Rumour: Is Netflix dubbing the Sailor Moon Eternal films?

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Adam

A listing of an actor’s union web site suggests that Netflix may be dubbing the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films, which will be hitting theatres in Japan January 8th and February 11th. If this information really means that Netflix will be dubbing these films, it seems likely that they will be streamed on Netflix rather than released in theatres. So what’s all this about?

An entry for “Astro Girl: (Aka: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie)” can be found on the SAG-AFTRA web site. The entry further details that this is a “Netflix Dubbing Agreement”. What is SAG-AFTRA? This is the web site for the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. This is the primary labour union for actors, including voice actors, in the United States. As such this project is being listed because there are union actors who are working on the project.

I will not claim to be an expert on what’s listed in this particular database. I do not know if all information listed on this site is definitive and final confirmation of the parties affiliated with those works. There’s little doubt that “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie” is a reference to the films Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and Part 2. It’s worth noting that this entry only lists one film and is dated 2019, back when we didn’t actually know that the film would be broken up into two parts. If this information is outdated, does it still represent the current state of the project?

The production company on this listing is “The Best Entertainment, LLC”. A search for other shows by this company on the SAG-AFTRA site turns up an extensive list of foreign language animated and live action series many of which are currently streaming on Netflix.

The name “Astro Girl” is certainly odd. Is this a code name for the project? If so, why use Sailor Moon Eternal as the AKA? It’s possible that for reasons of secrecy the project was referred to as Astro Girl while recording so that no everyone knew what it was. I’m reminded of the Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon series which was referred to internally as Project “Y”. The name Astro Girl does vaguely fit the idea of Sailor Moon, who is a girl who is from space. It happens to also be the English name of Astro Boy’s sister.

What are the implications of this? If Netflix is dubbing the films, rather than Viz Media who had dubbed the Sailor Moon Crystal series to date, would we be seeing the same voice cast returning? Earlier today Stephanie Sheh, who plays Usagi in the Viz dub of Sailor Moon Crystal, shared a photo of herself in a Sailor Moon shirt while recording “pickups” for an unspecified series. This could simply be a coincidence!

If Netflix is in fact dubbing these films, does that means that it will absolutely play on Netflix? A series made or dubbed by Netflix is generally something which will likely be released on Netflix. Such films are usually not released in theatres in any significant capacity, though a home video release is not unheard of. Many Netflix series and Netflix dubbed anime series and films have been released on DVD and Blu-Ray after being released to the streaming service.

I present this information to you with all of the relevant context I’m aware of. I would welcome any additional information or insight anyone may have. Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts. At this point I would take this information with a grain of salt. SAG-AFTRA is a legitimate organization which has many similar Netflix projects listed, though we have not received official confirmation of this information. I am not an industry expert and don’t know if projects are only listed on the SAG-AFTRA site if they are confirmed. I am also unsure of whether or not Viz Media or what other voice acting companies do or don’t use union actors. There was speculation that when Barbara Goodson used the alias Janis Carol in Sailor Moon SuperS that this may have been related to non union work, but I never did learn of the specific reason for this credit.

What do you think? In light of the ongoing pandemic are you pleased at the prospect of the Sailor Moon Eternal films being released directly to a streaming service or would you rather see them in theatres? Would you still pick up a physical copy of these films if they are released to stream first?

Source: JRPictures on Twitter

New Sailor Moon Eternal stills from Lawson include another look at the Amazoness Quartet!

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Adam

With the January 8th release of first Sailor Moon Eternal film fast approaching we have some new stills which were released as part of another campaign by Lawson convenience stores in Japan. These stills can be purchased for a few dollars from Lawson print shops, like some we posted about earlier. As with the last batch the stills released are a mix of things we’ve seen before and some new stuff! The most exciting of the new images is a shot of the Amazoness Quartet, shown above. There are a number of others, which I will post below.

Super Sailor Chibi Moon and Super Sailor Moon during their transformation sequence.

Super Sailor Moon posing.

