The Sailor Moon Eternal movies will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on June 30th!

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Adam

A great gift is coming for Usagi’s 43rd birthday as both Sailor Moon Eternal films will be released on one DVD and Blu-ray set June 30th. The news follows Netflix’s announcement that the movies will be streaming worldwide on their service on June 3rd. There will be a more expensive 3 disc Blu-ray (or DVD) and CD combo or a less expensive but still expensive single disc version. A trailer for the home video release was shared to the official site. You can watch it below.

Though we don’t have a lot of details about the special features the more or less bare bones release appears to be just a Blu-ray, or DVD, of the film itself. The single disc Blu-ray will cost 9,800 yen, about $90 US, while the DVD will cost 8,800 yen, about $81 US. The first run limited edition Blu-Ray set will include the disc with the films, a bonus Blu-ray disc who’s contents have not yet been specified, two CDs which will include songs from the film as well as some drama tracks and a booklet. Drama CDs usually include audio of the characters, performed by the voice actors, along with songs. In this case the songs are Moon Color Chainon, the opening theme for the film, and Moon Effect, one of the character songs which feature the entire film’s cast. The exact content of these CDs remains to be determined. There have been a number of Sailor Moon drama CDs released in the past though they’re not of much use to fans who can’t understand Japanese. This Blu-ray set will cost 15,000 yen, about $138 US. The DVD version is 14,000 yen, about $129 US.

Note that Japanese Blu-ray discs are region A which is the same region as North America. I have imported many Sailor Moon Blu-ray discs and they play without issue on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 game systems which were bought in Canada. Japanese DVDs are region 2 NTSC discs and are incompatible with North American region 1 DVD players, unless they are region free. These sets will almost certainly not have any English subtitles or audio.

There are also vendor specific pre-order bonuses from specific retailers. Some are included with the base price but some others are included for a premium price. For Amazon Japan the free pre-order bonus is an A4 sized file folder featuring Sailor Uranus and Neptune. The premium pre-order bonuses are a framed lithograph (high quality printed image) and a Luna and Artemis mug set. There are not currently any pictures of these items. The sets are currently being shown as being out of stock on Amazon Japan. I’ve had issues preordering a number of their recent CD sets. We will be sure to share some links once other purchasing options are available.

There are also a number of Sailor Moon figures as pre-order bonuses. A set of the five Sailor Guardians in Eternal outfits is available with what I believe is the official fan club. A different set with Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon and the Sailor Quartet is available from the King e-shop and Sailor Moon Store. (Update 2021-05-03: It seems the King e-shop and Sailor Moon Store figures are of Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto and not the Sailor Quartet. I misinterpreted the half broken translation I was reading.)

Do you plan on picking up any of these sets? With the movies streaming on Netflix in early June many fans will have had the opportunity to see the films before this is released. It is also likely that we will eventually get a much less expensive domestic release of these films, though it’s hard to say when that might be. While the bonus video and booklet certainly do seem appealing I look forward to getting more details of what this includes before deciding if these are worth the price! What do you think?

The Sailor Moon Eternal movies are coming to Netflix worldwide on June 3rd!

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Adam

We finally have official confirmation of something we’ve suspected for a long time. The Sailor Moon Eternal films are coming to Netflix! Both Part 1 and Part 2 will be released worldwide on the streaming service in many languages on June 3rd! Watch the announcement trailer which includes Sailor Moon voice actors from around the world and some odd music which is absolutely not in the actual movie.

A listing for the film is also now up on Netflix. It is mentioned to be a double feature but it isn’t clear if this will be one amalgamated movie or if both parts will be released separately. With Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 having been released in theatres in Japan on January 8th of this year the worldwide release will take place nearly five months later. Fans have been waiting for a date for the Netflix release for a while. The fact that the movies were coming to Netflix for international audiences outside of Japan has been one of the worst kept secrets in the industry!

The first hint that Netflix would be dubbing the series goes back to November with the Astro Girl fiasco. A listing showed up on the Screen Actors Guild web site suggesting that “Astro Girl: (Aka: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie)” was being done with a “Netflix dubbing agreement”. The simplest interpretation of this was that Netflix was dubbing the series, which we now know to be correct. At the time I classified this as a rumour.

The next hint came in December as a voice actor accidentally shared a photo which unbeknownst to him revealed a monitor in the background showing an image of the Amazoness Quartet and the words “Property of Netflix”. As this voice actor previously voiced Tiger’s Eye in Sailor Moon SuperS it seemed evident that he was reprising his role in Sailor Moon Eternal. At this point I thought there was no longer any doubt that the movies would be released on Netflix. The only question remaining was when. We now have that answer!

Finally in January there was a Facebook post by a Spanish voice actor of Tuxedo Mask who straight up stated that he recorded Sailor Moon Eternal and thanked Netflix for bringing him and some other Spanish voice actors back to reprise their roles. This not only served as further confirmation of the already evident fact that Sailor Moon Eternal would appear on Netflix, but that it was also being dubbed in a number of other languages. We can now see from the trailer that this is in fact the case!

For those of you who would only be satisfied by the most official of official statements, here it is! Please don’t mind my saying I told you so!

It’s worth noting that the trailer also includes a brief clip of Kotono Mitsuishi performing Sailor Moon’s voice in Japanese which suggests that fans will have the option to watch the movie in the original Japanese with subtitles in addition to the dub language of their choosing.

Are you already subscribed to Netflix? If not, will you be signing up in order to see these films?

