Sailor Moon Crystal will be broadcast on TV in Japan starting in April 2015

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Adam

The Sailor Moon Crystal anime, which until now has only been available worldwide via online streaming services, will soon be broadcast on TV in Japan. This will not affect the show’s current streaming schedule. Little more information accompanied this news except that it would be airing starting in April of this year. No specifics about the time or channel have been announced. It is also unknown if this broadcast will include the original streaming version of the show or the home video version with small improvements to the art of many scenes.

A few weeks ago we shared news that Canal J in France had plans to begin airing Sailor Moon Crystal on their network starting in March. If there are no delays to these plans, France may be the first country to play Sailor Moon Crystal on TV.

Source: Natalie.mu via Anime News Network

Ayakashi Sisters Petit Chara figures to be released in June

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Adam

The next wave of Sailor Moon Petit Chara figures has been revealed on the Sailor Moon Official Site. The new figures include the Ayakashi Sisters Koan, Berthier, Calaveras and Petz as well as Sailor Moon with her Cutie Moon Rod which she had during the Black Moon Clan arc of the manga which was the Sailor Moon R season of the anime. These figures will be released in June 2015.

In the past Petit Chara figures, a line of Super Deformed blind box figures by MegaHouse, have all been of heroes. The first set had Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus as well as Tuxedo Mask. The second set contained Super Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi Moon, Sailor Pluto, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn. The third set included civilian uniform versions of Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako and Mamoru. There are usually 6 figures to a set, with 6 of them being packaged in one box. Expressions vary so while a set will have all 6, each figure has one of two facial expressions. A Princess Serenity figure that is not part of a set will be released on Amazon on February 18th. It’s unknown who might included as the 6th figure in this set, if there even is one, or if they will have different facial expressions. It seems a bit odd to include these characters but not other villains such as those from the Dark Kingdom story arc. This may simply be due to the fact that Sailor Moon Crystal will soon be showcasing these characters, though by June the Black Moon Clan story arc will be nearly complete and the Ayakashi Sisters will be long dead.

I bought the first two sets of these figures and found them to be very nice. They’re small and easy to display. A minor amount of assembly is required but they hold together well and the included stand will make sure they don’t keep falling over.

Support the site by buying some of the previously released figures on Amazon.

Check out the character designs for the Black Moon Clan in Sailor Moon Crystal

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Adam

Character art featuring Prince Demande, Saphir, Rubeus and Esmeraude has been posted to the Sailor Moon Official Site. Not included are the Ayakashi sisters who will also be joining the show starting with the next episode.

Prince Demande, Saphire, Rubeus and Esmeraude will first appear in Sailor Moon Crystal Act 15, Infiltration – Sailor Mars, which will be released on Saturday February 7th. They are part of the Black Moon Clan who will be the main villains for most of phase two of Sailor Moon Crystal covering the story of Chibiusa and Crystal Tokyo.

What do you think of these designs?

We previously saw a glimpse of Rubeus in one of Rei’s visions near the end of Act 14.

Sailor R episodes 75 and 76 are now available on Hulu

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Adam

As with every Monday two more episodes of Sailor Moon R have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley. The episodes are in Japanese with English subtitles by Viz. This week we get a glimpse of things to come and then dive right into some filler with episodes 75 and 76. Having previously seen mostly Rubeus and the Ayakashi sisters we’re now getting a look at Esmeraude, Diamond and Saphir of the Black Moon Clan.

Episode 75, The Mysterious New Guardian: Sailor Pluto Appears, gives us a better look at Sailor Pluto and Crystal Tokyo. We still don’t see her in the flesh but she communicates with the Sailor Guardians through Luna P. Previously Chibiusa had been seen communicating with her through Luna P’s eye but the image we saw of her was heavily pixelated to the point where her identity remained hidden. Chibiusa has fallen ill and so the gang must travel into her mind to fight off this manifestation of the Dark Crystal. Although they are in Chibiusa’s mind, it looks like 30th century Crystal Tokyo. Shocked at how terrible it looks Rei reassures them that it just looks bad because it’s a nightmare in Chibiusa’s mind. Um… actually that’s pretty much exactly how Crystal Tokyo looks in the future. It’s a real mess. Chibiusa is actually pretty spot on. Sailor Moon fights off the monster that really isn’t a monster and in the process is able to make Chibiusa fly. So is this a real move or something she can just do because she’s in a crazy dream world where anything goes? Not really clear. In a most ridiculous scene the girls see Chibiusa’s mom lying asleep. They are quite aware that it’s Chibiusa’s mother but Sailor Moon is completely incapable of noticing that she is wearing a dress that’s nearly identical to the one that she wears. The whole gang generally shrug off everything important about this dream as being irrelevant because it’s simply too early, plot wise, for them to have been exposed to this information at this time.

