuity where he was both possessed and killed, except that of the game.

2. The Sailor Soldiers use several attacks in the game that they only had in the manga but not in the anime and vice-versa. They also possess certain combination attacks that they don't have elsewhere. 

3. Both Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon have a Holy Grail in the game which they use to transform into Super Sailor Moon and Super Sailor Chibi Moon, respectively. While this was true in the manga, it wasn't in the anime, where there was only a single Holy Grail that ended up being destroyed during the Sailor Soldiers' final battle with the Death Busters. Also, the only way the two ever transformed together was when Pegasus used his power to enhance their transformation brooches.

4. There's no such thing as the Rose Crystal in any incarnation of the series. While Tuxedo Mask does have an immensely powerful, mystical gem in the manga, it's called the Golden Crystal. And even though there's also a Golden Crystal in the anime, its background story is completely different.

5. As far as we know, the anime versions of Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite - the Four Kings of the Dark Kingdom - were always evil. However, their manga incarnations were known as the Princes of the Four Heavens during the Silver Millennium and were Prince Endymion's loyal and dedicated servants. They only turned evil after being reincarnated in contemporary times due to Queen Metallia's influence, were killed in battle with the Sailor Soldiers, and briefly revived during the first major story arc. However, the taint of their evil allegiance caused their physical bodies to revert to stone almost immediately thereafter (specifically into their mineral namesakes), but their good spirits remained on the mortal plane within the jewels in order to help guide Mamoru on a few subsequent occasions. The game adapts the manga version of events. 

6. In the game, the Earth Kingdom is located at the North Pole, while, as far as I know, the manga places it in the dream realm of Elysion and more commonly refers to it as the Golden Kingdom.

In conclusion, the game is just plain odd. On the one hand, it takes up several unresolved (or unsatisfactorily resolved) plot threads left over from the first three seasons (Ami Mizuno's feelings for Ryou Urawa, Rei Hino's feelings towards Yuuichirou Kumada and Mamoru Chiba, Queen Beryl's feelings for Prince Endymion, more detailed circumstances behind the downfall of the Silver Millennium, etc.) and deals with them better or in more detail than either the anime or even the manga did, but completely disregards others and makes up details as it goes along. Granted, there are some things the game makers got wrong that were unavoidable because the exact facts were only established by Naoko Takeuchi and the show's writers later on, but there were several others that could have avoided. Oh well, whatever, it's not part of continuity and that's that. 

This page first appeared on: April 18, 2003
This page was last modified on: April 18, 2003

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