Watch team Uzbekistan’s Sailor Moon inspired Rhythmic Gymnastics 5 Balls performance

Posted on April 18, 2021 by Adam

This weekend are the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup series qualifiers in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Uzbekistan team performed a Sailor Moon inspired 5 Balls performance complete with Sailor Moon outfits and Smusic! The team placed first, gold, in this qualifying performance. You can watch a video of the performance below.

Evidently the outfits the team is wearing are meant to resemble Sailor Moon herself. While five different costumes to match the various Sailor Guardians would have been nice, there are probably good reasons, perhaps rules of the competition, which meant that having matching uniforms was preferable. While the music for the performance starts out as generic music unrelated to Sailor Moon it quickly switches to something fans will instantly recognize. We have an instrumental version of the Sailor Moon opening theme Moonlight Legend followed by an edited version of the actual theme song by DALI, without the vocals. This then cuts to some background music used in Sailor Moon S when Sailor Uranus and Neptune transform before finally going back to Moonlight Legend to end the performance.

While I am not an expert in Rhythmic Gymnastics I believe this win qualifies the team for a spot at this summer’s Olympics in Tokyo, if they had not qualified already. These qualifiers, like the Olympics themselves, were originally scheduled for 2020 but delayed to this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Could we be seeing a similar performance again at the Olympics?

Source: Moon Sisters on Facebook

Keiko Kitagawa and Kotono Mitsuishi star in the upcoming series Rikokatsu

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Adam

It’s a multi series Sailor Moon crossover event as Keiko Kitagawa, who played Sailor Mars in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, and Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon from the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal, play mother and daughter in the upcoming TV series Rikokatsu! The series will air on TBS Television starting this Friday, April 16th.

Update – April 14th: I mistakenly referred to this as a movie in my original post. This is in fact a TV series which will air starting this Friday on Japanese television. Perhaps a fan subbed version will make its way online in the coming weeks!

The plot of the show has Keiko Kitagawa’s character of Saki Mizuguchi falling in love with and marrying Koichi Obara, played by Japanese actor Eita. As they have conflicting personalities they intend to get a divorce and, to serve the high jynx plot of the series, do not tell their family about this. Kotono Mitsuishi plays Midori Mizuguchi, Saki’s mother.

Watch the trailer for the series embedded below:

Asian Drama series have a dedicated following outside of Japan. Do you any of you plan on following this series?

Source: Kotono Mitsuishi on Twitter, Rikokatsu official site, Rikokatsu Twitter account

The Sailor Moon Prism on Ice musical has been delayed until the summer of 2022

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Adam

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Prism on Ice musical, which had been planned for this June, has been delayed by one year until June of 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The ice skating show, which had originally been scheduled for June of 2020, had previously been delayed due to the pandemic. Some events, such as the Princess Kaguya’s Lover musical which is now scheduled for September of 2021, are taking place this year. The same was not possible for the Prism on Ice event.

The stated reasons for this delay are Japan’s travel restrictions and requirements to quarantine for visitors from many countries. This has already meant that foreign visitors would not be attending this summer’s Tokyo Olympic games. While this is not a concern for September’s Sailor Moon musical, an event which is able to generate sufficient ticket sales while selling exclusively to Japanese customers, the same is not true for the Prism on Ice show. This skating event features performers from around the world which made the logistics complicated.

It remains to be seen what aspects of the show might have changed following two years of delay. The show’s main star, Russian figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva, was set to play Sailor Moon. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 late last year and suffered from a back injury around the same time. This has kept her from competing. It’s possible that the delay may also be to accommodate Evgenia Medvedeva’s schedule in the hopes that she will be in a better condition to perform in the show by next summer. She is a huge Sailor Moon fan and even traveled back to Japan early, around this time last year, to prepare for the event before it was delayed the first time.

Regardless of what happens with the musical we certainly hope for a quick recovery for Evgenia Medvedeva. For fans who were hoping to see this event they may have a chance by next summer to visit Tokyo, assuming travel restrictions are lifted by then. Are you hoping to make it to Japan for this one?

The Lover of Princess Kaguya Sailor Moon musical is coming in September!

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Adam

The next Sailor Moon musical, The Lover of Princess Kaguya, finally has a new release date of September 2021 in Japan! This musical was originally scheduled to be performed in Japan in the summer of 2020 however it was postponed along with many other events such as the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sailor Moon official site has been updated to mention only that the event will take place in September, though specific dates and locations for these performances are not yet specified.

Years ago this musical was only referred to as the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon New Musical and it was planned for a 2019 release. This was when it was announced alongside the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical and The Super Live musical. We finally have a proper updated logo for the musical in which we can see Luna and the somewhat awkward full title Musical Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The Lover of Princess Kaguya. The Lover of Princess Kaguya manga story on which this musical is based is all about Luna falling in love with a human. This story is probably best known to some fans as Sailor Moon S The Movie which was an adaptation of that manga story.

We still don’t know much about this musical than we did in 2019. With this story focusing on Luna, will we be seeing excellent puppet work like they did in the Nogizaka46 musical? While Human Luna will be appearing in this musical that is only briefly near the end and Luna will be an actual cat for most of the story.

Would you consider traveling to Japan in September of this year? Though the ongoing pandemic is still raging in many parts of the world, many people in all age groups will likely have access to vaccines by the end of the summer making this a low risk trip for many, which certainly wouldn’t have been the case last year.

If you’re looking to catch up on the manga story this musical is based on it is included in volume 6 of the Eternal Edition of the Sailor Moon manga.

Sailor Moon News

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Monthly Archives: April 2021