Episode 76, Magic of Darkness: Esmeraude’s Invasion, finally gives us a proper look at Esmeraude as the new villain. She’s been kicking around for a handful of episodes but hasn’t actually done anything. Now that we’ve gotten a few plot episodes out of the way we can get right back into the habit of filler for a while! Esmeraude is great for that as she randomly targets spots to stick these Dark Henges into in order to make the future more vulnerable. This week’s plot is all about yummy deserts! The monster attacks people and covers them in various foods like donuts, cakes and frosting. When I was younger I had no idea what the monster’s name “Magipan” meant but it’s actually marzipan, a sweet confectionary. Not to be confused with marzipan castle from the Sailor Moon SuperS movie. Esmeraude laughs loudly and bickers with all of the girls, getting called old and making fun of their lack of hips and breasts. A good time was had by all.

If you’re looking for the difference between this version and the dub which was released back in the 90s you should check out my reviews of episodes 75 (cached version) and episode 76 (cached version) from 1997 on the Sailor Moon Page of Funk!

Support the site by buying the first season of Sailor Moon on DVD or Blu-Ray.

The Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical DVD will be released January 28th

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Adam

This coming Wednesday, January 28th 2015, the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical will be released in Japan. This second musical covers the Black Moon Clan story arc introducing us to Chibiusa, Sailor Pluto and Crystal Tokyo. As with the release of last year’s musical, La reconquista, this DVD is region 2 and will have Japanese audio. Not terribly useful for English speaking fans with region 1 DVD players.

News about this was posted on the Sailor Moon Official site along with the following commercial:

This follows presentations of the Petite Étrangère musical in the Shanghai Theatre Academy in China from January 18th to the 20th.

You can preorder the DVD from Amazon Japan for 6233 yen, which is about $53 US. They ship worldwide, though the fees can be considerable.

Two more videos were posted to the Sailor Moon YouTube channel. One is a digest of various clips from the first day and the other is the “Ai No Starshine” song. Both can be seen below.

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Sailor Moon Crystal Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray vol. 4 review

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Adam

The 4th volume of the Sailor Moon Crystal Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray was released in Japan on January 14th. Because I’m irresponsible with my money I’ve purchased this, so here is my review. The set is Japanese audio and contains just two episodes, Act 7, Mamoru Chiba – Tuxedo Mask and Act 8, Minako – Sailor V. It comes with a 24 page full colour booklet and a charm of Sailor Jupiter’s transformation item in a decorative box.

As with other releases, minor changes to the animation are included. This one it no different, though some of the changes here are more considerable. One of my favourite parts of act 7 is the part where Umino drops in uninvited to a conversation between Usagi, Makoto and Ami to talk about Sailor V. He’s ultimately creepy and for some unexplained reason is a black shadowy figure with yellow eyes and a mouth, looking something like a Heartless from the Kingdom Hearts games. For whatever reason this has been fixed up for the Blu-Ray release so that he is just normal looking, though still intensely creepy, Umino. While changes in the past were largely cosmetic, this is one that is a little more intrusive and something I’m not very comfortable with.

Other changes in the episode were not as big a deal. Act 7 contains what I would consider to be the worst animation of the series to date. Some of those shots have been fixed up, but a lot of the really terrible looking shots remain. An error that occurred in the original streaming version of act 7 was that Sailor Venus was wearing Sailor V’s uniform when seen from behind but then Sailor Venus’s orange uniform when seen from the front. This has been fixed to correctly show Sailor Venus’s uniform for all angles. It was unclear it this had been intended or not, as the idea might have been that at first Sailor Venus looked like Sailor V, but upon closer investigation was actually wearing a different costume. This wasn’t really what the scene seemed to insinuate so it’s a decent thing to change. I didn’t notice anything but fairly cosmetic changes to act 8.

The rest of the content was pretty much as expected. The cover of this one includes an image of Sailor Jupiter. The charm included, to go with the charm bracelet included in the first volume, is of Sailor Jupiter’s transformation item and bow.

