Monthly Archives: May 2014

Crunchyroll to stream the new Sailor Moon anime Sailor Moon Crystal

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crunchyroll

Last weekend at FanimeCon 2014 in San Jose Crunchyroll announced that the new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, would begin streaming on it’s site starting July 5th at 3am. This new anime will be streamed with English subtitles as it is released in Japan on Niconico. The announcement was made on their website shortly afterwards.

Anime series can be streamed for free on the Crunchyroll web site. For those looking for a better experience there is a pay service which will allow you to view the shows in HD without ads and on all kinds of media devices for $6.95 a month. You can sign up for a free 14 day trial of this service though a credit card or PayPal account will be needed for this trail. It’s certainly great to be able to watch a Sailor Moon series online streaming without commercials! It’s unfortunate that Hulu doesn’t have an ad free plan for fans of the original anime who are likely willing to throw their money at them but the fine people at Hulu have poor business sense and offer no such option.

Sailor Moon episodes 5 and 6 are now available on Hulu

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Sailor Moon episode 5 - Mika and Shingo hypnotized by the Chanela

The 5th and 6th episodes of Sailor Moon are now available subbed and streaming on Hulu. As was mentioned previously by Viz, who has acquired the rights to the series, two new episodes will be released every Monday! This week includes two new episodes which were previously not dubbed into English. For many nostalgic fans this is a great chance to check out these episodes for the first time!

Sailor Moon episode 5 - Evil Shingo and Mika

Episode 5, Scent of a Monster: Chanela Will Steal Your Love has tensions grow between Shingo and Luna, who is integrating herself into the Tsukino family as a pet, as the Chanela appear in town. Shingo and his friend Mika, along with many other children, are hypnotized by the Chanela who are actually a plot by the Dark Kingdom. One has to wonder if the Chanela themselves were actually innocent creatures with autonomy created as part of this plot and discarded afterwards or if they were just mindless tools. This episode features an interesting twist as Usagi, disguised as Sailor Moon, hides her face from Shingo fearing he might recognize her. Later in the series Usagi’s transformed self is never recognized by anyone. Perhaps Usagi, new to her powers, simply didn’t realize this was the case so early in the show.

Sailor Moon episode 6 - Yusuke Amade playing the piano

Episode 6, Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid, has Usagi befriending a jazz musician Yusuke Amade, whose music is being used by the Dark Kingdom in order to collect energy. Usagi plays cupid in that she gives him advise on how to win over Akiko who he’s interested in. Usagi uses her transformation pen to get into a club and in doing so sports a punky looking green hair style.

Sailor Moon episode 6 - Usagi with green hair

Soldier of Love and Beauty Sailor Venus shirt for sale until Sunday at Arteesel

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Soldier of Love and Beauty shirt featuring Sailor Venus

From now until midnight on Sunday May 25th at Arteesel you can pick up a couple of great Sailor Moon shirts for $12 a piece. “Soldier of Love and Beauty” features a silhouette of Sailor Venus against an orange or blue background. “Usagi and the Starry Night“, which we posted about before, features Super Sailor Moon in a style reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Usagi and the Starry Night

The Sailor Venus shirt is made by artist sigma-astra. Check out her Facebook page, Redbubble store and Society6 store for more of her stuff. She’s done a set of five shirts in this style, which are also available at her RedBubble store.

The Van Gogh shirt is designed by Gilles Bonne. Check out his personal web site, Red Bubble store, Facebook, Twitter, deviantART or tumblr pages for more of his stuff.

Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon returns to Toronto with Linda Ballantyne and Toby Proctor June 19th

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Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon

Fan Fiction is returning to Toronto and this time Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, will be joining Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, at this comedy special. The show takes place Thursday June 19th at 9:30pm at the Comedy Bar at 945 Bloor St. West in downtown Toronto.

Toby Proctor dressed as Tuxedo Mask for Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon

Fan Fiction The Show is a recurring comedy special that consists of a live comedic reading of Fan Fiction of one franchise or another with various comedians playing the parts of characters from these franchises. Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon was a great success when it first took place last July and had Toby Proctor dressed up as Tuxedo Mask for his performance. For thoughts on that check out our interview with Toby Proctor at Fan Expo 2013.

