Music Rewind: Sailor Moon – Songs from the Hit TV Series

For many millennials, Sailor Moon was our introduction to the amazing world of Japanese anime. Created, written, and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi, the story of 14-year-old Usagi Tsukino as she not only battles the ordinary everyday mundane tasks of homework, friends, boyfriends, and her obnoxious little brother, by moonlight, she’s the pretty guardian in a sailor suit, Sailor Moon! She along with the other sailor guardians, Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus protect Earth from the awesome powers of the Dark Kingdom.

Distributed through DiC in the mid-1990s, the English dub is a product of its time complete with some wicked cool 90s catchphrases like “totally bogus” and “dweeboid.” The Dark Kingdom was changed to the Negaverse and the series was heavily washed in the blatant homophobia that was rampant in the country at the time.

This included transitioning the male villain, Zoisite, into a female due to a romantic relationship the original character had with another male character, Kunzite. Cloverway (who took over after DiC) also decided to turn lesbian lovers Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune into first cousins – which honestly, made their closeness confusion and bordering on creepy.

While this was done purely for the fact that DiC was promoting the series to children, and they (rightfully) didn’t want to deal with the backlash of stupid that they would have had to at the time, and it’s sad.

However, the DiC release of Sailor Moon did get one thing absolutely right. The music.

During its original run, the Sailor Moon anime produced over 30 soundtracks – three of which were released in North America.

Sailor Moon: Songs from the Hit TV Series was the first compilation album that spanned the Nega Verse and Doom Tree arcs of the series. Released on 27 February 1996 through DIC Tune-Time Audio and Kid Rhino on both CD and cassette, the album consists of 11 tracks and presented on a hot-pink disc that I remember thinking was, in the words of Sailor Moon herself, “Super cool!”

The image doesn’t do it justice. The disc is MUCH brighter in real life!

Sisters Nicole & Brynne Price sang the theme song to the English dub, which was based on the original Japanese theme song “Moonlight Legend“. Andy Heyward, who was one of the producers on Rainbow Brite in the 1980s, provided the English Lyrics while Bob Summers did the arrangement based on Tetsuya Komoro’s original music.

Jennifer Cihi provided the singing voice of Serena/Sailor Moon on the songs “I Wanna Be a Star!“, “My Only Love“, “Call My Name (I’ll Be There)”, “It’s a New Day“, and “Carry On”.

Sandy Howell, provided the singing voice of Raye/Sailor Mars on “Oh Starry Night” (in addition to backing vocals on “I Wanna Be a Star!” and “Call My Name“) while Patricia Tollett was the voice of Lita/Sailor Jupiter on “Rainy Day Man“. Shandi Sinnamon was Ami/Sailor Mercury on “Only a Memory” Away while Stan Bush sang the battle song “She’s Got the Power”.

If I’m being honest, “My Only Love” was probably my favorite of the tracks. Featured during episode 30 A Crystal Clear Destiny – the song was used when Serena was reveled to be the lost princess Serenity. I was obsessed with this song. I still think it’s beautiful.

Lois Blaisch, who penned the track “Rainbow Land” for the 1984 Paint a Rainbow in Your Heart album and Tiffany’s 1987 hit “Could’ve Been” also wrote on several songs for the album including “Rainy Day Man” and “It’s a New Day”.