10 Biggest Problems in Sailor Moon’s Normal Life as Usagi, Ranked

Sailor Moon’s epic fights across the cosmos comprise much of the main plot in Sailor Moon, with her Sailor Guardians protecting planet Earth from invading villains like Queen Beryl, Queen Nehelenia and Master Pharaoh 90. Yet even Usagi’s true identity as Princess Serenity, can’t save Usagi from her most perilous mission yet: high school.

Thanks to her dual life, Usagi must contend with the forces of evil and study for exams, which often puts a strain on both of her identities. Yet these problems help audience members better relate to Usagi, making her accessible and approachable in the way viewers need. From her incredibly ordinary penchant for daydreaming to the familial expectations the Tsukino family places on Usagi, she must face big — but ordinary — life problems in her normal civilian life.

10 Peer Pressure Sinks its Teeth into Usagi at Critical Junctures

Usagi Feels Insecurities Stemming from her Friends and Peers

Peer pressure is a concept most people are familiar with, especially adolescents and teenagers, as they discover more about themselves through social interactions. Usagi likewise experiences such an emotion and feels the pressure to conform, whether it’s about fashion, social status or academic performance. For example, Usagi often feels anxiety surrounding Ami’s seemingly ease at excelling in exams, or feels the pressure to lose some weight and joins a gym in the first season of the anime series.

While a decidedly normal issue that most young women Usagi’s age faces, the inclusion of it into an anime targeted at girls helps the character of Usagi relate to their own struggles with peer pressure. The experiences Usagi undergoes highlight one of the universal challenges of adolescence, making her relatable to viewers who have faced similar pressures in their own lives. And through these struggles, Usagi teaches viewers that true strength lies in staying true to oneself, even in the face of society attempting to alter those to better fit in.

9 Usagi’s Jealousy Oftentimes Rears its Ugly Head

Most Prominently With Regard to Chibiusa

One of Usagi’s strongest flaws stems from her sense of jealousy, especially when it comes to Mamoru, with Usagi often feeling threatened by her friends and those around her. This jealousy sometimes causes Usagi to act impulsively and immaturely, straining her relationships with those she cares about. One of the series’ most poignant examples of Usagi’s envy arises from Chibiusa’s infatuation with Mamoru, with Usagi’s jealousy of Chibiusa being problematic as the two are actually related.

Yet as the series progresses, these moments of jealousy turn into opportunities for character growth, with Usagi forced to confront and navigate her own feelings. She comes to better understand the importance of trust, communication and self-acceptance, ultimately strengthening the bonds she shares with those closest to her. With such a universally known feeling such as jealousy, Usagi connects with viewers, teaching them that true friendship thrives on support and understanding rather than needless competition and resentment.

8 Usagi Yearns for the Finer Things in Life

This Often Distracts Her From the More Important Things

Perhaps in typical teenager fashion, Usagi yearns for the finer things in life, such as luxury, beautiful clothes and romantic adventures with her crushes. Her obsession with material goods sometimes distracts her from more pressing concerns and leads her into problematic situations, such as the time when she infiltrated the sophisticated soirée hosted by Princess D from the Diamond Kingdom, leaving Sailors Mercury and Mars to handle Nephrite on their own as Usagi danced in the main hall. These distractions impede her normal life as well, complicating her relationship with her friends and family.

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However, feelings of jealousy and inadequacy — especially when it comes to finances — can resonate with audience members, which in turn makes this particular struggle of Usagi’s relatable to viewers. Audiences also see Usagi grow as an individual as Usagi comes to realize that true happiness comes from life’s intangibles and beyond material possessions, with the more mature Usagi learning to value her friends and Mamoru more than physical things.

7 Keeping Secrets Sometimes Takes its Toll

Usagi Doesn’t Tell Everyone That She’s Sailor Moon

Usagi’s duties as Sailor Moon, guardian of love and justice, requires her to keep her civilian identity a secret, both to safeguard her family but to also prevent them from stopping her out of worry. This secrecy places a burden on Usagi’s shoulders, with her awkwardly attempting to explain unusual behavior or her steady stream of absences and tardies. And it also leads to moments of loneliness, especially during the early stages before the other Sailor Guardians appeared, with Usagi only able to talk with Luna and unable to get the full scope of support she needs during tough and critical times.

While perhaps not the most courageous act ever seen in the Sailor Moon series, the secrets she must keep feeds into Usagi’s search for her own identity, as she navigates the narrow path left to her between being a guardian of justice while also a typical teenager. This internal conflict helps resonate with viewers who might also struggle with maintaining a balance between authenticity and obligation, or who feel they can’t be completely honest with their loved ones.

6 Daydreaming Distracts from Important Moments

Usagi’s Head is Up in the Clouds at Inconvenient Moments

Obliviousness and Usagi tend to go hand in hand, with Usagi often daydreaming about romance or heroism when she should be paying attention to things, especially in class. Her tendency to drift into these fantasy moments causes her to lose focus and miss important information, particularly during classroom lectures, or when she oversleeps and arrives habitually late to school. Usagi’s musing moments usually end up creating friction, either with her teachers, her family or her friends, and can lead to misunderstandings or completely missing crucial information shared in conversations.

Her penchant for daydreaming assists in reinforcing her clumsy girl image, and often lands her in a string of embarrassing situations. However, they also highlight her highly imaginative and hopeful nature, showcasing that dreams can be a good thing, so long as they don’t completely distract from the present. Thanks to this element of Usagi’s personality, she’s accessible to viewers who might share her similar struggle of waffling between staying grounded while still aspiring for more.

