Codename wa Sailor V (“Codename: Sailor V”) is the prequel manga to Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon featuring the early adventures of Minako Aino, who finds out that she has magical powers and a duty to protect the people of Earth as the soldier of justice “Sailor V”.
The story first appeared as a one-shot in the debut summer vacation issue of Nakayoshi‘s sister magazine Run-Run published in August 1991. The story was popular enough that Naoko Takeuchi began working on a new series that would become Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. The adventures of Minako as “Sailor V” and her battles against the Dark Agency continued to be serialized in the quarterly Run-Run from 1991 to November 1997 for a total 15 chapters. The story concludes just prior to Sailor V joining the Sailor Senshi team in Sailor Moon.
Tankōbon
The serialization was originally reprinted in three collected volumes from 1993 to 1997.
Shinsōban (New Edition)
In 2004 Kodansha published a “new edition” of the manga in two oversized volumes with new covers, retouched artwork and corrections by Naoko Takeuchi, and the color pages from the original serialization. Scans of the color pages are available at Sailor Dream.
Kanzenban (Complete Edition)
In celebration of Sailor Moon’s 20th anniversary, Kodansha released a kanzenban (“complete edition”) of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon and Codename Sailor V between Nov 2013 and May 2014. The interior artwork has been digitally remastered and reviewed and approved by Naoko Takeuchi. All color pages from the original serialization are included. The complete edition is printed in A5 size with high quality binding and is larger than any previous release.
Images from Sailormoon-Official.com and Shining Moon