Also included as always is the full colour booklet. It includes interviews with Yukie Sako, animation director and character designer and Ami Koshimizu, the voice of Sailor Jupiter. There are also episode summaries, production art and a special page by Fumio Osano as always. Photos of all pages of the book are included at the bottom of this post.

The disk itself includes the two episodes, act 7 and 8, as well as and audio commentary for each. The commentary track is in Japanese with no subtitles so I can’t really comment on it. From a brief listen I can tell that voice actors Kenji Nojima, Tuxedo Mask, and Shizuka Ito, Sailor Venus, are on this one as well as some other Japanese people who worked on the show who’s names and jobs you will quickly figure out if you can understand the commentary.

You can import this disk from online stores such as Amazon Japan, CD Japan or YesAsia for as low as 5194 yen, which is about $45 US, though shipping can be considerable on some sites. The regular edition Blu-Ray and DVD versions will be released on February 11th if you’re feeling cheap. With only two episodes included as always I can’t really recommend buying these when a free an legal way to support the show always exists with the streaming options. If you’re hardcore about the show and video quality well you’ve probably bought other volumes so I don’t need to tell you what to do.

Keep reading for more images of the set and photos of all pages of the included booklet.

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Sailor Moon Crystal Act 14, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Étrangère, Review

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Adam

The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Étrangère, was released on January 17th on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Niconico. This season finale of sorts wraps up the Dark Kingdom story arc and teases us about the upcoming second story arc with the appearance of the mysterious Chibiusa! Like many episodes this one was very faithful to the source material, with one major exception which I hope isn’t too much of a spoiler at this point as I’ve included it in the banner image.

Some funny stuff to start out the episode. Sailor Moon is all about praying and remembering her allies! She goes through the whole lot! Luna, Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako. Yep. That’s everyone, right? What is Artemis doing exactly? No respect. Meanwhile he’s doing a very good job of keeping Luna company on the Moon!

This episode is all about Luna. Sailor Moon saves the day? Luna saves the day! They both pray. They are both responsible for restoring the Moon to it’s original splendour and as a special surprise we get a brief glimpse at human Luna! As Metalia is defeated and Luna is praying on the Moon, Artemis gets a short look at her as a full on human. Luna somehow doesn’t notice her wearing clothes, not having fur, having hair, being taller, being in a totally different position, but whatever, it’s still very cool. Anime fans would recognize human Luna from the Sailor Moon S movie. This corresponds fairly faithfully to a manga side story Princess Kaguya’s Lover which centres on Luna and has her turning human. She and the rest of the cats, Artemis and Diana, spend time in their human forms later in the Dream arc of the manga which we may see if Sailor Moon Crystal gets renewed for a second season.

Following the fight with Metalia there is a bit of a goof as Sailor Moon picks the Moon Stick off of the ground. We see the Silver Crystal clearly in the Moon stick on the ground, then it’s gone when she picks it up, then in the next shot it’s visible again. I’m sure they’ll fix that up for the Blu-Ray release!

Great news! The palace on the Moon is restored! Everyone on Earth is dead, but hey Sailor Moon is the new Serenity so she can rule over her Kingdom! Of course that Kingdom isn’t much at this point. She would rule over what, two cats and a computer simulation of who I guess is now the Queen Mother of Silver Millennium? Not a great deal. Usagi decides she wants to live on Earth, which has roughly 7 billion people on it who are all dead but that is easily resolved thanks to the power of the Silver Crystal. I wonder if Usagi would have been able to instead resurrect the long dead inhabitants of the Moon instead of or in addition to fixing the Earth.

Sailor Moon’s brooch was damaged in the fight with Queen Metalia. Too bad. But it’s okay! There are more toys to sell and so the Crystal Star Brooch makes an appearance! And on it is a small hole just big enough for the Silver Crystal. But the Silver Crystal is all big with that sort of lily flower thing around it. This big version of the Silver Crystal is not meant to fit in the Crystal Star! But lazy animation makes it work! We see Usagi take this huge Silver Crystal and with a simple finger she shrinks it and stuffs it in that hole. Pretty cheap and terrible looking!

We have a new brooch. What does it do? Pretty much exactly what the old locket did. Sailor Moon transforms yet again however her transformation sequence is essentially identical to her original one. This is a bit of a disappointment. The only real change is that the new brooch replaces her old one in the clip. With her powers back she heals the people of Earth including her friends and all is good. Minako and Artemis has a nice tender moment as they’re reunited. I’m so shipping these two. The moment of peace is heartwarming.

