Sailor Moon draws heavily from Greek and Roman mythology, but the series’ mangaka has many different influences that she conveys through her incredible work. Naoko Takeuchi incorporated several fairy tale themes, tropes, and archetypes into the magical girl classic. Fairy tales come from an oral tradition, but writers like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm wrote them down and compiled them into the most popular versions.

Naoko Takeuchi also incorporated Japanese fairy tales, such as “The Rabbit in the Moon,” along with European tales, such as “Cinderella.” All of these influences create a lush fantasy story set in the modern world. It makes the romance and magic of the series feel timeless, humorous, and ethereal.

10 Usagi wants a pair of glass slippers for her birthday

Fairytale: Cinderella

Usagi is a romantic at heart. She has an epic romance with Mamoru in both this life and her past life. As her birthday approaches, she becomes enchanted by a pair of fancy glass slippers in a store window and imagines Mamoru buying them and presenting them to her. The glass slippers are an essential gift in almost every version of the fairy tale “Cinderella.”

The slippers are a gift from Cinderella's fairy godmother, and they later identify her with the prince she fell in love with at a masquerade ball. Usagi's sweet dreams are dashed when Mamoru seems to forget her birthday. Forgetting her birthday isn't exactly princely behavior. But in true heroic fashion, Mamoru makes up for Usagi's upset, as a true Prince Charming would.

9 Tuxedo Mask will always come to Sailor Moon when she needs help

Fairy Tale: The Knight in Shining Armor Trope

The Moonlight Knight arc does not come from Sailor Moon manga; it is purely an anime filler product. The Moonlight Knight is a very romantic character concept and draws from a few different inspirations. He is based on the Japanese comic book hero, Moonlight Mask. The Moonlight Knight is the alter behind Mamoru.

He is the part of Tuxedo Mask who will always watch out for Sailor Moon and come to her aid, like a knight in shining armor. He wears white robes and a mask instead of armor, but the nickname "Knight" is a nod to his previous life as Prince Endymion. He wore armor and carried a sword in his previous life as a warrior prince. Every version of Mamoru, but especially Moonlight Knight, evokes images of the Knight in Shining Armor.

8 Usagi Tsukino has a very heavenly name

Fairy Tale: The Moon Rabbit

Usagi has had many different names, including Princess Serenity, Sailor Moon, Bunhead, and her civilian name, Usagi Tsukino. After the death of Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom, she was reborn to human parents who had no idea that she was a celestial princess in her past life. However, the name her human parents chose for her certainly reflects this destiny.

Usagi means “rabbit” and her surname “Tsukino” means “moon” or “child of the moon.” Zodiac mythology states that the Cancer zodiacs are aligned with the moon and are also called “children of the moon.” Adding “rabbit”/Usagi is a nod to the Japanese folklore figure, the Moon Rabbit. In some versions of the folklore, the Moon Rabbit is the companion of the moon goddess Chang’e.

7 The Sailor Senshi perform a school play inspired by fairy tales

Fairy Tale: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The Sailor Senshi draw lots to see who will play Snow White in a play with Mamoru's college friends. An, the villain from the second season who collects energy for the Makai Tree, becomes Snow White, and Usagi is relegated to the role of the Wicked Witch. Usagi is beside herself, of course, because Mamoru is playing Prince Charming and he has to kiss An.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is about a beautiful princess who is cursed to a deathly sleep until true love’s kiss awakens her. An’s companion, Ail, reads the play’s script and imagines himself kissing Usagi as the prince and Snow White because he has a huge crush on Usagi. Usagi may be the witch in the play, but she ends up saving the day as a prince when the Cardian, Bipierrot, arrives.

6 Kiriko dances an abandoned fairy tale

Fairytale: Giselle

Kiriko is a talented ballerina in a filler episode about classical ballet and theater, “Become a Prima: Usagi's Ballet.” The ballet's narrative and choreography draw from a variety of sources and create their own fairy tales, such as ballet, Gisele. Gisele is about a young village girl who falls in love with a disguised prince and then dies of a broken heart when she ends up engaged to someone else.

