Who are Anime Cats Luna and Artemis?

Sailor Moon was published between 1991 and 1997. However, it remains an influential series, which is perhaps unsurprising considering its role in shaping the magical girl genre as a whole. As a result, there are a lot of people out there who should be familiar with Luna and Artemis to some extent, seeing as how they were important side-characters in the series.

Who Are Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon?

Both Luna and Artemis are cats. To be exact, both Luna and Artemis are magical cats who have been entrusted with the mission of awakening Sailor Moon and the other Senshi in the present, which was made possible by their intelligence as well as a number of other extraordinary abilities. As a result, it is no exaggeration to say that Luna and Artemis are foundational examples of mascot-mentor figures in the magical girl genre.

Background-wise, Luna and Artemis are supposed to be inhabitants of the planet Mau, who served at the court of Queen Serenity in the Silver Millennium. However, they were unlike Sailor Moon and the other Senshi in that they weren’t killed in the fall of the Silver Millennium but were instead sent forward in time with their mission.

With that said, neither Luna nor Artemis seem to have retained the full extent of their memories, which resulted in some rather amusing incidents. For example, Luna spent a fair amount of time prodding Sailor Moon to search for Princess Serenity even though Sailor Moon was the reincarnation of Princess Serenity.

Their Personality

Personality-wise, the two can be described as rather wide-ranging in nature, which is perhaps unsurprising considering the sheer number of differences that have popped up because of the sheer number of adaptations that have been made.

For example, Luna is consistent in that she is a loyal, well-meaning adviser to Sailor Moon in spite of some initial difficulties, but it is interesting to note that she gives off a much older impression in the English dub of the anime than in the Japanese dub of the anime.

This is erroneous because Luna is intended to be more of an older sister figure to Sailor Moon than someone who is old enough to be her mother, which is supported by the fact that her human form is actually supposed to look a little bit younger than her charge.

Meanwhile, the anime version of Artemis was much more emotional than his manga counterpart, though the two shared a fair number of characteristics, with an important one being the fact that both could be rather critical of their charge Sailor Venus.

Curiously, the manga Artemis showed some signs that suggested that he might have had romantic feelings for Sailor Venus, but in the end, both versions were the same in that their eventual love interest turned out to be Luna.

Their Story

Story-wise, it is interesting to note that while Luna might have been the adviser to the main character of the Sailor Moon series, Artemis was the one who showed up first in Codename: Sailor V, which is what kicked off the Sailor Moon phenomenon as a whole.

Regardless, once the two popped up in Sailor Moon, they were consistent in being side-characters of some importance, who continued to have narrative relevance until the end of the series.

For example, they were caught somewhat off-guard by their future daughter Diana, who served much the same role for Sailor Moon’s future daughter Chibiusa that they serve for Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus. Likewise, they were two of the characters who were killed in the last story arc of the series before being resurrected by a fully-mature Sailor Moon at the very end. In that case, their background as inhabitants of the planet Mau actually proved to be somewhat relevant, seeing as how it was revealed that said planet was one of the many victims of the villainous Sailor Galaxia.

Summed up, Luna and Artemis remain two of the best-known mascot-mentor figures from the magical girl genre, which makes sense because they come from one of the foundational works of said genre. As a result, they remain influential figures in relevant media, particularly since a lot of the people who grew up watching Sailor Moon are now involved in making their own works.

You can also read:

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.