Rei has a glimpse of the new villain Rubeus. She prays that peace will remain. Sorry Rei! Your Shinto prayers are useless! If this episode has taught us anything it’s that the only way to get your prayers answered is to make them to the Moon! We’ll soon see that Rei’s prayers were indeed not answered as she’s first on the chopping block.

This peaceful normal live is rudely interrupted as Chibiusa show up! We had seen a lot of these clips in the trailer for the second story arc of Sailor Moon Crystal. Chibiusa kisses her future father and threatens Usagi asking for the Silver Crystal. Good call, as she actually has it.

I really enjoyed this episode. A nice end to the first story arc and it was just really good to see some of these things animated. With this behind us, we now move on to the second story arc and what some are calling the second season of the show. As it’s still part of the first year of Sailor Moon Crystal I’ve decided to refer to it as the second phase or second story arc until such a time when a term gets officially adopted.

The next episode, Act 15, Infiltration – Sailor Mars, will be released in three weeks on February 7th. A lot of stuff will be happening here. Chibiusa infiltrates the Tsukino family, we see the Black Moon Clan, new transformation items for the Sailor Guardians, the Cutie Moon Rod and much more!

Keep reading to see more screenshots from this episode and the next episode preview.

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Sailor Moon R episodes 73 and 74 are now available on Hulu

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Adam

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon are now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we get episodes 73 and 74 which may be memorable to many fans from the 90s as the first new episodes of Sailor Moon seen in years. Following the show’s original run of 65 episodes in North America back in 1995 there was a lengthy hiatus before the second half of Sailor Moon R was finally released. The final 17 episodes of Sailor Moon R played on YTV here in Canada starting in September of 1997 and in the US starting in November of 1998, billed as “Lost Episodes” by Cartoon Network’s Toonami.

Episode 73, A UFO Appears: The Sailor Guardians Abducted, introduces us to Esmeraude who will be the new villain for the next chunk of episodes, but before we start out with her we need to warp up things with Rubeus! More importantly, Chibiusa now knows that Usagi is Sailor Moon and has seen that her transformation brooch, the Crystal Star, contains the Silver Crystal. Naturally, she steals it. Conflicted at first she uses cognitive dissonance to convince herself that Usagi is a bad person and that this is the right thing to do. She ends up visiting Mamoru who shows her the very awesome Tuxedo Mask puppet, reminding us that despite her somewhat evil actions this is really just a young frightened girl we’re dealing with. Since Usagi doesn’t have her brooch she can’t transform which in the end means that the rest of the Sailor Guardians get abducted by Rubeus’s UFO. Usagi is upset and tries to slap Chibiusa at this point, but Mamoru stops her.

À suivre! Right away. Having two episodes at a time sure is convenient for two parters like this!

Episode 74, Defeat Rubeus: The Battle in Space, will be the end of a most hatable character! The Sailor Guardians have been kidnapped but it’s okay as Usagi finally has her brooch back. Rubeus wants the rabbit, known to viewers as Chibiusa, but giving up a (somewhat) innocent kid isn’t what Sailor Moon is all about. What are our heroes to do? Luna and Artemis have a plan! They’ll dress up like Chibiusa and try to trick Rubeus! On second thought that’s a terrible plan. Chibiusa proceeds to jump out of a window and turns herself in. Usagi follows, a big fight ensues and hooray the terrible Rubeus is defeated. But Sailor Moon is being pretty good at this point and not killing a ton of villains so for liability purposes they just kind of leave Rubeus on his spaceship which is blowing up. Esmeraude is more responsible for leaving him to die. Is this horrible? She doesn’t do it because he’s a terrible horrible man. She does it because she’s terrible and just wants him out of the picture. What a dragon! Spaceship explodes, let’s have some pancakes, have a nice day.

Back in 1997 when these episodes first aired on YTV I was all about making a really terrible Sailor Moon site. I guess some things never changed! I like to think my Internet skills have improved since then. For historical purposes, check out The Sailor Moon Page of Funk!, my very old ad ridden Sailor Moon web site which features reviews of dub episodes 66 (episode 73) (cached version) and 67 (episode 74) (cached version) complete with my somewhat thorough list of all of the differences I spotted between the original Japanese version and the dub. The pages are full of broken links and images. The cached version on the Internet Archive has a few less ads and some of those images preserved.

Support the site by buying the first season of Sailor Moon on DVD and Blu-Ray. Isn’t this non intrusive Amazon ad better than the assault on your senses that is Angelfire?