Giselle awakens from her death as a ghost in the forest and saves the prince, who comes to mourn her, from other vengeful ghosts. Kiriko not only dances the role of Giselle, but also embodies the personality of the ballet's protagonist. She is selfless, sensitive, and well-intentioned. Like Giselle, Kiriko is in love with someone she thinks may never be there for her: her dance partner, Yamagishi.

5 Usagi attends a ball with a magical princess transformation

Fairytale: Cinderella

It makes sense that the fairy tale “Cinderella” appears more than once in the Sailor Moon canon. Both Usagi and Cinderella have a lot in common, such as an iconic magical girl transformation, an otherworldly mentor, and falling in love with a prince. The moon cat, Luna, acts as Sailor Moon's pragmatic fairy godmother. Instead of waving a magic fairy wand, she gives Sailor Moon a Transformation Pen.

When Usagi is tasked with attending a princess's masquerade ball, she seizes the opportunity to transform into a beautiful princess with her Transformation Pen. She wears a beautiful pink ball gown adorned with ruffles and fabric roses. She even performs a romantic dance with her prince, Tuxedo Mask, at the ball.

4 Poupelin plays an enchanted lute and steals the town's children

Fairy Tale: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Not all fairy tale figures are heroes Sailor Moon. Some are villains and evil henchmen. Poupelin is the first villain henchman in the third Sailor Moon film, Black Dream Hole. He looks and acts exactly like the “Pied Piper of Hamelin,” and Naoko Takeuchi designed him specifically based on the creepy fairy tale character.

“The Pied Piper of Hamelin” is about a mysterious lute player who lures the children of a village into a marching and dancing line, stealing them from their homes forever. Like his literary predecessor, Pied Piper steals Chibiusa in the middle of the night, along with a host of other children. He enchants them and makes them board his skyship, taking them to a land of nightmares.

3 Princess Snow Kaguya wants to cover the world in eternal winter

Fairytale: The Snow Queen

Princess Snow Kaguya is the central antagonist in the second Sailor Moon film, Hearts on ice. She is a majestic being made of snow and ice, with elegant Snow Dancer henchmen and winter-inspired powers. She wants to blanket the Earth in eternal winter—a second Ice Age that would reshape the planet in her image.

Princess Snow Kaguya is inspired by the villain from the Danish fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Anderson. This villain is equally brutal and steals the protagonist’s best friend. Anderson’s Snow Queen also has evil guards made of snowflakes, like Princess Snow Kaguya’s Snow Dancers.

2 Queen Nehelenia is a fierce and beautiful evil queen, armed with a mirror

Fairy Tale: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Queen Nehelenia is a dark ruler obsessed with her magic mirror and maintaining her youth. She is also the dark double queen of Sailor Moon (the eventual Neo-Queen Serenity). Nehelenia's insecurity and obsession with beauty and control are her downfall; it strips her of her sense of self, fragments her, and turns her into a villain.

Queen Nehelenia’s arc isn’t directly inspired by “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” but there’s no doubt that the fairy tale villain inspired Nehelenia. She’s just as obsessed with beauty and her magic mirror as the Evil Queen in “Snow White,” except her mirror’s magic is a little different. Nehelenia uses it to trap people instead of consulting it for prophetic knowledge. The Evil Queen transforms herself into a witch to tempt Snow White with an apple, and similarly, Queen Nehelenia loses sight of her true self so much that part of her being transforms into the witch character, Zircon.

1 Tuxedo Mask Rescues Sailor Moon With True Love's Kiss

Fairytale: Sleeping Beauty

Usagi reads a bedtime story to Chibiusa about a sleeping princess who is awakened from her curse by her prince's kiss. True Love's Kiss, breaking the worst curses, is a popular fairy tale trope. Usagi's bedtime story foreshadows what happens later in "Awaken Sleeping Beauty: Mamoru's Anguish", when Petz and Calaveras put Sailor Moon into an enchanted sleep.

Mamoru tries to stay away from Usagi, thinking that this will keep her safe, but he is the only one who can rescue her from her sleep. He rides to her side as Tuxedo Mask and breaks her sleeping spell with a kiss. The episode is a retelling of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", where an evil fairy curses the princess, Briar Rose, to an eternal sleep. A prince travels through a castle covered in thorns to revive her with True Love's Kiss.