If you want “proper” copies of manga to collect, then you should be buying the them in Japanese. Translations will always be inferior in some way because not everything translates perfectly with the language/cultural barrier.

Here’s the thing: With the exception of ONE book of the newer manga translation (don’t ask which version… it has Neptune on the cover and it’s the end of the Infinity Arc, if that helps), all the Sailor Moon manga I own is the crappy Americanized, flipped art, TokyoPop/Mixx translation. I keep telling myself that I should get “proper” copies of the manga that have good translations and use the original names and don’t flip the artwork, but I never know what the hell to buy because there are so many different versions out there. And I want a translation that doesn’t use “guardians” for “senshi” (yes, I will nitpick that until the day I die) or “generals” for “shitennou” (looking at you, Miss Dream).

It’s getting to the point where I want to find some high-quality scans (either bootlegged or bought, I don’t care anymore) and just make my own version. If my Japanese was better, I’d even consider redoing some of the translation, although trying to do the entire thing would probably kill me.

And this is just talking about the manga, not even getting into detail about my issues with Crystal or the various releases of the original anime. Sometimes being a Sailor Moon fan is suffering…

No casual entry-level fan with a limited budget is going to pay 36 CAD for a paperback manga if he/she can get something similar for half the price. Most new fans won’t notice or care about any of the minutiae you’ve mentioned, and that’s fine because they’re new to the fandom. The newspaper stand at the subway station example is a bit dated, but this run approximates an e-commerce version of that.

Aside from the obviously money grab angle, another possible reason for all these republications every few years is that Kodansha might be trying to extend the copyright as much as possible (in case Naoko dies), and if that’s the case then a cheaper reprint is certainly more cost-efficient than a super-luxe glossy premium limited jumbo print run.