It’s official! Following the airing of the final episode of Sailor Moon Crystal on Japanese TV a new set of episodes was announced. This was immediately confirmed on the Official Sailor Moon Site and Twitter account. The image included with this announcement shows Sailor Uranus’s Space Sword, Sailor Neptune’s Deep Aqua Mirror and symbols for all 10 Sailor Guardians. The Space Sword and Deep Aqua Mirror are two of the Talismans that have some importance in this next story arc. Missing is the third Talisman, Sailor Pluto’s Garnet Orb. I guess we’ve seen enough of it with the New Horizons photos of Pluto at this point.
As expected this will cover the Infinity story arc for the manga which introduces us to Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Saturn as well as the enemies the Death Busters which includes Professor Tomoe, Kaolinite and the Witches 5. This is the equivalent to the Sailor Moon S season of the original Anime. Not a lot of details are included about the actual release schedule of these episodes. It seems likely that these episodes will once again be available to stream on Nicinico and to air on TV in Japan. We don’t yet know which of these will come first. Will we continue with the model of releasing online first, with a more traditional model of releasing on TV first or perhaps have a simultaneous TV and online release? We will have to wait and see as new details will be coming on the official site.
The Infinity arc of the Sailor Moon manga covers 12 acts by the new manga chapter numbering which was used for Crystal. This will likely mean 12 episodes in this story arc. The Dream arc, which is the equivalent of the Sailor Moon SuperS season of the original anime, covers an additional 11 episodes. If another year of the show was coming we would likely get both of these arcs. No such details were included in the press release which is no surprise as the Black Moon arc was not announced until late in the Dark Kingdom story arc of Crystal. At this point we don’t know how many more episodes are being planned. If we get that number we should be able to make a reasonable prediction about how many arcs that will cover.
The Japanese announcements are breaking the story arcs into phases, with the Black Moon episodes being referred to as the second phase and this as the 3rd phase. Some also use the term season though with the first year of Sailor Moon Crystal covering two story arcs and arguably being considered one season this naming convention can be a bit confusing. Is this season 2, the second year of the show, or season 3, the third arc of the show? Is the term season even relevant to a show who’s primary method of distribution was online?
The press release also noted that a rebroadcast of Sailor Moon Crystal will begin next Monday starting with the Dark Kingdom arc.
Note that all but the first image in this post include art from the original Sailor Moon anime and not Sailor Moon Crystal.
Possibly Related Posts
-
Sailor Uranus and Neptune Pullip dolls announced -
Viz’s new English voice actors for Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Saturn and more revealed at the Anime Expo Sailor Moon Panel -
Chibiusa and the Black Moon Clan join Sailor Moon Crystal’s second season starting January 17th 2015 -
Did TOEI Animation Europe actually claim that a second season of Sailor Moon Crystal will begin airing this summer? -
No new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal were announced at today’s official live event
Oh yes! Yes! YES!
I’m glad we’ve got more coming out, I was not ready to let go of this series (especially since a show I really like was already cancelled this summer). But wow, they really made us wait for the announcement, didn’t they? My anxiety levels about a renewal were really starting to taper off. I wonder how far along they are with production. Probably not very far, considering it’s only been a couple of months since the first season wrapped up, but we can hope. In any case, we may see something mid or late next year, which means we’ve got plenty of time to get excited about what they’re going to do with these arcs.
In the meantime, we’ve got Sailor Moon SuperS and Sailor Stars to go gaga over. And YouTuber Calluna Reviews is apparently doing a whole series on Sailor Moon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxs1kV0WmVY) which is something I’ll definitely be checking out.
As far as being a Moonie goes, things are looking up.
Oh happy day!
Yasssssssss! I’m so happy, I even did a happy dance in my kitchen!
I’m so excited, I do wish they’d get Ogata Megumi back as she has a great voice for Haruka. It’s quite rich and dark that suits Haruka’s more masculine appearance.
I would love to hear Ogata Megumi as Haruka again, but it seems like they recast every character except Usagi and Mamoru, so it’s unlikely that they would bring her back.
Mamoru is also recast, Furuya Toru is no longer voice acting the role, the new voice is Nojima Tenji..
I would hope that they would consider Ogata as she embodied the role just like Usagi is Mitsuishi Kotono.
All of my yes!!! I had a feeling it was coming, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Now I’m screaming!
yay i m so glad sailor moon is coming back hope sailor moon and tuxedo mask will be in there along with all of the sailor senshi s and glad the outer scout will be in there as well look forward to seeing them as well
I fucking squealed with my dad in the room, I didn’t care!!!!!! He asked why and I said there’s a new season of SMC coming out!!!!
YES! At work and I imagine the looks I just got from my colleagues are similar to your dad.
Amazing news!!! I’m so happy there’s going to be another season!!!
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!
