The new Japanese Sailor Moon Blu-Ray sets look good but not great in HD

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Cover

The first of many Japanese Blu-Ray releases of the original Sailor Moon anime was out on June 14th. I got my copy from Amazon Japan and it is available in stores and via other online retailers. The set includes the first half of the first season, that being episodes 1 to 23, and sells for a whopping 15,747 yen which is $140 US. Why, you may ask, would someone bother to buy this release when they can get the Viz Blu-Ray release for a fraction of the price? I don’t have an answer which would convince most fans. This is a Japanese only release with no subtitles. There is however a significant improvement in picture quality over what we got from Viz, but this is no real surprise given what we’d had. Ultimately though this is a software upscaled HD version of a standard definition master. What this means is that they used video which was roughly DVD quality and extrapolated using software algorithms to make a 1080p HD video. While this will look better than a DVD to most people it’s still nothing close to what we would have gotten if Toei went back to the film source and made an HD transfer, like we recently got for the Sailor Moon R movie. Don’t take my word for it! Check out some sample screenshots.

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Viz Blu-Ray - Ami

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Ami

Japanese Blu-Ray

Make Up! Sailor Senshi - Ami

Make Up! Sailor Senshi Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Japanese DVD - Ami

Japanese DVD

In the above image, and many other samples included at the end of this post, we have a comparison between four versions of the same scene. The top two compare the Viz Blu-Ray to the new Japanese Blu-Ray, and it’s hard to see the differences with just a thumbnail but if you look at the full sized versions of each image you’ll see that there’s a difference. Also included for comparison are a screenshot from the Make Up! Sailor Senshi Blu-Ray which was included with Sailor Moon R The Movie and the original Japanese DVD. I include screenshots from Make Up! Sailor Senshi because when that special was done it used footage from the original film source which, in 1993, was not yet lost as it apparently is today. Since that film was then transferred to HD this gives us a look at what this release would roughly look like if we’d had the opportunity to have a better master. It’s not perfect as the aspect ratio was changed for cinema so we have a cropped image but it should give an idea of what we could have gotten. The Japanese DVD gives an impression of what the master likely looked like before software upscaling.

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Viz Blu-Ray - Sailor Moon shocked by her transformation

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Sailor Moon shocked by her transformation

Japanese Blu-Ray

If you look closely at the fine details you’ll see that even with this new Japanese Blu-Ray there’s some blurriness to the image. We don’t actually see the imperfections in the lines that make these images and the backgrounds which aren’t using as solid colours as the foreground don’t look as nice as they could. All that said this looks nice on a TV. It doesn’t blow your mind when you’re sitting a few feet from your TV trying to put a crying 2 month old to sleep at 5:30am but if you’re sitting on a couch looking at the show it looks pretty good. In an alternate dimension where someone in the mid 90s knew better than to discard masters for a shows which, given the evolving nature of video and high definition TV, they should have known better than to do, we would have a nicer looking Blu-Ray. Unfortunately we don’t live in that dimension so this is what we have and it seems like this is the best looking version of Sailor Moon we’ll get. It’s not leaps and bounds above anything else we’ve seen but it is a mild improvement.

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Viz Blu-Ray - Sailor Moon poses

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Sailor Moon poses

Japanese Blu-Ray

Make Up! Sailor Senshi - Sailor Moon poses

Make Up! Sailor Senshi Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 1 - Japanese DVD - Sailor Moon poses

Japanese DVD

These are just a few comparison screenshots. Be sure to click them and then click the link that says “1920×1080″ to see the full image. I’ve included many more at the end of this post for reference. There will be some distortion due to jpeg compression on these but that should be minor.

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Comparison between Laserdisc, Japanese DVD and Blu-Ray

Besides the image quality, what do we have here? Some pretty nice looking box art. Is it really classy and iconic to keep using the exact same laserdisc artwork or is it lazy? I think it’s a bit of both. Some people have criticized Viz for their Blu-Ray releases but I thought their artwork was on point. Here we’ve got art which has been used time and time again being recycled yet again. This was used in the 90s for the original laserdisc and VHS releases of the series, again when the DVDs were released in 2003, yet again when those DVDs were rereleased and once again with these. That art has been seen in other places over the years. This art is of course fantastic, as it was when it first appeared on those massive vinyl sized laserdisc covers which credit art director Kazuko Tadano for having made them. Once again the above image is just a sample. All of the disc art was reused from earlier covers and I’ve included photos of all of these comparisons at the end of this post.

