New episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal will be airing on Japanese TV on Tokyo MX in 2016. While the first two story arcs, which comprised the first 26 episodes, first appeared online simultaneously worldwide on streaming services, this doesn’t appear to be what will be happening with the next batch of episodes according to TOEI Animation Europe. The announcement, posted on their web site on Tuesday, is pretty straightforward and included below:
TUESDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2015
Sailor Moon Crystal, the reboot of the Sailor Moon series from the 90’s, continues with a third season recently announced in Japan! While the 26 first episodes were aired online on Niko Niko, the new season will be broadcast on TV Tokyo MX in 2016.
In Europe, the two first seasons (26×26’) of Sailor Moon Crystal are on air in Portugal (Biggs) and in France (Canal J).
The series was recently highlighted in France during the Kidexpo event where photo sessions were organized with Sailor Moon
This lacks detail about if and when a streaming version will be available. This does not exclude the possibility of a simultaneous streaming version being online at the same time or immediately following the broadcast. It’s also possible that a version will be online some short time following the broadcast. If there is a streaming version, we also don’t know if it will continue to be on Niconico, Hulu and Crunchyroll as the rest of the series has been to date. When we learn any of these details we will be sure to share them.
It is important to note TOEI Animation Europe’s poor track record in breaking news about Sailor Moon Crystal. Earlier this year many claimed they had confirmed new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, which we later learned was not the case and was actually a problem in confusion and mistralation on their part and that of fans. I would note that I was originally skeptical of this announcement, assuming that this was a poor translation which turned out to be completely correct. In this case, mistranslation doesn’t seem to be likely to account for what we’re seeing here, though TOEI Animation Europe’s track record should be considered. We will be more confident in this news when something is announced on the official Sailor Moon site.
Source: TOEI Animation Europe (English, French)
That’s good news!
So does this mean Toei is officially referring to the Infinity arc as the third season?
TOEI Animation Europe’s confusion on what was or wasn’t a season is what sparked rumours of new episodes when none had been confirmed. I’m trying to avoid the term season because of the confusion it is leading to. The Japanese sources still seem to use terms like “phase” to describe the separate story arcs.
This would be silly. Streaming it everywhere the same day was good traffic for all these sites. With out it, people will resort to torrenting episodes, and wont need to go to the streaming sites when they do release… Great way to promote piracy!
My comment will be brief : I totally agree with your statement !
Surely, but if they have a deal with a TV station that may incur some level of exclusivity. Streaming is a separate revenue stream but if Tokyo MX feels like simultaneous streaming could affect their viewer numbers and therefore reduce their ad revenue they may very well want to have some sort of exclusivity.
We will have to see how things play out when we get a better source on this information.
I hadn’t seen the things like that, so thanks for these explanations, you’re right.
So… we’ll have to be patient – again -, in order to see how the things will turn out. It seems that patience is a virtue when it comes to Toei and Sailor Moon Crystal.
well, I am really not very interested what Toei Europe says, because the whole year they acted like there is no SMC – zero promo, no statemenst, simply nothing… but well, I think this somehow reveal the possible premiere date on Japanese TV which could be sometimes in April/May because thats the time when te re-run of SMC will end
I’m thinking it might actually be a good thing if it airs on TV first. The animation quality might be better and more consistant. So if thats the case, I would much rather wait than have it stream first.
It probably mostly depends on the budget at this point. If a TV broadcast is going to rake in more money and it’s thought that spending more on animation will bring in a greater audience, then yes we can expect to have a higher quality show. We shall see!
I hate to be that type of person…no wait, I don’t hate it at all! If Toei doesn’t stream this series there are other ways to watch it and I most certainly will. Doesn’t mean I have to download/pirate them…but also doesn’t mean I have to wait for them to officially release them on bluray either.
Thanks for this information, as negative as my post may sound I think this is a good sign for SMC that it will be broadcast on TV before or at the same time time it streams. It also most likely means weekly episodes.
If they’d give it some of Precure’s budget we could have a great looking show.
It seems insane that I rather hope we get some filler since I normally detest filler.
I’ll just take everything from Toei Animation Europe with a grain of salt and not get too excited or upset over anything they say from now on.
I’m not sure why everyone is freaking out that this news of Crystal being on TV means it won’t be streaming anywhere. People do remember Crunchyroll and Hulu still exist and still simulcast millions of anime besides Sailor Moon all year long right?
I’m sure this is all true as it’s listed on the official Sailor Moon site as well.
http://sailormoon-official.com/animation/news/crystal3_10.php