Buddhist Influences

In the translation notes of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon vol. 1 it states:

Usagi’s name is a bit of a pun. Usagi means ‘Rabbit.’ Although the characters of her last name mean, ‘field of the moon,’ the sound of tsukino would come out to mean, ‘of the Moon.’ So in Japanese name order, Tsukino Usagi would mean ‘The Rabbit of the Moon.” To the Japanese, the dark and light spaces on the Moon look like a rabbit making mochi (where it looks like a face to western eyes giving rise to ‘The Man in the Moon’ legands), and rabbits are as associated with the Moon In Japanese minds as green cheese in American minds (Takeuchi vol. 1 2011:238).

The main story in Sailor Moon is heavily

influenced by Buddhist ideology and mythology, from the choice of Usagi Tsukino's name, to the form of reincarnation seen in the series, Naoko Takeuchi uses a lot of Buddhist references. For example Usagi Tsukino’s name translates to “the rabbit of the moon” which comes from the Buddhist Jātaka tales, which is about the Buddha’s past lives and other stories. One of these stories tells of the Rabbit of the Moon, the rabbit sacrifices his life to feed a stranger in honor of the full moon, when the rabbit survives he discovers that the stranger was Śakra (the Buddhist god of the heavens). In honor of the rabbit (who would give his life to feed another) Śakra draws the rabbit on the moon (“Moon rabbit,” last modified on November 9, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit). Thus the legend of the Rabbit of the Moon is originally Buddhist.

The 'Rabbit' in the Moon's shadow

tulakrystal.thoughts.com

Usagi Tsukino embodying her name

rebloggy.com

The Buddhist Wheel of Life

www.rigpawiki.org

As Franàz Ma‘súmián explains:

The Buddhist Wheel of Life in its traditional form − held in the mouth of and claws of Mara, the demon Death, or Impermanence. The perimeter of the wheel holds the twelve preconditions that cause rebirths. Inside the wheel are the six realms of rebirth, three upper and three lower realms. The three upper realms set aside for the righteous are heaven, the titan realm, and the human realm. The three lower realms reserved for evil-doers are hell, the realm of hungry ghosts, and the animal realm (Ma‘súmián 1995:47).

One of the major elements Naoko Takeuchi

borrowed from Buddhism is in her interpretation of reincarnation. The form you take when you are reborn is also a result of your actions while alive, the better a person you were the better the form you are reborn as (Ma‘súmián 1995:44). Which believes that when you die your consciousness will be reborn, this means that in your next life you will have a basic imprint of who you used to be, but you are a different being (Ma‘súmián 1995:44-45). In Sailor Moon when the Moon Kingdom was destroyed all of the Sailor Scouts, Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion, Luna, and Artemis were promised that they would all be reborn. When this happens they become the characters in the series, though they all have memories of their past life they are not the same people as before. For example in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon vol. 3 when the Moon Kingdom is restored, Usagi does not want to live there, as she explains “But i have to go back. Mommy and Daddy are waiting at home for me. I know that I’m Serenity too, but I am Usagi Tsukino!” (Takeuchi vol. 3 2012:127). She like the rest of those reborn are not the exact same as before, though they are influenced by their past lives none of them are exactly the same each time, they were given the gift of rebirth and new life.

In the Buddhist interpretation of reincarnation there is the

idea of the “Life Wheel” (Ma‘súmián 1995:47), which is a physical depiction of how the cycles of rebirth work. All of the realms still hold the promise of rebirth until the cycle is broken when one reaches a state of nirvana (Ma‘súmián 1995:48). In the last volume of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon this concept takes on a major role, especially with the introduction of “the Guardian star spirit of the cosmos seeds” and the “Cauldron” (Takeuchi vol. 12 2013:259). The last volume of the series everyone Usagi loves being dead, their ‘Sailor Crystals’(Takeuchi vol. 12 2013:181) (consciousness) being removed from their body, this brings Usagi to the Cauldron or the “the birthplace of all the milky way's heavenly bodies”(Takeuchi vol. 12 2013:190). In order to prevent the end of everyone’s life Usagi sacrifices her own life and then because of her decisions in life (Karma) she is able to chose whether or not to be reborn (Takeuchi vol. 12 2013:260-261). Through using the teaching of Buddhism Naoko Takeuchi was able to create an exciting story.

She also borrows from Buddhism one more time at the end, in the twelve preconditions of rebirth number four states “Name-and-form, the whole living organism, depends on consciousness, which here means the spark of sentient life that enters the womb and animates the embryo” (Ma‘súmián 1995:47). In Sailor Moon this takes on a physical interpretation with Usagi telling Mamoru on their wedding day that a new sailor scout has been conceived and will be born soon. Since the scene opens up with the two of them in bed the reader can assume that Usagi is pregnant with Cibi-Usagi and that the history told during the Dark Moon arc is taking place (Takeuchi vol. 12 2013:264-269). It is in Naoko Takeuchi’s blending of original ideas and religious elements which makes the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Series such an interesting read.

Works Cited

Ma ‘úmián, Farnáz,

1995 Life After Death: A Study of the Afterlife in World Religions. Oxford: Oneworld Publications

“Project Wikimoon: Home,” WikiMoon, Last Modified April 7, 2015, http://wikimoon.org/index.php?title=Main_Page.

“Sailor Moon Wiki: Home,” Sailor Moon Wiki, accessed September 9, 2015, http://sailormoon.wikia.com/wiki/Sailor_Moon_Wiki.

“Sailor Moon.” 2015. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, last modified on Nov 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailor_Moon.

Takeuchi, Naoko

2011[2003] Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, vol. 1-2. Naoko Takeuchi, trans. New York: Kodansha Comics.

Takeuchi, Naoko

2012[2003] Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, vol. 3-5. Naoko Takeuchi, trans. New York: Kodansha Comics.

Takeuchi, Naoko

2012[2004] Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, vol. 6-8. Naoko Takeuchi, trans. New York: Kodansha Comics.

Takeuchi, Naoko

2013[2004] Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, vol. 9-12. Naoko Takeuchi, trans. New York: Kodansha Comics.

Inside the Cauldron

Takeuchi, Naoko

2013[2004] Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, vol. 12. Naoko Takeuchi, trans.

New York: Kodansha Comics.

A new Sailor Scout

Takeuchi, Naoko

2013[2004] Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, vol. 12. Naoko

Takeuchi, trans. New York: Kodansha Comics.