Watch Sailor Moon Crystal Act 14, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Étrangère, starting January 17th at 5am Eastern Time

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Adam

Act 14 of Sailor Moon Crystal will be airing Saturday, January 17th, at 7pm Japan Standard Time which is 5am Eastern Time and 2am Pacific Time on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Niconico. Act 14, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Étrangère, will wrap up the Dark Kingdom arc and start the next story arc with the introduction of Chibiusa.

All hope seems lost as Queen Metalia has killed the Sailor Guardians and is taking over the the planet. It’s up to Sailor Moon to use her powers to defeat her and bring peace to the Earth once again. Will it happen or will everyone just remain dead?

A quiet peaceful life is short lived. It’s actually so short lived that there isn’t even an episode break between seasons! The Dark Kingdom is barely defeated that we are introduced to a new character. Who is this pink haired girl that drops in on Usagi and Mamoru’s intimate moment at the worst time? Is she a new villain? Will she kill Usagi with that gun she has? Why does she call herself Usagi with such similar hair?

As I’m traveling this week I will be late in watching and posting my review for this upcoming episode. That should be coming Monday or Tuesday evening.

Sailor Moon R episodes 71 and 72 are now available on Hulu

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Adam

The latest two episodes of Sailor Moon R were added to Hulu and Neon Alley this Monday morning. This week we see episodes 71 and 72 which deal with the fate of the rest of the Ayakashi sisters Berthier, Petz and Calaveras. These episodes were the last two included in DiC’s original dub of Sailor Moon. Following these was a lengthy break of a couple of years before the next episodes were finally dubbed. For a lot of people who watched Sailor Moon in the mid 90s and grew out of it, these were probably the last episodes they watched!

Episode 71, For Friendship: Ami vs. Bertheir, is all about chess. Ami has been hanging out as this chess tower which is shaped like a giant rook. Berthier, of the Ayakashi sisters, who happens to have a very similar power as Sailor Mercury also happens to have a similar interest in chess! It made a bit more sense that Koan happened to face off against Sailor Mars twice since she simply attacked the shrine she lived and worked at twice but the coincidence of Berthier encountering Ami twice is a bit silly. Regardless, a fierce all or nothing chess game is played and amped up with some magical chess pieces that freeze the loser. Sailor Mercury wins, since she’s incredibly smart, and Berthier gives up on life. Having learned from the last episode that she can be healed, Sailor Moon heals Berthier and she’s happy with her sister Koan once again! Hooray!

Episode 72, Rubeus the Heartless: The Tragic Sisters, takes care of the last two Ayakashi sisters. The first event isn’t really relevant to the episode itself but has some importance in the next few episodes. As Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Guardians transform Chibiusa is shoved in a closet type thing and sees them all transforming. This is a huge revelation for her as she always liked Sailor Moon but hated Usagi. Hard to reconcile these two things! Such are the perils of a secret identity. Finally when Chibiusa sees Sailor Moon use the Silver Crystal later in the episode Chibiusa realizes that she needs to get a hand on that thing to go back to the future to save her mother. The main plot of the episode has Petz and Calaveras fighting over this magic wand thing, nearly killing each other, and of course getting healed! Ultimately all four of the Ayakashi sisters are reunited and they open up “Beauty Quartette”, a small shop which sells beauty supplies. I’m not sure the business model is rock solid, as one person would easily have been able to run this small shop, but now these four are splitting the profits not to mention being stuck in 20th century Tokyo with no credit history, valid ID or a past. It won’t be easy making a life for themselves, but it’s probably better than trying to live on a dead, desolate prison planet.

Support the site by buying the first season of Sailor Moon, subbed and dubbed by Viz, using the links below:

Sailor Moon News

Bringing you the latest news about the new anime series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal and all things Sailor Moon.

Monthly Archives: January 2015

Sailor Moon Crystal will be broadcast on TV in Japan starting in April 2015

Ayakashi Sisters Petit Chara figures to be released in June

Check out the character designs for the Black Moon Clan in Sailor Moon Crystal

Sailor R episodes 75 and 76 are now available on Hulu

The Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical DVD will be released January 28th

Sailor Moon Crystal Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray vol. 4 review

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 14, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Étrangère, Review

Sailor Moon R episodes 73 and 74 are now available on Hulu

Watch Sailor Moon Crystal Act 14, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Étrangère, starting January 17th at 5am Eastern Time

Sailor Moon R episodes 71 and 72 are now available on Hulu