The Sailor Moon R Blu-Ray Collection Volumes 1 and 2 have now been released in Japan. These are my thoughts on volume 1, which was released on October 4th. I delayed getting this review up so long that volume 2 was since released on December 6th. Some of you expressed interest in seeing the quality, given some issues with the Viz Blu-Ray releases of Sailor Moon R, so I’ve included a lot of screenshots within the post and at the end of it. This collection includes Sailor Moon R episodes 47 to 68 in Japanese and Japanese only! There is no dub and no subtitle track on this release so it may have limited value to English speaking fans. Be warned!
 Viz Blu-Ray |
 Japanese Blu-Ray |
 Japanese DVD |
The video quality in this release is what I would again call good but not great. To see examples just click through on the images and then on the 1920×1080 link to see the full picture. There is a bit of loss from JPEG compression but it should give a decent idea of the relatively quality of the releases. Basically, as with the first season, what we have is an upscalled or upconverted and cleaned up version of existing standard definition masters. So while the video here is 1080p, Blu-Ray resolution, this was not obtained from going back to the film source (film is used as an intermediate in animation from this era) but instead the old video sources were used and with various filters these were extrapolated into high definition video. I’m not a fan of this technique. I’d just as soon see a good quality standard definition release than pretend this is “really” HD, but your mileage may vary. The techniques used to upscale these is fairly impressive and the image we get is probably the best we’ve seen for the original Sailor Moon anime, but it still isn’t what we’ve seen for things like the Sailor Moon R Movie which was released on Blu-Ray earlier this year.
 Viz Blu-Ray |
 Japanese Blu-Ray |
All that said Viz used a similar technique when they released their Blu-Rays a few years ago but they seem to have had significantly inferior quality master video sources to work with. The actual techniques they used to convert the video to high definition were likely different as well, as we’ve seen minor differences in the various releases they had as the series was, and continues to be, released. I don’t think it’s fair to put the blame solely on Viz for the poor quality release we got from them, as they have done great work with high quality source material as we’ve seen with their Sailor Moon Crystal releases and their release of Sailor Moon R The Movie on Blu-Ray which is considerably nicer looking than the Japanese DVD. That said their releases of the Sailor Moon TV series are so bad that the Japanese DVD release and many other international releases are of much nicer video quality.
 Japanese DVD screenshot with visible interlacing artifacts |
 Japanese DVD screenshot without any visible interlacing artifacts |
 Viz Blu-Ray |
 Japanese Blu-Ray |
One reason for which I was more excited for the Sailor Moon R release than the first season was that the Japanese DVDs for Sailor Moon R and beyond had interlaced video. What does this mean? A standard TV signal is interlaced, meaning the signal is sent one field at a time. Every second scan line is refreshed every 30th of a second but only one field is sent every 60th of a second. This means when you look at a still you’ll often see these lines in it looking like saw teeth or a comb. The images above illustrate this by looking at the interlaced DVD image. This isn’t really noticeable on older TVs or even modern HDTVs but if you’re watching video on a computer screen, pausing, getting screenshots or trying to convert the files for download, like many fan subs you may have downloaded, this can be a problem. You probably noticed this back in the VHS days when you’d pause a film and sometimes there would appear to be a double image while other times there would not. For a show which was at some point on film, like Sailor Moon, this isn’t visible in all frames. For shows that were shot on video, like the live action series and the musicals, there’s no getting around the fact that every frame will have visible interlacing. Because of this I often need to find scenes with little motion for my live action screenshots or to use a filter to remove odd or even lines. The DVD standard supports progressive scan, which does away with this interlacing problem, and the first season DVDs were converted to progressive scan which made them look a bit nicer on an HDTV. The deinterlacing process does not negatively affect picture quality because all of the information is there. For whatever reason, probably cost related, this was not done for Sailor Moon R, S, SuperS or Sailor Stars on DVD. Now that the video is going through all kinds of post processing to upconvert to HD resolutions, removing any interlacing artifacts was the first thing that was done. So much to say this is one way in which these Blu-Rays are objectively better than the Japanese DVD release. The upconverting is a bit of smoke and mirrors but the deinterlacing is one aspect which is a real noticeable improvement.