Super Sailor Chibi Moon posing.

Super Sailor Moon with her Moon Kaleidoscope.

Super Sailor Chibi Moon with her Chibi Moon Kaleidoscope.

Super Sailor Mercury.

Super Sailor Mars.

Super Sailor Jupiter.

Super Sailor Venus.

What do you think of these new stills? Which is your favourite?

Hikari Yono, who voiced Kaolinite in Sailor Moon Crystal, dies at age 46

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Adam

Another sad day for Sailor Moon fans. Voice actress Hikari Yono, who was the voice of Kaolinite in Sailor Moon Crystal died on November 15th at the young age of 46. It was mentioned that she had been dealing with an illness at the time of her death, though specifics were not given. Hikari Yono has appeared in many other anime series over the years.

Source: Anime News Network

Akira Kobodera, Kunzite from the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, has died at age 43

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Adam

It is with great sadness that I share the news that actor Akira Kobodera died earlier this week at the young age of 43. He is likely best known to Sailor Moon fans as the actor who portrayed Kunzite in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series. The character in that series was quite different from that in other continuities, as he was at first seen as Shin, a young man with amnesia who didn’t know something sinister inside him, and later as Kunzite deals with conflicted feelings about his past and current life. Akira Kobodera brought wonderful emotion to the character which was a highlight of the series.

Fans may also have seen Akira Kobodera in various Kamen Rider series. He was Kanai in Kamen Rider Blade, Aberu in Kamen Rider Kiva and Doctor Fujita in Kamen Rider OOO.

Source: Anime News Network

The Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi Collection, a pocket sized budget version of the manga, is coming in April

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Adam

Fans may have noticed that a new version of the Sailor Moon Manga is coming starting April 13th. This version, published by Penguin Randomhouse, is being called the Naoko Takeuchi Collection, named after the Sailor Moon manga’s author. So what is this new version and should fans, many of whom have just bought the Eternal Editions, be looking to pick these up? Probably not! Read on to see why I don’t think this is worth your money.

The Sailor Moon Eternal Editions which were released over the past couple of years really were the ultimate version of the manga. These huge volumes were even bigger than the similar sets which were released in Japan. The pages were a high quality glossy white and all colour pages from the original issues of Nakayoshi were reproduced in these. The 10th and final volume was released last month and Code Name Sailor V will be released on April 27th 2021. You might have thought you were almost done shelling out your hard earned dollars on Sailor Moon manga until the news of these new versions dropped! So what exactly is the Naoko Takeuchi Collection all about?

The image on the Penguin Randomhouse web site is likely not the final cover art. What is actually pictured is the Japanese cover of the Sailor Moon Bunko Collection. These versions were released in Japan starting in September 2018, as we originally posted about on this site. Though we don’t have all of the specifics about these new versions it seems likely they will be similar to those. There are usually minor differences between the size and paper quality of Japanese and American versions of the comic, which may be the case with these versions.

As the Japanese versions were fairly inexpensive I bought the whole set. The books are fairly unimpressive. These are very small versions of the manga commonly called bunkobon or bunkoban in Japan. They are A6 size which means they are 4.1″ by 5.8″, smaller than any other versions of the Sailor Moon manga I own. Here is a size comparison photo of the Bunko Collection next to the English Eternal Edition which I took back when I got the first volume of the manga. As you can see this is tiny in comparison.

The quality of the paper is also of a lower quality than the Eternal Editions. Instead of glossy white pages we have a simpler more affordable matte paper. Where the Eternal Editions included a large number of colour pages all of those are included in black and white in these versions. The price matches this, with an MSRP of only $12.99 US per book ($16.99 in Canada) these are quite a bit less expensive than the Eternal Edition, but is it really worth saving that money? If money really is the issue the digital versions of the manga, with colour pages, will cost less even than this budget version.

