Inspired by the Wedding Peach thread, let's make a list of fiction that you personally feel is similar to Sailor Moon and might've took inspiration from it.
After all Sailor Moon is the premier Magical Girl, one might even call her the face of the genre. She certainly is in the West at least, if DBZ is considered the King and representative of shonen anime and manga than Sailor Moon is the flipside and is the Queen of Mahou Shojo and really Shojo in general. How many times has one heard the phrase "Sailor Moon ripoff?" by some noob ignoramus in the anime community? Though tiring there is a kernel of truth to that phrase, but not in the way that they think.
Rather Sailor Moon helped pave the way for about a dozens of series to come and one could even argue was the trope originator for many themes we've become accustomed to in the anime and manga world. Just like dozens upon dozens of shonen were inspired by DBZ and looked to Toriyama for inspiration (One Piece & Naruto to name a few) on the Shojo side of things people were looking to Naoko and incorporated a lot of her ideas into their own works.
Without further ado, here's my own personal list of canons, both Eastern and Western that I feel might've possibly been influenced by Sailor Moon in one area or another. Feel free to add to this list with your own observations.
- Madoka Magica: Seems to take great inspiration from Manga!Stars, expands on Sailor Moon's heavy sci-fi themes, Madoka and Homura eerily resemble Chibi-Usa and Hotaru and their relationship
- Tokyo Mew Mew: Magical Girl Super Sentai team just like Sailor Moon, again integrates sci-fi/outer space elements with Mahou Shojo like Sailor Moon did, Ichigo & Mint's dynamic in the team is a lot like 90's anime Usagi & Rei's, Zakuro's whole "Mysterious lone wolf ranger" schtick echoes back to the Outers, an alien dude is utterly obsessed with Ichigo (like Ail, Demande and Seiya were) and even the main romance has a lot of the trappings of Usagi and Mamoru's Miracle Romance where the main dude is sort of a blank slate with mysterious origins that was all alone until he found Ichigo, plus he has a Tuxedo Mask like alter-ego that responds to Ichigo whenever she's in danger.
-Wedding Peach: Again another Magical Girl Super Sentai franchise, the main villainess has shades of Beryl, "Angels" feels like a substitute for Senshi. In the manga Momoko & Yosuke's romance has that forbidden "Miracle Romance" to it where he's from the Demon realm and she the Angel realm and they're not supposed to be together cause the two factions are at war. Momoko is the daughter of the previous Queen who resided over the Angels, another "lone 4th ranger type" in the form of Scarlett O'Hara who also resumes a role like the Outers.
-Mermaid Melody: Again another Super Sentai Mahou Shojo, this time it feels like they're combining the classic Hans Christen Andersen Little Mermaid tale with Sailor Moon. The main heroine, Lucia even looks like Usagi, has her exact same hairstyle when in Magical Girl form. Again the romance echoes back to Endymion and Serenity's "Miracle Romance" with Lucia and Kaitou being from two totally different worlds and Lucia longs to be human and live ashore like Serenity longed to be on the Earth. The Mermaid's Kingdom reminds me of the Silver Millennium.
- Fruits Basket: Not a Mahou Shojo this time, just a plain old regular shojo yet if you look close enough you'll see one of it's side couple is eerily similar to Usagi and Mamoru. It really echo back to Serenity and Endyimon's "destined miracle romance" or at least feels like it's taking influence from it. The man dreams of his future lover and immediately gets attached to her and vows to be with her from that dream with nary an explanation as to why he's attached to that dream other than perhaps reincarnation, he's also a lot like Mamoru in that he's a loner, extremely intelligent/booksmart and empathetic. His SO from his dream is a childish crybaby like Usagi (but twisted) and her star sign is even a Cancer too so she's ruled by the Moon! (There's also an older woman in the series who's painted as the main villain who, very much like Beryl holds a vengeful grudge against this girl) Oh yeah and they have an age gap too! Considering this manga was first released in 1998 only 6 years after SM started you can't help but wonder if the mangaka took slight inspiration from Usagi and Mamoru's fairytale-like romance for this couple. It steers just far enough so to be it's own thing, but if you analyze this couple closely it's sure to raise eyebrows and almost feels like the mangaka inserted her own piece of AU UsaMamo fanfiction into the story lol.
- Steven Universe: Now we're at a Western series, the creator Rebecca Sugar, has gone on record to state that she took direct inspiration from Sailor Moon so she said it herself and it definitely feels like it! Steven, the main protagonist can be thought of as either an analogue to Usagi or even Chibi-Usa. especially with how he directly inherits Rose's Gem and gains her powers while she loses hers (sound familiar?) The Gems and their whole "Home World" lore resembles the Senshi and the Silver Millenium, Rose herself is like Queen or Neo Queen Serenity, Pearl is her (Manga) Venus and Ruby and Sapphire are this show's version of Uranus & Neptune!
- The Lunar Chronicles: A book series, never read it myself but I've heard first-hand accounts that it takes a lot of inspiration from Sailor Moon. Apparently the author is Alicia Blade herself! Long-time, famous BNF in the SM fandom that I'm sure will ring a bell to many fandom oldies such as myself who got scoured the net for SM fics during the late 90's and early 00's.
