美少女戦士セーラームーン (Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon) or "Pretty Soldier Sailormoon" is a magical girl show that features the adventures of fantastical girls in a dramatic world. It was first published in "Nakayoshi," a 
serial magazine for young girls, as a manga (comic) from February 1992 to March 1997. The popularity of the anime prompted the creation of new arcs for the manga. (For example, the anime created the Doom Tree series so that the manga could make the Black Moon arc and catch-up; executives of the anime urged the creation of the Infinity Arc after the success and public demand for more Sailormoon anime.) The public praises BSSM as the first manga to combine the magical series with the action genre typically associated with boy-related manga.[1]
The creator of BSSM is the artist Takeuchi Naoko, who illustrated all the manga pictures and developed the storylines of the senshi. She released it all in an 18 volume series and also published six artbooks of her colored manga.[2]
BSSM is not an original story in itself. It is based off Naoko's first "Sailor-suited heroine" SailorV. SailorV's comic, Codename wa SailorV (The Codename is SailorV), appeared in the "Run-Run" magazine as a sister to "Nakayoshi." Naoko was given the chance to draw a story of anything she liked; so, she chose a superheroine who would fight for justice. She based her heroine's costumes on the typical girls' school wear, the seeraa fuku (sailor suit), to get the attention of the young 
girls who wear them. The standard female objects of normal life are turned into weapons of great power and importance in Naoko's magical girl mangas.[1]
Codename wa SailorV features the adventures of Aino Minako and her magical cat Artemis. With his help, she transforms into the powerful warrior SailorV and fights against all kinds of evils. Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon follows the story of Tsukino Usagi and her magical cat who find other Sailor Soldiers to help fight against the evils that attack the earth. The SailorV manga eventually ends where Minako joins up the Sailor Team and becomes Sailorvenus in the BSSM manga.[3]
BSSM has evolved from this humble manga collection to an international anime. It has been translated and shown in Mexico, France, China, Australia, US, and many other nations. Though the public criticizes the anime for not "staying true" to the manga, it nevertheless introduced Sailormoon to the world and started a major interest in anime and manga from Japan. Though BSSM wasn't the first anime or manga to hit big in other countries, it is a pretty popular one.
For more information on the history of BSSM, please visit The Moon Garden or manga style!
1 Introduction. Mangastyle.
2 Manga Information. The Moon Garden.
3 Codename: SailorV. Wikipedia.org.