Code Name wa Sailor V

Mangaka: Naoko Takeuchi
Pub. Date: 1991
# of Vols.: 3

Aino Minako is a 7th grader with the usual school girl problems, she has a crush on an older student and is struggling to give him a love letter and reveal her feelings to him. But on the day she sets for this task, a white cat named Artemis with a crescent moon on his forehead reveals she has more important issues to worry about, namely that her destiny is to be a warrior of love, Sailor V (Venus). Her magic is governed by the moon and she uses its light to recharge her compact. But her governing and home planet is still the home of the goddess Venus, and this fits our heroine aptly as she is continuelly finding boys to think cute. The manga continues on with Minako fighting the forces of the Dark Agency until the end of the series when she falls in love with the idol Saijou Ace. But he's been working for the Dark Kingdom (the Dark Agency had been working under them) as Danburite, but through a further twist Sailor V learns he is also Adonis, her mystical lover and the man who had loved her from afar in their past life. The story ends sadly and with Minako bound to seek the other soldiers from her past and protect the princess she was born as guardian to.

This manga of course was the work that spawned Naoko's story of Sailor Moon. The beginning of the manga is purely the tale of Sailor V, but mid-way through it was decided to create a story that mixed both the magical girl genre and the team hero shows (think Power Rangers). Her time shifted to work on the Pretty Soldier manga and she carried themes and characters from her Sailor V manga to her new story. In addition, she would off and on finish the Sailor V manga, with the two storylines overlapping at the end (the Dark Agency is now the Dark Kingdom as the great enemy, and Sailor V has a greater destiny to protect the true princess of the Moon).

The notes for the manga are here.