Sailor Neptune or Michiru Kaiou in her civilian form is my favorite character in the Sailor Moon universe because she is the embodiment of intellect and elegance. She is a quite serious character and tragic heroine. She is basically the total opposite of Usagi Tsukino, who is my other number one girl (it’s a tie, you see), who is clumsy and has a very welcoming personality. Pullip Princess Serenity is on her way (she is supposed to arrive tomorrow), but today it is Pullip Sailor Neptune’s turn. I have had her for several months now and it has not always been easy. In general you always have to pay more for collaboration and Creator’s Label dolls because there are more people involved. What this means at the same time for the collector, is that you kind of expect a premium product and this is, where some people got put off from the Sailor Moon releases. The most criticism was earned for sailor suits that are made out of pleather and also the dolls’ face-up are pretty minimal, which did not let collectors justify the price tag. My decision was to take it my time with the Sailor Moon series and start with Sailor Neptune to build my own opinion. She is beautiful and I love having her in my collection!
All Sailor Senshi, with the exception of Sailor Pluto, are high school students. In Japan it is not allowed to wear make-up in school, which makes the minimal, but anyways beautiful face-ups very true to their characters. The most unique feature of Sailor Neptune’s face-up are her deep sea green eyebrows. They are so polished, pretty and matching her hair and eyechips. The eyechips imitate the deep sea perfectly. Just like the ground of the ocean that appears to be black at night, but reveals its true color, when the light hits it; Michiru’s eyes appear dark from a distance, but show their amazing green, when you get closer and let yourself get absorbed in them. There are also white accents on her eyechips. She is wearing black eyeliner on her waterlines and all around her lashlines, which make her eyes appear rounder. She only has drawn-on lashes on her lower lid, which was something I had to adjust to. This choice still does not make a lot of sense to me because Michiru is supposed to be a make-up lover, but her fellow senshi are actually wearing more eyeliner than her!
Sailor Neptune’s crease is also drawn-in with black eyeliner that matches her black lashes. Her eyelids are natural with thick black liner. One important factor that makes Michiru so georgous is her warm coral coloring. Due to that her complexion is looking very fresh and healthy. You will find this coral blushing on the outer edges of her cheeks and I also detected a hint of coral under her eyebrows. The stars of her show are those beautiful coral lips of hers. They are pouty, glossy and cute!
The wig! The wig was a factor that I was looking forward to the most. There is something about deep sea green that I love and I could just not imagine adding her to my collection. I just have to get this out here: Sailor Neptune’s wig is so far the worst in my collection-and it really pains me to say that! Right out of the box it was frizzy and felt thin. I was so scared that this was my fault and that’s why I took to google, where I found out that other people had the same problems with her wig as me. Another strange thing was that her wig out of the box looks nothing like her stock-pictures. You will get her with two big curls in the back, instead of long wavy hair.
For months, I was to afraid to mess it up, but when I was taking the pictures, for my review and had the shot of the big curls, I decided to try my best and imitate, what I had seen from fellow collectors. Basically, you only have to comb through the curls with your fingers to get a messier and wavy effect that is truer to character. I still have to comb them out somehow, but for the time being, I am happier with her hair now than before!
Her bangs in the front are swept to the side and will stay there due to some product and I am also sad to say that you can see quite a bit of the wig 
cap, where her bangs are split in the middle. I know that the wigs of the Sailor Moon releases often have the problem that the wig cap is showing, so if this is a complete turn-off for you, let me warn you! The tiaras of the senshi are supposed to be clipped into the wigs on both sides with barrettes, which is not an easy task, when there is not so much hair to begin with. The tiara is supposed to be placed on the forehead and not to cover the eyebrows. It takes quite some time to do this right and it was impossible for me to attach them in Michiru’s wig, without the barrettes showing on each sides. (There was also no way to center it properly, please bear with my pictures.) The tiara itself has a lovely metallic gloden color and a green gem in the middle. It would look so good on her, if her wig was thicker and not making the barrettes such a pain to get on!
Michiru is wearing earrings like the other Sailor Moon releases. Earrings on a Pullip are something that I love and appreciate so this is definitely a plus in my opinion. That being said, they are not out of the nicest quality. They are studs out of the same green stones that are also used on Sailor Neptune’s outfit and one of them unfortunately already came a little bit damaged. Still, they add a nice touch.
Sailor Neptune’s choker is one of my favorite pieces! It is mainly out of dark green pleather that closes in the back with velcro, but has another green gem in the front center with pieces out of gold metallic fabric around it that give the appearance of a cross. There is something about this accessory that matches her so well, even though it is quite simply executed!
The main piece of her clothing is one of the famous sailor suits. It actually is a full-on bodysuit out of white pleather that closes above her bust and in the back with velcro. It is very tight fitting and can be a pain to get on and off. In the front she is wearing a big dark blue bow that is out of pleather as well and sports another green stone in its middle. The color of her collar that goes on sailor-style in the back, is also dark green.
Out of the same dark green pleather is the separate skirt, which also has a border out of white pleather going around at the top. It has a big dark blue bow in the back and closes with velcro. The skirt is quite short and likes to ride up and that’s why Sailor Neptune has to constantly fix her outfit.
Fitting her stock, she also comes with a pair of gloves. If you are not familiar with Pullip’s hands, just know that gloves for Pullip basically means mittens, which is great because they look like kitty cats, when they are wearing them! Michiru’s gloves are out of white pleather and are out of dark green pleather at the top. She looks cute in them, even though they make her arms appear shorter.
The last piece of Sailor Neptune’s stock are her dark green high heels that have some dark green pleather attached on them that is supposed to make them look criss-crossed around her ankles, but actually the pleather closes in the back with velcro. There is a lot to say about these pumps! First of all: I love how they look and how they complete Michiru’s outfit! Second: I have had her now for roughly six months and the pleather is kind of coming apart and the velcro in the back is starting to thread out and not close properly anymore. Third: I love to dress up my dolls and tried to incorporate original stock pieces into Michi’s looks, but those shoes fit so tight that there is no way to fit stocking or thights underneath them. Don’t try it, unless you want them to come undone like mine are almost doing.
There was also a limited Premium Bandai version of Sailor Neptune that featured her iconic school uniform as a bonus item. Unfortunately I could not find her second-hand, but I got lucky and found her uniform on Etsy. When I am getting the last accessories to finish up her school look, I will make a separate post about it.
I would really love to hear your opinions on Pullip Sailor Neptune and your opinions on the Groove Sailor Moon series in general, since I believe that this is a topic that has a lot to discuss about! Would you rather go for a Sailor Senshi or an original Pullip release? Let me know!
Thank you so much for reading!
Theri