Get your tickets through NXNE. Follow Fan Fiction The Show on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with their other shows.

The Sailor Moon Pullip doll is coming in July, will come with a plush Luna and will cost $170

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Sailor Moon Pullip doll

The Sailor Moon Pullip doll which was announced in March is available for pre-order in Japan and with that we have more details about it. The doll will be released in July and will cost a whopping 17,280 yen, about $170 US. Pullip dolls sure aren’t cheap! This kind of price is expected for a licensed doll like this. Sailor Moon also comes with a mini stuffed Luna accessory.

Luna accessory with the Sailor Moon Pullip doll

The doll’s height is 31 cm, a bit over 12 inches, with a 6.5 cm head, about 2.5 inches.

Sailor Moon Pullip doll

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Barbara Radecki, the voice of Sailor Neptune, to appear at Unplugged Expo in Toronto September 27th and 28th

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Barbara Radecki, the voice of Sailor Neptune, at Unplugged Expo

Barbara Radecki, who voiced Sailor Neptune in the Cloverway dub of Sailor Moon S, will be making an appearance at Unplugged Expo 3 this September 27th and 28th at the Chestnut Conference Centre in downtown Toronto. Barbara Radecki also provided the voice of Serena’s mother in both the DiC dubbed first two seasons and the Cloverway dubbed S and SuperS seasons and one of the Doom and Gloom Girls in the episode Day of Destiny.

Ikuko Mama - Serena's Mom

Last year’s Unplugged Expo had a huge gathering of Sailor Moon voice actors to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show. I had a fantastic time at Unplugged Expo 2. For more on that check out the first and second panels that were recorded at that convention.

Sailor Neptune

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Schedule of Sailor Moon related events at Anime North 2014 May 23rd to the 25th

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Anime North program cover

The Anime North web site has posted it’s schedule for this coming weekend’s convention. Here’s a run down of the Sailor Moon related events which will be taking place at the convention which will feature as guests Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask and John Stocker, voice director for the movies and later seasons of the anime.

Friday May 23rd:

5pm – Sailor Moon Merchandise and Media panel. This panel is run by Emily of the Moon Chase blog. I’ve been to this panel at other conventions in the past. It will be a run down of the current state of Sailor Moon as far as merchandise and rights goes. With a lot of new merchandise coming out and Viz getting the rights to the old and new anime this panel should prove interesting.

7pm – Sailor Moon voice actor autograph session.

9pm – Sailor Moon Resurgent. This panel will have the Sailor Moon voice actors sharing stories.

Saturday May 24th:

1pm – Sailor Moon voice actor autograph session.

3pm – Sailor Moon voice actors. This is the Saturday Sailor Moon voice actor panel featuring the convention’s guests.

4pm – Sailor Moon. I don’t have any details about this panel. It seems to be a fan panel to discuss the show.

Sunday May 25th:

2pm – Sailor Moon voice actor autograph session.

4pm – Sailor Moon voice actors. This is the Sunday Sailor Moon voice actor panel featuring the convention’s guests.

Watch Sailor Moon episodes 1 to 4 for free on Hulu

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Sailor Moon on Hulu

Following Friday’s announcement of Viz’s acquisition of the rights to the series, the first four episodes of Sailor Moon are now available to view with subtitles for free on Hulu and Neon Alley, including episode 2 which has never been dubbed. Viz will be releasing two new episodes every Monday from now on. Though the episodes can be viewed for free they will include commercials which can’t be skipped. Hate commercials? That’s too bad. Hulu’s pay service Hulu Plus is truly terrible as it will not remove commercials.

The episodes are completely uncensored with English subtitles. The current episode previews are kept though they have been moved from before the credits until after the credits. Next episode previews are included in their normal spot at the end of the episode. Commercial bumpers are the only thing missing from these episodes.

Sailor Moon episode 01 Screenshot - Japanese DVD

Japanese DVD
Sailor Moon episode 01 Screenshot - Hulu

Hulu

The quality of the release is quite good. Since it is streaming it is not perfect but the quality is comparable to the Japanese DVD releases, the current best quality release there is, as can be seen with these example screen grabs.