So why are these called the Naoko Takeuchi Collection? A budget version of the manga is hardly fit to be named after a woman who names characters after precious gems and owns multiple sports cars! Instead these should be called the Ghetto Edition, Cheapskate Edition or Budget Edition, but such a name may not be as likely to make sales! Perhaps we could call them the “Mamoru After He’s Gone Shopping With Usagi Editions”!

In short I’m not sure who the audience is. I similarly wondered this about the Japanese version as I continued to order copies of it. If I were you I wouldn’t bother. Check out the Eternal Editions if you haven’t already! They are fantastic! They are expensive and although the price tag and Canadian prices have meant I haven’t bought them all yet I do plan on doing so. They are worth every penny! Feel free to support the site by buying the physical or digital versions from Amazon using the links below.

Nehelenia will be voiced by Nanao in the Sailor Moon Eternal films

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Adam

At long last the voice of Nehelenia from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films has been revealed! The news, posted on the Sailor Moon Official Site, is that the character will be voiced by popular Japanese actress and model Nanao. The new trailer for the films includes a brief look at Nehelenia however the image is very dark. With minor tweaks to the contrast and brightness of that image we can get a better look at Nehelenia from the upcoming movies!

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be in theatres in Japan starting January 8th. Part 2 will be released shortly afterwards on February 11th. The movies will cover the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga which was previously loosely adapted as Sailor Moon SuperS.

What do you think of the choice? Are you a fan of Nanao’s other work?

A new Sailor Moon Eternal trailer and poster have been released!

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Adam

With the first Sailor Moon Eternal movie only a few months away we finally have a new poster and trailer for the film! The poster shows us the Sailor Guardians in their Super forms with Sailor Chibi Moon in the foreground. Check out the new trailer embedded below.

There’s a lot going on in this trailer which gives us a lot of Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minako as well as our first glance at Nehelenia! We also have Helios and Pegasus as well as the new Sailor Moon Eternal theme song Moon Color Chainon by Momoiro Clover Z. We can see here that this is an adaptation of the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga with many of these scenes looking just like they do in the manga.
Some of the art in this trailer looks quite nice. What do you think of it?

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on January 8th following shortly afterwards by Part 2 on February 11th. We don’t have any details about an international release of the films yet.

I’ve included a lot of screenshots from the trailer below!

Continue reading →

Sailor Moon Crystal will stop streaming on Hulu on October 26th

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Adam

Sailor Moon Crystal, which has been streaming on Hulu from the very beginning back in 2014, will no longer be on the service as of October 26th. The Fandom Post stated today that the show would only stream on Hulu for another 13 days. The original Sailor Moon anime is still streaming on Hulu and there is no indication that it will be removed from the service.

What could this mean for the future of Sailor Moon Crystal? We can only speculate. Crunchyroll currently also has streaming rights for Sailor Moon Crystal, which is where I always watched the new episodes as they were released, but only Hulu had the rights to the dubbed version of the series. It’s possible that we will see Sailor Moon Crystal move to another streaming platform or even to television, but we have not yet seen any news of this happening. Crunchyroll recently added Sailor Moon R The Movie to its streaming catalogue. They could be looking to add more Sailor Moon content to their service.

Funimation, who are also streaming the Sailor Moon R Movie on their service, could be looking to stream more Sailor Moon content. They have a partnership with Viz Media to bring more of their properties to their platform. Viz distributes the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal in North America.

TV rights to Sailor Moon Crystal could be another interesting option. The show was considered for TV before it found a home on streaming platforms. It could certainly find a different audience on television.

Here in Canada both the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal stream for free on TubiTV, though that service only has the subtitled versions of those shows. TubiTV also only has the first two seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal. The English version of the original Sailor Moon anime was recently added to Crave.

I’ll reiterate that I can only speculate as to what may happen with the rights to Sailor Moon Crystal once it leaves Hulu. I don’t have any information besides that its license is expiring on the 26th of October. It’s certainly worth keeping an eye open to see if the show pops up elsewhere!