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray disc 1 menu

The episodes included are… do I even need to talk about this? It’s episodes 1 to 23. It’s the first half of what might very well be the best season of anything ever produced on the planet in the history of history. This goes from Usagi becoming Sailor Moon right through her meeting Ami and Rei and fighting Jadeite and Nephrite. The next half will begin with Nephrite’s tear jerker final episode. Not a ton in the way of special features are included. On the fourth disc there are creditless lower quality versions of the opening and first ending theme as well as the 15 second commercials which played after every episode, promoting the next one. The laserdiscs for the first season actually had many more fun extras which have never been included in the DVD releases. Given what we see with the musicals it doesn’t seem out of the question to include a ton of silly bonus features. It would have been nice to see them here! I understand that there may have been no HD source for these but not every special feature in a Blu-Ray needs to be 1080p HD! The low quality credits and ads are proof of that.

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 8 to 10

The special booklet which is included gives episodes summaries for all of the episodes in this set. This is a nice addition. Each episode has one screenshot, some character art and a brief description to go with it. I would assume we’ll have something similar with the next set which comes out on August 9th.

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Back

So what’s the verdict? Is it worth spending so much money on this release? This is almost certainly not something anyone but a hardcore collector would want to bother getting. There are less expensive ways to watch Sailor Moon in a language you understand. If, however, you are a videophile that absolutely needs to have the best of the best, well go ahead and get that line of credit approved so that you can buy all of these!

Keep reading for more screenshots, images of the packaging and photos of all pages of the included booklet.

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Viz Blu-Ray - Usagi meets Luna

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Usagi meets Luna

Japanese Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Viz Blu-Ray - Umino

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Umino

Japanese Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Viz Blu-Ray - Sailor V

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Sailor V

Japanese Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Viz Blu-Ray - Usagi and Luna

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Usagi and Luna

Japanese Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Viz Blu-Ray - Sailor Moon transforms

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Episode 1 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Sailor Moon transforms

Japanese Blu-Ray

Make Up! Sailor Senshi - Sailor Moon transforms

Make Up! Sailor Senshi Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 1 - Japanese DVD - Sailor Moon transforms

Japanese DVD

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Viz Blu-Ray - Ami and Luna

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Ami and Luna

Japanese Blu-Ray

Make Up! Sailor Senshi - Ami and Luna

Make Up! Sailor Senshi Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Japanese DVD - Ami and Luna

Japanese DVD

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Viz Blu-Ray - Usagi and Luna

Viz Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Japanese Blu-Ray - Usagi and Luna

Japanese Blu-Ray

Make Up! Sailor Senshi - Usagi and Luna

Make Up! Sailor Senshi Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Japanese DVD - Usagi and Luna

Japanese DVD

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Cover

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Back

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Inside cover

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Inside back cover

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Disc 1 and 2

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Disc 3 and 4

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Comparison between dub only DVD, Japanese DVD and new Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Comparison between Laserdisc and Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Comparison between Laserdisc, Japanese DVD and Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Comparison between Laserdisc and Blu-Ray

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Info

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Insert

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Recursive ad

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episode 1

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 2 and 3

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 4 and 5

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 6 and 7

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 8 to 10

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 11 and 12

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 13 to 15

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 16 and 17

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 18 to 20

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Booklet - Episodes 21 and 22

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 -  Booklet - Episode 23

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9 thoughts on “The new Japanese Sailor Moon Blu-Ray sets look good but not great in HD

  1. If you want English, the best release might actually be the Viz DVDs, not the Blu-rays. Yeah, it’s the same ugly transfer, but a lot of the problems aren’t noticeable when it’s downscaled to SD, and then upscaled through a Blu-ray player. The dub sounds less detached from picture too.

    I don’t think the film is gone forever either. Toei’s just too lazy to scan it again. They rarely ever do new scans for any TV anime.

  2. It’s interesting that they decide to have the back cover show all the soldiers when 2 have not appeared. They should have used that for the next back cover. Overall, I am disappointed that they did not do an HD film restoration and remaster. I might consider buying this if that was the case, but in this case I might as well get the Viz Blu-ray as it does not look much better in comparison.

  3. If you watch it on a laptop or a smaller monitor it doesn’t look so but if u play it on a biggee screen u can see how blurry and overdegrained it looks. Nothing has yet surpassed the Italian DVD release. Dynit did an amazing job. I really can’t wait for the blu ray of the S and SuperS movies though. Toei keep lying they lost the film and just admit how lazy they are.

  4. I’d like to just point out that these sets don’t have the weird motion blur the viz sets have. Also the episode summaries aren’t episode summaries but production notes for each episode.

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