After over two years since the first two volumes were released the 3rd and 4th volumes of the Sailor Moon All Color Complete Edition manga will be released August 12th which is in two days but also tomorrow because it’s already tomorrow in Japan. This was announced on the official Sailor Moon site only a couple of days before the publishing date which is odd but also exactly what happened in June of 2020 when the first two volumes were announced and then quickly released. The Sailor Moon manga was originally drawn and released in black and white with only a few colour pages included at the start of each chapter. This new version has every page coloured. The first two volumes, already released, covered the Dark Kingdom story arc. Volumes 3 and 4 will cover the Black Moon story arc with Chibiusa and the Black Moon clan.

A few drawbacks to consider. This is a digital only Japanese release. I held off on getting the first two volumes a couple of years ago hoping for an eventual physical release but after all this time it looks like this isn’t likely to happen. It seems common for colour versions of popular Japanese manga to be released only digitally, likely due to the increased cost of printing colour pages, so this may indeed be all we’ll get. There also aren’t any English or other language version of this release. It’s certainly possible and English release comes out in the future, but nothing has yet been announced.

Purchasing these might pose a challenge. They are widely available through Japanese ebook retailers such as Amazon Japan (volume 3, volume 4) and Rakuten Kobo (volume 3, volume 4) however buying these digital versions may be restricted. I was not able to buy them from Amazon Japan however I later discovered this was likely just a browser issue and trying it in a different web browser worked fine.

Thanks to a tip from Twitter user @thesailorbook I learned that buying them from Rakuten Kobo would work. This still took a bit of effort as I needed to switch to the Japanese store. I wasn’t sure if using a credit card would work since I claimed my address was in Japan but I paid through PayPal and was able to get the first two volumes. I expect to be able to do the same for the next volumes when they’re released in a few days. I had the added challenge of not being able to install the Kobo reader on my Amazon device but I was ultimately able to install it through the Google Play store app which I had sideloaded onto my device some time ago.

Will you be getting these? What device will you be buying them on and what will you use to read them?