Sailor Moon was the 4th most watched show on Crave the week it was released

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Adam

The original Sailor Moon anime was added to Bell Media’s Canadian streaming platform Crave on September 18th. It was featured in a number of categories and “Sailor Moon” trended on social media platforms the next day. Anecdotally it seemed like a lot of people were watching it, but how did the numbers add up? According to Bell’s streaming overview for the week of September 24th to the 30th the show faired quite well in its first week! It was the 4th most watched program on Crave for the week of September 16th to the 22nd, as can be seen from this excerpt from that press release:

Crave Audience Metrics

Crave continues to have Canadians covered, delivering the best movies, TV series, and original hits all in one place. Ridley Scott’s HBO Max Original Series RAISED BY WOLVES holds the top spot for the second week in a row, followed by the sizzling reality series LOVE ISLAND at #2. STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS takes #3 for the third consecutive week, and the beloved anime series, SAILOR MOON debuts at #4. Here are the Top 10 most-watched programs on Crave for the week of September 16 – 22:

1. RAISED BY WOLVES
2. LOVE ISLAND
3. STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS
4. SAILOR MOON
5. LOVECRAFT COUNTRY
6. THE VOW
7. SPIES IN DISGUISE
8. SOUTH PARK
9. THE THIRD DAY
10. THE BIG BANG THEORY

This is pretty impressive! It was beat out only by HBO’s Raised By Wolves, Love Island, which as far as I can tell does not take place on an island and is almost certainly devoid of actual love, and Star Trek: Lower Decks which streams on CBS All Access in the US. That’s great, you might be thinking, but that was a couple of weeks ago! Well it looks like the series was not in the top 10 most watched shows for the weeks of September 24th to the 30th or October 1st to the 7th.

Have you been watching Sailor Moon on Crave?

Thanks to Jesse Betteridge on Twitter for bringing this to my attention.

Listen to a clip of “Moon Color Chainon”, the Sailor Moon Eternal theme song by Momoiro Clover Z

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Adam

A preview of the theme song for the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films has been posted to the official Sailor Moon site! The song, by Momoiro Clover Z, is “Gesshoku Chainon” which roughly translates to “Moon Color Chainon”. What’s a chainon? Chaînon is a french word meaning a link in a chain. I suppose this is a reference to the Sailor Guardians all being individual links in the chain that is the Sailor Team. You can check out the short clip of the song which features the members of Momoiro Clover Z below. It includes a few seconds of new footage from the upcoming films.

Two different CD and Blu-Ray sets for this song will be released on January 13th 2021. They will each include a different version of the song. The Momoiro Clover Z Edition includes the song performed only by the group Momoiro Clover Z. The Sailor Moon Eternal Edition includes a different version of the song which is performed by not only Momoiro Clover Z but also voice actors from the Sailor Moon Eternal film. The voice actors who will be providing vocals on this version of the song are Kotono Mitsuishi as Sailor Moon, Hisako Kanemoto as Sailor Mercury, Rina Sato as Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu as Sailor Jupiter and Shizuka Ito as Sailor Venus. There does not appear to be any version which includes both songs, so fans looking to get both will need to buy both versions.

Exclusive cards are available for those who order from specific retailers with each different retailer including a different card. The Momoiro Clover Z version (Amazon Japan exclusive, regular edition) is 2500 yen which is about $24 US while the Sailor Moon Eternal version (Amazon Japan exclusive, regular edition) is 2200 yen which is about $21 US.

The band Momoiro Clover Z has contributed a lot of music to Sailor Moon Crystal going back to the very beginning. They performed Moon Pride, the original opening theme for the series. Fans may notice that Momoiro Clover Z used to have five members but that this video only includes four. Momoka Ariyasu left the group at the beginning of 2018 and is not featured in this song.

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be in theatres in Japan starting January 8th 2021. It will be followed shortly afterwards by Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 which will hit theatres on February 11th. The movies are an adaptation of the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga which was also adapted as Sailor Moon SuperS in the original 90s anime.

What do you think of the song? Keep reading to see more screenshots from this video.