In regards to if we should call it a new season, season is really mostly an American term that doesn’t really apply to anime but everyone uses it casually that way anyway. Technically the term to use for anime would be a cour. A 12 episode show is typically referred to as a one cour show and a 26 episode show would be two cour, so I assume this would be the third cour of Crystal.
So we will have a new director too? I hope the art keeps the manga style, just better budgeted and with better direction.
I am so happy to hear this, it really makes my day!
Sad to say, I’d almost given up (but not quite!)
I can’t wait to see the Planet Power transformations and what wands/henshin stick pen things they come up with! (Unless they do the lame no wand thing the manga did in this arc…boo!)
Hmm, I guess I would call this season 2…but I prefer just the Third Arc. I don’t like the British way of calling it series 2, since to me that makes it sound like a whole new show. (In things like Dr. Who that might make sense, or in a reboot.)
No announcement that I have seen. The article posted did not mention any new director. We seem to only knew we are getting a new one because the last one mentioned explicitly that he was done with the show.
If you hear anything about that, please let us know. Whatever magic you have seems to uncover these things before my own.
does sailorsaturn transform in the manga, i read Infinite and took a break before dream arc but i cant remember if she did. chibimoons transformatiom was unique as that it wasnt a remake like the others were from the original anime so i am assuming saturn will finally get one? or does she not transform until stars?
I’m sure Chibi Moon will get a proper transformation this time. Hmmm, I know Saturn didn’t get one really in the Infinity Arc, and I can’t remember if she gets an “on scene” transformation in Dream Arc, but I’m pretty sure she did at least once,after awakening and explaining the new mission to the Outers. Not sure about Stars either, I don’t think she’s ever shown transforming after the Dream Arc.
Chibiusa and Usagi had sepparate transformations in Dream arc and Saturn transformed at least once in series I think it was after her reawakening
awesome news! thanks for writing back!
http://wikimoon.org/index.php?title=Sailor_Saturn#Transformations , http://wikimoon.org/index.php?title=Sailor_Saturn#Transformations_2
.
But if you go on YouTube, you will find a lot of fan-made versions of Sailor Saturn’s transformation.
Personaly, I like this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJJS48SBvwA
. I hope we’ll see Saturn get a transformation in Crystal, and that it will be great 
.
I had posted a comment yesterday to answer your question, but it seems it has disappeared…
http://wikimoon.org/index.php?title=Sailor_Saturn#Transformations
http://wikimoon.org/index.php?title=Sailor_Saturn#Transformations_2
But on YouTube, you will find some fan-made transformations. I personaly like these ones :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv-BtxPSZIg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJJS48SBvwA .
Some comments require me to approve them. I’ve allowed both of yours and the more I allow the more are allowed in the future. Yours must have been flagged because they had links in them.
Ok, Adam, I had not seen that my comments were waiting for moderation when I posted them, so sorry for the double posting
. Et merci beaucoup pour tous ces éclaircissements 
.
im so excited! thanks for sharing the fan made saturn transformations! i hope theyll do them as well, and as pointed out, im also excited to see the seperate transformations in dream arc. lets just pray the new director switches EVERYONES transformations up this time around! no more minor changes! and id like to see the outfits actually appear on the outers instead of one blast, and then a spin, fully dressed, to add lip gloss!
You’re welcome, Zack !
I’m glad that you like them, even if I’m not their creator
.
I completely agree with you about the outers’ transformations. In the anime they were not really “personalized” compared to the inner’s ones. So I hope we will see something better. I hope we will see, like you, their outfits appear while they get transformed.
Personally, I have always been puzzled by Uranus’ powers. In the manga, N. Takeuchi had stated that Uranus’s powers were based upon sky (because Ouranos was the personnification of the heavens in Greek mythology), flight, light and wind. But
1) All the Senshi can fly and I believe that Uranus has never been seen flying neither in the manga or the anime,
2) Also, Venus uses the power of light and Jupiter the power of wind,
3) So in the end, what does remain for Uranus ? She is the only one, with Neptune, to not have some “unique” powers. And Neptune seems to have a minor mastering of water, compared to Mercury.
So I really hope that both Uranus and Neptune will see their powers and transformations getting a real unicity
.
Oh f*ck yeah ! Reading this makes me happy for the day. These are great news
!
(But for my bank account’s sake, I hope they will release not Kaolinite and the Witches 5 in Petit Chara version :/ . Lol.)
I am so so happy, the dreams sometimes come true!
I think it will be out in the beginning of 2016 but I hope Toei will do some good promo in upcoming months to let us see some sneak peeks and visualizations!
YES!!! My second favorite arc is being brought into Crystal. And my first favorite manga arc will probably follow after. This is such great news!!! The Outer Senshi, the Death Busters, Mugen, Tau Crystal (and Nebula), sky battle, all of it amazing
Can’t wait (though we probably will if it’s like the first season)