As an indication of the quality of the video in this release we can finally read the text in the Sailor Moon R credits with some success! If you’re like me you pass the time listening to “Otome no Policy” while trying to read some of this text. I’ve always been able to make out some words on the laserdisc and DVD releases but it seems like much more is visible now. Note that the quality changes as the season goes on and while it was harder to see the words in the early episodes this becomes easier with some of the later episodes. So what does this text say? It’s mostly nonsense. These are sentences which are grammatically correct english which seems to have some meaning but the text has no bearing on Sailor Moon. “CONVERSATION is impossible as the open topped rail diesel car clatters into the 3/4 mile Trebelica tunnel” … “For Bedimir the Trebelica tunnel is a masterwork, three years in building”. Web searches for terms like “trebelica” and “bedimir” don’t identify this text as being anything important or even references to real people or places. Others, however, like Stari Bar in Montenegro, appears to be references to a real things. This could be an actual magazine or newspaper clipping but the exact source isn’t something that is terribly obvious, even when the text is mostly legible. Often in movies and TV shows fake newspapers are used and this could be an example of such a thing. This is not Lorem ipsum, which is a sort of real looking but totally nonsensical pseudo latin text which is often used for fake newspapers and such in films.
Japanese Blu-Ray
As for the content on these Blu-Rays we have pretty much the first half of Sailor Moon R, episodes 47 to 68. These are episodes I have some fondness and nostalgia for! I got into Sailor Moon when there were only 65 dubbed episodes which included the first half of Sailor Moon R and I didn’t see the second half until I got some fansubs some time later, before they were eventually dubbed. It’s probably due to this that I have a greater level of nostalgia for those episodes which include only the first half of Sailor Moon R. My bias makes me want to argue that they are somehow of better quality but I simply can’t trust my own opinion on this issue to be unclouded. The first half of this release is the Makaiju story arc, known as the Doom Tree saga in the original English dub. I really enjoy these episodes even if they aren’t based on any manga story like the rest of the season. Ail and An, the villains, are compelling characters and these episodes tie in nicely to Sailor Moon R The Movie, though no one present seems to notice the similarity between these nearly identical looking enemies. The rest of the episodes introduce us to Chibiusa, the time traveling girl lost in time, and some of the Black Moon Clan. This set includes episode 67, the swimsuit episode where Chibiusa somehow befriends a plesiosaur, which for a long time was not available to English speaking fans but this episode has since been released to stream and on Viz’s release so its inclusion is less exclusive than it once was.
Not much in the way of special features here! Aside from the episodes themselves we have the same usual extra. “Clean” opening and closing credits which means the opening and ending theme animations without the actual credits. The picture quality for these is not too great, and not as good as the rest of the Blu-Ray. Also included are the 15 second commercials! These originally played on Japanese TV to advertise the next episode and they are not the same as the next episode previews, though they are quite similar. These weren’t included in the Sailor Moon R laserdisc release, as the only special features in those releases were on the first season discs, but they were included in the Sailor Moon R memorial. These aren’t terribly exciting but it’s better than nothing as features go! I’m including the disc 4 menu above, which includes those extras. The rest are available at the bottom of the post. The menus are basic. Links to the episode with an image showing the disc art in nice quality.
Also included is a booklet with episode descriptions. Each description includes a bit of production art for that episode which is a nice touch!
