I actually recently got all Sailormoon volumes, the latest bigger edition is beautiful. I’ve started to read it a little. I’ve read chapter 1, however this is a thing I’m reading more casually. So I’m not looking up everything, only two things do I check on: (1) crucial words I don’t understand (example: I had a couple of verbs in the first battle that seemed crucial to the battle, to make me understand the villain’s intention/action) and (2) when I don’t understand a whole speech bubble and it is clearly important to the story (example: I had a two-bubble speech by the cat Luna that I didn’t understand at all, I looked up enough to understand the gist for that).
So basically, I’m not reading for full comprehension, but for gist/story comprehension.
However, I’m doing this reading fairly casually, but maybe I’ll pick up my casual speed (I’ve read twice in a month, reading half a chapter each time), and try and keep up with this group. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m considering.
And since I posted I read through another chapter. At my current skill level, and not reading for full comprehension, I can fairly easily go through half a chapter in one reading session (I tend to read for 30-60 mins per session, it is a guess because I don’t look at the time). I also noticed that depending on mood, I will be more or less likely to look stuff up. The art is so pretty, imo. <3
At this rate I might make sure that I keep up the reading rate of the book club, even if I’m reading it more casually for myself (and I know I’m currently ahead, gives me a little buffer!). A good motivation to keep reading, and I can talk about the story with people.
Are you familiar with the overall story from reading in English or seeing the original anime?
If you decide you’d like to supplement these with parts of the story you’re missing, note that later releases renumbered the Acts a bit (I’ll make this clear for each week’s reading), so with the updated numbering, your books correspond with :
This is probably about where I am as well. I’ll find out for sure in a month!
I own some issues of the Nakayoshi “phonebook” manga, which has monthly issues of many different comics. Having seen what all is in it, there’s really a sense of just how good Naoko Takeuchi’s artwork was for the time. I think the only other “top notch” comic I saw in them was Cardcaptor Sakura, by the CLAMP team. Granted, there were surely really nice manga in other monthly releases (I believe Sailor V ran in “Run Run”, which I don’t have any of).
Thanks so much for the info!
I am too familiar with Sailor Moon lol. The original Japanese anime has been a big part of my life since my childhood and I’ve read the English version a few times and I’ve watched the original anime like 100 times.
I’ll probably join in, but I’ll be a little late. I made a big book order last week and probably won’t be buying anything else until January 1, but I can read pretty quickly so I’ll just catch up!
I’ve never read the manga but always told myself I’d like to.
If there are digital versions on Amazon Japan (I’m desperately trying to own fewer physical books, pending future moves), I’ll probably join for this.
Not really going to be in this one for the learning experience, since it’ll probably already be a pretty comfortable read, but the idea of book-clubbing a manga I’ve already been meaning to read sounds super fun.
(Background: I saw most of the TV anime waaaay back, with its English dub, as a kid, and a little past the first season of Crystal. I think it’s rad (especially as a pretty no-nonsense team superhero series for girls, when it came out+like, weirdly all-in horror elements for its villains, as Japanese superhero stories gonna do), but am not super intimate with it, so this’ll be a pretty blind experience. I basically only know major premises.)
It’s definitely available digitally from Amazon =D And the image size is fairly large (as opposed to some digital manga where the furigana is barely readable).
I just bought the set and should receive it sometime in January, so I’ll probably join in late and not keep to the book club speed when I do get it.
Don’t know for sure yet obviously, it also depends how hooked much I like it. In any case I’m looking forward to finally reading this classic and following along with the discussion. Thanks for the motivation!
Wow I might actually be able to start this on time. Bought the whole set off of eBay and it said it would get here in the end of January, but it just shipped from Japan and says it’ll be here Monday
Edit: ended up getting here today (Saturday)! Ended up getting the regular volumes because I found a whole used set for very cheap, and the quality is actually really nice! They’re thicker than I thought they’d be too (about 250 pages per volume)
Nearly done with Volume 1 (sorry; I’ll be a bit ahead, but it’ll still be fresh), and eagerly awaiting this thread to start so I can dump my thoughts here, because it turns out I think this series is stupid good, and basically every page has been a delight. Takeuchi seems like she’s having a great time.
I’ve kept myself from doing this by busying myself on working out how to track page numbers across different releases (fairly simple), and putting together a vocabulary document spreadsheet for anyone who may want to help fill it out.
In any case I’m looking forward to finally reading this classic and following along with the discussion. Thanks for the motivation! 
. Would love to join in as well!
