I'd heard a lot about the Sailor V manga and let me tell you, it's all true. Not only can you see where Takeuchi started toying around with the character designs for Sailor Moon, but you can also see where some view it as close, but not quite as good as Sailor Moon. (Still worth reading, though!) 
 First I just have to say that like Sailor Moon, the artwork is gorgeous. It's a little rough in places compared to her later work (especially since the new [[ASIN:1935429744 Sailor Moon]]), but it's still incredibly fun to look at. The story is also interesting since it's both a standalone manga as well as being linked to the SM universe. I have to warn readers that they should take this manga with a grain of salt as far as how it fits into the SM world since you'll see various things that don't match up with what we know about the Sailor Venus in Sailor Moon. This is because Sailor V was initially released before Sailor Moon was and eventually sparked the idea for what is now her best known series. 
 The most fun of this volume is to look to see where Takeuchi started playing around with character designs. Minako (Sailor V) was quite obviously a springing board for Usagi, as she shares many of Usagi's characteristics and surroundings, most notably Usagi's parents and a few of her classmates. It's interesting to also see how the story changed over time, as the Sailor Moon series started up not long after Sailor V started up and ran alongside the Sailor V manga. (Sailor V releases started coming out more sporadically.) You can see some of the Sailor Moon characters (most notably Usagi), which was pretty neat. 
 Translation-wise, this isn't bad. I did spot a grammatical error in the volume and at times it does suffer from awkward translating, it's pretty well done and actually flows a little better than the Sailor Moon translation did. (Possibly due to it being potentially less scrutinized by the fanbase as the SM manga would be.) 
 This isn't as strong as the Sailor Moon manga is, but it's still very fun and it's a must buy for fans of Sailor Moon. For those who aren't as die-hard? Well, personally my gut reaction is to collect everything and tell everyone else to (hey, I'm a completist), but some might find that this just doesn't grab them as much as the Sailor Moon series does (or vice-versa). For them it might be worth checking out in the bookstore before buying it.