Comments on: Sailor Moon S and SuperS Movie showings were plagued by technical issues and suffered from poor attendance

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 02:46:28 +0000

For me personally, I attended the SMR dubbed release in my area in January 2017. The independent movie theater that marketed SMR did an excellent job in getting the word out. The timing was also perfect (after 7:00 pm during the week, like a Tuesday and/or Thursday). As a result, attendance was packed which enhanced the movie experience. Unfortunately, I was unable to see SMS and SMSuperS this past summer because the times were mid-day, which was probably the worst time for limited releases, especially for working adults! I had prescheduled errands both times it was released. The marketing was also worse (in my area, it was a different theater chain that hosted SMS and SuperS. I wished the previous theater company hosted the films instead). It looks like it was a good thing I skipped both films.

By: Brando

Brando — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 22:55:25 +0000

I didn’t have many issues! When we went to see R, they didn’t turn on the lights at all and then the volume was too high, but for all three of the movies the theatres were about half-full or so. I was surprised by the turnout given that it was the subbed version.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 09:41:29 +0000

Hi, Macy! Fellow NorCal user, here.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 09:40:21 +0000

Oh! One thing I forgot to stress. The SMR Movie premiere–the one at the arthouse–was further away. This time, because it seemed to be showing in more theaters, I opted for one about halfway. Though, considering the problems evident with the film files themselves, I don’t think going to a different theater would’ve made that much of a difference. Heh!

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 09:37:27 +0000

I’m very late to the party with my personal experience, but, hey! Yeah, the wide-scale problems were already covered, but I feel like venting. This post of mine get long and rambly, so feel free to hop on board or swim away as desired! Also, I’m too tired to spellcheck, so… look out below!

I’m gonna start with something perhaps more exclusive to me. I attended all four screenings (I’m crazy, I know), but for the second of the two afternoons (two afternoons for the English dubs, two evenings for the subtitled originals), it was over one-hundred degrees outside, Fahrenheit. For those who prefer Celsius, that’s over 37. Yeah. Sooo. The air conditioning broke. Haha. Yeah. It straight-up broke. I was sweating! Honestly, I just wanted Kaguya to take over THIS area of the world and cover it with snow… at the time!

All right, air conditioning catastrophe aside… The audio mixing was horrid. Terrible. For me, it wasn’t as crushingly bad of a problem in Japanese because I don’t speak or read the language! I read the subtitles anyway. But English was a pretty dang BIG problem. I remember one part where Princess Kaguya was yelling, yet we couldn’t understand what the heckfire she was saying. I even heard some people behind me whisper, “… Wha? She said what?” I don’t know where the term “underscore” (music) came from, but the underscore should definitely be under the dialog, wouldn’t you say? lol

And, yeah, the movies playing out of order problem. That only happened to me once, and that was during the final night of my theater’s showing. It was supposed to be the original SuperS: The Movie track with subtitles, as I recall. But I instantly knew they were screening R: The Movie. After the wave-crashing of the Toei logo, I heard that familiar music coupled with that familiar opening narration from Usagi. I knew the horror stories going around even then, so as soon as that happened, I mentally went “Ruh-roh!” and jogged from my assigned seat (one of those theaters) to notify an available worker. She came in and quickly put a stop to it, but, wow.

Okay. Now for my unique experiences. I’m not exaggerating with this–the R Movie’s premiere in America was one of my favorite theater-going experiences of my life, on the subject of… well, theater-going. The only theater within an hour’s drive that screened it was in an old arthouse theater, pretty and quaint, mostly reserved for independent films. I got my ticket in advance (it would end up being pretty packed) and had a ball! It was great! It seemed like only the truly devoted, happy fans made the time and effort to drive all the way there, and it was so cool. To watch Sailor Moon (no less my favorite movie of the lot) on the silver screen with that kind of appreciative, jolly crowd was such a thrill.

Contrariwise, this recent Fathom Events didn’t just fail to recapture the magic. I got my tickets for this recent event in advance, expecting the house to be filled like in last year’s showing. Nope. I was in a theater that had assigned seating, but it’s kind of pointless if barely anyone shows up, eh?

Positives: – A young girl, with her mother, loved Sailor Moon and, during intermission of the double bills, hummed the theme music. That was adorable!
-Young adults directly behind me shared Sailor Moon trivia and talked about what they loved from both Inner and Outer.
-During the Japanese screening of the double-billed movies, the audience was only about six people, but we were clearly fans and watched the films in lowkey excitement. Kinda hard to explain, but the aura was nice.

Negatives: – A guy was causing a nuisance until I gave him a “Really? Come on!” look. It was during the English dubbed double-bill–he kept mocking the product by saying stuff like, “Isn’t this BUTCH? Don’t you feel MASCULINE? WOW. It’s SOOOOO good,” but in a condescending way. I gave him the aforementioned look, and he stopped until the credits rolled. Very odd. Perhaps there’s something more to the story than I recognized.
-The gosh-darn, flipping-flapping air conditioner breaking made me cry harder than Luna’s unrequited love. (… No, that’s not true. I still get feelsy over that.)

So, I don’t know what to make of this, really! The Sailor Moon R premiere, for me, was an amazing, exciting event. I guess I was hoping to recapture some of that, but I didn’t really find it here. The shocking problems didn’t do it any favors, either. But… I don’t regret watching Sailor Moon on the big screen, no matter how impaired or janky.

For what it’s worth, I hummed Poupelin’s hypnotizing spell as I drove home on the final night.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 18:24:32 +0000

That is some disturbing news. I hope those two movies can still come out so I can watch them. The faster they release the S and Supers films, the sooner they can continue doing Supers so they can get to Stars already.

By: bishiesenshi

bishiesenshi — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 04:29:43 +0000

I’d been searching the web to see if I was the only one who experienced this and I’m so glad I found this! Luckily after showing us the first 10 minutes of SuperS and the ami short we did get to watch the R and S films! but even then it was FAR too loud, my best friend and I had to take ear plugs when we saw the SuperS movie the following weekend. I go to a lot of concerts and stuff but listening to Usagis wailing on full blast was just too much.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 16:50:20 +0000

It looks like my viewings were much better.
When R and S were supposed to show they ended up playing Ami’s First Love. I thought they were just confused on how all the movies were titled and was scared on how I was going to explain the mistake with the confusing titles. Luckily the manager listened carefully to me and immediately started queing R and S. He stopped SuperS and explained to the audince what was happening (I was the only one to notice!) and gave us all rainchecks. Only problem was everyones schedules now being about 20 minutes behind.
The next week I used my raincheck for SuperS and there were no issues. There may have been a sound problem for most people but I am young with a slight hearing problem so wad probably perfect for me haha!
Sorry the problem wasn’t as easily fixed as everyone else’s!

By: Noname9q

Noname9q — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 08:17:00 +0000

There was a very bad marketing this time around as well. They made a lot more buzz with the R movie. That and r movie being the best ofthe bunch.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 18:29:34 +0000

Always a bit of work when it’s further away. I had to drive about 45 minutes to the only theatre in the Ottawa area to show the film. In the past I’d seen other anime films at other theatres that were a bit closer to home.