It's rare to see an anime adapt a manga to the letter, but an anime would be incredibly boring if audiences knew exactly what was going to happen ahead of time. Also, some anime outlast their printed counterparts. Which means the showrunners will eventually exhaust the source material.

RELATED: 10 Anime To Watch If You Love Sailor Moon

When it came time to turn Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon into an anime, the producers had to make some big decisions, and, eventually, they took a lot of liberties with the stories, characters, and developments. In due time, the classic anime was in its own world. So, let's revisit ten differences between the manga and anime.

10 Flight

Sometimes it's hard to tell simply because of how surreal and stylized the manga is, but the fact is, the Sailor Guardians can fly. This is evident in Sailor Moon Crystal, a more faithful anime adaptation of the manga. However, the first anime series omitted this ability for some reason.

We do have some instances where the Sailor Guardians can fly in the 90s anime (e.g., Eternal Sailor Moon flew in episode 170). Otherwise, it's abandoned. Despite having the power of flight, the Guardians use it sparingly, or just not enough in situations that would benefit from it.

9 Various attacks

Up until Sailor Moon Crystal, we didn't get to see a number of attacks used in the manga. The 90s anime excluded so many of them, too. In the first season, Sailor Moon's Moon Twilight Flash, as well as Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane and Jupiter Thunderbolt, were all absent.

Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus were forced to use their Star Power attacks all throughout the third season. Yet, in the manga, the four achieved Planet Power status. Along with the new transformations, they each had new techniques. Sailor Moon S dropped these, likely due to budget and timing issues.

8 Chibi-Chibi

In Sailor Stars, Usagi came home to a child named Chibi-Chibi living in her house. She's not Chibi-Usa's sister either. So, who is she? Well, Chibi-Chibi's origin varies. In the manga, Chibi-Chibi is the form Sailor Cosmos took in the present. Cosmos hailed from a distraught future that had been ruined by Sailor Chaos.

RELATED: The 10 Most Vicious Sailor Moon Fights, Ranked

In the 90s anime, Chibi-Chibi was Sailor Galaxia's Star Seed. She cast it out of her body before succumbing to Chaos, the source of all evil in the universe. The Star Seed became Chibi-Chibi, and she found her way to Usagi.

7 Sailor Pluto and Endymion

In the first anime adaptation, we hardly saw Sailor Pluto and Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask/Endymion interact in any sort of casual capacity. In fact, we knew very little about Pluto's personal life. On the other hand, the manga included a very different depiction of Pluto.

There, Sailor Pluto was shown to be smitten with King Endymion. It wasn't a reciprocated feeling, however, as Endymion was in love with Neo-Queen Serenity, Usagi's future form. Nonetheless, fans have clamored over this one-sided romance for years. Aside from fanfiction, the pairing has been featured in the musicals and in Crystal.

6 Sailor Quartet

In the manga, Queen Nehalennia was assisted by the Amazoness Quartet. They remained in a deep slumber in the Amazon Jungle until the wicked ruler of the Dead Moon awakened them prematurely. She then made them her servants. The Amazoness Quartet is not actually evil, though. Far from it.

These girls — who are the same age as Chibi-Usa — are Sailor Guardians themselves. The Sailor Quartet, to be exact. They were assigned the duty of protecting Chibi-Usa (or Small Lady) in the future. This story was never adapted in the 90s series, but we'll likely see it in the new anime.

5 The Makaiju Arc

With the success of the manga, Naoko Takeuchi was urged to write and draw more stories following the Dark Kingdom's conclusion. This meant the creator needed some time to catch up with the anime. So, the staff came up with an exclusive filler arc not found in the manga.

RELATED: The Ultimate Sailor Moon Gift Guide

For thirteen episodes, Sailor Moon and the other Sailor Guardians contended with a pair of dangerous aliens named Ail and An. This pair sustained itself with life energy stolen from humans. Along with them was the Makaiju (literally Devil Tree), a gigantic tree that Ail and An filtered the energy through.

4 Transformation Wands

A story about magic not having wands is like a pizza without sauce. It's possible, but does it really feel the same? Despite Sailor Moon being the seminal construction of these sorts of tropes, the manga eliminated the use of wands over time. Specifically for Sailor Moon's friends.

In the first two arcs, Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus each transformed using a small wand. For the third arc, they changed without any items; they later used the Sailor Crystals in the Dead Moon story. In both the 90s anime and Crystal, the four core Guardians still depended on their wands.

3 The Golden Crystal

In Sailor Moon SuperS, the Dead Moon searched for the Golden Crystal. This powerful artifact was contained in the horn atop Helios' head. In the final battle, Sailor Chibi-Moon activated and wielded the Golden Crystal against Queen Nehalennia.

RELATED: 10 Sailor Moon Cosplays That Are Too Good To Be True

As for the manga, the Golden Crystal wasn't hiding inside of Helios, and it was Mamoru's Sailor Crystal. It was because of this object that Mamoru was capable of transforming into Tuxedo Mask. In the final season of the 90s anime, the enemy seized Mamoru's Star Seed, which resembled the Golden Crystal. They bear no connection and are two different items, though.

2 Sailor Saturn's role in the past

Compared to the manga, Sailor Saturn's significance in the first anime was reduced. Two powerful entities lived inside of Hotaru Tomoe — Sailor Saturn and Mistress 9 — but only one of them obviously survived. As the Guardian of Ruin, Saturn can decimate worlds with one drop of her Silence Glaive. She only does this in dire situations, or when the world is on the brink of unstoppable doom.

Something the 90s anime glossed over was Saturn's role in the past. In the manga, she destroyed the remnants of the fallen Silver Millennium so everyone could be reborn in the present day.

1 Evil Sailor Guardians

In the manga's final arc, Sailor Galaxia did something shocking. So much so that the 90s anime didn't even adapt it. Not fully, that is. She turned the eight Sailor Guardians against Sailor Moon, who was then forced to kill them. Seeing this illustrated was heartbreaking enough. Imagine watching it go down in animation!

In Sailor Stars, however, Sailors Uranus and Neptune were the only two Guardians to switch sides. They had their reasons, and the revelation pulled at our heartstrings. If the new anime continues to adapt the manga faithfully, we'll probably see the eight Sailor Guardians turn evil.

NEXT: Sailor Moon: Every Sailor Guardian Ranked By Power