"Sailor Moon" is one of the most popular manga series of all time and continues to enjoy high readership worldwide. More than one million copies of its "tankōbon" volumes had been sold in Japan by the end of 1995. By the series' 20th anniversary in 2012, the manga had sold over 35 million copies in over fifty countries, and the franchise has generated in worldwide merchandise sales as of 2014. The manga won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1993 for "shōjo". The English adaptations of both the manga and the anime series became the first successful "shōjo" title in the United States. The character of Sailor Moon is recognized as one of the most important and popular female superheroes of all time.