1) "Recently we received some older children’s books from another Japanese family whose children are older and have grown out of them. Among them were 4 Sailor Moon storybooks. For those who haven’t heard of it and can’t be bothered to look it up, it’s essentially an all-girls Power Rangers kind of story." Source and further information: http://www.moroha.net/blog/?p=88&cpage=1 2) "Power Rangers is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise, built around a children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes. Produced by Saban Entertainment (and later BVS Entertainment under Disney), the Power Rangers concept originated from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series. Rather than making an English dub of the original, the American production team put together a "new" production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage in varying ratios." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_rangers 3) "The Super Sentai Series (スーパー戦隊シリーズ SÅ«pā Sentai ShirÄ«zu?) is the name given to the long running Japanese superhero team genre of shows produced by Toei Company Ltd., Toei Agency and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Super" refers to their use of mecha, and "sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or, literally, "fighting squadron" and was also a term used for Japanese squadrons in WWII). The shows are of the tokusatsu genre, featuring live action characters and colorful special effects, and are aimed mainly at children. This series is one of the most prominent tokusatsu productions in Japan, alongside the Ultra Series, the Kamen Rider Series, and the Metal Hero Series and was adapted in the United States as Power Rangers." "In every Sentai series, the fight between good and evil is illustrated, with the good side winning most of the time. The basic premise of the series is that a group of five (in some cases fewer) people gain special powers (magical or technological), wear colored outfits, and use advanced weapons and martial arts skills to battle powerful beings from other planets and/or dimensions threatening to take over the Earth. In most of the episodes, after the team has beaten an army of evil creatures ("grunts") and the "monster of the week", they call for huge robotic vehicles/animals ("mechas") that can combine to form one giant robot to fight an enlarged version of the monster. Sentai series with the giant robot element are specifically known as Super Sentai. Each Sentai series is set in a different fictional universe, with the exception of specials that feature a teaming up with the previous Sentai." "The term sentai is also occasionally used to describe shows with similar premises, such as Voltron, or even the magical girl team in Sailor Moon, as Naoko Takeuchi deliberately used Sentai ideas. In 2003, Sailor Moon was retold in a fashion somewhat similar to Sentai shows in the form of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. While not officially Sentai, some fans of the genre have accepted it as such." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Sentai 4) "Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン Bishōjo Senshi SÄ“rā MÅ«n?, officially translated as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) is the title of a Japanese media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. It is credited by scholars such as Fred Patten with popularizing the concept of a sentai (team) of magical girls,[1][2] as well as "revitalizing" the magical girl genre itself.[3] The story of the various metaseries revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a kingdom that once spanned the solar system, and around the evil forces that they battle. The major characters—called Sailor Senshi (literally "Sailor Soldiers"; frequently called "Sailor Scouts" in the North American version)—are teenage girls who can transform into heroines named for the moon and planets (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, etc). The use of "Sailor" comes from a style of girls' school uniform popular in Japan, the sÄ“rā fuku (sailor outfit), after which the Senshi's uniforms are modeled. The elements of fantasy in the series are heavily symbolic and often based on mythology." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailor_Moon