5 Romantic Challenges Plague Usagi’s Heart

First Loves can be Messy

Usagi’s star-crossed love with Mamoru serves as one of the main plot threads woven into Sailor Moon, with the series rife with dramatic moments between Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Their love serves as a central element to Usagi’s story, showcasing the depth and expanse of first loves, illustrating all the messy and beautiful moments of excitement, happiness, confusion and heartbreak. The fact that Usagi also experiences these strong emotions typical of teenage girls navigating love for the first time — complete with crushes, jealousy and misunderstandings in communication — helps her to better resonate with any viewers who have likewise experienced these ups and downs, or who might be interested in them one day.

Insecurities plague Usagi’s heart when it comes to romance, especially in the beginning stages, as she often wonders if she’s worthy of Mamoru’s love. These vulnerable moments of low self-esteem create tension that viewers can empathize with, which helps create a potent blend of vulnerability and resilience that inspires audience members. The very relatable battlefield of first loves, crushes and hurt feelings allows people to connect deeply with Usagi’s character, making this seemingly normal problem one of the highest hurdles Usagi and Sailor Moon must overcome.

4 Clumsiness Often Leads Usagi Into Embarrassing Situations

Her Strength Shows in how She Laughs it off

Usagi’s clumsiness is a staple element of her character, with Usagi often tripping, dropping things or missing important clues in her surroundings both in her roles as Usagi and Sailor Moon. Luckily, these moments tend to be more comedic than problematic, with her friends and the other Sailor Guardians usually around to assist Usagi when these moments happen. Yet even still, these persist as problems when they cause Usagi or Sailor Moon to miss key events or appear foolish in front of others.

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Most teenage girls tend to feel clumsy at certain moments, especially in adolescence, which highlights Usagi’s relatability with her intended shojo audience. Despite these moments, however, Usagi’s resilience shines through, and her ability to laugh off these moments helps demonstrate to those watching that no one needs to be perfect. This ultimately adds depth to her character, blending together humor and vulnerability while reinforcing the idea that everyone — even celestial maidens destined to become the beautiful ruler of the Moon — has flaws.

3 Usagi’s Family Lumps Expectations on her Shoulders

Her Family Wants her to be Smarter

While the duties and expectations Usagi’s family puts on her shoulders throughout the course of Sailor Moon do help her grow as an individual, the pressures to live up to their ideal versions of herself do bear some weight on Usagi. Her mother expects her to excel academically, while her brother often makes fun of Usagi for her low test scores, showcasing their desire for Usagi to be different than she actually is. These expectations add pressure to the already tense problems Usagi faces — even though many of these moments are played to comedic effect — with Usagi constantly questioning her prowess as a leader because of their expectations.

This portrayal illustrates how Usagi is one of the most complicated heroes in Sailor Moon, but it also resonates with the audience, who similarly feel pressure to conform to their parents’ desires while still exploring and discovering the type of person they wish to become. As the series progresses, Usagi learns to embrace her identity and better navigate these expectations, but the rite of passage they present ultimately makes her more approachable to those watching Sailor Moon.

2 Leading a Double Life Often Leaves Usagi Without Much Free Time

Usagi Must Juggle Her Responsibilities

Balancing schoolwork and a social life often presents a challenge for the average teenager, but Usagi must also figure out how to include her time as Sailor Moon into the mix. As such, she’s left without the free time most teenage girls have to do fun things, such as trying to become an idol or attending a theme park without hoping to stop an evil youma along the way.

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This strain on her time management skills — which were abysmal even before she donned her Sailor Moon persona — often leads to chaos in Usagi’s life. The balance between her superhero duties, friends and her academic career mirrors the very real problem that most teenage girls face: not having enough time in the day to do everything they wish, showcasing another example of how one of Usagi’s normal life problems makes her accessible to her audience.

1 Usagi Barely Coasts Through Her Academics

She Often Fails Important Exams and Tests

While Sailor Moon might also be the reincarnation of an ancient moon princess, Usagi still bears the mind and body of a teenager, requiring her to attend school in her everyday life. As such, Usagi attends Jūban High School alongside many of her friends, with many moments outside of her Sailor Moon persona spent in the classroom. Yet despite all the time allotted for studies and classwork, Usagi constantly falls behind, barely coasting through her classes and oftentimes failing her exams.

Luckily, one of her fellow Sailor Guardians also happens to be a genius with an IQ over 300, and offers to help Usagi out with homework or studying — which turns out to be a herculean effort more times than not. Still, Usagi’s academic record paints a very relatable image of the sailor-suit-wearing-heroine, helping her everyday plight resonate more impactfully with the series’ intended young audience.

Sailor Moon

A group of schoolgirls discover they are incarnations of super-powered alien princesses, and use their abilities to defend the earth.

Release Date

March 7, 1992

Creator(s)

Naoko Takeuchi

Cast

Kotono Mitsuishi , Aya Hisakawa , Michie Tomizawa , Emi Shinohara , Rica Fukami , Tôru Furuya , Keiko Han , Kae Araki , Yasuhiro Takato

Seasons

5

Creator

Main Characters

Production Company

Writers

Sukehiro Tomita

Number of Episodes

Streaming Service(s)

Hulu

Directors

Junichi Sato , Kunihiko Ikuhara

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