Sailor Moon episode 2 screenshot - Japanese DVD

Japanese DVD
Sailor Moon episode 2 screenshot - Hulu

Hulu

The Hulu service is not available in all countries. As a Canadian I needed to use a proxy service to view the episodes. I use Unblock-US, a pay service, though others exist. I was not able to access the Neon Alley site directly even from a proxy. Though no legal Canadian option is available at this time Viz is trying to find a way to bring the show to Canadian. This includes talking to YTV about the possibility of airing it on TV. Once the DVD and Blu-Ray releases are out later this year, Canadians will be able to enjoy those.

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Viz Media to release all 200 episodes of Sailor Moon subbed and with a new dub on DVD, Blu-Ray and streaming starting May 19th

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Viz Media

After years of waiting the original Sailor Moon anime series has been licensed for distribution by Viz! The original Sailor Moon series will be released by them on DVD, Blu-Ray and streaming both dubbed and subbed. Viz has also acquired the rights to the new Sailor Moon anime Sailor Moon Crystal! This was announced on Friday, May 16th, at Anime Central.

Sailor Moon season 1 promotional image

The streaming subbed episodes will be released every Monday starting with the first four episodes which will be released on Neon Alley and Hulu with two new episode being released every Monday after that.

Luna using a computer

In addition to this subtitled release a whole new dub is being produced. This new release will be retaining all original names and story arcs, be completely unedited, and include all 200 episodes, including Sailor Stars which has never previously been released in North America and the 7 episodes from the first two seasons which were never dubbed. Viz has also acquired the rights to the three Sailor Moon movies and the specials. The new dub will be released streaming in late 2014. Details about the cast of the new dub will be announced at Anime Expo in Los Angeles the weekend of July 3rd to the 6th. This will likely be taking place on Sailor Moon Day, which is being held July 5th. Anime Expo will be having as guests a number of voice actors from the original dub of the Sailor Moon anime, including Linda Ballantyne, Sailor Moon, Katie Griffin, Sailor Mars, Stephanie Morgenstern, Sailor Venus, Karen Bernstein, Sailor Mercury, Susan Roman, Sailor Jupiter, Toby Proctor, Tuxedo Mask, Mary Long, Molly, Ron Rubin, Artemis and John Stocker, voice director. Though fans would love to see their favourite voice actors reprise their role there has been no indication one way or another that this will be the case.

These new releases will also be on DVD and Blu-Ray. The subtitled digital download releases will begin in Summer 2014 with season 1 part 1. The dub will be released with the DVD and Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack releases at a later date. The video is mentioned to be the remastered version from Japan, though details on this remastering process are not currently known. The DVD releases currently available in Japan are standard definition releases. The first season and movies are in 480p, progressive scan, though Sailor Moon R, S, SuperS and SailorStars have only ever been released on interlaced 480i DVDs in Japan to date. Based on comments made in an Anime News Network interview it would appear that the work has been done using post processing rather that going back to the original film source. The last DVDs released domestically from ADV were pretty much completely terrible, so we can certainly expect this version to be a vast improvement.

The following trailer accompanies this announcement:

Tracey Hoyt, the voice of Rini, to perform an improv show in Toronto May 22nd to June 1st

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Tracey Hoyt, the voice of Rini/Sailor Chibi Moon

Tracey Hoyt, the actress who provided the original English voice of Rini and Sailor Chibi Moon in the first two seasons of Sailor Moon and the movies, will be performing at the Pentimento Gallery in Toronto from May 22nd to June 1st. This performance won’t be related to her time on Sailor Moon, but instead will be an improv show “Face Value” which is described as follows:

Improv artist Tracey Hoyt embodies and explores a selection of unforgettable Leslieville characters, inspired in ‘real time’ by the striking photography of Kate Ashby.

Check out the Crows Theatre web site for more information and tickets. This would be a good show to check out for out of town fans who are in Toronto that weekend for Anime North!

Chibiusa kissing her father

Tracey Hoyt also runs a voice acting class. Check out the Pirate Voice web site for more info on that. Thanks to Amanda on our Facebook page for the scoop.