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The cover art for this release and the included discs is mostly reused from the laserdiscs which were again reused for the DVDs. I’ve included a lot of images showing what art was reused for what. One exception is the image of Chibiusa on the cover which is a bit awkwardly out of place as it’s not from any laserdisc art for Sailor Moon R. The main thing which I liked about this release was the inclusion of Ail and An as well as the Moonlight Knight. These characters, unique only to the first 13 episodes of Sailor Moon R, dominated three of the laserdisc covers but were completely absent from the DVD cover art. Similarly they are generally absent from other home video releases as it seems like most people would rather just treat Sailor Moon R as “Chibiusa and Black Lady”. Though they aren’t featured on the cover art itself we see them on the disc art which is quite a nice inclusion! These are characters featured in a quarter of the season after all! It’s half of this set!
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Also of note is the return of a Sailor Venus shoe error on the image on the back of the box. This error dates back to the laserdisc days but it was corrected with the Japanese DVD release. For whatever reason this error creeped back up! It’s clear that the DVD art wasn’t actually reused here but that we’re seeing laser disc art. The DVD art had modified colours that aren’t seen here. Basically the shoe problem, as discovered by Twitter user Sailor Mikey, is that Sailor Venus should have an open shoe with the top of her foot exposed but in this image it’s orange across the top of the foot.
Also notable is the art on the back of the box itself, inside the sleeve, which is actually an amalgam of two laserdisc covers. The individual art is used for the discs, which you can still see, but this image is a new composite of the two. We have Sailor Mercury, Mars, Venus and Jupiter put together but the Ayakashi Sisters are removed. Again we don’t want the outside box art to actually represent characters restricted to these episodes! This was mostly seamlessly done as the Sailor Guardians were in front of the Ayakashi Sisters for the most part however if you pay close attention there is a bit of an odd point at the end of Sailor Jupiter’s hair as this was previously covered by Calaveras’s neck.
All in all I’m not sure this set would appeal to most English speaking fans however if you’re a real completist and want the series in its best possible quality, and don’t have the Japanese DVDs or some other comparably nice looking international release, this might be worth picking up. It’s not cheap! Both collection 1 and collection 2 can be ordered from sites such as Amazon Japan. These will set you back about $150 US dollars plus shipping a piece! I’ve already gotten my second set in the mail though I haven’t had much of a look at it yet besides taking a few photos of the box art. It stands to reason that it’s more of the same but I’ll put together a nice review if I have a bit of time.
Keep reading for more screenshot comparisons, photos of the box art, the included booklet and the menus.
 Viz Blu-Ray |
 Japanese Blu-Ray |
 Japanese DVD |
 Viz Blu-Ray |
 Japanese Blu-Ray |
 Japanese DVD |
 Viz Blu-Ray |
 Japanese Blu-Ray |
 Japanese DVD |
 Viz Blu-Ray |
 Japanese Blu-Ray |
Japanese Blu-Ray
Japanese Blu-Ray
Japanese Blu-Ray
Japanese Blu-Ray
Japanese Blu-Ray
Japanese Blu-Ray
Japanese Blu-Ray
Japanese Blu-Ray
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Finally, news in December.
What do you mean, nothing about Crystal has been announced and we don’t know about any planned announcements.
I think Luke was rather looking forward to Adam’s articles, whatever the subject
.
Luke, Adam is now a father, I think he lacks time and can no longer be so often present on Sailor Moon News.
Legit!
1. Congratulations, Adam. 2. I want Adam to stay here.
I will defend the first half of SMR until the day I die. Ail and Ann are my flock.
D’oh! Typo.
*An
My only real problem with that arc is the weird shift from away from season 1’s fantasy to magical realism (i.e. the world “resetting” perfectly after each magical disruption) only to shift back to straight fantasy again with the Dark Moon arc. It’s particularly weird since An and Ail are distinctly less fantastic than the sort of mystical abominations the series usually goes in for.
The Belgrade-Bar railway really exists, and I’m pretty sure the “Trebelica tunnel” is the Trebesica tunnel (shown in the track diagram in the German Wikipedia article.)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_Belgrad%E2%80%93Bar
Going by its breathless, novelistic tone I’d bet good money that that’s the text of a National Geographic article.
Good eye! I tried to google (and Duck Duck Go) variants but couldn’t find much.