After all Sailor Moon is the premier Magical Girl, one might even call her the face of the genre. She certainly is in the West at least, if DBZ is considered the King and representative of shonen anime and manga than Sailor Moon is the flipside and is the Queen of Mahou Shojo and really Shojo in general. How many times has one heard the phrase "Sailor Moon ripoff?" by some noob ignoramus in the anime community? Though tiring there is a kernel of truth to that phrase, but not in the way that they think.
Rather Sailor Moon helped pave the way for about a dozens of series to come and one could even argue was the trope originator for many themes we've become accustomed to in the anime and manga world. Just like dozens upon dozens of shonen were inspired by DBZ and looked to Toriyama for inspiration (One Piece & Naruto to name a few) on the Shojo side of things people were looking to Naoko and incorporated a lot of her ideas into their own works.
Without further ado, here's my own personal list of canons, both Eastern and Western that I feel might've possibly been influenced by Sailor Moon in one area or another. Feel free to add to this list with your own observations.
- Madoka Magica: Seems to take great inspiration from Manga!Stars, expands on Sailor Moon's heavy sci-fi themes, Madoka and Homura eerily resemble Chibi-Usa and Hotaru and their relationship
- Tokyo Mew Mew: Magical Girl Super Sentai team just like Sailor Moon, again integrates sci-fi/outer space elements with Mahou Shojo like Sailor Moon did, Ichigo & Mint's dynamic in the team is a lot like 90's anime Usagi & Rei's, Zakuro's whole "Mysterious lone wolf ranger" schtick echoes back to the Outers, an alien dude is utterly obsessed with Ichigo (like Ail, Demande and Seiya were) and even the main romance has a lot of the trappings of Usagi and Mamoru's Miracle Romance where the main dude is sort of a blank slate with mysterious origins that was all alone until he found Ichigo, plus he has a Tuxedo Mask like alter-ego that responds to Ichigo whenever she's in danger.
-Wedding Peach: Again another Magical Girl Super Sentai franchise, the main villainess has shades of Beryl, "Angels" feels like a substitute for Senshi. In the manga Momoko & Yosuke's romance has that forbidden "Miracle Romance" to it where he's from the Demon realm and she the Angel realm and they're not supposed to be together cause the two factions are at war. Momoko is the daughter of the previous Queen who resided over the Angels, another "lone 4th ranger type" in the form of Scarlett O'Hara who also resumes a role like the Outers.
-Mermaid Melody: Again another Super Sentai Mahou Shojo, this time it feels like they're combining the classic Hans Christen Andersen Little Mermaid tale with Sailor Moon. The main heroine, Lucia even looks like Usagi, has her exact same hairstyle when in Magical Girl form. Again the romance echoes back to Endymion and Serenity's "Miracle Romance" with Lucia and Kaitou being from two totally different worlds and Lucia longs to be human and live ashore like Serenity longed to be on the Earth. The Mermaid's Kingdom reminds me of the Silver Millennium.
- Fruits Basket: Not a Mahou Shojo this time, just a plain old regular shojo yet if you look close enough you'll see one of it's side couple is eerily similar to Usagi and Mamoru. It really echo back to Serenity and Endyimon's "destined miracle romance" or at least feels like it's taking influence from it. The man dreams of his future lover and immediately gets attached to her and vows to be with her from that dream with nary an explanation as to why he's attached to that dream other than perhaps reincarnation, he's also a lot like Mamoru in that he's a loner, extremely intelligent/booksmart and empathetic. His SO from his dream is a childish crybaby like Usagi (but twisted) and her star sign is even a Cancer too so she's ruled by the Moon! (There's also an older woman in the series who's painted as the main villain who, very much like Beryl holds a vengeful grudge against this girl) Oh yeah and they have an age gap too! Considering this manga was first released in 1998 only 6 years after SM started you can't help but wonder if the mangaka took slight inspiration from Usagi and Mamoru's fairytale-like romance for this couple. It steers just far enough so to be it's own thing, but if you analyze this couple closely it's sure to raise eyebrows and almost feels like the mangaka inserted her own piece of AU UsaMamo fanfiction into the story lol.
- Steven Universe: Now we're at a Western series, the creator Rebecca Sugar, has gone on record to state that she took direct inspiration from Sailor Moon so she said it herself and it definitely feels like it! Steven, the main protagonist can be thought of as either an analogue to Usagi or even Chibi-Usa. especially with how he directly inherits Rose's Gem and gains her powers while she loses hers (sound familiar?) The Gems and their whole "Home World" lore resembles the Senshi and the Silver Millenium, Rose herself is like Queen or Neo Queen Serenity, Pearl is her (Manga) Venus and Ruby and Sapphire are this show's version of Uranus & Neptune!
- The Lunar Chronicles: A book series, never read it myself but I've heard first-hand accounts that it takes a lot of inspiration from Sailor Moon. Apparently the author is Alicia Blade herself! Long-time, famous BNF in the SM fandom that I'm sure will ring a bell to many fandom oldies such as myself who got scoured the net for SM fics during the late 90's and early 00's.
My-HiME 
