Sailor Moon is a highly stylized shojo romance anime with many fashion looks inspired by Regency England styles and ’90s haute couture. The series follows a teenage celestial warrior who fights for love and justice in the name of the Moon. The protagonist, Usagi Tsukino, has many power-ups throughout the epic story.

Usagi unlocks a new, ethereal look with every level she unlocks. Her Sailor Moon uniform gathers more adornments as she evolves into Super Sailor Moon and Ethereal Sailor Moon. Usagi also has several useful and stylish outfits when she uses her Disguise Pen throughout the first season, the Dark Kingdom arc.

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Usagi Storms a Radio Station

Usagi Refuses to Let Jadeite Toy With Women’s Hearts

One of the first useful tools Luna gives to Usagi is the Disguise Pen. She tends to use it before she needs to transform into Sailor Moon, often to infiltrate and gather information on Dark Kingdom schemes. In Episode 3, Season 1, “The Mysterious Sleeping Sickness: Protect the Girls in Love,” Usagi uses her Disguise Pen to pretend to be a radio announcer.

Usagi’s disguises are highly practical, but they also seem like something Usagi would wear herself, if she were to ever become one of the professionals she pretends to be. As a radio announcer, Usagi wears a smart, highly 1990s, magenta dress. The Disguise Pen is also amazing because it changes everything about Usagi’s look — even her hair and makeup. Her radio announcer hair is short and wavy, making her look clever and competent.

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One of Usagi’s Best Disguises Turns Her Hair Green

Usagi Poses as a Musician

In Season 1, Episode 6, “Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid,” Usagi uses her Disguise Pen to pose as a musician. She wears a smart, casual getup with a cropped jacket, white top, skirt, boots, and vivid emerald-green hair. Though she looks amazing, the episode was originally cut from the English dub because studios didn’t approve of Usagi pretending to be a musician to get into a club.

Usagi poses as a musician to help another girl musician named Yusuke Amade. A dark kingdom vampire-themed youma, Kyurene, hunts Yusuke and charges the music playing over the radio with dark energy. Between Kyurene’s glam-rock vampire character design and Usagi’s boxy, cropped musician outfit, the episode is like an ode to late ’80s tunes.

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Usagi Unlocks Some Memories in Her Princess Disguise

Tuxedo Mask Dances with a Familiar-Looking Princess at a Masquerade Ball

Not all of Usagi’s Disguise Pen looks are in both versions of the anime. Many of her disguises in the ’90s anime are purely for fun filler episodes. Her masquerade ballgown is so iconic that it’s in every version of Sailor Moon, including the manga and anime reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal. Usagi uses her Disguise Pen to dress as a princess in a ballgown for a masquerade party in Season 1, Episode 22 of the ’90s anime, “Romance Under the Moon: Usagi’s First Kiss.”

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The same event happens in “Act 4 — Masquerade Dance Party” in the manga and in Sailor Moon Crystal. Not only is Usagi’s princess gown incredibly pretty and romantic, but it also ignites a very important moment between Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Tuxedo Mask is struck by the princess he sees at the masquerade, and asks her to dance. When Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask dance together, it feels incredibly familiar, because they’re beginning to remember how they used to dance together in the Moon Kingdom in their previous lives as Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion.

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Super Sailor Moon Is Sailor Moon’s First Big Warrior Evolution

The Holy Grail Triggers Sailor Moon’s Next Transformation

Sailor Moon has her first big warrior evolution in the Mugen/Infinity arc in all versions of the anime, and in the manga. The Holy Grail is a legendary holy chalice which can unlock both heroic powers and total destructive havoc, depending on the holder. When Sailor Moon is given the Holy Grail, it triggers her transformation from Sailor Moon to Super Sailor Moon.

Super Sailor Moon is more than just a bridge transformation — it elevates her character design without making it cluttered or gaudy. Ribbons of energy and fabric surround her as her sailor skirt goes from blue to white, and a fluttering bow attaches to her lower back. Clothes mean more than just aesthetics, though, especially in Sailor Moon. Not only is the new character design girlish and pretty, but it also underlines a growing elegance and strength in Sailor Moon as a leader.

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In the Manga, Usagi Pretends to Be a Groom Rather Than a Bride

Usagi & Rei Investigate a Haunted Bridal Store

It’s rare when Usagi gets a moment to show some swashbuckling swagger, as that’s normally Tuxedo Mask’s modus operandi. One of Usagi’s best, unique, and most charming disguises exists solely in the manga. When Nephrite poses as a ghost bride to haunt a bridal shop in “Act 5 — Makoto, Sailor Jupiter” of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Usagi uses her Disguise Pen to pose as a handsome groom.