Fair enough! They really do stick out like a sore thumb, but my best friend and I have some wonderful memories going through that season, together.
^ Son of a Nintendo Switch, that was meant for Pocket University’s response to my post. My bad.
I noticed the “For Linda and me” introducing the paragraph in the upper-right, and a few seconds of searching turned up this:
http://shadow.ngs.org/search/title.aspx?ctx=5.1033.0.0.3&pos=1
I’m virtually positive that this is the source of the text in the R credits, but it would nice if someone with that issue on hand could confirm for sure.
Oops, sorry if that link doesn’t work. Here’s the full citation:
So you’re saying I need to track down an issue of National Geographic from before I was born? Good idea!
You are totally right.
Here:
The two right columns:
https://imgur.com/cvYsgYR
The two left columns:
https://imgur.com/RHFsYWV
Actually the text of the left two columns is from a different article from the same issue.
No luck with identifying the text source from the first opening though. It appears that it is not from National Geographic, as the columns of the text that can be seen in the opening are separated by vertical bars, which are not used in the text formating of National Geographic, and the columns of the text in the opening are slightly wider symbol count wise. It looks more like a newspaper, I think. Any ideas? The text content itself suggests the date of publication of after 1971.
I will post here the transcript for the sake of convinience.
[Column 1]
…
ry
grav
ill unk
le bought>
view throu
it was a
I ca
ad
utt
to
nd e
at five
was still.
I had cnt
able practice
, then, after care[full]y
to the box, sensitirry
era while it was s, slip
tion and make the exposure. Next
urn to the dark box and immedi-
e plate. Then I would go through
s once more from a new position.
onditions a “round trip” might use
s of an hour. At Mammoth Springs,
was so little shifting to do that I
the average time to less than 15
er thing that helped was the hot
gertips. By washing the plates in
ed from the springs at 160˚F, we
me by more than half.
in a fully equipped was
h. Going at it in the eant
nd the moral stan[p]er-
matism–to keep on after
verexposed and unped
[w]ithout regard to
[ch]emicals. The art of [e]xpo-
ertain that you prayed evtime
apped, and no picture wasfe
had been developed.
many pictures that I had to take.
fell before my camera. But many
retted the lost ones deeply. Today
spheric conditions–clear sky-
air, clouds to punctuate the back-
ays desired by the photogrpher.
t weather was even more impor-
…
[Column 2]
…
th
sort,
with a
or was a
entirely diffe
the same and
an easier go in
pack mule: we had
We took chemicals
old. We stored the other f
till we got back to develop
laroid prints to line up our position. Once
the place and the direction in which he
picture, we could figure by the angle of
and the way it was coming into the picture
er it was taken in the morning or afternoon
The most dramatic changes we fou[nd]
man-made–where roads or reservoirs had b
built. Sometimes a boulder was missing because
avaalanche or a stream had changed its course
but rocks don’t change a lot. A hundred years is
really a small amount of time in geological terms
When the project began, we wanted to see what
changes had taken place and if we could locate
the sites where the pictures were made. Then we
realized that what we were finding was interest-
ing in regard to photography itself.
You can duplicate a person’s vantage point,
the actual place where he stood. But can you real-
ly duplicate his viewpoint? It’s such a personal
thing. The project attempts to locate the actual
physical vantage point, but it also attempts to iso-
late the viewpoint. Why did the photorapher take
he did? How did he
Sometimes I foun[d] that I
differently. Some[times] it
tilting the ca in
horizontal d
cted aent
me of I
fe
–
–
[Column 3]
…
le
a de
Holmes
Rodol
with its ma
art, has been a
Goths. The Italian
thefts–as have Scot
covered more than ha
past five years. But whe
pears, it is presumed to hav
event, there is little the carab
man popularly known as the “00
the job. Siviero has developed enor[m]
formants. With news from the art und
upon him, his mind is like a war-room
noted and likely destination of missing
memory. Thus, when the celebrated Saint M
from the town of Visso three years ago, it took Si[viero]
cover its whereabouts, in a private collection in
ically. Siviero didn’t publicize the find or even bring
restitutes. Instead, he talked the Germans into giving b
and even allowed them to arrange the transfer to take pla[ce]
zerland so that the collector’s name would not be connect[ed]
theft. In a more famous case, Siviero’s diplomatic skills were
into play again in the delicate matter of retrieving Raphael’s bea[utiful]
portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga from the Museum of Fine Arts in
ton, after the painting had somehow been smuggled out of Italy.
