Sailor Moon the Novels by Naoko Takeuchi, Stuart J. Levy (1999, Paperback)

I've read all 8 books in this novelization of the animated Japanese cartoon. I liked them and that they're 90% accurate to the summary of the episodes and even included the few skipped episodes that didn't make it to America in them.

The only things I didn't like are that the author uses the same 5 or so metaphors throughout all books which is really annoying and she really Americanized the characters. Serena/Sailor Moon (Usagi in Japan) and her friends seem to be really obsessed with over priced fashion lines and are always described as being dressed in designer clothing like DKNY and Chanel. Popular celebrities in America at the time of the books were made (1999-2000) are mentioned like Ricky Martin and it just made me think "Hey that didn't happen in the show". So, it wasn't completely faithfull to the series. Some minor things changed like dialogue and whatnot. Some Sailor Moon catch phrases and new characters have been written in unnecessary all capital letters. A lot of sentences have been lengthened with numerous commas which seems rambling.

It's obvious these books are undergoing changes throughout the 8 releases, which kind of bothered me. The 2 last books are the only one that get it together with a long awaited table of contents. And the second book starts off with a new author writing along with book 1's author who then continues to write the remaining 5.

Serena/Sailor Moon's relationship with Darien/Tuxedo Mask is a lot closer than it is the show and more like the original story in the manga.