Usagi pretends to be a groom to lure and confuse the bridal shop youma. Unfortunately, this disguise is cut entirely from the matching episode in Sailor Moon Crystal, and in the ’90s anime, Usagi pretends to be a bride rather than a groom to infiltrate a bridal contest. Usagi makes a very handsome groom, and it seems like the disguise gives her an added level of confidence as she sassily taunts the ghost bride youma.

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Moon Eternal Makeup Is Sailor Moon’s Final Transformation in the Main Storyline

Sailor Moon Evolves Into Eternal Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon transforms into her greatest incarnation in the main anime and manga storyline in the final story arc, the Stars arc. She evolves from Super Sailor Moon to Eternal Sailor Moon. Eternal Sailor Moon has staggeringly strong powers, and she looks like a true celestial entity in her new form.

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Super Sailor Moon uses the Eternal Moon Article to trigger her change into Eternal Sailor Moon. In her Eternal form, she has lush angel wings, and a layered sailor suit of white, pink, yellow, blue, and red. It’s a combination of her original Sailor Moon uniform style, and hints of her Princess and Neo-Queen selves.

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Sailor Cosmos Is Sailor Moon’s Ultimate Future Warrior Form

Sailor Cosmos Wields Lambda Power

In the final Sailor Moon arc, the Stars arc, a new character enters the scene, the child named Chibi Chibi who becomes Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon. In the manga and in Sailor Moon Crystal, Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon has a true form: Sailor Cosmos. Sailor Cosmos has a goddess-like appearance, with white hair in odango, massive angel wings, and a white and gold sailor suit.

Sailor Cosmos is Sailor Moon from the future, in her ultimate warrior form. Her white and gold color scheme gives Sailor Cosmos a stark and melancholic presence. This character design highlights not only the immense power that Sailor Moon wields in the future, namely primal Lambda Power, but it also artistically highlights the sadness that comes with her isolation as she fights alone against the worst eternal evil in the universe.

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Princess Serenity Captures Usagi’s Hope & Pure Love

The Serenity Line Has a Distinct Traditional Style

In Usagi’s past life, she was Princess Serenity, the heir to the Moon Kingdom and the matriarchal Serenity line. Princess Serenity, her mother Queen Serenity, and her daughter, Chibiusa, all wear their hair and dress in a specific way. When Sailor Moon needs to tap into her inner well of strength, she transforms into her Princess Serenity form.

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As Princess Serenity, she readily wields the powers entrusted to her and her line. Her beaded, flowing ivory gown is incredibly romantic, inspired by both Roman architecture and Regency dress design. It’s beautiful serves a function, as it highlights that Princess Serenity, and all the Serenitys’ strength, comes from love in all its forms, from her romantic love for Prince Endymion to her love of her friends.

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Sailor Moon’s Classic Look Attained Icon Status

Usagi’s Sailor Suit Is Recognizable to People Who’ve Never seen Sailor Moon

In the first episode of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, Luna gives Usagi a Transformation Brooch. Once Usagi activates the Brooch, her very first magical girl transformation sequence begins. Ribbons of light surround her, changing into gloves, boots, a tiara, and Sailor Moon’s iconic first pink, white, and blue sailor suit.

Sailor Moon’s uniform may be the simplest of her warrior transformations, but as it’s her first, it set the tone for everything else to follow. The outfit is so recognizable and iconic that it more than set the tone for Sailor Moon’s later evolutions. The sailor suit and magenta boots became the blueprint for magical girl anime as an entire sub-genre.

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Neo-Queen Serenity Is the Picture of Strength, Wisdom, & Elegance

The Queen’s Gown Is Inspired by Haute Couture

In the near future, after Usagi marries Mamoru and has Chibiusa, Usagi becomes Neo-Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo. She has officially become what her mother was before her: a ruler of a peaceful kingdom and a major diplomatic and protective presence in the galaxy. In this new role in life, Usagi’s Princess Serenity gown is elevated to a more regal look.

Neo-Queen Serenity’s gown is inspired by a late ’80s haute couture gown called “Angel d’Oro” by Roberto Capucci. The real-life Capucci gown is similar to the other white and empire-waisted Serenity gowns, with some added details, such as a fuller, trailing skirt, and heavenly golden fabric wings attached at the back like a large dress bow. The gown’s title, meaning Angel of Gold, further echoes Neo-Queen Serenity’s celestial beauty and stately presence.

Sailor Moon

Release Date

March 7, 1992

Directors

Junichi Sato, Kunihiko Ikuhara