While Siviero surveys the art underworld from the heights
tective Robert Volpe in New York sees it from the streets. Yet in
…
The text of the trascript got mangled, so there is the correct version:
[Column 1]
…
~ry~
~grav~
~ill unk(n)~
~le bought~
~view throu~
~it was a~
~I ca(n)~
~(h)ad~
~utt~
~to~
~(o)nd e(x)~
~at five~
~ was still.~
~I had c(e)nt~
~[invari]able practice~
~[shad]e, then, after care[full]y
[focussing my camera, return to the box, sensiti[ze a plate, hu]rry
[back to the cam]era while it was s[till moist], slip
[the plate into posi]tion and make the exposure. Next
[step was to ret]urn to the dark box and immedi-
[ately develop th]e plate. Then I would go through
[the entire proces]s once more from a new position.
[Under average c]onditions a “round trip” might use
[up three-quarter]s of an hour. At Mammoth Springs,
[however, there ]was so little shifting to do that I
[was able to cut ]the average time to less than 15
[minutes. Anoth]er thing that helped was the hot
[water at our fin]gertips. By washing the plates in
[water that issu]ed from the springs at 160˚F, we
[were able to cut the drying ti]me by more than half.
~ in a fully equipped ~ was
~h. Going at it in the ~eant
~nd the moral stan~ ~[p]er-
~matism—to keep on ~ after~
~verexposed and un~ped
[w]ithout regard to ~
~[ch]emicals. The art of ~[e]xpo-
~ertain that you prayed ev~ ~time
~apped, and no picture was ~ ~fe
~had been developed.
~many pictures that I had to take.
~fell before my camera. But many
~retted the lost ones deeply. Today
~spheric conditions—clear sky-
~air, clouds to punctuate the back-
~ays desired by the photogrpher.
~t weather was even more impor-
…
[Column 2]
…
th~
sort,~
with a~
or was a ~
entirely diffe~
the same and~
an easier go in ~
pack mule: we had ~
We took chemicals~
old. We stored the other f~
till we got back to develop
laroid prints to line up our position. Once~
the place and the direction in which he~
picture, we could figure by the angle of~
and the way it was coming into the picture~
er it was taken in the morning or afternoon~
The most dramatic changes we fou[nd]~
man-made—where roads or reservoirs had b~
built. Sometimes a boulder was missing because
~avalanche or a stream had changed its course
but rocks don’t change a lot. A hundred years is
really a small amount of time in geological terms
When the project began, we wanted to see what
changes had taken place and if we could locate
the sites where the pictures were made. Then we
realized that what we were finding was interest-
ing in regard to photography itself.
You can duplicate a person’s vantage point,
the actual place where he stood. But can you real-
ly duplicate his viewpoint? It’s such a personal
thing. The project attempts to locate the actual
physical vantage point, but it also attempts to iso-
late the viewpoint. Why did the photorapher take
~he did? How did he~
~Sometimes I foun[d] ~ that I
~differently. Some[times] ~ it
~tilting the ca[mera] ~ in
~horizontal ~d
~cted a~ ~ent
~me of ~ I
~fe~
~
~-
~
~-
[Column 3]
…
~le~
a de~
Holmes~
Rodol~
with its ma~
art, has been a~
Goths. The Italian~
thefts—as have Scot~
covered more than ha~
past five years. But whe~
pears, it is presumed to hav~
event, there is little the carab~
man popularly known as the “00~
the job. Siviero has developed enor[m]~
formants. With news from the art und~
upon him, his mind is like a war-room~
noted and likely destination of missing~
memory. Thus, when the celebrated Saint M~
from the town of Visso three years ago, it took Si[viero]~
cover its whereabouts, in a private collection in~
ically. Siviero didn’t publicize the find or even bring~
restitutes. Instead, he talked the Germans into giving b~
and even allowed them to arrange the transfer to take pla[ce]~
zerland so that the collector’s name would not be connect[ed]~
theft. In a more famous case, Siviero’s diplomatic skills were~
into play again in the delicate matter of retrieving Raphael’s bea[utiful]
portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga from the Museum of Fine Arts in~
ton, after the painting had somehow been smuggled out of Italy.
