Sailor Moon Volume Seven is rated “T” for teens 13 and up.

Sailor Moon Volume Seven
Written by: Naoko Takeuchi
Publisher: Kodansha
English Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: September 11, 2012

Volume Seven sees several revelations being made, which include learning about Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Pluto, and Hotaru Tomoe. Another big revelation is the fact that there exists another Sailor Scout: Sailor Saturn. It’s also learned that there’s a connection between the three talisman that Mamoru and Rei received warnings about and Sailor Saturn. The last major revelation is the fact that Sailor Moon has a way to acquire more power to battle against her enemies that had not been discovered prior to this point in the manga.

With all of these revelations, as well as the pacing of the story in this volume, I had thought that the story arc would reach its conclusion in this volume. However, it turned out that my assumption was wrong, and the story arc continues into Volume Eight. With the execution of this story, I’m now left wanting to know how the story will progress from the point that it ends at.

The plot in this volume of Sailor Moon really puts the relationships between the Sailor Scouts to the test. I also appreciated seeing Takeuchi delve into a moralistic issue that Sailor Moon has to face when she learns about Sailor Saturn, the identity of Sailor Saturn, and what will happen if Sailor Saturn is awakened. Basically, she is torn between taking one life in the hope of saving the world, or not taking that one life and risk having the world be destroyed.

The relationship between Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune really isn’t touched on in this volume. However, not touching on this aspect makes a lot of sense, because it wouldn’t have added anything to the story that’s being told in Volume Seven. I applaud Takeuchi for the fact that she was willing to include the element of a same-sex relationship in a shojo manga series, and as of this point in the series, she is not treating this pairing any differently than Mamoru and Usagi’s relationship.

Like with Volume Six, there is an English preview for the next volume included at the end. It’s nice to be able to understand what’s going on when I’m reading the preview. Translator William Flanagan’s translation notes that appear at the end of the story are very informative and help the reader better understand some of the Japanese cultural references that appear in the story.

If you’ve enjoyed the previous six volumes of the Sailor Moon manga series, you should also enjoy Volume Seven of the series.

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