While Siviero surveys the art underworld from the heights~
tective Robert Volpe in New York sees it from the streets. Yet in~
…
I was curious about the text from the first opening, as well. Thanks to your transcriptions I quickly found them through my library’s magazine database. All three articles are from the March 1979 issue of Life Magazine (American publication). The first two are companion pieces about the Rephotographic Survey Project. The third is about people who recover stolen art for a living. I don’t see any thematic relevance to the show and assume they just had the magazine lying around!
These are so great! I can finally read this with some ease! Where did you take those images from?
From November 1977 issue of National Geographic as Pocket University correctly supposed; or you mean where I was able to find the images themselves?
Yeah the images themselves!
There:
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4389384/National_Geographic_1930_-_1997
Ha. Thanks!
I recall hearing that Toei said that the film didn’t exist for the Sailor Moon anime TV series, as it was edited on tape… which would make sense as the English versions of Sailor Moon and Pokemon in the US were edited on tape and we’ll only ever get an upscale version, sadly.
In saying that, they do have the original negatives for the films, and they come up looking amazing! I’m so excited to see the films for S and SuperS in full HD :3
Madman have released Toei’s blu-ray version with English subtitles and Audio track in Australia 2 weeks ago for season 1 in a one box set. I’m waiting for a sale before I invest in it, since it’s not pure HD anyway.
I don’t buy it. The Make Up Sailor Senshi movie which played with Sailor Moon R The Movie in Japan used clips from a number of TV episodes. That special, in HD on Viz’s recent release, is better than standard definition. They must have used a film intermediate to get the footage to make this movie. This wasn’t something they got from video.
Of course film negatives still exist of the TV series, but not of the end result that was sent to TV studios etc. More likely it’s all in a un-edited state… knowing Toei, they won’t invest all that money to re-produce all the elements again in HD. Unless they’re already working on it, but it won’t be released until a 4K re-scan is completed. I wouldn’t put it past them. Money hungry as they are.
Curious about the Madman release! I’ll have to look into that though I’m not sure I can justify buying it without a region free player.
Your understanding of video interlacing is wrong. First off there are different broadcast format for different region in this world. There are NTSC playing at 29.97fps, PAL playing at 25fps, and there are the film at 23.976fps.
Anime are all make at 24fps, which lies in the “film” format. And while DVD in Japan and USA were standardized as NTSC format, in order to get the anime into DVD, they have to do something to convert film to NTSC, that conversion is called telecine. So for you on the client side, to get back all the progressive frames, all you need to do is to reverse it with something called inverse telecine (IVTC). You DO NOT deinterlace anime!
For ivtc, you’ll need to look into vapoursynth or avisynth, they have ivtc filter that can do this easily.
http://www.vapoursynth.com
After ivtc, you’re video frame rate should be at 23.976fps, if you get anything other than that, you’re doing it wrong.
Okay. So what did I get wrong? This is more detail than I got into but it’s all stuff I am aware of.
Hello! Nice to meet you!
Could you mind showing each page of the episode guide? thanks~
Hi Samuel. I don’t have a great directory and sometimes have trouble indexing them myself. A search of the episode number might be a decent place to start.
I think I misunderstood the question! You wanted photos of the booklet?